Late Qing Period Research Articles

청 · 민국시기 合夥의 계약관습과 법

‘Co-partnership’(合夥) during the Ming and Qing dynasties refers to the way of management or capital organization of merchants. Despite the introduction of the Western corporation system in the late Qing period, co-partnership in Shanghai industrial enterprises still accounted for a large portion even in the 1930s. This article focuses on how the co-partnership of the Ming Dynasty changed in the Republic of China and how it appeared in contract documents. Through this, I reviewed the process and aspects which the private contract practices that existed as a social norm enter the national legal system according to the implementation of modern civil law.BR The legitimacy of a business in a co-partnership system was in the agreement between parties. By clearly describing the contents, contract documents secured considerable binding power among the parties to the contract. Therefore, the contracts are legal documents that confirm the rights and obligations between partners. In traditional Chinese society where a related national law was absent, private order was maintained by long-term private contract practices.BR Contracts included basic terms such as the name of the business, the place and type of business, the name of the shareholders, the total amount of capital and the number of shares. When the Republic of China adopted contracts, they also recorded the shareholders’ meeting, the audit committee, the distribution of profits and sharing of debt repayment, which was more normative and complete. It seems to be normative as if it were similar to the agreements of modern companies due to the influence of modern corporate law.BR The most controversial issue in the operation of a business partnership was the liability for debt repayment, in which it was customary to adhere to the principle of sharing according to the amount of investment. However, the Civil Code in 1911 stipulated joint sharing, and the Civil Code in 1929 promulgated an infinite solidarity responsibility, resulting in conflicts among merchants.BR The government originally intended to enact a modern corporate law and convert traditional companies into modern companies, but merchants preferred traditional companies. Therefore, in order to minimize these conflicts, the government respected the existing status of traditional companies that did not belong to the modern Enterprise Law(公司法), but instead tried to put it into the legal system in the Civil Law(民法). The government recognized the traditional ways and systems established through contractual practices between parties. However, since the rights of creditors were not sufficiently protected, the law stipulated that they should be responsible for the repayment of debts.

Translation as Facilitator of Social Movements in Late Qing China: A Skopos Theory Perspective

Unlike the previous two translation waves in the history of China, the third translation wave beginning from LateQing period can be seen as a cross-cultural communication under confrontation and conflict between China andwestern powers. Missionaries and government officials from western powers, institutions affiliated to government,and social activists were actively engaged in various translation activities for their respective purposes by means ofcooperation, which had not only promoted western learning in China and facilitated Chinese social movements andreform, but finally brought the Qing Dynasty to an end in the Chinese Revolution of 1911. This paper aims toexplore the facilitating role of translation in social movements and reforms in China during the time of the Late QingDynasty from Skopos Theory Perspective, in order to show that translators as social activists can not only promoteintercultural communication, but also push forward social changes and help nation building. This translation wave ischaracterized by urgency, purposefulness and practicality, and played the role of enlightening people, spreadingwestern learning and facilitating revolution.

The Concept of Rendaozhuyi in Late Qing and Early Republican China

This paper examines the concept of Rendaozhuyi in Late Qing and Early Republican China. Appearing as early as 1903, Rendaozhuyi is the Chinese rendering of both humanism and humanitarianism. For the Chinese intellectuals during the Late Qing and Early Republican period, “rendao” itself represented a modern value of humanity and human dignity. In the wake of the Great War, Rendaozhuyi gained tremendous popularity among the May-Fourth scholars. Some of them held it up as a universal ideal and tool to critique Chinese tradition, while others respectfully disagreed, worrying it would undermine the collective morale of “strengthening the nation”. Finally, the late 1920s saw the rapid ebb of the discussions of Rendaozhuyi.

清代狀元李振鈞的詩性養成及其詩歌特性考論

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 道光九年狀元李振鈞著有《味燈聽葉廬詩草》二卷，在後期作品大量散佚的情況下仍存詩四百餘首。李振鈞的人生境遇、詩性養成與科舉考試密切相關，他的詩是窮而後工的表現。詩學上轉益多師，取法多變，而通籍後所作大概與陸游詩最爲契心，故受陸詩的影響較大。遺憾的是，同處於晚清宋詩運動的浪潮中，由於種種原因，李振鈞卻是個邊緣人物。他的詩集經歷百年沉埋再見于世，雖未給人以滄海遺珠的驚喜，但仍不失爲晚清文學史研究的一個有價值的案例。
 Ranked number one in the national civil service examination of the ninth year of the Daoguang reign period (1829), Li Zhenjun is the author of Drafted Verses of the Studio of Tasting the Lamp and Listening to the Leaves (Weidengtingye lu shicao) in two fascicles. More than 400 poems are still extant even though most of his works dated from his later years did not survive. The national civil service examination had a profound impact on Li Zhenjun’s life and the formation of his poetic cultivation. His poetry is a realization of the common theory that “one’s poetry excels only when one becomes disillusioned.” In poetics, Li emulates several masters and adopts a variety of methods. His poems written after taking office became a close match with Lu You’s, as a result of the profound influence from Lu. Unfortunately, for some reason Li was marginalized in the Song-dynasty shi-poetry movement during the late Qing period. After a century of obviation, Li’s oeuvre was rediscovered. Although it has not been a great surprise, it serves as a valuable resource for a case study of the literary history of the late Qing period.

淸末 皇族의 官職 임용양상과 入仕경로

淸末 皇族의 官職 임용양상과 入仕경로

Book Review: The Remarkable Hybrid Maritime World of Hong Kong and the West River Region in the Late Qing Period

Book Review: The Remarkable Hybrid Maritime World of Hong Kong and the West River Region in the Late Qing Period

Analysis on medication rules for treatment of dementia by ancient physicians based on data mining methods

To analyze the medication features and regularity of prescriptions of Chinese medicine in treating patients with dementia based on ancient medical records. In the article, we retrieved the ancient medical records related to the treatment of dementia (from the Han Dynasty to the late Qing period) in Chinese Medical Classics, Chinese Ancient Medical Books and digital library, and then set up a medical records normalized database. The medication features and prescription rules for dementia were analyzed by frequency statistics and association rules (Apriori algorithm, improved mutual information algorithm and complex system entropy clustering). Finally, a total of 156 prescriptions were selected, involving 123 Chinese herbs, with a total frequency of 11 747 for the herbs, and 8 core prescriptions were mined. After the association rules between the frequency and prescriptions for the treatment of dementia were determined, we found that the most commonly used herbs included Fuling (Poria), Yuanzhi (Polygalae Radix), Renshen (Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma), Shichangpu (Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma), Gancao (Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma), Danggui (Angelicae Sinensis Radix), Maidong (Ophiopogonis Radix), Baizhu (Bletillae Rhizoma), Dihuang (Rehmanniae Radix) and Ganjiang (Zingiberis Rhizoma); the frequently-used drugs compatibility was mainly for tonifying Qi-blood, regulating Yin and Yang and inducing resuscitation. The drugs were mainly of warm nature and sweet (mild) flavor, and the channel tropism of drugs mainly distributed to the heart, liver, spleen and kidney. The core prescriptions were composed of Renshen (Ginseng Radix et Rhizoma), Fuling (Poria), Yuanzhi (Polygalae Radix), Shichangpu (Acori Tatarinowii Rhizoma), and Baizhu(Bletillae Rhizoma). In conclusion, high frequency herbs and core prescriptions reflect the prescriptions by ancient physicians mainly focus on Qi-replenishing, spleen-invigorating and heart-nourishing, but also reflect the prescription rules of nourishing Yin, enriching blood, eliminating phlegm and warming Yang for the treatment of dementia. The medication features and prescription rules for the treatment of dementia obtained by association rules are useful to guide the clinical practice of Chinese medicine in treatment of dementia.

The grammar of the telegraph in the Late Qing: the design and application of Chinese telegraphic codebooks

ABSTRACTThe invention of the telegraph was an important chapter in the nineteenth-century revolution in communication. The key to disseminating information at the speed of photoelectricity was to devise a coding system for converting text into electric signals. Based on the widely used Morse code, symbols (letters of the alphabet or numbers) were used to represent phrases and sentences, and various codebooks were compiled for the purpose of transmitting messages confidentially and economically. When international telegraph lines reached China in 1871, the Great Northern Telegraph Company of Denmark devised the first Chinese codebook for sending and receiving telegraphic messages in Chinese. Officials and businessmen in the late Qing period also made many attempts to do this. The Zongli Yamen, the foreign affairs ministry in imperial China, compiled and issued a codebook entitled New Regulations for Telecommunications (Dianxin xinfa), establishing a new mechanism for governmental exchanges of information. Those who did not possess a codebook had to rely on those who did. At the same time, some departments and government-controlled corporations (guandu shangban) compiled codebooks as well, which caused obstructions in intrabureaucratic communication.

Popular Healing in Printed Medical Books

In 1759, Zhao Xuemin 趙學敏, a scholar and physician from Qiantang County (present-day Hangzhou), compiled his Chuanya 串雅. Based on certain editions of this work, modern scholars have assumed that this text is composed of recipes collected from itinerant healers, and that it was its author’s intention to transmit folk healing practices through the printed word. The original manuscript that Zhao Xuemin compiled probably never appeared in print, however, whereas the extant editions of this text found numerous new editions and re-printings. Focusing on several manuscripts and printed editions of the Chuanya which emerged between the late Qing and Republican period, this article traces the processes through which various different agents created and recreated the Chuanya. In contrast to past studies where the connection between the Chuanya and popular healing is taken for granted, I argue that any conclusion should primarily take into account the various editions of this work. By the case study of this text, I hope to clarify a broader dimension around the authorship of printed medical books in late imperial China and challenge the assumption that we can understand them outside the context of their edition and publication.

Women as Chieftains in Modern Kham History

Abstract Drawing on oral and written Chinese and Tibetan accounts, this paper aims to provide a preliminary discussion of the role of Khampa women in political life by examining the lives of three notable women chieftains in the first half of the twentieth century. The case studies demonstrate that there were different paths or avenues for women to rise to power, since due to traditional biases against female political leaders, limitations and obstacles hindered their ability to access and exercise power. These accounts show that at the key juncture when a family was faced with crisis in the turbulent late Qing and Republican periods, it was often the female ruler who exercised power and authority and saved the family. Their assumption of power was possible because, in situations involving the absence of male heirs, both traditional customary law in Kham and the laws of the late Qing and Republican periods allowed women to inherit titles and positions. These women were caught up in power struggles between multiple forces, notably male leaders within their lineages, competing males from other lineages, sub-state agents like provincial warlords, the Chinese state and sometimes the Tibetan government. These examples demonstrate how the fragmentary, decentralised nature of interstitial polities opened up additional spaces for local leadership and particularly for female leadership.

Yuan Shikai and the Tongcheng School

Yuan Shikai had deep-rooted ties to the Tongcheng School, the silhouette of which appears at several important junctures in Yuan Shikai’s life. After being appointed as the Viceroy of Zhili in the late Qing Dynasty, Yuan Shikai established a Scholars’ Examination Hall and a Hall of Literature, and recruited scholars from the Tongcheng School as dedicated instructors of classical Chinese; he also personally wrote prefaces to works by members of the Tongcheng School, powerfully promoting the Tongcheng style of classical Chinese. Yuan continued to provide this support upon becoming President of the Republic of China in 1912: for a time, the Tongcheng School occupied an important position within Peking University and the Office of Qing History. In addition, Yuan Shikai also recruited a number of luminaries from the Tongcheng School to join his administration and assist in governance: due to their strong advocacy and the active involvement of other members of the Tongcheng School, certain policies of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republican period had a distinct impact on education, the economy, politics, and other aspects of early modern China.

Modern Industry and the Peasant Economy in China (中国近代工业与小农经济)

Since its early history, due to the various constraints in exchanging with other civilizations, China has relied mainly on domestic resources to satisfy the needs of its population for consumption and employment and to solve the challenges that confronted the state. Central to this solution is the combination of the agriculture of the peasant family with traditional industry and sidelines, a process that evolved over thousands of years of persistent experiments, in which the biggest challenge lay in the constant tension between population growth and the constraint of resources on the satisfaction of subsistence needs. The advent of Western influences in the late Qing period made available the products of mass-manufacturing by machines to Chinese peasants as raw materials of the family-based industry and sidelines, hence the addition of a new factor to the preexisting pattern of resource allocation. What emerged in modern China thus was an unprecedented “modern tripartite structure” that encompassed the new-style family economy, modern industrial economy, and traditional rural economy. Nevertheless, the loss of the country’s sovereign rights and the recurrence of war impeded the transformation of the traditional mode of production that entailed the intervention of the state; the same factors also explain the failure of spontaneous non-governmental forces in developing a national economy in which industry and agriculture grew in full coordination with each other. 由于国际交流环境的不利，中国自早期文明伊始，就只能主要依靠在领土范围内解决吃饭和就业等国计民生首要问题。这是靠小农家庭农业与工副业的结合，在数千年的不懈奋斗中完成的。农民家庭经济的最大问题是人口增加与谋生资源难以满足之间的压力。清末列强入侵后，农民紧紧抓住大机器产品作为家庭工副业的生产原料，为改进原有的资源配置增加了新因素。近代中国史无前例地出现了新式家庭经济、现代工业经济与传统农村经济的“近代三元结构”。但由于丧失国权、战乱频仍，需要国家之力介入的旧生产方式变革、工业与农业全方位协调发展的国民经济格局，未能由民间自发力量完成。(This article is in Chinese.)

Unfolding the Turbulent Century: A Reconstruction of China's Historical National Accounts, 1840–19121

This paper reconstructs China's economic development between 1840 and 1912 with an estimation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It provides for the first time a time series of GDP (per capita) for the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), based on sectoral output and value added, in current as well as in constant prices. The present estimation of per capita GDP in the late Qing period comes out higher than previous estimations, but it still suggests low average levels of Chinese living standards. The economy during the late Qing Empire was characterized by a large and growing agricultural sector and displayed only minor structural changes. Only in the beginning of the twentieth century did the economy start to show signs of growth.

Narratives of Buddhist decline and the concept of the sect (zong) in modern Chinese Buddhist thought

ABSTRACTThis article critically engages the work of Holmes Welch on the ‘Buddhist revival’ in modern China. It focuses on two aspects that received only scant attention in Welch’s work, but that are crucial to understanding what was occurring in Chinese Buddhism. The first half of the article provides an analysis of the narratives of Buddhist decline that existed during the late Qing and Republican periods. Rather than reflecting historical realities, such narratives must be understood as a device employed by Chinese Buddhists and intellectuals to justify reforms in Buddhism. The second half brings this argument into conversation with contacts to Japan during the same period. Under the influence of Japanese works on Chinese Buddhist history, a narrative of Chinese Buddhist decline was introduced into China that was predicated on a particularly Japanese notion of the Buddhist sect (zong 宗). The two narratives interacted and the result was that Chinese Buddhists saw the reason for the perceived decline in the loss of most of the distinct sects that had supposedly marked the flourishing of Buddhism during the Sui and Tang. Although not reflecting Chinese Buddhist realities, this interest in Buddhist sects subsequently became a central part of modern Chinese Buddhist discourse.

Defying the Court: A Spatial Analysis of the Central–Local Government Relationship During the Boxer Uprising (1900–1901)

The central–local government relationship has always been an important topic for political research of the Late Qing period. Former researchers focused mainly on political systems, finding historical archives to explain how the Qing Court decentralized or centralized its power. These approaches fail to consider how local officials in fact reacted to central command. This research is an attempt to apply the social science method to a classical historical study. I firstly examine the various political decisions of governors when they were faced with a series of big events during the Boxer Uprising (1900–1901). After arranging them using strict criteria, I will conduct spatial and structural analysis on their diversity, and furthermore explore the internal and external influencing factors. Statistics indicate that governors of coastal provinces and of the provinces along the Yangtze River were more likely to express their opinions to the Qing court, while the North and Northeastern provinces tended to obey the central orders. Regional differences mainly have a positive correlation with provincial structural factors, such as revenue and relations with foreign powers. The correlations are also determined by personal political experience and resources of governors.

Chemical composition and provenance of Chinese porcelain shards recovered from Old Goa, west coast of India

During recent archaeological explorations at Old Goa, west coast of India, twenty three Chinese porcelain shards of the Ming (Middle to late 16th century), Qing (17th century) and late Qing period (late 17th century) have been recovered. In order to understand the nature and source of raw material and kilns, these shards were analysed for major elements with X-ray fluorescence (XRF), trace and rare earth elements by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). The analysis suggests that porcelain shards are siliceous in nature (SiO2~70%) and contain high Al2O3 (21.6%), Rb (388ppm) and Ba (160ppm) but have low Sr (48ppm). This composition suggests that the raw materials used for producing porcelain were silica, kaolinite and sericite which are characteristics of porcelains manufactured in Southern China. Comparatively, high Al2O3 (kaolinite) content in porcelains of the Qing Dynasty suggest improvement of quality, particularly mechanical strength, of Jingdezhen porcelain. In general, major element composition, trace metals, total rare earth elements (∑REE-67ppm) and their chondrite - normalized pattern of the Ming, Qing and late Qing period are nearly similar and appear to be made of identical raw materials.

Practicality in Curriculum Building: A Historical Perspective on the Mission of Chinese Education

This paper examines how the definition and interpretation of the concept gewu zhizhi 格物致知 (investigating things and extending knowledge), evolved along with Chinese intellectual efforts to construct the framework for Chinese learning which, in turn, had a profound impact on the development of educational curricula in different historical periods. In Confucian philosophy, “practicality” appears ambivalent, as it can refer to moral cultivation in daily life or knowledge in the material world. Such ambivalence, embodied in the evolution of the concept of gewu zhizhi, can be interpreted as a Chinese search for a well-rounded curriculum in education. Within this framework, this paper traces the origin of the concept in The Great Learning, and investigates how it was developed to refer specifically to natural studies and then to scientific knowledge introduced into China in the late Qing period. This historical reflection on Chinese education points to the shared humanistic values in the Confucian approach to education and in the Renaissance ideal of a liberal education. It calls for a search for a common humanity in rethinking the content and aim of a modern Chinese education.

History, Culture and the Rise of Informal Finance in China

This paper examines the long-term effect of historical financial institutions on the development of informal finance in contemporary China. By using data on 137 counties in north China, our analysis finds that the density of local financial institutions (qianzhuang and diandang) in the late Qing period (circa 1911) has a positive effect on the number and total assets of Small Loan Companies, a dominant institution of informal finance today. This finding is robust to the inclusion of a variety of confounding variables and instrumenting historical financial institutions using the frequency of crop failures in the Qing period. We also find that the persistent effect of historical financial institutions can be explained by Confucian culture, which instills integrity, lineage solidarity and acquaintance networks.

『TanJiCongShu』 and the trends of literature during the Late Ming and early Qing period.

『TanJiCongShu』 and the trends of literature during the Late Ming and early Qing period.

淸末 安徽省의 災害救濟와 민간 義賑활동의 전개

淸末 安徽省의 災害救濟와 민간 義賑활동의 전개