32 Origins of a Military Tradition
Texts 5 and 6: The Emperor’s Gift of 724
The Shaolin monks’ assistance to Li Shimin guaranteed them the support of
his successors. A hundred years after the Cypress Valley victory, the Tang emperor
Xuanzong (r. 712–755) bestowed upon the Shaolin Monastery a caption in his
own calligraphy for the “Shaolin Monastery Stele” (figure 4). This symbolic act of
patronage created a link between Xuanzong and his venerable ancestor Li Shi-
min, whose letter to the Shaolin monks was to be engraved on the same stele.
Two brief official letters (die), which were themselves to be inscribed on the
Shaolin stele, announced the bestowal upon the monastery of Emperor Xuan-
zong’s handwritten caption, along with Li Shimin’s autographed letter, a copy
of which had been kept in the imperial archives.^46 The second letter, dated Kai-
yuan, eleventh year, twelfth month, twenty-first day ( January 21, 724), is note-
worthy for the high-ranking official who signed it: Zhang Yue (667–730), who
served as president of the secretariat (zhongshu ling).^47 Zhang issued his letter to
the Shaolin Monastery in his additional capacity as director of the Academy in
the Hall of Elegance and Rectitude (Lizhengdian xiushuyuan). His letter attests
that the caption of the “Shaolin Monastery Stele” was handwritten by Emperor
Xuanzong.^48 Furthermore, it verifies the authenticity of Li Shimin’s letter,
which was examined by a team of experts working under his supervision.^49
It is noteworthy that Xuanzong’s patronage of Shaolin, like his ancestor’s
benefaction, did not result from Buddhist piety. Xuanzong “acted with greater
determination than any of his predecessors to curtail the power of the Buddhist
clergy.”^50 In 714, for example, he issued a ban on the construction of all new
Fig. 4. Xuanzong’s imperial calligraphy
on the 728 Shaolin stele. His caption
reads: “Taizong Wen Huangdi’s [Li
Shimin] Imperial Letter [to the Shaolin
monks].