“What Do Barbarians Know of Gratitude?” — The Stereotype of Barbarian Perfidy and Its Uses in Tang Foreign Policy Rhetoric

This essay argues that, in Tang foreign policy discourse, the stereotype of a moral dichotomy between barbarian perfidy and Chinese trustworthiness was primarily a tool for rhetorical posturing, deployed to justify making war on foreign peoples with whom the Tang had a prior peace agreement. This is demonstrated through close analysis of the political rhetoric surrounding Tang relations with neighboring steppe or Central Asian powers during the periods 625–645 and 734–739, with particular attention to contextualizing the rhetoric of the emperors Taizong and Xuanzong. The essay also presents a new interpretation of the famous 630 debate over the resettlement of the Eastern Türks, arguing that the rhetoric of perfidy, loyalty, and moral or cultural transformation in which that debate was conducted obscures its origin in a pragmatic strategic dilemma that could not be openly expressed.