ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the Sui thinker Wang Tong and the Tang historian Li Yanshou cited factors such as the occupation of the central realm, a long reign, and the adoption of Chinese culture to prove the legitimacy of both the Northern Wei dynasty and its southern peers, so as to support their own dynasties indirectly. Wang Tong and Li Yanshou cherish a view of dual legitimacy for both the Northern Wei and the Southern dynasties, although they use different lines of reasoning to reach their similar views. However, the Sui and Tang dynasties were established by mix-ethnicity people of both Han-Chinese and Xianbei people. Scholars during this period were no longer to introduce the ethnic criterion of legitimacy in discussing the Northern Wei’s issue. It is also obvious that scholars during the Sui and Tang periods constructed different versions of the succession of legitimate dynasties in order to show the transfer of the Mandate of Heaven.