Research On The Shaping Of "Restoration" In The Period From Su Zong To De Zong In Tang Dynasty

"Restoration" is a proprietary political term for judging the achievement of emperors,and its connotations mainly include two aspects: the resumption of interrupted imperial regime and the revival of decaying politics.The establishment of "restoration" is measured by three factors: the reference and comparison to the previous dynasty’s political model,the recognition of subjects in the present dynasty,and the historical positioning of its achievements commented by later historians.On the basis of different formation paths,the "restoration" before the Tang Dynasty can be roughly divided into two categories: one is the "subsequently-confirmed restoration",and the other is "self-identified restoration",featuring the transition from the former to the latter.Owing to the difficulty in defining the criteria of "restoration",the current dynasty usually interprets the term "restoration" flexibly.After the An-shi Rebellion,the "self-identified restoration" was employed to emphasize the achievements from Su Zong to De Zong in succession.However,the essence of this phenomenon was that the emperors and their courtiers in the Mid-Tang Period had conducted the political operation of building political authority and rallying people’s hearts and minds in response to the nation crisis under the condition that the criteria for judging "restoration" had not yet been fixed.When the "self-identified restoration" in the Mid-Tang Period was increasingly challenged by social reality,the imagery of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan became a topic frequently mentioned by people living at that time.Based on the goal of "building a prosperous society",the imagery of Zhenguan and Kaiyuan directly affected the construction of restoration by the bureaucrats in the Mid-Tang Period,and the conception "restoration" itself was gradually solidified in the process.The controversy over the worship in Yuan-He era derived the discussion of the criteria of "restoration",which not only provided a reasonable explanation for the shaping of " restoration" in the the period from Su Zong to De Zong,but also promoted the division of the definition of " restoration" between " the succession " and " governance performance ".The term of "restoration" even became a slogan for the monarchs to promote the Mandate of Heaven in late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties.