From Pingcheng to Luoyang: The Process of Cultural Transformation of the Tuoba Wei

Author: Lu Yaodong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-09-01
Features: Lu Yaodong was born in Fengxian, Jiangsu in 1932 and later moved to Taiwan with his family. In 1953, he enrolled in the History Department of National Taiwan University, completing his graduation thesis "The Relationship Between the Northern Wei and the Western Regions" under the guidance of Professor Lao Gan, gaining an initial insight into the history of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In 1961, he entered the New Asia Institute in Hong Kong, where he received teachings from renowned scholars of the Wei-Jin period such as Qian Mu, Mou Runsun, and Yan Gengwang. Under the guidance of Mou Runsun, he completed his master's thesis "The Marriage Relations Between the Tuoba Clan and the Central Plains Scholarly Elite," and after graduation, he remained as an assistant researcher, continuing his research on the interactions and transformations between the Tuoba Clan and Central Plains culture. His findings were later compiled into "From Pingcheng to Luoyang: The Cultural Transformation of the Tuoba Wei." In 1968, he enrolled in the doctoral program at the History Department of National Taiwan University, where he studied under professors Shen Gangbo, Li Zongdong, and Yao Congwu, with his doctoral research focusing on the "Notes to the Records of the Three Kingdoms" by Pei Songzhi. His thesis was personally supervised by the three professors. During this period, he also studied at the Institute for Humanities Research, Kyoto University, Japan, and later served as an associate researcher at the New Asia Institute in Hong Kong, completing his doctoral thesis "The Characteristics of Wei-Jin Historiography: An Analysis Based on Biographies." He received the first Literary Doctorate from the History Department of National Taiwan University and was subsequently appointed as a professor at both the History Department of National Taiwan University and Fu Jen Catholic University. In 1977, he was invited to teach at the History Department of Shueyuan College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. At the time, Mou Runsun and Yan Gengwang had just retired, and Lu succeeded them in teaching courses such as "The History of Academic Thought in China in the Past Three Centuries," "The History of Chinese Historiography," "Records of the Grand Historian," "Records of the Han Dynasty," "Records of the Three Kingdoms," and other "classics of historiography" and "medieval historical sources." He taught at Shueyuan for fourteen years. In 1991, he resigned from Hong Kong and returned to the History Department of National Taiwan University, teaching courses such as "Historiography of Mainland China," "Introduction to Traditional Historiography," and "The History of Chinese Food Culture" until his retirement in the summer of 1998.
Lu Yaodong's research primarily focused on the history of the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, the history of Chinese historiography, modern historiography, and the history of food culture. He excelled in writing historical essays and cultural prose, and was diligent in his literary pursuits throughout his life, authoring over twenty collections of historical essays and prose. Recently, he compiled his new and old historiographical essays and writings into "The Historiographical Essays of the Confused Studio" and "The Writings of the Confused Studio," which were published by Dongda Book Company in Taipei. The historiographical essays have already published four works: "Wei-Jin Historiography and Other Essays," "Hu Shi and Contemporary Historiography," "The Ideological and Social Foundations of Wei-Jin Historiography," and "From Pingcheng to Luoyang: The Cultural Transformation of the Tuoba Wei." The writings have published five works: "A Wistaria Outside the Window," "Visiting Ancient Sites," "The First Day of the New Year," "As If in Leisure," and "A Big Stomach Can Accommodate—Essays on Chinese Food Culture." Additionally, "A Big Stomach Can Accommodate—Essays on Chinese Food Culture" and "A Guest Arrives in a Cold Night—The Second Collection of Essays on Chinese Food Culture" were published by Sanlian Bookstore in Beijing in 2002 and 2005, respectively, and have been deeply loved by readers on the mainland for their elegant prose and widespread popularity.
"From Pingcheng to Luoyang: The Cultural Transformation of the Tuoba Wei" and "The Ideological and Social Foundations of Wei-Jin Historiography" are considered the representative works of Lu Yaodong's research on Wei-Jin historiography and the history of Chinese historiography, and are well-known in academia. "From Pingcheng to Luoyang: The Cultural Transformation of the Tuoba Wei" takes the Tuoba Wei's capital Pingcheng inside the Great Wall and the later Luoyang after Emperor Xiaowen's relocation as its starting point, discussing the nearly century-long cultural transformation process of the Tuoba Wei after entering the Great Wall, and conducting an in-depth analysis of the "cultural marginal" formed by the integration of two heterogeneous cultures. The Wei-Jin period, situated between the Han and Tang dynasties, was an era of deconstruction and reorganization. Confucian thought lost its original authority, and academic studies under the Confucian tradition gradually broke free from its constraints and moved toward independence. "The Ideological and Social Foundations of Wei-Jin Historiography" focuses on examining a series of new historiographical writing forms that emerged outside the mainstream Confucian values during this period, combining the development and evolution of traditional Chinese historiography to explore the ideological roots and social foundations of these new historiographical forms.