During British rule, almost half of the subcontinent’s area and a quarter of its population were governed by Indian princes and chiefs, subject to varying amounts of control by the Crown. These rulers varied greatly in their stature, legitimacy and political vision. This chapter provides a brief history of how the princely states emerged, evolved and differed in their social policies. Despite their lower revenue potential on average, many of the larger states incurred higher social spending than British Indian districts in their proximity. We focus especially on the two states of Baroda and Travancore, and on their education policies. These states introduced free and subsidized education well before most of the Western world. These policies had large and lasting effects on the welfare of their populations.

Chapter 6 describes Gao Pian’s carrot-and-stick strategy for winning the second war against Nanzhao. “Securing the Dadu” narrates his rout of the invading army, their expulsion across the Dadu river, the symbolic frontier with Nanzhao running through a wide border zone in southern Sichuan. Gao consolidates his military advantage by reinforcing the border defenses and reforming the Sichuan military, among other measures, through the bloody suppression of a militia mutiny in 875 (“Mutiny and Malediction”). Sichuan was the historical birthplace of Daoism. “The Cradle of Daoism” illustrates the general’s increased recourse there to Daoist ritual and occult strategy. In “A Letter to Shilong,” an intimidating and peremptory missive addressed to the king of Nanzhao, Gao reminds the ruler of his past defeats in Annan and on the banks of the Dadu, and threatens further punitive action. In stark contrast with his public stance, Gao’s “Tantric Diplomacy” opens a parallel, secret channel of diplomacy through which his envoy, a Buddhist monk, conveys a conciliatory peace proposal to the Tantric kingdom.

In Chapter 7, Gao takes advantage of a truce obtained by military force and persuasive diplomacy to strengthen the defenses of Sichuan’s capital Chengdu. “Brocade Fortress” refers to his new engineering exploit, an outer rampart that encompassed Chengdu’s ancient citadel and an extended urban area, complementing his previous fortifications of river crossings and strategic passes in the southwestern frontier zone. The section “The Walls of Chengdu” sketches the history of the city’s fortifications under adverse conditions owing to its soil’s unsuitability for traditional tamped-earth constructions. In “The Will of Heaven,” Gao devises a novel technique adapted to this situation and raises the massive workforce and resources needed to complete the labor under the threat of renewed border incursions in record time. “Acclaimed by Ten Thousand Mouths” relates commendations of the completed construction by imperial decrees, inscriptions, and popular acclaim. The peace and security restored, in “Incomparable Topics for Poems” Gao finds recreation writing poetry inspired by the region’s celebrated scenery.

Chapter 8 charts the rising tide of insurrection led by Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao since 875. In “The Middle Yangzi,” Wang Xianzhi threatens the empire’s lifeline for grain and tax shipments. Gao Pian is appointed military governor of the Jingnan region with the mission to secure this strategic artery. Meanwhile, his previous secret agreement with Nanzhao’s ruler Shilong comes to light in “Diplomatic Fallout,” deepening the factional feud at court and casting a temporary shadow over Gao’s standing. After the defeat and death of Wang Xianzhi, the remaining insurrectionists rally under Huang Chao. The focus of their attacks shifts to the lower Yangzi valley. In response, Gao is transferred downstream to “The Sea-Garrisoning Army,” as military governor of the regional command of that name based in Runzhou (modern Zhenjiang). “The Year Jihai” (879) relates how Huang Chao, driven out of central China by Gao Pian, escapes south, devastates Fuzhou, and besieges Guangzhou. The court declines Gao Pian’s proposal to pursue and rout the rebel army in Guangdong. The year ends calamitously as Huang Chao sacks Guangzhou, massacres its population, and heads back north.

In Chapter 9, Gao Pian reaches his final post as military governor of the southeastern economic hub Huainan and establishes his headquarters in Yangzhou as commander-in-chief of the Tang Expeditionary Armies and Salt, Iron, and Transport commissioner in charge of the empire’s monopoly and financial administration. After the disastrous year jihai, the decline of the Tang accelerates, testing the allegiance of military and civilian officials alike (“All the King’s Men”). Gao Pian stands by as Huang Chao crosses the Yangzi at Stone Quarry and heads north. In “Tilling with My Brush,” Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn joins Gao’s headquarters staff as Huang Chao’s armies approach the capital in 880. Emperor Xizong flees into exile at Chengdu in early 881 (“The Fall of Chang’an”). Gao Pian assembles an expeditionary army at “East Dike” for the recovery of the capital. With the “Ultimatum to Huang Chao,” written by Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn on Gao Pian’s behalf, the young scholar from Silla becomes widely known in China. In “Citadel Yangzhou,” referring to the faltering empire’s crucial commercial, manufacturing, and trading hub at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangzi, Gao Pian consolidates the city’s fortifications.

In Chapter 4 Gao Pian undertakes the postwar reconstruction of Jiaozhi’s ramparts and dwellings, devastated by years of enemy occupation and sieges. He next reopens the region’s obstructed maritime trade routes between Vietnam and China to revive its stalled economy. The section “The Lay of the Land” illustrates how Gao introduced Chinese fengshui divination to site the emplacement of medieval Hanoi and the contours of its ramparts. “The Đại La Citadel” describes these construction in the context of the city’s fortification history. “Canal of Heavenly Might” reconstructs Gao’s excavation of a land–sea canal cutting across a peninsula on the Guangxi coast of the Gulf of Tonkin to connect two legs of coastal shipping lanes. The primary source for this account is a detailed and colorful stele inscription by Pei Xing recording the event. “Explosive Devotions” advances the hypothesis that the exceptional feat of hydraulic engineering was accomplished with the help of gunpowder, which would make it the first large-scale application of chemical explosives in history.

The Postscript outlines the aftermath of Gao Pian’s assassination, in Huainan and beyond, formulates several salient conclusions, and pinpoints the historiographical issues the book raises. In “A Meeting of Ghosts,” Gao Pian’s spirit makes an appearance in Runzhou in the company of three historical statesmen, all past victims of political violence. The apparition takes place in 907, shortly after the Tang’s demise. “Auguries of a New Order” narrates the fall of the Tang, describes the multipolar structure of power rising from the ruins of the empire, and analyzes Gao Pian’s part in shaping that emerging new order. “Fact and Fiction” then asks what can be learned from the divergences between Gao’s image in contemporary writings and official historiography. “Center and Periphery,” finally, discusses the historiographical focus of this book on regional perspectives and individual biography and, more generally, the capacity of microhistory to throw light on macrohistorical events.

Chapter 11 explores Gao’s strategies for defending Huainan, maintaining its economic and financial viability, ensuring its local administration, and pursuing external relations. Huainan was one of the wealthiest and most populous regions in the empire. “Great Bounty” outlines Gao’s policies of economic, agricultural, and commercial administration. “Commodity Taxes” discusses his role in southern China’s financial administration and his approach to using monopoly taxation for funding Huainan’s government. “Border Defense” details Gao’s actions as commander-in-chief and military governor responsible for building and funding armies capable of securing Huainan. “Inked Edicts” refers to the emperor’s privilege of appointing prefects and other provincial officials by personal edicts, a prerogative delegated to Gao Pian and other military governors in 881. In “Friend or Foe,” Gao engages in diplomatic exchanges with external actors to prevent attacks on Huainan’s borders and join forces with potential allies. After Huainan’s military and fiscal decoupling from the government-in-exile, Gao gains full powers over the region’s administration.

The Introduction places the fall of the Tang and the trajectory of Gao Pian in historical perspective and surveys external and internal factors that challenged the cohesion of the empire. The first half of the Tang had been a phase of vigorous imperial expansion, until the An Lushan rebellion weakened the Tang’s capacity to project power beyond its borders and initiated the rise of regional autonomy that culminated in the empire’s territorial dissolution. The section “Tang and Its Neighbors” reviews the empire’s external relations with Tibet, Nanzhao, and the Korean peninsula. “Internal Fault Lines” pinpoints the conditions testing the late empire’s viability: border wars, socio-economic distress, geographical imbalances, internal insurrection, and government factionalism. “A Broken Compact” highlights the breakdown of vassal allegiance to the Tang sovereign. “The Historical Record” draws attention to the bias of official historiography as regards issues of allegiance and details the range and types of alternative sources used in this book. “The General’s Scribe,” finally, explains how Gao Pian’s Korean secretary Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn, author of a previously neglected key archive on the period, arrived in Tang China.

Chapter 2 narrates the beginning of Gao Pian’s military career on the northwestern frontier. Gao forged his military temperament during twenty years in the harsh and remote environment of the Hexi corridor, a conduit for trade and diplomacy as well as a zone of conflict with competing Inner Asian powers. The chapter opens with a discussion of the imperial “Divine Strategy” or Shence army and its place in Tang border defense policy. Like several of his forebears, Gao entered government service through that army, which was also responsible for the security of the imperial palace. In “Defense Commissioner of Qinzhou,” Gao is invested as a general and placed in charge of recovering Tang frontier prefectures lost to Tibet a century earlier. In “Turning the Tide,” he significantly contributes to containing the Tibetan Empire and renewing Tang’s ascendancy in Inner Asia. “Spirit of the Valley” was the religious epithet of the author of Daoist tales Pei Xing who joined the writers in Gao Pian’s orbit in Gansu and became a lifelong retainer. Under “Palace Politics,” Gao’s growing prominence at court exposes him to the intrigues of inner palace eunuchs.

In Chapter 12, Gao Pian’s devotion to Daoism (“The Dao of Gao”) invites controversy. The section “White Marsh and Blue Bottle” recounts the writer Luo Yin’s visit to Yangzhou and his unsuccessful quest for employment at Gao’s headquarters. Subsequently, the embittered Luo would circulate a satirical pamphlet titled Bewitched in Guangling that depicts Gao as an aging despot manipulated by religious charlatans. “The Parting of Solitary Cloud” accompanies Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn on his return journey to Silla in late 884, documented in poems and letters exchanged with Gao Pian. Ch’oe’s departure brings the scribe’s blow-by-blow documentation of Gao Pian’s action in Huainan to an abrupt end, opening a floodgate for rumor, gossip, and recrimination. Huainan becomes embroiled in conspiracy and violence, reaching a pitch in 887, as Gao’s subordinates plot to seize power from each other. In “Maelstrom,” the scope of the plot deepens to supplanting the military governor as overlord in Huainan. Gao Pian and his family fall victim to an assassination conspiracy.

Chapter 5 covers the end of Gao’s mission in Annan and his reassignment to Shandong. In “Farewell to Annan,” he returns to the Tang mainland via the newly completed Heavenly Might Canal to a hero’s welcome in Chang’an. “Imperial Insignia Guard” refers to his intermediate appointment as general of the imperial palace guards at the capital (868–69). After six months in that role he receives a new field commission to suppress banditry and insurrection in Shandong as military governor of the northeastern regional command Celestial Peace (869–74). Gao succeeds in restoring the peace in the rebellious province and receives a “Celestial Tally,” an imperial order redeploying him to the Southwest to confront a new invasion of the Tang’s frontiers by Nanzhao, this time in the regional command of Western Sichuan. “The Road to Shu” follows the general’s journey to the war zone in Sichuan. In “Brandishing the Imperial Standard,” Gao arrives in Chengdu with a strategy in place for combatting the invaders.