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Old Tibet: A Clash of Myths

John Powers

in History As Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China

This chapter begins with methodological issues, particularly how Chinese and Tibetan notions of historiography influence their respective constructions of Tibetan history.

Characters, Plots, and Motivations in Tibetan History

John Powers

in History As Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China

Chapter 2 begins with Tibetan origin myths and looks at the debates over the marriage of Songtsen Gambo and Wencheng: was she a cultural ambassador for China? Was she a war bride? Was he a barbarian ... More

Chapter 2 begins with Tibetan origin myths and looks at the debates over the marriage of Songtsen Gambo and Wencheng: was she a cultural ambassador for China? Was she a war bride? Was he a barbarian who sought to eradicate his own culture and sinicize Tibet, or was he a military commander seeking to expand his empire? Or was he an incarnation of the buddha Avalokitesvara?Less

Interpretative and investigative: the emergence and characteristics of modern scholarly personae in China, 1900–30

Q. Edward Wang

in How to be a Historian: Scholarly Personae in Historical Studies, 1800-2000

Intellectual life experienced a dramatic change in China after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), leaving an indelible impact on the shaping and structuring of the scholarly persona among Chinese ... More

Intellectual life experienced a dramatic change in China after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), leaving an indelible impact on the shaping and structuring of the scholarly persona among Chinese historians. Examining the careers of four scholars – Zhang Taiyan (1869–1936), Liang Qichao (1873–1929), Hu Shi (1891–1962) and Fu Sinian (1896–1950), this chapter discusses two types of persona that at once reflected and embodied the transformation of historical scholarship, and intellectual life in general, in modern China. Blending traditional and modern elements, these two personae were shown not only in where and how the scholars conducted their research and teaching, but also in how they pursued and displayed sociopolitical virtues through their scholarly careers. The author notes that while internal disposition played a primary role in forming a persona, it also negotiated with external factors, resulting in the alternating appeal of a particular persona in a given period while a scholar adjusted his/her predisposed interest in and inclined aptitude for scholarship.Less

From Revolution to Modernization: The Paradigmatic Transition in Reform Era Historiography

Huaiyin Li

in Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing

This chapter examines the rise of the modernization discourse and its impact on Chinese historiography in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Dissatisfied with the “outdated” revolutionary narrative, ... More

This chapter examines the rise of the modernization discourse and its impact on Chinese historiography in the late 1980s and the 1990s. Dissatisfied with the “outdated” revolutionary narrative, proreform historians showed a growing interest in the study of modernizing reforms and economic, social, cultural, and political changes that arguably contributed to China's modernization in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After scrutinizing Chinese scholars' conceptualization of “modernization” (its meanings, phases, and patterns) under the influence of Western modernization theories, this chapter explicates historians' deconstruction of the master narrative that had shaped revolutionary historiography and their new interpretations of a series of empirical issues that contributed to the formation of modernization historiography.Less

The Cant of Conquest: Tusi Offices and China’s Political Incorporation of the Southwest Frontier

John E. Herman

in Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China

This chapter examines several sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Chinese texts on Guizhou province to see how the evolution of Chinese knowledge of Guizhou and its inhabitants represented China's ... More

This chapter examines several sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Chinese texts on Guizhou province to see how the evolution of Chinese knowledge of Guizhou and its inhabitants represented China's conquest and incorporation of this part of the Southwest Frontier. In traditional Chinese historiography, the rhetorical devices used to elucidate the ways in which the Chinese state extended its political control over frontier areas were for the most part self-validating. It looks at the beginnings of this transition from indirect to direct rule, as well as the transformation of tusi officials from independent frontier leaders to nominal Chinese officials.Less

Chinese Historical Writing since 1949

Susanne Weigelin‐Schwiedrzik

in The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 5: Historical Writing Since 1945

This chapter studies how in China—divided by civil war into mainland China and Taiwan—two opposing political camps instrumentalized the writing of history for political purposes. With the beginning ... More

This chapter studies how in China—divided by civil war into mainland China and Taiwan—two opposing political camps instrumentalized the writing of history for political purposes. With the beginning of the end of the Cold War in East Asia around 1975–6, the writing of history on both sides of the Taiwan Straits underwent major changes. In Taiwan, questions of national identity became increasingly important, and it is no surprise that Taiwanese history grew in popularity. On the mainland, academic history-writing became gradually marginalized in the wake of a thorough commercialization of the historical field. The dominant discourse now turned anti-revolutionary, leaving the Communist Party in a difficult position as it faced the paradox that its legitimacy depended on the very revolutionary discourse now being attacked by a reformist paradigm that it needed to adopt in order to modernize the country.Less

Introduction

N. Harry Rothschild and Leslie V. Wallace

in Behaving Badly in Early and Medieval China

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the three parts and thirteen chapters that comprise this volume, a series of focused case studies of personages and actions considered “bad” by early ... More

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the three parts and thirteen chapters that comprise this volume, a series of focused case studies of personages and actions considered “bad” by early and medieval Chinese writers. The first part contains four chapters examining distinctive ways in which core Confucian bonds, such as those between parents and children and ruler and minister, were compromised and even severed. Through a colorful collection of ostentatious Eastern Han mourners, deviant calligraphers, audacious falconers, volatile Tang Buddhist monks, and inebriated Song literati, the second part explores the elasticity of orthopraxy and heteropraxy in early and medieval China. The final part showcases four distinctive explorations of cultural attitudes toward military action and warfare. Collectively, the volume compels a serious reconsideration of larger questions of what and whom was considered aberrant, arguing that more often than not, definitions were based on personal taste, conflicting systems of values, and political and social expedience.Less

The astronomical empire

Christopher Cullen

in Heavenly Numbers: Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China

This chapter begins by sketching the historical and cultural foundations of the role played by astronomy in the self-presentation of the early imperial Chinese state, principally through its claim to ... More

This chapter begins by sketching the historical and cultural foundations of the role played by astronomy in the self-presentation of the early imperial Chinese state, principally through its claim to have the right to structure the time of its subjects by issuing a luni-solar calendar. This claim was presented as fulfilling a need on the part of the population; we discuss how far this claim was an accurate perception of the power relations involved. There follows a preliminary account of the main components of such a calendar, and of how they formed an integrated whole. Finally there is an introductory review of the main written sources on li曆‎‘[astronomical] systems’ on which much of this book will be based.Less