Abstract
This study examines the yu , “conversations,” in the Tang yulin (Forest of Conversations on the Tang) through the construction, visualization, and statistical analysis of its dialogue networks. The network graph presents a series of substructures, here called “Text-based Temporal Clusters,” that demonstrate the focus of the collection’s yu on Tang emperors and a few important ministers. Node degree analysis reveals the importance of several rulers who presided over turning points in the Tang fortunes, especially Emperor Xuánzong and later rulers of the mid- and late-Tang. This feature corresponds to the proliferation of Tang anecdotal accounts after the An Lushan rebellion. Additionally, HITS (Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search) analysis highlights a “Xuánzong factor” of global influence across the dialogue network, which refects the heightened attention on Xuánzong in mid- and late-Tang historical anecdotes. The “Xuánzong factor” remains significant in the dialogue networks built both for the first, continuously transmitted part of the collection and for the latter, lost and then reconstructed part of the collection. Interestingly, the role of the Xuánzong node in these two networks is inverted: statistically speaking, in the first part Xuánzong is more of a speaker in the network, but he is presented in the network of the latter part of the text as more of a listener—a feature corresponding to the relatively more negative image of Xuánzong portrayed in the later part of the Tang yulin .