牛·李黨爭의 성격과 그 의미 = Niu-Li factional strife (Nui-Li tang-cheng)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The 'Nui-Li factional strife(牛李黨爭)' which started with a personal conflict between Niu Seng-ju(牛僧孺 : ?-847) and Li Te-yu(李德裕 : 787-850), is known as one cause of T'ang dynasty's final fall.
During the 820s the personal conflict became open political struggle within the Ch'ang-an(長安) bureaucracy and each party had been drawing people into political involvement and finally formed two 'factions(tang : 黨)'.
A tang did not solicit members on grounds of policy differences, as a political party might do today; it did not have a strong cellular structure; and its membership was not fixed. One man was likely to be linked to the next, in a never-ending chain of accusations, for quite personal reasons. These included family connections, common origins, patronage relationships either in the examinations or in the course of an official career, colleague relationships, and simple instances of friendship and enmity.
The factionalism in mid - T'ang dynasty actually involves only a few leaders on both sides -, what they did, with whom they were allied, and with whom they were at odds. The poor quality of the evidence concerning Niu-Li controversy prevents us to discuss the historical meaning of the mid - T'ang factionalism any deeper. It especially undercuts the various attempts to identify ideological positions or sociological differentiation as causes of the formation of the factions.
The faction leaders were in pursuit of political power, and they attracted followers who hoped to share in the spoils. This should be evident from the story of the disputed examination of 821.
The examination system was still at an early stage of development under the T'ang. It is only under the Ming and Ch'ing dynasty that the standards of objectivity associated with the examination system.
While the Niu-Li controversy lasted, factionalism transformed the examination itself into a political event. The overtones of moral decay in the word tang were so strong that accuser, as well as accused, might find himself on the road to exile.
A very different situation took shape under the weaker emperors of the 820s and 830s. The one determined attempt to put an end to factionalism before it had run its course - the so-called Sweet Dew plot of 835 - was an utter disaster.
Another reason for the unusual intensity, and subsequent notoriety, of the Niu-Li controversy was the participation of eunuchs(宦官) in factional politics. The growth of eunuch power and the creation of the various offices that were their special preserve, had on the whole been resisted by literati officials in the latter half of the eighth century.
But after the failure of the Wangs to undermine the eunuchs in 805, a number of the shrewder bureaucrats must have realized that eunuchs were part of the political world of Ch'ang-an. The participants in court intrigue criss-crossed the line between the inner and outer courts, in search of the strongest allies they could find.
By the mid-820, then the eunuchs were fully integrated into the highest T'ang political circles, and the entire court had become the arena for factional struggle. From that time until the end of the dynasty, it was virtually impossible for any politician wishing to be effective in government affairs to avoid extensive contact with eunuchs.
The 'Nui-Li factional strife(牛李黨爭)' which started with a personal conflict between Niu Seng-ju(牛僧孺) and Li Te-yu(李德裕) changed into political dispute(政見의 爭) and again, in the end, it transformed into party's "emotional conflict(意氣의 爭)" which involves all the Ch'ang-an(長安) bureaucracy.
I have tried to emphasize the political aspect of the controversy in this paper, and the result was not satisfactory mainly because of the poor materials on the event. Yet I hope to continue this theme to probe the political features of the mid-T'ang factionalism.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 序言
• Ⅱ. 安史의 亂과 藩鎭의 대두
• Ⅲ. 과거관료의 대두와 宦官의 정치참여
• Ⅳ. 牛·李黨의 黨爭
• Ⅴ. 結語