Zhang Yinlin’s early China

This chapter addresses the wide array of contributions to the intellectual discourse on international law in early 20th century China. The early contributions to this discourse were generally affirmative to the prospects of applying the structural principles of international law to bolster a Chinese application for membership in the international family of nations. China de facto entered the procedures of international law with the early trade treaties or with the rejection of trade only to be conducted within the tribute system. It seems that the East Asian world order had become too narrow also for a Chinese world orientation. The intellectual orientation of Chinese inter-state relations was indisputably changed in the early 20th century, and international law is to be found at the core of that orientation.Keywords: Chinese inter-state relations; early 20th century China; intellectual discourse; international law; world order

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.

This article endeavors to provide an overview on contemporary Chinese philosophy. The focus is on contemporary Chinese philosophy in the Chinese-speaking world, particularly after the 1950s, although contemporary Chinese philosophy both in its inception in early 20th century China and in the English-speaking world are also explored. In addition to designating separate genres of contemporary Chinese philosophical interpretation and construction, including some of the major issues under discussion and debate as well as giving attention to several representative scholars, this article also teases out the historical contexts in which those issues emerged and developed, and it highlights the salient feature of contemporary Chinese philosophy in general.

Contents: Introduction. From Ming to Qing (ca 1600-1800): A few good men: the Li family and China's northern frontier in the late Ming, Kenneth M. Swope To nourish a strong military: Kangxi's preferential treatment of his military officials, Yingcong Dai Military mobilization in 17th- and 18th-century China, Russia and Mongolia, Peter C. Perdue Commemorating war in 18th-century China, Joanna Waley-Cohen. Imperial Decline and Fall (ca 1800-1911): Naval warfare and the refraction of China's self-strengthening reforms into scientific and technological failure 1865-1895, Benjamin A. Elman Testing the self-strengthening: the Chinese army in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895, Allen Fung Militia and local militarization in late Qing and early republican China: the case of Hunan, Edward A. McCord. The warlord Era and the Nationalist Decade, 1911-1937: The military in the republic, Hans van de Ven Civil war and the emergence of warlordism in early 20th-century China, Edward A. McCord War and the rise of nationalism in 20th-century China, Arthur Waldron. War of Resistance Against Japan and Civil War, 1937-1949: The tragedy of Wuhan, 1938, Stephan MacKinnon The battle of the hundred regiments: problems of coordination and control during the Sino-Japanese war, Lyman P. van Slyke Community defence and the Chinese communist revolution: Henan's Du Eight neighbourhood pact, Odoric Y.K. Wou Guerrilla, mobile and base warfare in communist military operations in Manchuria, 1945-1947, Harold M. Tanner. Post-1949 China: Transplanting the Chinese model: Chinese military advisers and the first Vietnam war, 1950-1954, Qiang Zhai The Vietnam War, 1964-1969: a Chinese perspective, Xiaoming Zhang Old ghosts, new memories: China's changing war history in the era of post-Mao politics, Rana Mitter Name index.

Buddhism and historicity in early 20th century China. Ouyang Jingwu, Taixu and the problem of modernity

Early Chinese histories sometimes record two extremely different myths about the origins of a foreign people: a native version and a Sinicised version. This is the case with myths about the Xiongnu, Xianbei and Korean peoples. Native and Sinicised origin myths had different functions. Sometimes, Chinese wanted to create psychological distance between themselves and potentially dangerous foreign peoples. Recounting a native myth bolstered Chinese ethnic pride by making other peoples seem strange and exotic, in contrast to normative Chinese culture. In other instances, Chinese told Sinicised myths to assimilate foreign peoples into Chinese culture. These myths legitimised Chinese expansion and conquest, but could also be used against China by foreign invaders. The coexistence of native and Sinicised versions of ethnic origin myths in early historical records shows the mutability of ethnicity in early China, and the manipulation of ethnic identity for political and military ends.

The last decade of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and Republican period (1912-1949) saw intensive efforts to revise the Qing Code, promulgate modern legal codes based on Japanese and German law, establish a modern system of courts, and develop a professional corps of lawyers and jurists (Huang 2001; Xu 2001; Yeung 2003; Young 2004; Neighbors 2004). These institutional reforms were implemented as part of the drive to have extraterritoriality rescinded and safeguard the sovereignty of the Qing dynasty and then Republic of China. The reforms were accompanied by new categories within civil and criminal law (including a new conceptual distinction between the two), new conceptions of legal knowledge and expertise, and rich discussions over sources of law which took place within the legal realm as well as the readership of Republican newspapers and journals (Young 2004; Lean 2007). If, as Roger Berkowitz (2005, 1) writes in his study of scientific codification in continental Europe, “in a legal system, there must be some way that the law comes to be known,” how did ways of knowing law change during this period of legal reform and broader intellectual change? Through a survey of jurisprudence textbooks and other legal publications, this paper argues that writers in early 20th-century China came to define jurisprudence (faxue, falixue) in positivistic terms, ultimately using new conceptions of science (kexue) and social science (shehui kexue) to identify its place within a new ordering of modern knowledge.

This essay attempts to critically analyze the overall impact of colonialism on 19th and early 20th century China. Analysis has been done primarily in the context of modernization theory and world-systems theory in order to get the contrasting views at two extreme levels. In addition, the liberal market approach has also been used to balance the two extremes. It has been noted that several positive influences of colonialism on the Chinese economy and society remained limited within a small area only. Contrarily, the most devastating impact of colonialism had been on the Qing state. The forceful imperialist invasion dealt a major blow to its overall capacity to lead China as a united nation towards prosperity. In summary, this essay argues in favor of an overarching negative impact of colonialism on China.

Relying on the theory of institutional entrepreneurship and Seo and Creed model of human praxis, this article delivers insights on how three institutional entrepreneurs, Xie, Xu, and Pan, mobilised resources (e.g. political position, education, and social connections) to organise an emerging profession and change the way accounting was practised in early 20th century China. Despite tensions among the three institutional entrepreneurs, their collective contribution moved accounting practice to a new level of sophistication to help facilitate economic reform and business development in China. This study illustrates how the accounting entrepreneurs relied on their beliefs to strive for accounting reform and adapt accounting practice to the demands of a changing institutional environment within economic reform. This research enhances knowledge on an important period of accounting history in China, considered to be the beginning of modern accounting development, as well as adding knowledge on accounting development from a human praxis perspective.

Bo-he Yeh's ＂Zhongguo yin yue shi＂ is, as its title suggests, the first general history of Chinese music. It was published in two parts. The first part was published by the author in 1922. The second part, published in 1929, appeared in ＂The Sichuan Daily Supplement＂. Even though it was the first documented history of Chinese music, this book was soon forgotten; it literally disappeared in the literature of Chinese music history until its republication in 1992. Despite its simple, brief discussion of Chinese music history, ＂Zhongguo yin yue shi＂ served as a pioneer of the writing of music history in Chinese culture. Yeh based the methodology inherent in the writing of Western music history to introduce Chinese music history. Therefore, this work reflects a collision between historical musicology in Western music tradition and traditional Chinese music, a collision that took place in the early 20th century. Based on the perspectives of historical musicology in Western culture and comparative musicology (later known as ethnomusicology), as well as the manner of research and analysis in historical musicology, Yeh re-constructed the history of traditional Chinese music. From numerous historical documents, which he used as his reference sources, Yeh searched for the elements representing ＂music in itself＂ in order to re-define the history of Chinese music. In this essay, I use ＂Zhongguo yin yue shi＂ as my major source and complement my discussion of this source with the historical context of early 20th-century China and Yeh's biography. I aim to re-evaluate this work, showing its significance in the context of the development of Chinese music history in the early 20th century.

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.

The Chinese term ‘ gong-yi’ (公益), which is usually translated as ‘philanthropy’ or ‘public interest’ in English, has long been regarded as a new modern concept which originated from Japan in the early 20th century. This study, however, finds that it appeared in China no later than the middle of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, its usage had three major meanings: economic benefits; national interests; and local public affairs. The ‘national interest’ meaning of the term was most likely introduced into Japan and was brought back into China in the late 19th century along with the new thinking of the Meiji Restoration. ‘ Gong-yi’, with its newly coined meaning, was used as an ideological term to express ideas about reformation in early 20th century China. It was in this capacity that the Chinese ‘ gong-yi’ was swiftly popularized and often referred to the reformation as national interest. At the same time, the denotation of ‘ gong-yi’ was sometimes ambiguous, wavering between ‘the nation’ and ‘the local’. It reflected the volatile conflict between the state and the local over legitimate control of ‘public’ resources in a transitional period. In my view, the question of to what extent this interlock between the emergence of modern ‘ gong-yi’ and the nation’s modern transition might have shaped the historical formation of Chinese citizenship yields insights for the investigation of the nature of Chinese philanthropy and its essence in the public spirit.

The Concept of Silhak in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Korea, China, and Japan

This article attempts to answer the question of "love" and why it has been prohibited from entering the public sphere in Chinese history. This article takes the "Love Letter Incident" as a case study and uses the process tracking method to analyze the love letter incident between Du Chengshu (杜成淑) and Qu Jiang (屈疆). In this event, various social groups interacted on this matter, so this article horizontally compared the thinking and self-expression of young men and women in the face of love issues and vertically explored the premature and delayed disclosure of love issues under the trend of gender equality in China since the early 20th century. Examining and evaluating love issues by various parties in the public sphere is necessary for private love writing to move toward the public sphere. Through various evaluations of love letters, the issue of love has entered the public sphere. However, in China at the beginning of the 20th century, the issue of love still faced scrutiny from traditional Chinese gender morality and morality, making it difficult for love issues to be made public. This article finds that in early 20th-century China. The concept of "gender equality" accompanied by China's modernization movement (May Fourth Movement) was valued by society, and the morality of "gender equality" has never been established. However, Chinese society still maintains an unfriendly attitude towards women, and the perception of gender inequality is still considered normal.