Emperor Ch Research Articles

Bathtub philology: Ezra Pound’s annotative realism

Ezra Pound’s call to ‘Make It New’ spoke a sense of compositional immediacy to his literary contemporaries by way of an ancient motto: the inscription the ancient Shang Dynasty Emperor Ch’eng T’ang (1766–1753 BCE) made on the side of his bathtub and immortalised more than a thousand years later in the Confucian Da Xue (The Great Learning): 薪 日 日 薪 (xin ri ri xin). This is a timely phrase: Modernism Studies, like many areas of literary work, faces extraordinary challenges and opportunities in the digital shift taking place at the levels of textual studies, literary interpretation and literary theory. Pound’s call for a cultural rinascimento demands not only that writers learn from the fullest range of venerable sources and traditions in the course of literary experimentation, but also that their readers sharpen an awareness as to how material forms of inscription directly shape the identity and meaning of texts. This challenge cuts across recent work in textual and manuscript studies, particularly in the representation of complex Modernist texts and their manuscripts (for example the Samuel Beckett Digital Manuscript Project).

Painter is of the Humbler's

Since T'ang (_??_) period, painting was regarded as a humble job in China. It is said that people would despise Yen Li-pên, (_??__??__??_) a higher government official, by calling him a painter. In Ming (_??_) period there were too many examples like this to enumerate.However, inTung-t'ing-ching-chi (_??__??__??__??__??_)which is considered to be written in late Southern Sung (_??__??_). there is a descripition such as“if you read many books, go through long distance, learn from great works of the former ages and produce a picture, painting is no longer a humble job.” This is from Shuofu (_??__??_) which was compiled in late Ming (_??_) period presuably to support as theory by Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (_??__??__??_) who would esteem Southern tsung paintings and despise Nothern tsung paintings. That is probably the reason why the article of Tung-t'ien-ching-chi was not compiled in Ssu-k'u Ch'üan-shu (_??__??__??__??_) by the Emperor Ch'ien Lung (_??__??_).

China’s Management: Tradition and Reform

In the person of Emperor Ch’in Shihuang China had one of the greatest managers of all time. In spite of its history, however, today China is in serious need of management reform. The article highlights communication and co‐ordination problems in Chinese service organisations. The present Chinese government is encouraging growth in education; through expansion of education the latest developments in management and other technologies will be extended to China.

Wu San-kuei in 1644: A Reappraisal

This essay is an attempt to reassess the role played by Wu San-kuei during the crucial year of 1644.1 Traditionally ignored by historians or relegated to a minor role, the conventional wisdom has instead preserved the following now well established account of Wu's place in the Manchu conquest of China. When the rebel Li Tzu-ch'eng was marching eastward and advancing toward Peking, Emperor Ch'ung chen finally realized the danger of the threat. In early April he conferred upon Wu San-kuei and other able generals the title of earl; Wu was designated P'ing-hsi po (Earl who Pacified the West). The emperor further ordered Wu both to abandon the land east of the Shan-hai pass and to move the troops back to Peking to meet the threat posed by Li's advance toward Peking. Nevertheless, Wu temporarily ignored the order and delayed his march. When his troops eventually marched halfway to Feng-jun, on the 26th of April, Peking had already fallen into the hands of the rebels. Consequently, he marched back to the Shan-hai-kuan, a vital strategic town located at a pass at the east end of the Great Wall, to contemplate the next move. Meanwhile, Li Tzu-ch'eng sent a delegate to demand Wu's surrender, holding his father, the retired commander Wu Hsiang, as hostage. Wu considered complying with the demand but changed his mind upon learning that his favorite concubine, Ch'en Yuan-yuan, had also been seized. Outraged, he surrendered to the Manchus and invited them to suppress the rebellion.

A Tentative Treatise on the Buddhist Philosophical Thought of Hui-Yüan

Hui-yüan was born in Tai hsien of Shansi Province in A. D. 334 (the ninth year of the Hsien-ho reign of Emperor Ch'eng of the Eastern Chin) and died in A. D. 416 (the twelfth year of the I-hsi reign of Emperor An of the Eastern Chin). (1)

The Chinese Attitude towards External Relations

The traditional Chinese attitude towards non-Chinese can clearly be seen in operation at the time of Lord Macartney's embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung in 1793. Briefly stated, any relations which existed between China and a foreign country must be of the suzerain-vassal kind, and permission to trade was granted as a gracious concession, not as a natural right. The origins of this theory go back into the distant past.1 From earliest times China had been surrounded by barbarian peoples whose culture was clearly inferior. At no time did the Chinese come into direct contact with an equal civilization; countries on China's flanks such as Korea, Japan, Annam and Siam were strongly influenced by the culture of the Kingdom. From their previous contact with the barbarians around them the Chinese were conscious that their own superiority was not one merely of material power but of culture as well. So outstanding was the culture of the Middle Kingdom that the barbarians in contact with China turned towards her for

An Embassy to China: Being the Journal Kept by Lord Macartney during His Embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-Lung, 1793-1794. J. L. Cranmer-Byng

<i>An Embassy to China: Being the Journal Kept by Lord Macartney during His Embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-Lung, 1793-1794</i>. J. L. Cranmer-Byng

An Embassy to China; being the Journal Kept by Lord Macartney During his Embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung, 1793–1794. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by J. L. Cranmer-Byng. Hamden, Connecticut: Anchor Books, 1963. xvi, 421. Index. $7.50.

An Embassy to China; being the Journal Kept by Lord Macartney During his Embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung, 1793–1794. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by J. L. Cranmer-Byng. Hamden, Connecticut: Anchor Books, 1963. xvi, 421. Index. $7.50.

An Embassy to China, being the journal kept by Lord Macartney during his embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung 1793–4. Ed. by J. L. Cranmer-Byng. pp. xv + 421. Longmans, Green and Company, London. 1962. 42s.

An Embassy to China, being the journal kept by Lord Macartney during his embassy to the Emperor Ch'ien-lung 1793–4. Ed. by J. L. Cranmer-Byng. pp. xv + 421. Longmans, Green and Company, London. 1962. 42<i>s</i>.

Publications as a Propaganda Medium in Communist China

v thousand years ago, the emperor Ch'in-shih Huang-ti decreed that ali undesirable books in the empire must be burned. This official effort to impose thought control and to secure ideological conformity through the destruction and banning of books expounding unorthodox doctrines was occasionally repeated by Chinese rulers of subsequent dynasties, but none has equalled the effort made in this respect by the leaders of Communist China since their seizure of power on the mainland in 1949.

Population Reports in the Ch'ing Dynasty

The growth of China's population and die veracity of the figures that purport to measure it are both puzzles. Critical in die solutions to both puzzles are die records of an alien dynasty that ruled China from 1644 to 1911. All reconstructions of the growth of the population in recent centuries trace to one or the other of die two Ch'ing series—die local reports ordered by the emperor Ch'ien-lung in 1741, or the survey that began in 1909 and ended with the revolution in 1911. The results of the registration of 1953–1954 are consistent with the first Ch'ing activity. The statistics of the Republic of China had lineal descent from both series, but at a level of total population consistent with the limited results of the 1909–1911 survey.

The Development of Typography in China during the Nineteenth Century

use of movable type for printing ing in China, which may be comI pared to the English logotype, with each single character represented by its own individual solid type body, dates back to the middle of the eleventh century. During the period of Ching-li (1041-49) in the Sung Dynasty-approximately four centuries before Gutenberg cut his matrices in Mainz-a man by the name of Pi Sh6ng made separate type out of plastic clay hardened by baking in fire. This momentous event has been recorded by Shen Kua (1032-94), a younger contemporary of the inventor, in his memoirs.' To the best of our knowledge, books printed with the earthenware type made at that time are nonexistent, although the famous bibliophile, Yeh Tehui (1864-1927), in his catalog noted such a work in his possession. According to him, his copy of the Wei-Su-chou chi, a collection of literary writings by Wei Ying-wu of the eighth century, was printed in this medium about the year 1056. He contended that the defective impression betrayed the irregularities and imperfection of the hand-cut clay type used at that time.2 There are other isolated references to books printed with movable type, presumably wooden, in the Sung Dynasty. The annotated catalog of rare books in the i perial collection of Emperor Ch'ien-lung lists a copy of the Classic of Poetry in which the character tzg was printed sideways.3 This is an irrefutable proof that the text was printed with movable type and not from the conventional wooden blocks. Another work printed in 1221 with movable type-believed to have been wood-was the Ti-hsiiek, a compendium of ethics for the emperors, compiled by Fan Tsu-yii (1041-93). This was described by a well-known bibliographer, Miao Ch'uan-sun (1844-1919), in his annotated catalog.4 Still another extremely interesting specimen of early movable-type printing is the Pi-shui ch'iin-ying tai-wen huiyuan, an encyclopedia compiled by Liu Ta-k'o for candidates participating in the civil examinations, with a Preface dated 1245. It is in the possession of the Sinological Library in Nanking, which brought out a facsimile reproduction of two leaves of this work in 1928 in a collection of specimen leaves from its rare books.5 Unlike other works the mode of printing of which is subject to conjecture, this book contains a statement indicating how it was produced. A colophon reads: Printed with movable type by the Li Tst the passage containing details of the invention was translated by Thomas Francis Carter in his The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931), pp. 160-61.

The Emperor Ch'ien-lung and The Larger Suramgamasutra

The Emperor Ch'ien-lung and The Larger Suramgamasutra

Art. III.—Ssŭma Ch‘ien’s Historical Records

Yü of Hsia “was styled Wênming.” Yü's father was Kun, whose father was the Emperor Ch'uanbsü, whose father was Ch'angyi, whose father was Huangti; so Yü was Huangti's great - great - grandson, and Ch‘uanhsü’s grandson. Yü's great-grandfather Ch'angyi and his father Kun were both unable to sit on the Imperial throne, being simply officials. In the time of the Emperor Yao “the deluge assailed the heavens, and in its vast expanse encompassed the mountains, and overtopped the hills, so that the common people were troubled about it. Yao sought for one capable of controlling the waters. All the officials and presidents of the four mountains said, ‘Kun might do it.’ Yao said, ‘Kun is a man who disobeys orders, and ruins his companions. He will not do.’ The president of the four mountains said,” Among his equals there is no one so worthy as Kun; I wish your Majesty would “try him.” Upon which Yao, giving heed to the president of the four mountains, employed Kun to control the waters “for nine years,” but the waters did not abate, “and the work was unaccomplished.” Then the Emperor Yao sought a man in his stead, and secured Shun. Shun being employed in the public service was associated with the Son of Heaven in the administration.