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Technology and innovation in global history and in the history of the global

Dagmar Schäfer

in Writing the History of the Global: Challenges for the Twenty-First Century

The Chinese of the Ming/Qing dynasties took a distinctive approach to technology and innovation. The Chinese assigned a place and function to technologies and their products in statecraft, public ... More

The Chinese of the Ming/Qing dynasties took a distinctive approach to technology and innovation. The Chinese assigned a place and function to technologies and their products in statecraft, public life, and scholarly achievements. Ming connoisseurs valued craftsmanship, and porcelain and silk were used to negotiate political control and economic interests. But free markets emerged for these products of craftsmanship. This chapter charts how products were marketed, and how original designs and techniques were claimed and marked by their craftsmen.Less

Printing as Performance Literati Playwright-Publishers of the Late Ming

Katherine Carlitz

in Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China

This chapter examines literati playwright-publishers in China during the late Ming dynasty, focusing on the Master of the Silkworm Studio. It analyzes the social dimensions of Ming drama publishing ... More

This chapter examines literati playwright-publishers in China during the late Ming dynasty, focusing on the Master of the Silkworm Studio. It analyzes the social dimensions of Ming drama publishing to learn why resources were concentrated on this genre to produce some of the most exquisite of all Ming printed editions. The chapter concludes that the concept of self which these late Ming editions of drama express is a literatus, imagined as part of the cultural elite.Less

Interpolity Relations and the Tribute System of Ming China

Timothy Brook, Michael van Walt van Praag, and Miek Boltjes (eds)

in Sacred Mandates: Asian International Relations since Chinggis Khan

Imperial China operated its foreign relations through the tribute system. Membership in the system required paying tribute to China but also provided benefits in terms of political authority and ... More

Imperial China operated its foreign relations through the tribute system. Membership in the system required paying tribute to China but also provided benefits in terms of political authority and trade. The system imposed the expectation of mutual non-aggression among the tributaries, including China’s nonintervention except when invited in response to internal conflict or external invasion. Ideologically, the system rested on what might be called a Confucian law of nations, premised on a fundamental hierarchical distinction between Chinese and non-Chinese. Actual relations between Ming China and its tributaries produced a more troubled history than the idealized version of the system, in which China calculated its foreign relations in terms of its security needs and its capacity to project force abroad, and from time to time interfered in the affairs of its tributaries and waged war against them. Maintaining the system was particularly important to the emperor of the newly founded Ming dynasty, who needed diplomatic recognition from abroad to project legitimacy at home. For states in the near periphery such as Dai Viet and Chošon Korea, participation in the system was similarly important as a resource for projecting regime legitimacy at home and deflecting the costs of noncompliance.Less

Of Three Mountains Street: The Commercial Publishers of Ming Nanjing

Lucille Chia

in Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China

This chapter presents some findings and speculations on commercial publishing in Nanjing, China during the Ming Dynasty. It highlights the importance of Sanshan Street to the city's book trade and ... More

This chapter presents some findings and speculations on commercial publishing in Nanjing, China during the Ming Dynasty. It highlights the importance of Sanshan Street to the city's book trade and describes some publishers whose type and quantity of output make it difficult to determine whether they were commercial or private enterprises. The chapter also speculates on the changes over time and the regional differences and similarities in commercial publishing in Ming China.Less

Charity and Associational Life in Late Imperial China

Karla W. Simon

in Civil Society in China: The Legal Framework from Ancient Times to the "New Reform Era"

This chapter examines the various charitable organizations and other associations in the Ming and Qing dynasties. As time went on different kinds of organizations began to flourish (including illegal ... More

This chapter examines the various charitable organizations and other associations in the Ming and Qing dynasties. As time went on different kinds of organizations began to flourish (including illegal ones), and they contributed to the fall of the imperial era. By the end of the Qing dynasty, civil society was firmly entrenched in China and legal rules were being devised to protect it. It was only a matter of time before the greater protections of the Nationalist era would lead to more space for charity and associational life, and the chaos of the war years strengthened charity.Less

Formal Law and Central Court Interpretation from Ming through High Qing

Matthew H. Sommer

in Polyandry and Wife-Selling In Qing Dynasty China: Survival Strategies and Judicial Interventions

Chapter 10 analyzes formal law and central-court interpretation of wife sale (and, secondarily, polyandry) from Ming through High Qing and shows that the main innovation of the Qing dynasty was a ... More

Chapter 10 analyzes formal law and central-court interpretation of wife sale (and, secondarily, polyandry) from Ming through High Qing and shows that the main innovation of the Qing dynasty was a dramatic expansion of criminalization. As a result, all prostitution and polyandry was prohibited (as the crime of “abetting a wife to engage in illicit sex with another man,” or zong jian), as were wife sales motivated solely by poverty (as the crime of “buying or selling a divorce,” or maixiu). The chapter also explains legally acceptable divorce, wife sale by court order, and the legal standing of wife sales involving concubines and slaves.Less

Translator’s Introduction

David M. Robinson

in Seeking Order in a Tumultuous Age: The Writings of Chong Tojon, a Korean Neo-Confucian

The introduction sets out the historical background to Chŏng Tojŏn and his writings. It situates Chŏng in the dramatic changes of East Asia during the fourteenth century, as dynastic changes ... More

The introduction sets out the historical background to Chŏng Tojŏn and his writings. It situates Chŏng in the dramatic changes of East Asia during the fourteenth century, as dynastic changes occurred in both Korea and China in the wake of the Mongol empire’s collapse. Chŏng went from being an ambitious outsider with little power to one of Korea’s influential men, becoming an important political advisor to the founder of the new Chosŏn dynasty. The introduction concludes with brief discussion of Chŏng’s understanding of history, writing, and their relevance to contemporary society and politics.Less

Of Trivial Things: Writing the Self in Late-Ming Literary Culture

Stephen McDowall

in Qian Qianyi's Reflections on Yellow Mountain: Traces of a Late-Ming Hatchet and Chisel

The Jiangnan man-of-letters found himself in a rather troubling and fast-paced place during the last century of the Ming dynasty. The size of public service composed of educated males remained ... More

The Jiangnan man-of-letters found himself in a rather troubling and fast-paced place during the last century of the Ming dynasty. The size of public service composed of educated males remained relatively unchanged despite significant increases in the population and the number of those who held degrees. A candidate was not guaranteed a position in government even after passing imperial examinations, and the textile and salt industries challenged the élite society's boundaries through causing an emergence of a new generation of mercantile families. It is important to note that this chaos and status competition became a source of fascinating scholarship. This chapter looks into how writing offered ways for the élite to portray themselves during the late-Ming dynasty as concern over such matters manifested themselves in trivial literature.Less

Chinese Official Historical Writing under the Ming and Qing

Achim Mittag

in The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400-1800

This chapter deals with historical writing under the Ming and Qing dynasties. Historical writing was traditionally a state-run project, which consisted in the collection and compilation of sources ... More

This chapter deals with historical writing under the Ming and Qing dynasties. Historical writing was traditionally a state-run project, which consisted in the collection and compilation of sources for the production of ‘official histories’. The chapter covers the compilation of the official Yuan history and the veritable records; the formation of state historiography under the Qing and the writing of the history of the official Ming dynasty; gazetteer historiography; and the apogee of official historiography under emperor Qianlong. It also describes the unfolding and profusion of kaozheng (‘evidential research’) scholarship that went beyond personal affiliation with state historiographical institutions.Less

A Father Loses Three Sons to the Army: Everyday Politics In Ming China

Michael Szonyi

in The Art of Being Governed: Everyday Politics in Late Imperial China

This chapter provides a background on the consequences of choices about military mobilization in China's southeast coast under the Ming dynasty from 1368 to 1644. It does not focus on military or ... More

This chapter provides a background on the consequences of choices about military mobilization in China's southeast coast under the Ming dynasty from 1368 to 1644. It does not focus on military or logistical or fiscal consequences but on social consequences of how military institutions shaped the lives of ordinary people. This chapter tells the stories of ordinary Ming families' interaction with state institutions and how this interaction affected other kinds of social relations. It explains how ordinary people in the Ming were able to deal with their obligations to provide manpower to the army and what were the broader consequences of their behaviour. The chapter also shows how people seized opportunities offered by living with the Ming state. Their strategies, practices, and discourses constitute a pattern of political interaction that was not unique to soldiers but was distributed more broadly across Ming society, and was not unique to the Ming but can be identified in other times in Chinese history, and perhaps beyond.Less

Lady of Cypress Chastity: Baijie Furen in the Ming and Qing

Megan Bryson

in Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China

As the Ming dynasty continued and gave way to the Qing, more migrants from the empire’s eastern and central regions made their way to Yunnan. Baijie Furen, the third form of Baijie, emerged as a ... More

As the Ming dynasty continued and gave way to the Qing, more migrants from the empire’s eastern and central regions made their way to Yunnan. Baijie Furen, the third form of Baijie, emerged as a result of this increasing contact between Han outsiders and Dali locals. This chapter argues that Baijie Furen, portrayed in legend as an eighth-century widow martyr, supplanted the earlier forms of Baijie because of her multifaceted identity: for Dali elites, she signified the region’s long history of Confucian virtues, which marked it as civilized; for Ming and Qing elites, her exceptional example proved that imperial civilizing projects could succeed. In both cases Baijie Furen served as a proxy for the Bai people because male elites correlated a population’s civilization with women’s sexual propriety.Less

Little White Sister: Baijie Amei, Dragons, and Kingship in Ming Dali

Megan Bryson

in Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China

This chapter examines Baijie’s next form, Baijie Amei, which developed in the fifteenth century after the Dali kingdom had become part of the Ming dynasty. Baijie Amei’s legend shows how Dali elites ... More

This chapter examines Baijie’s next form, Baijie Amei, which developed in the fifteenth century after the Dali kingdom had become part of the Ming dynasty. Baijie Amei’s legend shows how Dali elites drew on Chinese historiographical conventions in formulating a local Bai ethnic identity. According to her legend, Baijie Amei was born from a giant plum and conceived Duan Siping, founder of the Dali kingdom, after touching a dragon. This story mirrors Chinese tales about great rulers that claim dragon paternity, but diverges from Chinese conventions by giving Baijie Amei her own miraculous birth. Chinese officials accepted that male rulers could have miraculous births, but not that their mothers could, too. Baijie Amei remained a powerful symbol for Bai elites in Dali who claimed direct descent from her and worshiped her as a goddess that linked them to the illustrious Bai lineage of Dali’s independent history.Less

Demonic Warfare During the Ming: The Emperor and His Daoist Warriors

Mark R. E. Meulenbeld

in Demonic Warfare: Daoism, Territorial Networks, and the History of a Ming Novel

This chapter examines demonic warfare during the Ming dynasty by situating Daoist martial rituals within imperial politics. It considers how the liturgical structure of Daoism is implemented on an ... More

This chapter examines demonic warfare during the Ming dynasty by situating Daoist martial rituals within imperial politics. It considers how the liturgical structure of Daoism is implemented on an imperial scale by Daoist experts of Thunder Ritual who do so at the behest of the early Ming emperors such as Zhu Yuanzhang, who seeks to strengthen his martial forces by building the empire on a foundation of local, terrestrial spirits who can be enlisted as demon soldiers. The chapter looks at the Altar for Baleful Spirits (litan), an official institution subsumed under the City God that is designed to incorporate the unruly spirits who roam through the empire after the dynastic wars have ended. It argues that the formation of the pantheon that is deified at the end of Canonization of the Gods can be traced back to this period.Less

Constructing New Reading Publics in Late Ming China

Anne E. McLaren

in Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China

This chapter examines the emergence of new reading publics in China during the late Ming Dynasty. It traces the shifting constructions of readers, authors, and editors; the broadening of reading ... More

This chapter examines the emergence of new reading publics in China during the late Ming Dynasty. It traces the shifting constructions of readers, authors, and editors; the broadening of reading practices during this period; and the emergence of an apologia for vernacular print. The chapter discusses the paradigms underlying notions of readers; authors and reading practices, beginning with the standards set by the Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi; and argues that the expanding lexicon for authoring and reading texts was based on a set of suppositions seeking to legitimize vernacular print. It also describes the editorial practices of Yu Xiangdou, who was perhaps the first to write commentary aimed specifically at readers with low educational and literacy levels.Less

Private Historiography in Late Imperial China

On-cho Ng

in The Oxford History of Historical Writing: Volume 3: 1400-1800

This chapter examines a host of significant authors and their works to shed light on the heretofore under-studied private historiography of late imperial China. It shows that while the Ming and Qing ... More

This chapter examines a host of significant authors and their works to shed light on the heretofore under-studied private historiography of late imperial China. It shows that while the Ming and Qing worlds of private historiography might not have produced major comprehensive historical works, there was no dearth of diversity, creativity, and innovation. The Ming scholars, highly critical of a degenerate official historiography, sought improvement by pursuing private projects. In the Qing, many historians were guided by a discriminating sense of anachronism, as the kaozheng methods pushed them into rigorous interrogations of the past.Less

Between Bureaucrats and Bandits: The Rise of Zheng Zhilong and His Organization, the Zheng Ministry (Zheng Bu)

Cheng-heng Lu

in Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550-1700

This chapter examines the rise of Zheng Zhilong and his organization, the Zheng Ministry (Zheng Bu), using two sources: the Zhongguo Mingchao dang'an zonghui (Compendium of Ming Dynasty Archival ... More

This chapter examines the rise of Zheng Zhilong and his organization, the Zheng Ministry (Zheng Bu), using two sources: the Zhongguo Mingchao dang'an zonghui (Compendium of Ming Dynasty Archival Documents) and the Ming Qing shiliao (Historical Materials of the Ming and Qing). It also considers the writings of contemporaneous members of the gentry who played a role in Zhilong's life in order to determine what distinguished Zhilong from the many pirate-traders active on China's southern coast during the Ming dynasty. Before fully exploring the reasons for Zhilong's rise, the chapter discusses Ming military system, with particular emphasis on the military's reliance on household registers or recruitment of bandits to fill the army ranks. It also looks at the role of the Quanzhou clan network and the competition between Quanzhou and Zhangzhou in Zhilong's rise. Finally, it narrates Zhilong's victories over the pirates Li Kuiqi, Zhong Bin, Zhong Lingxiu, and Liu Xiang and his surrender to the Manchus in Beijing.Less

Public Affairs

in The Crafting of the 10,000 Things: Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-Century China

This chapter covers the changing social and political landscape of craft professions and scholarly activity in the Ming dynasty. It describes the contemporary documentation of craft manufacture that ... More

This chapter covers the changing social and political landscape of craft professions and scholarly activity in the Ming dynasty. It describes the contemporary documentation of craft manufacture that supplements the view of Song Yingxing's ideas about craftwork. The early Ming dynastic promotion of craft production, changes in agricultural methods, and increased population pressure resulted in urbanization. Song mentioned in Works of Heaven that merchants connected North and South and considered regions far in the west part of their trade territory. He concluded that education played a dominant role in societal accomplishment. He also believed that intelligence and all kinds of talents could be enhanced by training whether one was a scholar or a farmer. It then highlighted Song's appreciation of craft experience in Works of Heaven and his concern about appropriate training. Song approached crafts as a way to qualify himself and his social status as a scholar.Less

A Time of Great Change: Sha Po during the Ming–Colonial Era

Mick Atha and Kennis Yip

in Piecing Together Sha Po: Archaeological Investigations and Landscape Reconstruction

The final chronological discussion in Chapter 7 addresses the Ming and Qing dynasties, which at Sha Po could not be more different in that the former is virtually absent, whereas archaeological ... More

The final chronological discussion in Chapter 7 addresses the Ming and Qing dynasties, which at Sha Po could not be more different in that the former is virtually absent, whereas archaeological remains from the latter period are abundant and provide fascinating insights into the lives of local people. Moreover, those material remains can also be interpreted with reference to a particularly rich historical and anthropological resource resulting from documentary research and interviews with village elders between the 1950s and 1980s. Recent historical research is a rapidly expanding field in archaeology, but sadly neglected in Hong Kong, and this chapter attempts to highlight its potential for the creation of more humanistic narratives and detailed interpretations than are possible in earlier periods.Less