Stephen McDowall
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622090842
- eISBN:
- 9789882207318
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622090842.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This book is a close examination of travel writing in seventeenth-century China, presenting an innovative reading of the youji genre. Taking the “Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain” by the ...
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This book is a close examination of travel writing in seventeenth-century China, presenting an innovative reading of the youji genre. Taking the “Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain” by the noted poet, official, and literary historian Qian Qianyi (1582–1664) as its focus, this book departs from traditional readings of youji, by reading the landscape of Qian's essay as the product of a complex representational tradition, rather than as an empirically verifiable space. Drawing from a broad range of materials including personal anecdotes, traditional cosmographical sources, gazetteers, Daoist classics, paintings, and woodblock prints, the book explores the fascinating world of late-Ming Jiangnan, highlighting the extent to which this one scholar's depiction of Yellow Mountain is informed, not so much by first-hand observation, as by the layers of meaning left by generations of travelers before him. The book includes the first complete English-language translation of Qian Qianyi's account, and presents a critical study.Less
This book is a close examination of travel writing in seventeenth-century China, presenting an innovative reading of the youji genre. Taking the “Account of My Travels at Yellow Mountain” by the noted poet, official, and literary historian Qian Qianyi (1582–1664) as its focus, this book departs from traditional readings of youji, by reading the landscape of Qian's essay as the product of a complex representational tradition, rather than as an empirically verifiable space. Drawing from a broad range of materials including personal anecdotes, traditional cosmographical sources, gazetteers, Daoist classics, paintings, and woodblock prints, the book explores the fascinating world of late-Ming Jiangnan, highlighting the extent to which this one scholar's depiction of Yellow Mountain is informed, not so much by first-hand observation, as by the layers of meaning left by generations of travelers before him. The book includes the first complete English-language translation of Qian Qianyi's account, and presents a critical study.
Bozhong Li
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199280681
- eISBN:
- 9780191602467
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199280681.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
Contrary to the conventional view, labour productivity on farms in Jiangnan, the Yangzi Delta in East China, did not deteriorate or stagnate but instead improved between 1620 and 1850. Changes in the ...
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Contrary to the conventional view, labour productivity on farms in Jiangnan, the Yangzi Delta in East China, did not deteriorate or stagnate but instead improved between 1620 and 1850. Changes in the factors of major production of farming and in the peasant economy both contributed to the improvement and this development resulted in a rising standard of living of peasants. Neither an old, misleading Malthusian conception nor conventional wisdom on the standard of living, therefore, squares with what we know of Jiangnan history.Less
Contrary to the conventional view, labour productivity on farms in Jiangnan, the Yangzi Delta in East China, did not deteriorate or stagnate but instead improved between 1620 and 1850. Changes in the factors of major production of farming and in the peasant economy both contributed to the improvement and this development resulted in a rising standard of living of peasants. Neither an old, misleading Malthusian conception nor conventional wisdom on the standard of living, therefore, squares with what we know of Jiangnan history.
Beata Grant
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832025
- eISBN:
- 9780824871758
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832025.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored ...
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The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as “the reinvention” of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of “classical” Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. This book brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first to provide a detailed view of their activities, and to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of “discourse records” (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The book is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contribution of Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.Less
The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Only recently beginning to be explored are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as “the reinvention” of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of “classical” Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. This book brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends. Although Buddhist nuns have been a continuous presence in Chinese culture since early medieval times and the subject of numerous scholarly studies, this book is one of the first to provide a detailed view of their activities, and to be based largely on the writings and self-representations of Buddhist nuns themselves. This perspective is made possible by the preservation of collections of “discourse records” (yulu) of seven officially designated female Chan masters in a seventeenth-century printing of the Chinese Buddhist Canon rarely used in English-language scholarship. The book is able to place the seven women, all of whom were active in Jiangnan, in their historical, religious, and cultural contexts, while allowing them, through her skillful translations, to speak in their own voices. Together these women offer an important, but until now virtually unexplored, perspective on seventeenth-century China, the history of female monasticism in China, and the contribution of Buddhist nuns to the history of Chinese women’s writing.
Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253025
- eISBN:
- 9780520934221
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253025.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Among all the observers of the Incredible Famine, it was Chinese philanthropists and journalists in Shanghai and other cities in the wealthy Jiangnan region whose perspectives on the disaster were ...
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Among all the observers of the Incredible Famine, it was Chinese philanthropists and journalists in Shanghai and other cities in the wealthy Jiangnan region whose perspectives on the disaster were most significantly shaped by cross-cultural conversation. In their concerted effort to limit the famine's pernicious effects, influential members of the Jiangnan elite drew ideas not only from Chinese texts and philanthropic traditions but also from foreign discussions of relief campaigns overseas and of the benefits of Western technology. Relief activities in the Lower Yangzi region were spearheaded by philanthropists in inland cities such as Suzhou, as well as by members of Shanghai's treaty-port elite. Shanghai, however, was the locus of China's first Western-style press, and the place most influenced by foreign critiques of Qing relief efforts and by the foreign presence itself.Less
Among all the observers of the Incredible Famine, it was Chinese philanthropists and journalists in Shanghai and other cities in the wealthy Jiangnan region whose perspectives on the disaster were most significantly shaped by cross-cultural conversation. In their concerted effort to limit the famine's pernicious effects, influential members of the Jiangnan elite drew ideas not only from Chinese texts and philanthropic traditions but also from foreign discussions of relief campaigns overseas and of the benefits of Western technology. Relief activities in the Lower Yangzi region were spearheaded by philanthropists in inland cities such as Suzhou, as well as by members of Shanghai's treaty-port elite. Shanghai, however, was the locus of China's first Western-style press, and the place most influenced by foreign critiques of Qing relief efforts and by the foreign presence itself.
Timothy B. Weston
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520237674
- eISBN:
- 9780520929906
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520237674.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The imperial government's focus on education for the purpose of training servants of the state left a vacuum that was swiftly filled by the private efforts of the Jiangnan elite. Zhang Baixi declared ...
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The imperial government's focus on education for the purpose of training servants of the state left a vacuum that was swiftly filled by the private efforts of the Jiangnan elite. Zhang Baixi declared that the Imperial University needed to have a vibrant translation bureau. Many of the officials Zhang hired and upon whom he relied for advice—Shen Zhaozhi, Li Xisheng, Zhang Heling, Zeng Guangquan, and Zhao Congfan—were closely aligned with Wang Kangnian, one of the leading reformers of 1898. The transitional character of the university's culture is addressed. The Qing government faced a delicate and challenging situation—a large-scale, patriotic, and highly emotional student movement spreading across the country, in direct violation of the state's ban on student interference in politics. Zhang Zhidong's reorganization and domestication of the university is then discussed. It was Zhang had secured a grant of two million taels that permitted its further development.Less
The imperial government's focus on education for the purpose of training servants of the state left a vacuum that was swiftly filled by the private efforts of the Jiangnan elite. Zhang Baixi declared that the Imperial University needed to have a vibrant translation bureau. Many of the officials Zhang hired and upon whom he relied for advice—Shen Zhaozhi, Li Xisheng, Zhang Heling, Zeng Guangquan, and Zhao Congfan—were closely aligned with Wang Kangnian, one of the leading reformers of 1898. The transitional character of the university's culture is addressed. The Qing government faced a delicate and challenging situation—a large-scale, patriotic, and highly emotional student movement spreading across the country, in direct violation of the state's ban on student interference in politics. Zhang Zhidong's reorganization and domestication of the university is then discussed. It was Zhang had secured a grant of two million taels that permitted its further development.
Richard von Glahn
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520234086
- eISBN:
- 9780520928770
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520234086.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Money has an ancient history in China, but perhaps at no time did money have greater symbolic import than in the late Ming dynasty. To many, the proliferation of money unleashed the hordes of Mammon ...
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Money has an ancient history in China, but perhaps at no time did money have greater symbolic import than in the late Ming dynasty. To many, the proliferation of money unleashed the hordes of Mammon and ruptured the delicate bonds of reciprocity binding a solidary moral economy. The popular imagination also invested money with cultural meaning. Most conspicuous among the symbolic representations of money in late Ming Jiangnan was the “god of wealth.” In Jiangnan, since the eighteenth century the cult of the god of wealth has focused on a group of five deities known as the Gods of the Five Paths to Wealth. These deities are not ancient gods; rather, they are derived, in greatly altered form, from the cult of Wutong. Song and Ming folklore reveals a strong connection between Wutong and wealth.Less
Money has an ancient history in China, but perhaps at no time did money have greater symbolic import than in the late Ming dynasty. To many, the proliferation of money unleashed the hordes of Mammon and ruptured the delicate bonds of reciprocity binding a solidary moral economy. The popular imagination also invested money with cultural meaning. Most conspicuous among the symbolic representations of money in late Ming Jiangnan was the “god of wealth.” In Jiangnan, since the eighteenth century the cult of the god of wealth has focused on a group of five deities known as the Gods of the Five Paths to Wealth. These deities are not ancient gods; rather, they are derived, in greatly altered form, from the cult of Wutong. Song and Ming folklore reveals a strong connection between Wutong and wealth.
Ping Wang and Nicholas Morrow Williams
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888139262
- eISBN:
- 9789888313006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139262.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter introduces the Southland and characterizes it as a relative concept. The term South is fluid and evolving in literature. Lying at the centre of this is a key figure of cultural ...
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This chapter introduces the Southland and characterizes it as a relative concept. The term South is fluid and evolving in literature. Lying at the centre of this is a key figure of cultural significance, Qu Yuan, whose persona and poetry together constitute the identity of the scholarly-official, particularly in the aggrieved role of the loyal dissident. Qu Yuan’s plaintive tone nevertheless became the defining feature of his work, thanks to the Han historian Sima Qian, who wove his own fate and voice into the group of wronged heroes he had included in his historical records. Later writers throughout medieval times identified with Qu Yuan to confirm their own purity and virtue. Prevalent references to the Southland and the ubiquitous adoption of the dissident persona gradually transform the Southland into synecdoche for the Chinese poetic tradition as a whole. In this chapter, the reader also finds summaries of all seven studies included in the volume.Less
This chapter introduces the Southland and characterizes it as a relative concept. The term South is fluid and evolving in literature. Lying at the centre of this is a key figure of cultural significance, Qu Yuan, whose persona and poetry together constitute the identity of the scholarly-official, particularly in the aggrieved role of the loyal dissident. Qu Yuan’s plaintive tone nevertheless became the defining feature of his work, thanks to the Han historian Sima Qian, who wove his own fate and voice into the group of wronged heroes he had included in his historical records. Later writers throughout medieval times identified with Qu Yuan to confirm their own purity and virtue. Prevalent references to the Southland and the ubiquitous adoption of the dissident persona gradually transform the Southland into synecdoche for the Chinese poetic tradition as a whole. In this chapter, the reader also finds summaries of all seven studies included in the volume.
Stephen Owen
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789888139262
- eISBN:
- 9789888313006
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888139262.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
When the South ceased to be a political center around the turn of the seventh century, the Southern textual world almost completely displaced the Northern textual legacy. For the Tang Jiangnan ...
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When the South ceased to be a political center around the turn of the seventh century, the Southern textual world almost completely displaced the Northern textual legacy. For the Tang Jiangnan survived as a textual presence that was “displaced,” unless one went there as a traveler or on temporary assignment; the ruling elite was, by and large, Northern. Jiangnan became the textually imagined world of desire that was, in most cases, not one’s native home. In Song dynasty ci lyrics the South is evoked as an abstract representation of a desired homeland.Less
When the South ceased to be a political center around the turn of the seventh century, the Southern textual world almost completely displaced the Northern textual legacy. For the Tang Jiangnan survived as a textual presence that was “displaced,” unless one went there as a traveler or on temporary assignment; the ruling elite was, by and large, Northern. Jiangnan became the textually imagined world of desire that was, in most cases, not one’s native home. In Song dynasty ci lyrics the South is evoked as an abstract representation of a desired homeland.
Paola Iovene
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804789370
- eISBN:
- 9780804791601
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789370.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
The chapter offers a close reading of Ge Fei’s 2011 novel, exploring its use of fog as a poetic trope, as a concrete manifestation of environmental pollution, and as a vector for manifestations of ...
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The chapter offers a close reading of Ge Fei’s 2011 novel, exploring its use of fog as a poetic trope, as a concrete manifestation of environmental pollution, and as a vector for manifestations of social toxicity: shame, sacrifice, surplus, and crime. The dystopic End of Spring in Jiangnan denotes a mode of anticipation encompassing the contrasting temporal scales of the environment and of human life: the long-term scale of environmental devastation and its much more immediate, though often subtle and less obvious, effects on the human body. The novel seeks to rejoin these two dimensions of time, yet their incommensurability makes it difficult for individuals to fully acknowledge their connections. Engaging with shifting qualities of air,” End of Spring in Jiangnan confronts the remnants of the promises and hopes of modernism that have been at the center of this book.Less
The chapter offers a close reading of Ge Fei’s 2011 novel, exploring its use of fog as a poetic trope, as a concrete manifestation of environmental pollution, and as a vector for manifestations of social toxicity: shame, sacrifice, surplus, and crime. The dystopic End of Spring in Jiangnan denotes a mode of anticipation encompassing the contrasting temporal scales of the environment and of human life: the long-term scale of environmental devastation and its much more immediate, though often subtle and less obvious, effects on the human body. The novel seeks to rejoin these two dimensions of time, yet their incommensurability makes it difficult for individuals to fully acknowledge their connections. Engaging with shifting qualities of air,” End of Spring in Jiangnan confronts the remnants of the promises and hopes of modernism that have been at the center of this book.
He Bian
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691179049
- eISBN:
- 9780691189048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691179049.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter zooms in on the early decades of the seventeenth century to examine the amateurization of bencao in certain literati circles. However, it is not only about subtle debates within the ...
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This chapter zooms in on the early decades of the seventeenth century to examine the amateurization of bencao in certain literati circles. However, it is not only about subtle debates within the neo-Confucian doctrine about the nature of drugs. The chapter also concerns the numerous and diverse attempts to live up to those ideals in late Ming China. At the time, many Confucian literati who took an interest in the subject of bencao belonged to the younger generations who came of age during or after the late decades of the Wanli reign (1572–1620). Not surprisingly, most of them lived and were primarily active in Jiangnan, the most prosperous and populous region of Ming China; but the enthusiasm for bencao did travel outside Jiangnan.Less
This chapter zooms in on the early decades of the seventeenth century to examine the amateurization of bencao in certain literati circles. However, it is not only about subtle debates within the neo-Confucian doctrine about the nature of drugs. The chapter also concerns the numerous and diverse attempts to live up to those ideals in late Ming China. At the time, many Confucian literati who took an interest in the subject of bencao belonged to the younger generations who came of age during or after the late decades of the Wanli reign (1572–1620). Not surprisingly, most of them lived and were primarily active in Jiangnan, the most prosperous and populous region of Ming China; but the enthusiasm for bencao did travel outside Jiangnan.
He Bian
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691179049
- eISBN:
- 9780691189048
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691179049.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter picks up the transformation of bencao in post-Conquest Jiangnan. It highlights the vocal critics of amateur authors and considers the ways in which the Qing state’s cultural policy over ...
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This chapter picks up the transformation of bencao in post-Conquest Jiangnan. It highlights the vocal critics of amateur authors and considers the ways in which the Qing state’s cultural policy over the eighteenth century shaped the now-marginalized field. The chapter explains that with the Qing reforms in government and culture came a parallel, albeit less pronounced, reconfiguration of natural studies within Confucian learning. The centrality of pharmacy and the nature of drugs in the pre-Conquest years also came under intense questioning in postwar decades. In a move that was hardly premeditated, the Qing rulers found themselves in the company of new allies from the elite strata of literati and physicians who were championing a new approach to the field of bencao.Less
This chapter picks up the transformation of bencao in post-Conquest Jiangnan. It highlights the vocal critics of amateur authors and considers the ways in which the Qing state’s cultural policy over the eighteenth century shaped the now-marginalized field. The chapter explains that with the Qing reforms in government and culture came a parallel, albeit less pronounced, reconfiguration of natural studies within Confucian learning. The centrality of pharmacy and the nature of drugs in the pre-Conquest years also came under intense questioning in postwar decades. In a move that was hardly premeditated, the Qing rulers found themselves in the company of new allies from the elite strata of literati and physicians who were championing a new approach to the field of bencao.
Yulian Wu
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804798112
- eISBN:
- 9781503600799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804798112.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The introduction presents the Huizhou salt merchants, with emphasis on the unprecedented economic and political privileges they enjoyed in High Qing China. The author challenges the conventional ...
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The introduction presents the Huizhou salt merchants, with emphasis on the unprecedented economic and political privileges they enjoyed in High Qing China. The author challenges the conventional analysis focused on merchant-literati status negotiations, arguing that this framework is based upon written texts produced by the literati themselves, and is hence not reflective of the merchants’ own concerns. By reviewing the extant literary descriptions of Huizhou salt merchants, the author proposes to explore their own voices and opinions by analyzing their interactions with material objects. This indicates the emergence of a novel and vital network between the Qianlong emperor, the imperial household department, court officials, and Huizhou salt merchants, constructed between the capital Beijing, the urban centers of Jiangnan, and the remote countryside of Huizhou. A focus on these salt merchants sheds new light on Manchu emperors’ political strategies and reveals merchants’ role in luxury consumption in High Qing China.Less
The introduction presents the Huizhou salt merchants, with emphasis on the unprecedented economic and political privileges they enjoyed in High Qing China. The author challenges the conventional analysis focused on merchant-literati status negotiations, arguing that this framework is based upon written texts produced by the literati themselves, and is hence not reflective of the merchants’ own concerns. By reviewing the extant literary descriptions of Huizhou salt merchants, the author proposes to explore their own voices and opinions by analyzing their interactions with material objects. This indicates the emergence of a novel and vital network between the Qianlong emperor, the imperial household department, court officials, and Huizhou salt merchants, constructed between the capital Beijing, the urban centers of Jiangnan, and the remote countryside of Huizhou. A focus on these salt merchants sheds new light on Manchu emperors’ political strategies and reveals merchants’ role in luxury consumption in High Qing China.
Yulian Wu
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804798112
- eISBN:
- 9781503600799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804798112.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Chapter 2 examines the Huizhou head merchants’ interaction with the most precious and expensive goods in eighteenth-century Jiangnan. It explores how these businessmen produced and procured objects ...
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Chapter 2 examines the Huizhou head merchants’ interaction with the most precious and expensive goods in eighteenth-century Jiangnan. It explores how these businessmen produced and procured objects for imperial use through the tribute system, manufacturing, and the Qianlong emperor’s empire-wide book collecting project. This chapter shows in detail how the Huizhou salt merchants procured objects from local workshops, markets, and private collections and how their personal networks and managerial ability enabled them to “run errands” for the court. While the salt merchants supplemented formal state bureaucratic systems and served as the emperor’s informal agents in Jiangnan, they also facilitated an exchange of style and taste between the capital and Jiangnan.Less
Chapter 2 examines the Huizhou head merchants’ interaction with the most precious and expensive goods in eighteenth-century Jiangnan. It explores how these businessmen produced and procured objects for imperial use through the tribute system, manufacturing, and the Qianlong emperor’s empire-wide book collecting project. This chapter shows in detail how the Huizhou salt merchants procured objects from local workshops, markets, and private collections and how their personal networks and managerial ability enabled them to “run errands” for the court. While the salt merchants supplemented formal state bureaucratic systems and served as the emperor’s informal agents in Jiangnan, they also facilitated an exchange of style and taste between the capital and Jiangnan.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804778312
- eISBN:
- 9780804782623
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804778312.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter considers opera genre as a contested cultural field in which various agents—the court, Jiangnan music sophisticates, marginalized men of letters, and acting troupes—each held a stake. ...
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This chapter considers opera genre as a contested cultural field in which various agents—the court, Jiangnan music sophisticates, marginalized men of letters, and acting troupes—each held a stake. Opera genre became a cultural field in which both the Manchu court and Han connoisseurs attempted to maintain authority. Yabu and huabu can be understood as a response by diverse commentators to the variety and mixture of musical genres within the metropolitan opera marketplace. The court had a growing interest in huabu (more specifically, pihuang) in the nineteenth century. Court patronage of the once lowbrow pihuang was helpful in eliciting the genre to elite status, acknowledged empirewide. In general, the court patronage, court oversight and management of commercial troupes via the Jingzhong Temple Actors' Guild, and the unintended consequences of war all influenced the rise of pihuang opera.Less
This chapter considers opera genre as a contested cultural field in which various agents—the court, Jiangnan music sophisticates, marginalized men of letters, and acting troupes—each held a stake. Opera genre became a cultural field in which both the Manchu court and Han connoisseurs attempted to maintain authority. Yabu and huabu can be understood as a response by diverse commentators to the variety and mixture of musical genres within the metropolitan opera marketplace. The court had a growing interest in huabu (more specifically, pihuang) in the nineteenth century. Court patronage of the once lowbrow pihuang was helpful in eliciting the genre to elite status, acknowledged empirewide. In general, the court patronage, court oversight and management of commercial troupes via the Jingzhong Temple Actors' Guild, and the unintended consequences of war all influenced the rise of pihuang opera.
Jan Kiely
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- December 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190494568
- eISBN:
- 9780190494582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190494568.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter analyzes the first Buddhist mass movement in modern Chinese history. The movement took place in and around Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city during the 1920s and 1930s, and its ...
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This chapter analyzes the first Buddhist mass movement in modern Chinese history. The movement took place in and around Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city during the 1920s and 1930s, and its leader was Yinguang, a Pure Land Buddhist master who emphasized discipline and simplicity. Yinguang was conversant with the new print technology that was changing China’s social and intellectual landscape. He also received the enthusiastic support of Shanghai’s influential and wealthy lay Buddhist elites, who were comfortable with the West but remained loyal to China’s cultural traditions and wary of the iconoclasm of the May Fourth revolutionaries. Kiely charts both the surprising growth of the movement, as well as its limitations: Yinguang’s wealthy patrons were distrustful of the mass enthusiasm generated by the monk, and by the “superstitious” practices associated with Yinguang’s mass following.Less
This chapter analyzes the first Buddhist mass movement in modern Chinese history. The movement took place in and around Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city during the 1920s and 1930s, and its leader was Yinguang, a Pure Land Buddhist master who emphasized discipline and simplicity. Yinguang was conversant with the new print technology that was changing China’s social and intellectual landscape. He also received the enthusiastic support of Shanghai’s influential and wealthy lay Buddhist elites, who were comfortable with the West but remained loyal to China’s cultural traditions and wary of the iconoclasm of the May Fourth revolutionaries. Kiely charts both the surprising growth of the movement, as well as its limitations: Yinguang’s wealthy patrons were distrustful of the mass enthusiasm generated by the monk, and by the “superstitious” practices associated with Yinguang’s mass following.
