Chapter 292: No More Wenmo People

This birthday banquet that Zhang Zhao had specially convened lasted a full seven days, and throughout those seven days, people kept arriving with congratulatory gifts.

Among these gifts, the most striking came neither from any temple, nor from the great families of Liangzhou.

They came instead from the able-bodied laborers who had just finished repairing Liangzhou city, the five forts of Liangzhou, and the county seats of Guzang and Shenniao.

They brought either a chicken, or a fox or hare they had hunted themselves, or strips of air-dried meat; the better-off among them might bring a sheep.

Bound by the great gulf between high and low in this age, the laborers did not dare come to the door to offer Zhang Zhao birthday wishes. They simply and silently placed their gifts in the small lane outside the Military Governor's residence.

At first, in fact, no one even knew where this pile of gifts had come from, or what it was for.

It was only when Guo Tiance and others discovered people kowtowing there that they realized these were gifts from laborers who had received Zhang Zhao's kindness.

For these laborers and their families, the corvée labor of repairing the inner and outer walls of Liangzhou had left a deep impression.

Because no one had died from excessive toil as in the past, and no one had suffered too much unjust treatment. On the whole, Zhang Zhao had still maintained relative fairness.

Delicious stewed mutton and sweet steamed wheat cakes had even become, for many, their fondest memory and a point of pride to boast of to their neighbors. In no time at all, the benevolent name of the Dharma King Bodhisattva spread throughout all of Hexi.

So much so that when Zhang Zhao held his grand birthday banquet, these simplest of common folk still thought to repay this rare Dharma King Bodhisattva in their own way.

Part of this was because Zhang Zhao had indeed spent real silver to win them over, making them feel fairness, justice, and a sense of being valued. But part of it was also because of Zhang Zhao's title, Dharma King Bodhisattva.

Contrary to what many people imagine, Buddhism in Chinese history was never merely a self-contained pursuit.

Historically, even as late as the final years of the Northern Song, Buddhism remained an important tool by which the Song court won over frontier chieftains and even expanded its territory. Eminent monks were not uncommon in the Song armies of the northwest and southwest.

Back when the Northern Song itself was nearing its end, it could still beat Western Xia to that degree; Buddhism had in fact contributed greatly to that.

Even among the common people of the six Wenmo tribes today, the Buddhist establishment and its monks were second only to their chieftains and headmen in daily life.

Liangzhou's north gate was the Xuanwu Gate. The gate tower of Xuanwu Gate was the highest point in all of Liangzhou. Standing on the second floor of the gate tower, one could overlook more than half of Liangzhou city.

Today, the chieftains of the six Wenmo tribes, the clan heads and officials of Liangzhou's Han families, and the leaders of the four Sogdian clans all followed Zhang Zhao up onto Xuanwu Gate.

Although the Buddhist assembly in Liangzhou had already reached its seventh day, a considerable number of Buddhist devotees were still arriving from all directions.

Among them were no few Tibetans wearing leather robes and with their hair braided in all manner of styles, coming down from Dafeichuan. These people, who originally had no connection whatsoever to Liangzhou, had all made their way to the city one after another.

The chieftains of the six Wenmo tribes exchanged glances. Every one of them had to admit that Zhang Zhao had by now essentially won the reverence of the hundreds of thousands of common people inside and outside Liangzhou.

And Zhang Zhao was likewise observing the six tribal chieftains. Although they had built a self-identity around the name Wenmo, and historically had even once become the dominant force in Liangzhou, absorbing all the remaining Han people of Liangzhou into the category of Wenmo,

it was regrettable that even a ruthless figure like Zhebu Jiashi had in the end been unable to fully forge this group, poised between Han and Tibetan, into a true people.

Historically, after several chieftains of the Zhebu family, it was Pan Luozhi from Songpan who replaced them as ruler of the six Wenmo tribes.

Compared to the Wenmo, Pan Luozhi was in fact a genuine Tibetan, and the reason he, a man from northern Sichuan, could come to distant Liangzhou to replace the Zhebu family was precisely his status as a Tibetan noble.

One could say that after the Central Plains court had abandoned them, these Wenmo people had in the end returned to the embrace of the Tibetans.

Zhang Zhao surmised that historically, the Wenmo magnates of the Zhebu family must certainly have wanted to make the Wenmo an independent people, but in the end they lost out to reality.

What was more unfortunate was that after Pan Luozhi of Songpan came to rule this place, the Wenmo still had a chance to rise.

But regrettably, after Pan Luozhi had schemed to the death the God of War of Dijinze, Li Jiqian, he was in turn, in a twist of fate, schemed to death by Li Jiqian's son Li Deming. This caused the Wenmo's process of establishing themselves as a people to be abruptly cut off.

And after Pan Luozhi, the most famous Wenmo leader was Gusiluo from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Gusiluo was not a name but an honorific. It is a Tibetan transliteration, and its literal meaning is "Son of the Buddha."

Gusiluo himself was also a descendant of the Tibetan btsanpo. The Wenmo leadership passing from Pan Luozhi, a noble of Tibetan aristocratic blood, directly to Gusiluo, who carried btsanpo blood, proves that after a whole series of self-identifications, they had ultimately chosen to return to the Tibetan fold.

This was also the fundamental reason the Wenmo disappeared historically: because in the end they never managed to become a truly new people.

Their final fate was that one part threw in their lot with the Tangut Western Xia, and another part returned to the various Tibetan tribes.

But in this era, these several hundred thousand warlike Wenmo, who were in fact the descendants of the soldiers of Longyou and Hexi, had one more choice.

That was to follow Zhang Zhao back to the Great Tang, to become Han folk once more. This was also why Zhang Zhao was willing to take some risks to invite the envoy of the Guge king, Kyide Nyimagon, to Liangzhou.

Waves of Buddhist chanting rose up. Even on the second floor of Xuanwu Gate, the sound of sutra recitation could be heard clearly. Zhang Zhao gazed out over Liangzhou city, putting on an especially moved expression.

Pointing at the crowds who cheered unceasingly and joined in chanting the sutras, he addressed the chieftains of the six Wenmo tribes, the Han people of Liangzhou, and the leaders of the four Sogdian clans.

"A scene as splendid as this, Liangzhou has probably not seen in decades, has it?

In truth, I imagine that ever since the Great Tang declined and the Tibetans seized Hexi and Longyou, this city has never again shone with such prosperity and glory!

That said, all of you are the same as I am. Whether you admit it or not, we are in fact all remnants of the Great Tang, a people who have lost their state and their homes."

"Take Adjutant Guo, for instance." Zhang Zhao pointed at Guo Tiance. "He is a descendant of Lord Guo Xin, Military Governor of the Four Garrisons of Anxi and Prince of Wuwei Commandery, and a scion of the Great Tang's Anxi Army."

With that, Zhang Zhao pointed at Li Qilang. "This Li Qilang was once the grandnephew of Lord Li Yuanzhong, Grand Protector-General of Beiting and Prince of Ningsai Commandery. And then there is myself."

This time Zhang Zhao pointed at himself. "My Zhang family has lived in Dunhuang for generations, and we are descendants of officers and generals under the old Hexi Military Governor's office."

Finally, Zhang Zhao pointed at the greater and lesser chieftains of the six Wenmo tribes. "And among all of you, Great Chieftain Chen's ancestors were Escort Officers of the Lintao Army under the Longyou Military Governor, while Garrison Commander Zhao's ancestors were descendants of the garrison commander of Wucheng Garrison under the Hexi Military Governor.

You have never been any sort of Wenmo people. You are, like me, remnants of that distant empire — orphaned sons of Tang who have endured every hardship yet are never understood.

I know that many of you do not understand. You do not understand why I, Zhang Zhao, already possessing such a great enterprise in Anxi and Transoxiana, would still insist on returning east to Liangzhou, to start from nothing here!

I can now tell everyone: I, Zhang Zhao, simply refuse to accept it. I want to go and ask — to ask the court of the Central Plains, to ask the Emperor on that dragon throne — why they cast us aside like worn-out shoes, us and the sons and brothers of the soldiers of Anxi, Hexi, and Longyou?

If one says Anxi was too remote and they had no strength to rescue it, then so be it. But Liangzhou was never remote. How utterly innocent were we, the descendants of the soldiers of Hexi and Longyou?

Back then, when my ancestor Grand Guardian Zhang entered Liangzhou city, your ancestors and my ancestor joined forces to defeat Lun Kongre and cast off the status of slaves.

For decades we languished in barbarian dust, yet never forgot our state and court. Such loyalty and righteousness deserved comfort and reward.

So why did they have to lump us together, indiscriminately, as barbarians and Hu children?

I, Zhang Zhao, am going to ask for an answer. I am going to go to Chang'an and Luoyang. A hundred years of grievance must have some accounting.

Nor do I want my descendants to become Hu children who do not know their own ancestors. My Han identity was passed down to me by my forebears through blood and culture. It cannot be severed at my generation just because the court turned its back on us!

Today, the envoy of the btsanpo descendant, the Guge king Kyide Nyimagon, is here. He has come specially from several thousand li away, and he is the very person I have invited to remove from all of you the shackles you have borne for over a hundred years.

Hearing Zhang Zhao speak thus, Kyide Nyimagon's envoy, though somewhat embarrassed, still hurried forward.

In his hands he held a roll of yellowed sheepskin parchment. This was an edict of the kind by which the Tibetan btsanpo issued decrees.

Although Kyide Nyimagon was not the Tibetan btsanpo, in this day when the Tibetan Empire had disintegrated and the btsanpo's descendants were scattered, the Guge royal line still possessed a certain legitimacy.

The envoy faced the chieftains of the six Wenmo tribes and loudly declaimed the contents of the edict: "The grandson of the btsanpo, the true divine king possessed of miraculous power, the Great King of Guge under the Buddha's protection, has issued this decree:

East of Dafei River and the Western Sea, the Six Valleys tribes were once the Wenmo of the Divine King Tsanpo. Now the Divine King cherishes virtue and honors the Buddha's principle of equality. From this day forward, you belong to no one."

Shen Zhihai and Zhebu Jiashi and the others exchanged glances. Only now did they understand why Zhang Zhao had summoned the envoy of Gude Wang Jidenimaogun.

It was to help them cast off the Wenmo identity the Tibetans had imposed upon them — a mark of slavery and servitude.

One could say that from this moment on, from the moment this edict took effect, the descendants of the Tibetan Tsanpo had relinquished their legal claim of control over the Six Wenmo Tribes.

One could say further that from this moment on, there would be no more Wenmo in the world, nor could they ever become Wenmo again.

This seemed a good thing, but the quick-witted Shen Zhihai knew that Commander Zhang before him had just played a brilliant move.

For all along they had used their Wenmo identity — the grievance of being bullied and oppressed with no redress — to rally the surrounding tribes and heighten their own sense of identity.

But at this moment, the Wenmo identity had abruptly ceased to exist. They had lost the bond that had united the Six Valleys tribes, and even all the tribes of the Hehuang valley.

Only now did Zhang Zhao turn around. In Liangzhou, the Han numbered no more than twenty or thirty thousand, the Sogdians little more than thirty thousand, and the sons of Tang he had brought from Anxi numbered not even ten thousand — far, far fewer than the Wenmo.

If he did not dissolve the Wenmo identity, then even if he won the allegiance of the Six Wenmo Tribes, it would be an extremely dangerous thing for Zhang Zhao.

For the main body of his subjects would become the Wenmo — over two hundred thousand, and with the Hehuang valley added, an even greater number, reaching six or seven hundred thousand.

That would be a classic case of the guest usurping the host!

So Zhang Zhao was willing to risk the possibility that Jidenimaogun's descendants might return to Lhasa, in exchange for Jidenimaogun, as a descendant of the Tibetan Tsanpo, dissolving the Wenmo identity of the Six Wenmo Tribes and stripping them of the identity by which they kept banding together.

Of course, Zhang Zhao could not openly show this intent, so he suddenly turned around and, with great emotion, grasped the hands of the two chief Wenmo leaders, Shen Zhihai and Zhebu Jiashi.

After several years of training, Zhang Zhao's acting had grown ever more polished. Red-eyed, he looked at the bewildered Wenmo leaders before him and said in a trembling voice:

"From this moment on, the chains the Tibetans forced upon us since the decline of the Great Tang are gone! You can finally cast off this humiliating identity and return to the identity of Great Tang remnants!

In the Xiantong era of Emperor Yizong of the Great Tang, my ancestor Zhang Taibao petitioned the court again and again for this very cause. Today I, Zhang Erlang, have at last fulfilled my ancestor's dying wish!

I wonder — are you willing to join me, to strive with one heart and one mind to restore the glory of the sons of Tang in Hexi and Longyou?

To go with me to the Central Plains court that once abandoned us, and ask them: where do we truly come from?

Are you willing to return once more to the motherland, and take back your identity as sons of Tang?"

The impassioned words, the fervent expression — Zhang Zhao understood better than anyone how critical this window of opportunity was.

If he were a dozen or so years too late, once Zhebu Jiashi behind him completed the first unification of the Wenmo tribes, they would never be able to go back.

Shen Zhihai was deeply stirred, but Zhebu Jiashi could not be stirred, nor could the leaders of the various tribes behind him who plainly did not look Han.

Liangzhou had been in turmoil for over a century. Were their ancestors truly soldiers of Hexi and Longyou? In truth, even they themselves were no longer certain.

But at this moment, Zhang Zhao pressed them with force, one move after another, leaving them no choice but to regard themselves as descendants of the soldiers of Hexi and Longyou.

"I am willing to follow the Commander back to the motherland, and be a son of Tang once more!" Shen Zhihai was the first to kneel.

Immediately after, Zhebu Jiashi, having no choice, knelt as well, pressing his forehead to the floor tiles of the Xuanwu Gate.

"The Zhebu family is also willing to follow the Commander in reclaiming its lost glory."

Seeing Zhebu Jiashi kneel as well, the suspended stone in Zhang Zhao's heart finally dropped. This was also why he had said "sons of Tang" and not "Han."

"Sons of Tang" could include people of every ethnicity, but "Han folk" would inevitably exclude the Zhebu family — very likely descendants of Tangut, Zhangzhung, or Tuyuhun people — and that would never do.

With the Shen family, the Han leaders of the Six Wenmo Tribes, and the Zhebu family, leaders of the other ethnic groups, pledging allegiance, Commander Zhao, the Zongge family, and the leaders of the other clans also knelt in a rustling wave.

From now on, they were no longer Wenmo. They were sons of Tang under Zhang Zhao!

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