Ming Qing Research Articles

Commercial development and the evolution of political cultures: Ming/Qing China and 17th century England

Extensive commercial development occurred in China in the late Ming (1368–1644) and early Qing (1644–1911) dynasties and in 17th century England. In both countries the scale of activity and the institutional innovations that were introduced to safeguard transactions threatened the status rules of the hegemonic political culture. In England, however, these challenges were part of a larger panorama of change. Conceptions of law rooted in the past were refashioned to meet challenges posed by religious and political conflict as well as rapid commercial development. A new legal culture emerged that powerfully influenced the political culture. In China commercial expansion led to the development of novel banking and trading organizations. New patterns of social interaction came into being that existed side by side with inherited forms that had roots in antiquity. Tendencies favoring the evolution of Chinese political culture, however, were curtailed by political authority which upheld traditional Confucian culture and the legitimacy that this culture accorded to traditional elites. In both societies prevailing values and beliefs influenced the direction and degree of change in their political cultures.

明淸時代 徽州商人과 宗族組織 : 歙縣의 柳山 方氏를 中心으로

明淸時代 徽州商人과 宗族組織 : 歙縣의 柳山 方氏를 中心으로

Connoisseurship of Chinese furniture: Ming and early Qing dynasties. v.1: Text; v.2: Plates

Connoisseurship of Chinese furniture: Ming and early Qing dynasties. v.1: Text; v.2: Plates

明末淸初 經世學과 淸代 漢學의 內在的理路

明末淸初 經世學과 淸代 漢學의 內在的理路

Ming-Ch'ing hsiao-shuo tz'u-tien (Ming Qing xiao shuo ci dian)

Ming-Ch'ing hsiao-shuo tz'u-tien (Ming Qing xiao shuo ci dian)

Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tiger's Jaws.

This fascinating book presents eyewitness accounts of a turbulent period in Chinese history: the fall of the Ming dynasty and the conquest of China by the Manchus in the mid-seventeenth century. Lynn Struve has translated, introduced, and annotated absorbing testimonies from a wide range of individuals-Chinese and Europeans, missionaries and viceroys, artists and merchants, Ming loyalists and Qing collaborators, maidservants and eunuchs-all telling stories of hardship and challenge in the midst of cataclysmic change. Until now, biographies of individuals who lived in the late Ming and early Qing periods have been either in-depth studies of important intellectuals or portraits sketched from the historical record and amplified by the imaginations of present-day authors. This book is the first to provide actual comment from a variety of people in different social stations. Some of the documents made accessible to Western readers are little known even to Chinese scholars. The book also breaks new ground by offering examples of the diversity in Chinese historical writing: rustic histories, tendentious reports, self-serving memoirs, family letters, official memorials, and other forms of records. Together these translations provide evidence of the increasing articulateness about personal experience that characterized writing in late Ming times.

The real question about China: Why was the Song economic achievement not repeated?

The pertinent question about China’s economic performance from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries is less why she did not have a European–style industrial revolution than why even her own Song dynasty achievement was not repeated. Supposed explanations which appear in the literature are discussed: no scientific revolution; technological regression; population pressure; Confucian values; and the institutions within the Ming–Qing state. It is suggested that while the substitutes for direct economic policy and independent law were sufficient to permit the economy to expand, they restricted the market enough to prevent a return to previous levels of activity.

The Loyalty of Adopted Sons in Ming and Early Qing China

The Loyalty of Adopted Sons in Ming and Early Qing China