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obvious and absolute.22 The greater the stake a barbarian had in the order he was defending, the more likely he was to serve China faithfully. Thus, financial attractions, marriage and other personal ties, and bureaucratic checks, worked together to assure barbarian fidelity.
Like Chinese rebels who had been induced by the dynasty to repent of and abandon their rebellious ways, barbarian employees who had “returned to loyalty" might be honored with rank and title, and brought within the Chinese social and institutional framework.23 But their devotion was never beyond question. Regardless of how close a foreigner might approximate the Chinese cultural ideal, or how long his family boasted residence on Chinese soil, his barbarian origins were seldom forgotten; and if he caused trouble, or proved unfaithful, the problem was usually attributed to his barbarian-ness.24 Nonetheless, the use of foreigners in military positions remained a persistent feature of Chinese administration for well over two thousand years. The nature and extent of this barbarian service may be suggested by a few examples taken from various periods in China's pre-imperial and imperial past.
China's Early Use of Foreign Employees
With the rapid expansion of the Chinese cultural sphere during the latter half of the Eastern Chou, the employment of aliens by the various contending states became a common phenomenon although one not without its opponents in this period of continual conflict and intrigue. During Li Ssu's tenure as "alien minister” (k'o-ch'ing) of the Ch'in, members of the royal house and other dignitaries, fearful that men from foreign states had come to sow dissension, requested that there be a complete expulsion of aliens. Li Ssu, himself from the state of Ch'u, argued persuasively against such a course, citing earlier examples of Ch'in's beneficial employment of foreigners: "Of old, when Duke Mu was seeking for officials, he procured Yu Yü from the Jung [barbarians] in the west, and obtained Po-li Hsi from Yüan in the east. He welcomed Chien Shu from Sung, and sought P'ei Pao and Kung-sun Chih from Chin. These five men had not been reared in Ch'in; yet Duke Mu, by using them, united twenty [sic] states, and so became Lord Protector over the Western Jung."25 Yu Yü's case is especially worthy of note, not only because he was largely responsible for the defeat of the barbarous Jung, but also because he himself had originally
EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN MILITARY TALENT
117
obvious and absolute.22 The greater the stake a barbarian had in the order he was defending, the more likely he was to serve China faithfully. Thus, financial attractions, marriage and other personal ties, and bureaucratic checks, worked together to assure barbarian fidelity.
Like Chinese rebels who had been induced by the dynasty to repent of and abandon their rebellious ways, barbarian employees who had “returned to loyalty" might be honored with rank and title, and brought within the Chinese social and institutional framework.23 But their devotion was never beyond question. Re- gardless of how close a foreigner might approximate the Chinese cultural ideal, or how long his family boasted residence on Chinese soil, his barbarian origins were seldom forgotten; and if he caused trouble, or proved unfaithful, the problem was usually attributed to his barbarian-ness.24 Nonetheless, the use of foreigners in military positions remained a persistent feature of Chinese adminis- tration for well over two thousand years. The nature and extent of this barbarian service may be suggested by a few examples taken from various periods in China's pre-imperial and imperial past.
China's Early Use of Foreign Employees
With the rapid expansion of the Chinese cultural sphere during the latter half of the Eastern Chou, the employment of aliens by the various contending states became a common phenomenon although one not without its opponents in this period of continual conflict and intrigue. During Li Ssu's tenure as "alien minister” (k'o-ch'ing) of the Ch'in, members of the royal house and other dignitaries, fearful that men from foreign states had come to sow dissension, requested that there be a complete expulsion of aliens. Li Ssu, himself from the state of Ch'u, argued persuasively against such a course, citing earlier examples of Ch'in's beneficial employ- ment of foreigners: "Of old, when Duke Mu was seeking for officials, he procured Yu Yü from the Jung [barbarians] in the west, and obtained Po-li Hsi from Yüan in the east. He welcomed Chien Shu from Sung, and sought P'ei Pao and Kung-sun Chih from Chin, These five men had not been reared in Ch'in; yet Duke Mu, by using them, united twenty [sic] states, and so became Lord Pro- tector over the Western Jung."25 Yu Yü's case is especially worthy of note, not only because he was largely responsible for the defeat of the barbarous Jung, but also because he himself had originally
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