This dissertation is a study of the contributions that women made to the early development of Chinese Buddhism during the Northern Wei Dynasty 北魏 (386–534 CE). Working with the premise that Buddhism was patronized as a necessary, secondary arm of government during the Northern Wei, the argument put forth in this dissertation is that women were uniquely situated to play central roles in the development, expansion, and policing of this particular form of state-sponsored Buddhism due to their already high status as a religious elite in Northern Wei society. Furthermore, in acting as representatives and arbiters of this state-sponsored Buddhism, women of the Northern Wei not only significantly contributed to the spread of Buddhism throughout East Asia, but also, in so doing, they themselves gained increased social mobility and enhanced social status through their affiliation with the new, foreign, and wildly popular Buddhist tradition. Throughout the dissertation, stories of empresses, concubines, female bureaucrats, lay devotees, and female members of the Buddhist monastic institution will be studied in order to show the unique connections between women and the Buddhist tradition under the Northern Wei and also to reveal the diversity of roles that they played in the administration of a court-sponsored, imperial Buddhist tradition. In bringing these stories to light, this dissertation will utilize biographical material from the dynastic history of the Northern Wei as well as from a number of previously unstudied epigraphs. Additionally, other forms of inscriptional, religious, and secular materials will be widely consulted in this exploration of the lives of Buddhist women at a time when Buddhism was becoming a state religion in a powerful and ambitious dynasty – the Northern Wei. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A fictional retelling of the story of the woman warrior Mulan, set in China's Northern Wei Dynasty (386-536 CE), with focus on themes of personal identity, Sinicization, and cultural merging.

In this dissertation I assess craft production during China’s contentious Northern Wei (or Beiwei) Dynasty (398-494 CE) from both technological and cultural perspectives. The Northern Wei were a “foreign” Xianbei ethnic group who imposed their rule over north China for almost a century. I combine materials analyses of architectural ceramics excavated at royal building sites in the dynasty’s capital city of Datong with historical texts to understand the environmental, political, ethnic, religious, and technological forces that shaped production. I conclude that production processes reflect the complex interaction of new political and religious ideas and practices with longstanding craft traditions. Analyses of mineral and chemical composition of architectural ceramic samples by petrographic thin section and instrumental neutron activation analysis show that artisans selected and processed raw clay materials to achieve certain technical properties, such as low-shrinkage, required for final products. They maintained and refined established techniques such as using molds to facilitate forming of the clay body, and employed downdraft kilns to maintain steady firing temperatures, as shown in thermal expansion tests. They also introduced new techniques such as methods of burnishing roof tiles to increase water resistance. Decorative changes, such as the appearance of lotus patterns on roof tile ends, reflect the expansion of Buddhist influences, underscoring that royal building materials also carried significant political and ritual power in addition to their functionality. These Beiwei materials also reveal details about craft organization: inscriptions found on roof tiles complement details from historical texts, suggesting that ethnic Han artisans worked in construction projects for their new Xianbei rulers. The lack of skilled artisans at this time of constant warfare forced the rulers to adopt a special household-based structure to control and maintain non-Xianbei artisans at a certain social level. With time, these artisans were able to use their skills to gain economic independence and a certain level of management over their production. Architectural ceramics reveal intertwined economic, social, and political variables that played crucial roles in the technological choices and organization of production during this key transitional period of China’s early medieval history.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of History

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of History

The Tuoba's success in the making of the Northern Wei as a conquest dynasty in fifth century northern China will be argued in this thesis as a result of their ability to cross between the traditions and practices of the Chinese sphere and those of the Eurasian steppe, through the construction of a "dual presence" in the Pingcheng period (398-494 CE). A negotiation of material culture in this formative phase of state-building allowed for new notions of kingship, dynastic identity, and representations of daily life to be (re)created. This was manifested separately through the application of mountain-side stone sculptures, tomb repertoires, as well as the conception of Pingcheng as a capital city. The material cultural expressions explored in this thesis reflect significant changes in the socio-cultural atmosphere at this point in history. In effect, these ritual, funerary, and commemorative discourses wove together to create new notions of "Chineseness" in fifth century northern China. In the following discussion, we will come to recognize the Tuoba’s maintenance of a "dual presence", not only as "Son of Heaven" to the conquered subjects, but also carrying over practices that befit a Khagan in the Central Asian tradition, as an act of ingenuity.