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Introduction
In 847 or soon thereafter, the career of one Li Yansheng 李彥昇
sparked a debate among several Chinese men of letters and
prompted one of them, Chen An 陳黯, to compose an essay enti-
tled Hua xin 華心, or “The Heart of Being Hua.”^1 As the story
goes, Li Yansheng “a native of the Arabian empire” (Dashiguo ren
大食國人),^2 was recommended to the throne by Lü Jun慮鈞 ( 774 –
860 ), the military governor of Daliang大梁, who had “discovered”
him. Shortly thereafter, the Ministry of Rites, on orders from the
throne, tested the abilities of the Arab, who did well and ended up
obtaining a jinshi 進士 (the third, and highest) degree. This made
some people, sponsors of other candidates, unhappy. One of them
turned to Chen An, the author of the text in which we find this
story, and asked:
Liang is great city, and its governor a worthy man. He has received his
charge from a Hua sovereign and his salary from Hua people; yet when
he recommends candidates, he takes them from among the barbarians.
Are there none praiseworthy among the Hua that this barbarian is the
only one who could be employed? I am afraid I have misgivings about
our governor.
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- The text is found in Quan Tang wen 767 / 27 a–b (p. 7986 ). The translation is
from Hartman, Han Yü and the T’ang Search for Unity, p. 158. I thank Professor
Hartman for his kindness in clarifying several questions concerning this story and
text behind it. - Li could well have been a Persian-speaking Muslim and not necessarily an
Arab, since Dashiguo 大食國 referred at the time to all Muslim lands indiscrimi-
nately.