Myth and the construction of foreign ethnic identity in early and medieval China

Zhang Yinlin’s motivation for writing Early China was similar to that shared by most other writers of general histories during these years, patriotism and a concern for the fate of the Chinese nation and its peoples. While closely involved in the transformation of Chinese historical thought and writing in early 20th century China, Zhang Yinlin stood aside from the mainstream of developments and was not closely aligned to any particular school. One of the reviewers of Early China argued that what non-specialist readers wanted in a history of this kind was a story, China’s story, based on real events but told in a manner that would provide for readers a sympathetic engagement with what was known of early Chinese history. This was exactly what Zhang had tried to achieve, a lively, interesting and engaging account of Chinese history that people would want to read. Keywords: Chinese historical thought; Chinese nation; Early China ; general histories; patriotism; Zhang Yinlin

Reviewed by: Military Culture in Imperial China Peter Worthing Military Culture in Imperial China. Edited by Nicola Di Cosmo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009. 456 pp. $45.00 (cloth). Like many edited volumes, this book has its origins in an academic conference. In 2001 a group of scholars specializing in Chinese military [End Page 500] history convened at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, and offered their views on the topic "Military Culture in Chinese History." The conference produced papers dealing with many aspects of Chinese military culture, fourteen of which appear as chapters in this book. In his introduction, Nicola Di Cosmo provides a multifaceted definition of "military culture," which can include the system of conduct and behavior that regulated the actions of members of the military, the cultural forces that shaped strategic decision making of both civil and military elites, the values and traditions that determined a society's willingness to engage in war, and the presence of a literary or aesthetic tradition that deals with military events and personalities. In short, the essays, which range chronologically from the Zhou to the Qing, explore the manner in which the wu (military) has influenced the wen (civil) in Chinese history, and vice versa. The efforts of the editor and the contributors are successful for multiple reasons. First, several of the chapters shed important light on the issue of Chinese military history and culture, in particular by breaking down traditional barriers between the cultures of China's civil and military elites. Second, each author carefully links his or her research to the editor's introduction and the major themes of the work. This reflects an excellent job of editing and lends this collection of essays a coherence and continuity that is sometimes lacking in edited volumes. Third, while some regard the study of military history as an archaic tradition dominated by a "swords and saddles" approach, this volume reveals the broad research agendas of the contributors, whose studies of China's military tradition touch on literature, economics, politics, foreign relations, religion, and the law. A few examples will suffice to demonstrate the skillful and diverse manner in which the authors explore these definitions of military culture. In his chapter "Law and the Military in Early China," Robin D. S. Yates examines the close connection between the military and the development of civil law in China. Indeed, military officials typically meted out punishment to civilian transgressors as the military doubled as a police force. Dating back to the Warring States era, intellectuals and officials borrowed methods designed to promote military discipline and order among the increasingly large military units of the time and applied them to the growing populations of their states. The Legalists who built the powerful Qin state, which would unify China in 221 b.c., borrowed heavily from the military when devising methods to control the population at large. Well-known systems of collective responsibility and mutual protection, such as Lianzuo and Baojia, had their origins in military law. A period of important change on many fronts, [End Page 501] the Warring States era saw the expansion of military law into the realm of the administrative law of civil officials. Yates sees strong continuity throughout imperial China, with military law deeply embedded in civil law all the way through the Qing. David A. Graff's contribution, "Narrative Maneuvers: The Representation of Battle in Tang Historical Writing," takes a different approach by analyzing Tang dynasty texts in order to understand the attitudes of the men who wrote these histories. Sifting through battle descriptions from a variety of literary sources, Graff determines that the authors of these works, Confucian scholars with no military experience, showed scant interest in tactics, weapons, formations, or the experiences of the soldiers. Instead, they extolled the intelligence of the victorious commanders and attributed their success to cunning, craftiness, and ability to outsmart the enemy. According to Graff, the pervasive emphasis in Tang sources on the intellectual capabilities of the commander, rather than the technical details of combat, reflects in part the weight of literary tradition in China, but also the Confucian preference for the intellectual and abstract over the specialized skills of...

Book Reviews 143 Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China ROEL STERCKX. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. vi, 235 pages. ISBN 978-1-107-00171-8. £55.00, US$90.00, hardcover. Roel Sterckx’s new book is a welcome addition to the growing volume of publications on early Chinese history. Sterckx explores aspects of food culture in early China, primarily— albeit not exclusively—in the context of sacrificial activities; this focus allows him to address manifold issues concerning the philosophy of sacrifices, conceptualization of human senses, and early Chinese economic history and political thought. This rich and well written book will become indispensable to everybody interested in China’s food culture, in early Chinese religious history, and also to many students of early Chinese philosophy. References to food and food-related metaphors are ubiquitous in early Chinese texts, and this very richness of sources may have impeded systematic research on these topics in the past. In facing this challenging task, Sterckx relies on his awesome erudition, which was fully visible already in his first magnum opus, The Animal and the Daemon in Early China.1 In Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood Sterckx utilizes, even if inevitably briefly, most of the received texts from the Springs-and-Autumns (770–453 BCE), Warring States (453–221 BCE), and the Han (206 BCE–220 CE) periods; these, in addition to occasional references to the paleographic sources and to archeological discoveries, allow Sterckx to present a panoptic view of Chinese sacrificial culture. The scope of the book is impressive both in terms of the periods covered (Sterckx expands his discussion at times both backwards, to the Western Zhou period [ca. 1045–771 BCE], and forwards, toward the post-Han sources) and in terms of topics covered, which include food habits of the elite, food as philosophical and political metaphor, nature of the human interaction with the deities, the economics of sacrifice, and aspects of sagehood and of rulership in pre-imperial and early imperial China. While not all of these topics are covered with equal density, and while the discussion on many issues may require further fine-tuning and modifications, overall the position of the Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood as a standard for any future exploration in the field seems to me undeniable. The quasi-encyclopedic nature of the Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood allows a reader to select a chapter close to his/her field of interest and read it as a separate essay; yet it is also possible to discern a few common ideas that underlie Sterckx’s discussions. Among these, the most interesting to the present reviewer is the author’s emphasis on multiple tensions that accompanied almost any imaginable aspect of food and sacrificial culture. Food and drinks were the source of nourishment and high joy, but also potentially of self-destructive overindulgence; deities had to be fed much like the humans, but the most exquisite offering was, paradoxically, the tasteless stew; sacrifices were essential for the community well-being, 1 Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2002. 144 Journal of Chinese Religions but also potentially damaging due to the waste of resources; and, while the sage rulers were supposed to be all-hearing and clairvoyant (congming 聪明), their ears and eyes had to be covered to prevent direct contact between their senses and their environment. By highlighting these tensions, Sterckx adds another dimension to our understanding of the deeply contradictory nature of China’s sacrificial, and, more broadly ritual culture with its embedded tension between the ritual and reality, between the image of perfect order generated through elaborate ceremonies and the imperfect sociopolitical situation; between persistent appeal to divine support and a somewhat equivocal belief in its efficacy. Speaking of tensions, one may identify some of them in the book itself. Perhaps the most significant one is between Sterckx-anthropologist and Sterckx-historian. The first tends to depict Chinese food consumption and sacrificial practices as if they were uniform throughout the six to ten centuries under discussion, perpetuating, inadvertently, the long bygone image of changeless China. The author frankly explains why he eschews chronological treatment of the topics under discussion: given the notoriously unreliable dating of major texts, most notably of ritual compendia...

In Text and Ritual in Early China, leading scholars of ancient Chinese history, literature, religion, and archaeology consider the presence and use of texts in religious and political ritual. Through balanced attention to both the received literary tradition and the wide range of recently excavated artefacts, manuscripts, and inscriptions, their combined efforts reveal the rich and multilayered interplay of textual composition and ritual performance. Drawn across disciplinary boundaries, the resulting picture illuminates two of the defining features of early Chinese culture and advances new insights into their sumptuous complexity. Beginning with a substantial introduction to the conceptual and thematic issues explored in succeeding chapters, Text and Ritual in Early China is anchored by essays on early Chinese cultural history and ritual display (Michael Nylan) and the nature of its textuality (William G. Boltz). This twofold approach sets the stage for studies of the E Jun Qi metal tallies (Lothar von Falkenhausen), the Gongyang commentary to The Spring and Autumn Annals (Joachim Gentz), the early history of The Book of Odes (Martin Kern), moral remonstration in historiography (David Schaberg), the Liming manuscript text unearthed at Mawangdui (Mark Csikszentmihalyi), and Eastern Han commemorative stele inscriptions (K. E. Brashier). The scholarly originality of these essays rests firmly on their authors' control over ancient sources, newly excavated materials, and modern scholarship across all major Sinological languages. The extensive bibliography is in itself a valuable and reliable reference resource. This important work will be required reading for scholars of Chinese history, language, literature, philosophy, religion, art history, and archaeology.

At the juncture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, a certain amount of Western learning had spread through the upper levels of Chinese society and some slight changes had taken place in the ideological concepts of a small number of scholar-officials. An ideological tendency to criticize autocratic monarchical power and patriarchal ethics had emerged in the final years of the Ming Dynasty in response to the accumulated malpractices and abuses by the centralized state power of monarchical despotism, and hints of gradual change had appeared within the traditional culture during the Qing Dynasty. In the final analysis, however, limitations in social conditions had prevented these changes from posing any fundamental challenges to tradition. The outbreak of the Opium Wars and the consequences of those wars profoundly shook China’s traditional society and traditional culture. The Chinese had come up against foreign peoples whom they had never seen before and who were radically different from themselves, and Chinese culture encountered alien cultures which posed challenges that China was as yet unable to deal with. Yet the “Heavenly Kingdom” complex and the overweening mentality nurtured over thousands of years prevented the Chinese from correctly understanding the Westerners and their mental, social, and political characteristics. Over an extended period of time, therefore, the Chinese were unable either to adjust their relationships with foreign countries and peoples in general and the relationship between Chinese and Western culture in particular, or to resolve issues of the modern transformation of Chinese culture. Below, we present some brief discussions corresponding by and large to phases in history on the evolution of the Chinese people’s ideological and cultural state of mind and their cultural mentality in the period from the Opium Wars to the Westernization Movement (1840–1894).KeywordsForeign AffairQing DynastyWestern LearningMissionary SchoolImperial ExaminationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Diaspora 6:1 1997 g Ancient Greek Ethnicity David Konstan Brown University Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity. Jonathan M. Hall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. As the first full-length modern study of ethnicity in the culture that gave us the word, Jonathan Hall's book is an event in classical scholarship. Hall has brought to the task a profound knowledge of the ancient Greek world: he is equally conversant with the literary and archaeological sources, which is rare among classical historians, and thoroughly informed, as well, about the technical specialty of Greek linguistics, which is indispensable to the analysis of the role of language in the construction of ethnic identity. Hall is also up-todate on modern approaches to ethnicity, and, in a fine introductory chapter, he reviews attitudes toward Greek ethnicity within Classics over the past couple of centuries—since the founding, that is, of the modern discipline of classical philology. Hall writes clearly, and has done what he can to make the argument accessible to non-specialists: he translates all Greek words and passages, provides thumbnail summaries of historical or geographical information , and summarizes the current state of the question in respect to the major topics he addresses. Nevertheless, the detailed investigation of obscure and complex Greek genealogies, involving multiple variants and unfamiliar names, or of the differences among the several dialects ofancient Greek and how they may have evolved, will be hard going for the reader who is not moderately conversant with the materials, or at least interested enough to peruse the book with dictionary and encyclopedia in hand. Accordingly , in this review I shall recapitulate the central themes of Hall's book (without, ofcourse, reproducing the meticulous documentation and careful argumentation that make the book so valuable) while simultaneously calling attention to those aspects of Hall's approach that seem to me to be problematic, or at all events debatable. As Hall observes in his Introduction, the second World War was a watershed in ethnic studies. The vicious consequences of Nazi racism discouraged essentialist interpretations of race, and ethnic groups came to be defined as social rather than as biological Diaspora 6:1 1997 entities; their coherence was variously attributed to shared myths of descent or kinship, a common territory or at least place of origin, as well as other common traits such as language, religion, customs, and national character. So conceived, ethnic groups are mutable rather than stable, constructed in discursive practices rather than written in the genes. "If the construction of ethnic identity is considered to be primarily discursive, then it is literary evidence that should represent our first point of departure" (2). Accordingly, Hall devotes two long chapters (the third and fourth) to myths of ethnic origin, which in the Greek tradition took the form of elaborate genealogies. This move is telling for Hall's understanding of ethnicity, which privileges the role of kinship. Genealogies are discursive in the sense that they are articulated in language, while other traits such as common style of burial or pottery are not, or need not be. Archaeology has recovered evidence of material practices, or what is sometimes called material culture, in classical sites; linguists observe dialectal variations in the Greek recorded on inscriptions and in certain manuscripts, and reconstruct the evolution of the spoken language in distinct zones such as northwestern Greece or the Péloponnèse. Nevertheless, these differentiae do not constitute, for Hall, markers of ethnic identity on the same level as kinship and descent. Borrowing terminology introduced by D. Horowitz in an article included in Nathan Glazer and Daniel Moynihan's influential collection, Ethnicity: Theory and Experience (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975), Hall distinguishes between criteria of ethnicity, which are "the definitional set of attributes by which membership in an ethnic group is ultimately determined" (20), and indicia, which "are the operational set of distinguishing attributes which people tend to associate with particular ethnic groups once the criteria have been established" (21). According to Hall, a genealogical connection qualifies as a criterion, while physical characteristics such as skin color, or cultural attributes, like language and religion, are merely indicia, that is, contingent properties which are subject to change and do not enter...

Despite a rich body of literature on the role of ethnic religion in immigrant communities, there has been relatively little attention paid to the role and impact of ethnic religion on the second generation. This is due partly to the earlier dominance of the assimilationist paradigm, which, based mostly on the experiences of the “old” turn-of-the-century European immigrant groups, tended to postulate a second-generation rejection of religion and ethnicity. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Korean-American Christians in Chicago, this study seeks to reexamine the role of ethnic religion for the second generation in the context of a contemporary non-white ethnic group. Contrary to earlier views, findings from Korean-American church-goers suggest that when an ethnic group is faced with a strong sense of social marginalization believed to arise from its racial status, the ethnic church can play a dominant role in the group's quest for identity and sense of belonging. This paper shows the ways in which the Korean ethnic church, more specifically the evangelical Protestant church, plays a role in the construction and maintenance of second-generation Korean ethnic identity and boundary. Serving as a primary site of the cultural reproduction of the second generation, the Korean ethnic church supports the development of the group's defensive and often highly exclusive ethnic identity in two key ways; first, through a general institutional transmission of Korean culture and second, by the way a set of core traditional Korean values are legitimized and sacralized through their identification with conservative Christian morality and worldview. In demonstrating how ethnic religion can remain highly salient for the second generation under certain situational contexts, this study illuminates the need to rethink the previous views regarding ethnic religion and the second generation, as well as the nature of second-generation ethnicity.

One of the complex issues in Balochistan is the autonomy movement that concerns historical grievances, and social and political phenomena bringing state institutions forefront while contesting Baloch identity. This study aims to present some basics of Baloch identity and its conflict with the state, also considering it as a contribution to academic categories of political anthropology; ethnic politics and identity construction in the Pakistani context. This study delves into the complex realm of ethnic politics and identity formation in Pakistan, examining Balochistan – a distinct marginal province. Developing an in-depth analysis of the historical climate, dynamics within that time and state institutions this research uses political anthropology to understand not only Baloch ethnic identity but also autonomy against Pakistan.

During the Spring and Autumn Period (722–482 BC) some foreign actors took part in political affairs on Chinese plains. According to the classical texts of Zuozhuan, Gongyang and Guliang, the Yi, Di and Rong people living in the north and western parts of “Central Plain” interacted intensively with the other states that belonged to the etiquettes of Zhou Palace. On the other hand it is commonly assumed that the political discourse of the period had an intension to keep the foreign peoples out of the established relationships of Zhou states. By labeling them as unruly and uncivilized, it is also shown that texts maintained a derogative approach towards them. And in Gongyang text we even see a warning repeatedly states “the Middle Kingdom cannot be left to the foreigners’ hands.” But a closer look into the Zhou states’ political relations with the foreigners reveals many aspects of similar interaction within the Zhou states also occurred in their relations with foreign peoples. According to the texts, these foreign people mentioned with the names of Yi, Di and Rong made treaties and alliances, engaged in political marriage, sent envoys and managed territory. In the end of the Zhou period the Sedantary Empire of Xiongnu emerged, a cultural and political heritage was left to them.

This book is a study of the production and use of iron and steel in China up to the second century B.C., and simultaneously a methodological study of the reconciliation of archaeological and written sources in Chinese cultural history. An introductory chapter describes and discusses the available sources and their use, gives a brief outline of early Chinese archaeology and history, and develops certain important themes, especially the interaction of North and South in early China. Further chapters consider the invention of iron in a barbarian culture of southeast China, its spread to the area of Chinese culture, and the development of a large-scale iron industry in the third century B.C. The technology of iron production in early China is considered in two chapters, on the microstructures of wrought and cast iron artifacts.

This study examines the ways in which a group of women of Asian origin or descent define and discuss aspects of ethnicity and ethnic identity. Thirty-two Asian women of different religious and cultural backgrounds who were bringing up young children in East London were interviewed by an Asian psychologist. As part of a more extensive interview about childbirth, child care and child rearing, women were asked about their ethnic identity. Their accounts indicate that their constructions of ethnicity and ethnic identity are fluid and changing, taking account of gender, developmental changes associated with motherhood and the context of their lives as mothers of young children. Analysis of their accounts is used to argue that ethnicity and ethnic identity are not homogeneous categories, that they operate across gender and, therefore, greater consideration needs to be given in developmental psychology to the complexity and variations in women's representations of ethnicity.

Configuring ethnic identities: resistance as a response to counter- terrorist policy

'Early China' refers to the period from the beginning of human history in China to the end of the Han Dynasty in AD 220. The roots of modern Chinese society and culture are all to be found in this formative period of Chinese civilization. Li Feng's new critical interpretation draws on the most recent scholarship and archaeological discoveries from the past thirty years. This fluent and engaging overview of early Chinese civilization explores key topics including the origins of the written language, the rise of the state, the Shang and Zhou religions, bureaucracy, law and governance, the evolving nature of war, the creation of empire, the changing image of art, and the philosophical search for social order. Beautifully illustrated with a wide range of new images, this book is essential reading for all those wanting to know more about the foundations of Chinese history and civilization.

The Reformation era in Indonesia has resulted in changes in local politics, particularly in relation to ethnic-based groups or adat politics. However, previous studies that have focused on the rise of adat or tradition in local politics have paid limited attention to the dynamics of cultural expression and representation. This article aims to shed light on the reconstruction of ethnic identity among the Belunguh people in Lampung within multiethnic society. To achieve this, an ethnographic inquiry was conducted with the Belunguh people of the Lampung Sai Batin sub-ethnic group, specifically exploring their marriage patterns and rituals. The data collection methods consisted of interview, focus group discussions (FGD), and observation involving twelve informants from traditional leaders (penyimbang adat). The findings of the study highlight the significance of marriage systems and rituals in the construction of Belunguh ethnic identity. While intra-ethnic relations are shaped by marriage practices and rituals of semanda and metudau, the practice of tekhang emerges to facilitate inter-ethnic marriages, particularly with the Javanese. The Belunguh people strive to enhance their awareness of identity by modifying marriage rituals, which reflect their social status, hierarchy, and cultural adaptation in a multiethnic society.

Aims and Objectives: This research sets out to explore the discourse strategies enacted by Algerian Chaoui parents to promote their children’s bilingual use in a context wherein Chaouia is underrepresented and socially stigmatized. In addition, it seeks to explore how participants draw on their bilingual repertoires to navigate their ethnic affiliations and negotiate code choices as they engage in day-to-day interactions. Design/Methodology: To address this issue, an ethnographic study was carried out on one One-Parent-One-Language (OPOL) Chaoui family that resides in Biskra city, Algeria. Data and Analysis: The fieldwork observations were combined with recordings and parental diaries to gather social and linguistic data about the family under investigation. Findings: The research findings demonstrated that both parents enact diverse language strategies that represent distinct, yet interrelated, dimensions of parental support. The family language management echoes parents’ orientation toward bilingual centered family language policy. The results also demonstrated the inextricable connection between the enactment of specific discourse strategies, promotion (or hindrance) of bilingual use, and ethnic identity construction. Drawing on various linguistic resources, parents create a creative home environment to encourage their child to freely practice his skills in Chaouia and colloquial Arabic in flexible ways. Originality: One of the chief areas in which this ethnographic research differs from other previous studies is its focus on the role of majority language-speaking parents in minority language use. Also, this study brings to light the role of hybrid language practices in bilingual use and ethnic identity (re)construction in an unexplored context which has been under-researched in family language policy (FLP) literature. Implications: The study suggests that OPOL families employ diverse language strategies for purely pragmatic considerations—that is, the need to maintain a full cross-generational transfer of the socially stigmatized and educationally unsupported heritage language, while concurrently supporting their children’s bilingual development.