Marriage as a Diplomatic Device

What made Eastern Eurasia of the early medieval period multipolar and how can this political complexity be traced in the lives of diplomatic brides? These are the questions that sinologist Julia Escher addresses in her work on political marriages between Chinese states and neighboring policies of the early medieval period. Drawing from various fields like diplomatic history, International Relations, and anthropology, her book examines the close connection between kinship, marriage, and politics from various angles. Escher sets out to explore what elements made Sino-Inner Asian diplomatic relations multipolar in their specific Eastern Eurasian setting and identifies three ways in which political marriages reflected a complex political landscape of multiple agents. Due to the fundamental relevance of kinship bonds to diplomatic marriages, the book also presents a comparison of social norms regarding marriage and kinship in the Chinese and Inner Asian contexts. This book is therefore not only of great interest to historians of Sino-Inner Asian diplomacy, but also contributes to the broader study of historical interstate relations, kinship studies, and to the field of women’s history.