The Vernacular Repertoire

Chapter 8, “The Vernacular Repertoire,” offers the first of three studies in various repertoires of political legitimation. As the only locally focused repertoire, vernacular traditions most readily contributed to ethnogenesis, as a case study of Koguryo demonstrates. The Wu region had similar potential to be politically autonomous (fengjian) within the Sinitic world, a path that was advocated in the late third and early fourth centuries, notably by Lu Ji. The chapter profiles the legends and practices surrounding several Wu local figures: the effective founder of the Jiankang regime, Sun Quan; the imperial tutelary deity Jiang Ziwen; the ancient Sinitic legend of Wu Taibo; and the god Wu Zixu. The concluding analysis argues that local culture had both a Sinified version and a more wholly vernacular version; the latter was much more politically relevant to the Jiankang regime, part of an effort to gain support within garrison culture.