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.

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.

Chapter 10 is based on the voluminous correspondence between Gao Pian’s military headquarters in Yangzhou (Cassia Grove) and the court-in-exile at Chengdu in 881–84 that is preserved in the Cassia Grove Collection of Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn. The issues addressed are grouped under five headings. “Central Harmony” concerns Emperor Xizong’s situation in Sichuan and Huainan’s loyalist positioning relative to the exiled government. In “Demotions and Promotions,” Gao reacts to his removal from his (now defunct) national offices and elevation in honorific rank. “Family Matters” examines the symbolic kinship relations that tied the sovereign to his subjects. Under “A Circuit of Giving,” the substitution of ritual tribute offerings for tax payments from Huainan is discussed. In exchange, the emperor returns ceremonial gifts. In “The End of the Huang Chao Rebellion,” Gao responds to the court’s preparations to return to the capital after the defeat of the insurrection. The documentation provided in this chapter reveals the ideological slant of the official record regarding Gao Pian’s relations with the emperor during these pivotal years for the Tang.

Chapter 1 surveys Chinese migration during the early modern period, here defined as 1500 to 1740. The chapter introduces the concept of a trade diaspora and describes some important examples, Huizhou, Shanxi, and Hokkien. It introduces diasporic institutions important during the early modern era: lineages, native-place associations, temples, and various types of intermediaries. The chapter then describes the ways in which migration was gendered, focusing on male migration, split families, and intermarriage. The chapter ends with an example of one diasporic community, the Huizhou salt merchants who formed the upper tier of the socioeconomic elite in the city of Yangzhou.