A foreign policy of benevolence: reinvestigating identities and material culture in the handscroll <i>Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute</i> 胡茄十八拍

Abstract This article adopts a social constructivist approach to reinvestigate the Song-Liao relations that were manifested in the handscroll Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute 胡茄十八拍. Instead of offering a visual analysis of each of the 18 scenes in succession, it will point out the shared cultural practices and connotations of identity in the contrasting depictions of Song urban life and the nomad encampment. It argues that the handscroll probably represents the conservative faction's benevolent attitude towards nomadic tribes in the late Northern Song period, which is also likely to have been associated with the rise of Neo-Confucianism.