Redressing Injustice and Honoring Loyal Souls: Political Subtext in the Remounting of Tang Court Paintings: The Case of Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy

Abstract

In the seventh year of the Dahe reign (833), Chancellor (宰相) Li Deyu remounted the painting Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy (步辇图) —traditionally attributed to Yan Liben—in a highly conspicuous manner. This paper investigates the operational process of this remounting event, including the identities of the officials involved, the bureaucratic background, and the interactions among court collection agencies. It reveals that the event was not routine painting conservation but a carefully orchestrated political act concealing an unspoken political subtext (政治隐情). The institutional resources on which the remounting relied, the special status of the co-mounter, and the timing all point to a core intention: to redress the injustice done to the Tibetan general Xida Mou (悉怛谋) —who had been betrayed by the court and unjustly killed in the “Weizhou Incident (维州事件)” two years earlier—and to posthumously honor him, while implicitly vindicating Li Deyu himself for the political humiliation he had suffered. This case reveals how Tang scholar-officials (士大夫) transformed the remounting of paintings and the addition of colophons (题跋) to works in the imperial collection into cultural resources imbued with political subtextand personal appeals.