Premodern China Research Articles

Between Living and Non-living: Materiality of the Placentain Ming China.

This study explores materiality and material cultures of human placenta in Ming China (1368-1644), for it perfectly displays Chinese ambiguous attitudes towards the human body parts between living and non-living. For a long time, the Chinese had widely applied human body parts in medical treatments and ritual healings. Numerous evidences in relation to their collection, production, efficacy and application are widely recorded in medical works, in particular those found in materia medica. In the sixteenth century, the Bencao gangmu (Systemic Materia Medica, 1596) illustrates thirty-five "human body drugs." Of those, the placenta was believed effective for curing illnesses, nourishing the body and prolonging life. The questions to be answered include: how is the placenta perceived in medical and religious discourses? What is its "materiality" and "efficacy" when it becomes a drug? What ethical issues and moral concerns are involved with eating the placenta? Last but not least, how was the placenta ritually buried after childbirth in premodern China? In so doing, this essay aims to provide a better understanding of the placenta situated in both material and cosmological worlds. It helps us rethink the multiple relations of human body part to part, part to whole, and body to body.

This Ship Prays: The Southern Chinese Religious Seascape through the Handbook of a Maritime Ritual Master

Long kept in the British Library, a liturgical manuscript from the port of Haicheng, Fujian, holds details of the rich system of beliefs that Chinese sailors held. Originally untitled, the text by the shelfmark OR12693/18 is usually referred to as “Libation Ritual (for Ship Safety)” ([An Chuan] Zhuoxian Ke [(安船)酌献科]). Formerly, it was given scholarly attention mostly due to its addended lists of maritime placenames, which follows Qing-era sea routes across China’s coasts and to the South China Sea. Further inquiry into the manuscript’s terminology, deity names, and maritime knowledge confirms its deep relation to sailors’ lore. By tracing this text into a wide range of sources, this paper demonstrates how manuscript OR12693/18 reflects a cohesive maritime system of beliefs and knowledge. Manifested within the prayer are a hierarchical pantheon, ritual practices, and a perceived sacred seascape. Moreover, it is evident that the manuscript belonged to a tradition of sailing ritual masters who were regular members of the crew onboard junks. As such, this paper offers an analysis of a religious-professional tradition with trans-local aspects, shedding new light on seafaring in pre-modern China.

The Cultural Evolution of Games of Chance

Chance-based gambling has been a recurrent cultural activity throughout history and across many diverse human societies. In this paper, I combine quantitative and qualitative data and present a cultural evolutionary framework to explain why the odds in games of chance in premodern China appeared “designed” to ensure a moderate yet favorable house advantage. This is especially intriguing since extensive research in the history of probability has shown that, prior to the development of probability theory, people had very limited understanding of the nature of random events and were generally disinclined to think mathematically about the frequency of their occurrence. I argue that games of chance in the context of gambling may have culturally evolved into their documented forms via a process of selective imitation and retention, and neither the customers nor the gambling houses understood the probability calculus involved in these games.

The Ultra Ganges Mission Activities and Impact on the Press in Pre-Modern China

Before the Opium War, Protestant missionaries to China took the Ultra Ganges Mission as a link, and carried out a series of literal missionary activities, and set up missionary stations and printing presses, church schools, and Chinese and foreign-language newspapers and magazines in the South Seas and in China's Canton and Macao, etc. The newspapers founded under the guidance and support of the Ultra Ganges Mission introduced the Western newspaper concepts and newspaper editing and printing techniques into China, cultivated the early Chinese newspaper group, and laid the material and human resource foundation for the Chinese to imitate foreign newspapers and run their own newspapers after the Opium War. By analyzing the historical facts about the establishment of modern Chinese and foreign newspapers and magazines by the Ultra Ganges Mission, this essay demonstrates how the foreign newspapers in China in the first half of the 19th century promoted and influenced the emergence and development of the modern newspaper industry in China.

Learned Women, “Leftover” Women, and “The Third Sex” Women's Learning in the Confucian Tradition and Contemporary China

Abstract This paper investigates women's learning experiences in the Confucian tradition and the social dismay and stigma associated with them. Despite being considered a meta-virtue in the Confucian tradition, learning becomes rather complex when women are the learners. It is viewed by learned women as a curse rather than a blessing in pre-modern China; it is associated with the stigma of “leftover women” and “the third sex” in contemporary China. Based on an examination of works written by women thinkers, I argue that the asymmetry in social recognition for men's and women's learning is rooted in the social and family structure of nei (in) and wai (out), which does not assign sufficient cultural and moral significance to learning achieved in the nei domain nor permit its continuous and accumulative existence. I propose two preliminary steps to rectify the issue of the lack of social and moral recognition of women's learning: first, a reforming of the nei and wai structure to allow assigning more moral, cultural, and normative significance to affairs in the nei domain. Second, re-examine and utilize classical Confucian texts such as the Mencius and later works by women writers to support and guide such reformations.

Novelty and innovation, the joy of experimentation, and the “investigation of things” (gewu) in pre-modern China: the example of gunpowder

Novelty and innovation, the joy of experimentation, and the “investigation of things” (gewu) in pre-modern China: the example of gunpowder

광동체제 시기 해관 화폐의 출현 배경

This study analyzes the regulations converting Simayin(司碼銀) and 8-real coin into Kupingyin(庫平銀) and, through the procedures for assessing and converting actual customs duties after the payment of tariffs, examines the Yuehaiguan(粵海關) weights distinguishing them from the Kuping(庫平). The deputy customs duty structure of the Canton System created a subtle weight difference among Hubu(戶部), Yuehaiguan(粵海關), and Hong Merchants(行商). Analyzing this distinction, endeavors were made to trace the roots of the currency used in Chinese Maritime Customs, known as Haiguanliang(海關兩), back to the Canton System. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that the independent weights of Yuehaiguan(粵海關) distributed nationwide from Hubu(戶部) were different from Kuping(庫平), and it was conceptualized as ‘Yuehaiguanping(粵海關平)’. Yuehaiguanping(粵海關平) served as the weight standard for foreign trade and customs administration, differing from the certified weighing system represented by Yuehaiguankuping(粵海關庫平) used for accounting purposes. The weight system used by merchants, known as Simaping(司碼平), is considered to have originated from Yuehaiguanping(粵海關平), ultimately concluding that these two systems are essentially identical.“Previous studies on understanding Chinese Maritime Customs' generally share the perspective that, despite subtle differences, the Western-style customs system was introduced to China in a unidirectional process. The emergence of the currency Haiguanliang(海關兩) in Chinese Maritime Customs is considered a crucial mechanism for imperial powers to control Chinese customs. However, if we exclude the wounded pride of the Chinese people from the starting point of semi-colonialism, researchers need to explore the reasons why the Western customs system could seamlessly integrate into China's institutions without encountering significant resistance or conflict. The author aims to present a new approach to understanding Chinese Maritime Customs, which inherits the deputy customs duty structure of the Canton System. The form of outsourcing tax and customs duty operations to the private sector was not unfamiliar in pre-modern China. The idea of entrusting customs administration to tax professionals at that time was quite acceptable and feasible. The dismantling of the Canton System and the emergence of Chinese Maritime Customs signify not only the ultimate end of monopoly trade but also a significant transformation from the traditional Queguantizhi(榷關體制) to the Haiguantizhi(海關體制). This process can be understood as a major shift that could be based on the basic framework of the Canton System.

Utilization of human excrement in pre-modern China, its theoretical interpretations and ecological significance

Utilization of human excrement in pre-modern China, its theoretical interpretations and ecological significance

The past as a prologue: aspirations for the future portrayed in Chinese vernacular miniature monuments

ABSTRACT Whether to look to the past is a perennial dilemma, as the past evokes both terror and pleasure. Focusing on miniature monuments built for ancestors in the context of pre-modern China, this study reveals that while the peak period of production of miniature monuments occurred during the Han dynasty, the miniature monument building practice can be traced to living cases today. This paper highlights a phenomenon, a vision of the future imagined by descendants was integrated into a dialogue with the past through the agency of symbolic representations of buildings constructed for the deceased. Architecture, in this sense, acted as a facilitator of difficult communication with the deceased and conveyed profound desires that people strongly embraced but could not articulate. Such desires and dreams may not be accommodated in reality, but constructing miniature monuments in honour of ancestors reiterates that architecture is a spiritual home for brave imaginations and deep desires of people.

Women’s Personal Hygiene in Premodern China: A Gendered Analysis of History of the Toiletry Box (Lianshi)

The Lianshi奩史 (History of the Toiletry Box) is a copious work about women’s personal hygiene articles, compiled by Wang Chutong (1729-1821). The personal hygiene articles can be broadly divided into the following categories: articles for hand washing, dental care, hair grooming, going to the restroom, bathing, perfuming, and protection from evils. These items are living fossils of the premodern material culture and a testimony to the fusion of Chinese culture and Western culture. They reflected perception of health care at the time and are useful references for modern perception on preventive care. If viewed from a gendered perspective, these items are also objects used for “training” women. In analyzing the text of Lianshi and archeological discoveries, paintings, and murals, this paper reconstructs how women in premodern China cultivated and practiced their personal hygiene.

Clan culture and corporate innovation

Cultural traditions have consistently shaped people's values and beliefs, thereby influencing various aspects of society, including the economy. This paper examines the impact of kinship-based clans, an exceptionally significant social organization in premodern China, on contemporary corporate innovation. By utilizing the number of genealogies as a proxy for local clan strength, we find compelling evidence that firms in prefectures with a more pronounced clan culture produce greater innovative outputs. Delving into potential channels, our analysis demonstrates that clans can act as informal institutional arrangements, offer managerial incentives, and ease financial constraints. Moreover, the kinship-based clan background of CEOs spurs innovation activities.

The Imagination of Alchemy: A Chinese Response to Catholicism in Late Ming and Early Qing

As a common cultural phenomenon in China and the West, alchemy not only embodies the scientific spirit of people before modern times, but also contains certain religious beliefs, and even creates unrealistic secular imaginations. When Catholicism entered China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Chinese also projected this imagination of alchemy onto the missionaries. Behind this imagination actually lays the strong interest of Chinese people in the financial resources of the missionaries. On the one hand, there is the historical influence of traditional Chinese alchemy, and on the other hand, there is the curiosity caused by the lifestyle of missionaries in China. The imagination of alchemy not only reflects a historical aspect of the encounter between China and the West during the Ming and Qing dynasties, but also reflects a complex social psychology of mixed curiosity, panic, suspicion, and vigilance in pre-modern China.

On Augustinian Studies in China: A Chinese and Western Discourse on a Family-State Relationship

There is a growing interest in Augustine’s social and political philosophy as a result of the popularity of Augustinian studies in modern-day China. The Augustinian idea that the fall of Western classical civilization occurred when the natural order of “family-state” was replaced by a “denaturalized, de-politicized fellowship” is one discernible trend. This trend involves using the ancient natural order of “the unity of family and state” as a “righteous” standard to explain Augustinian thought. This interpretation calls into question our understanding of “the natural order” in the contemporary world as well as how people interact with one another in society. This paper compares and contrasts the fundamental debate between “family” and “society” in both Chinese and Western contexts. It begins by outlining three different natural orders in relation to “family-state unity” in pre-modern China and the West. It then uses Augustine’s context, especially The City of God, to illustrate the notion of the natural order. The essay contends that Augustine reformulates the Roman “natural order” using a “family-state unity” model derived from Caritas. This essay also makes the case that Augustine is used in the Chinese context in a way that shows how deeply concerned Chinese intellectuals are with family issues.

A diachronic study of Chinese greetings between new acquaintances

In order to trace the evolution of greeting culture from pre-modern China to modern society, this study investigates 483 greetings between new acquaintances (GBNAs) collected from 6 works of the 17th-18th centuries and 9 novels of the mid-20th century. The results show that, in both periods Chinese GBNAs are highly situation-dependent and primarily performed in the mode of “seeking information - confirming”. The changes are first and foremost manifested in three respects. First, the GBNAs in the 20th century exhibit a tendency of “impersonalization” in terms of topic selection and the use of sentence patterns. Second, generally speaking, the GBNAs in the 20th century are semantically more informative. Third, the disappearance of asymmetric addressing and the decrease of honorifics indicate that the traditional politeness maxim of “self-denigration and other-elevation” is gradually discarded in modern China. It is argued that the evolution of GBNAs might be attributed to both the New Culture Movement and the modernization of traditional society.

Moving Between Scales

This dissertation employs the perspective of library and information science (LIS) to inform and guide methodological reflections in two interdisciplinary fields, computational social science (CSS) and digital humanities (DH). However, CSS often prioritizes recent digital trace data over archival material from earlier periods, and the large-scale methods used in DH face criticism from humanists for their incapability to capture perspectival and interpretative nuances.
 This dissertation blends humanistic and social-scientific approaches to study premodern China, emphasizing the importance of “moving between scales.” It bridges different scales of analysis by transitioning dynamically between them, examines small-scale structures to uncover how they reflect large-scale dynamics, and explores mid-range social phenomena by investigating prosopography of elite society members. Four research questions are posed: (1) What are the challenges and opportunities in investigating a social network based on biased text? (2) How can prosopographical data lead to conclusions about the shifting center of political power? (3) How can structural characteristics in multiple networks reveal changes in political culture? (4) What can bibliographic metadata reveal about the particularity of publishing history of 16th-to-19th-century Chinese books?
 By addressing these questions, this dissertation intends to leverage theories and practices of LIS to develop computational models unveiling historical trends. It seeks to contribute to CSS by enhancing social scientists’ understanding on how societies and cultural systems evolve over time, to DH by revealing the historical changes in the longue durée in premodern China, and to LIS by fulfilling its mission of providing an information perspective to traditional academic disciplines.

Reassessing the Proportional System of Joseon Era Wooden Architecture: The Bracket Arm Length and Width as a Standard Modular Method

Previous research has agreed that standard modular methods in Song Yingzao Fashi and Qing Gongcheng Zuofa were not applied to Korean wooden architecture. This study notes the size of bracket arms as a standard modular method by investigating the proportion systems of Sungnyemun, Paldalmun, and Heunginjimun Gates, the official government buildings of the Joseon Dynasty. The purlin direction bracket arms in the intercolumnar bracket sets apply a proportional system in the ratio of a regular integer relationship to the front and side facades and building height. Challenging current assumptions, the application of the bracket arm width as a modular rule is divided into more subdivided values than the measurement units. A particularly important finding is that, unlike the height of the bracket arms, the width and length of the brackets are standard members that determine the height of the side facades. This is very similar to the official government building styles in the Song and Qing Dynasties, premodern China. Therefore, this study is meaningful in reassessing wooden frame structures of the Joseon era, deriving parametric measuring rules universally applied in East Asia to provide basic data useful for heritage conservation.

The Reception of the Mantra of Light in Republican Period Chinese Buddhism

This paper examines the utilization of the mantra of light and its associated maṇḍala practices by Wang Hongyuan 王弘願 (1876–1937), a Chinese Buddhist during the Republican Period, and his adherents, which has not yet been noticed by previous scholars. With the import of esoteric Buddhist doctrines and practices from Japan, the mantra of light, which was a rarely used mantra in pre-modern China, gained renewed significance. This led to the widespread adoption of the ritual practices of this mantra by Wang Hongyuan and his surrounding Buddhist groups in early modern China. The rituals of this mantra were used as a supplement or substitute for near-death Pure Land practices. This paper presents Pure Land Buddhist practices intertwined with esoteric Buddhist elements or “esoteric” approaches to Pure Land rebirth in modern Chinese Buddhism which have been overlooked by previous scholars.

From Heretic to Hedonist

At the end of the nineteenth century, Chinese intellectuals had to respond to the dire situation of their country. Against this background, the leading intellectual Kang Youwei aimed to re-establish some traditional values. Although Yang Zhu had long been employed rhetorically in pre-modern China, Kang reconstructed Yang Zhu as an ancient master who had a coherent theory centered around two expressions: wei wo (serving one’s own interest) and zong yu (indulging in desires). However, there is a tension in Kang’s attitudes towards Yang Zhu: on the one hand, he criticizes Yang Zhu for when he reflects upon the despotic nature of Chinese governance; on the other hand, Kang sees the positive sides of wei wo and zong yu in the achievement of the Great Unity. Despite the ambiguity, Kang’s choice of vocabulary still made an impact to the portrayals of Yang Zhu after his: his portrayal turned this master into someone highly relevant to modern China; he also showed the possibility of reading Yang Zhu in a positive light.

Decolonising Sinology: on Sinology’s weaponisation of the discourse of race

ABSTRACT The previous generation of Sinologists were of the overwhelming consensus that race consciousness did not exist in pre-modern China. However, in recent decades there has been a revision of this consensus. This paper frames this shift in terms of Sinology’s complicity with white supremacy, imperialism and the military-industrial-academic complex. Contemporary Sinology sets itself up as exposing a colonial mentality in pre-modern China. The irony is that it is contemporary Sinology which is complicit with white supremacy and itself is in need of decolonisation. This paper will analyse the most prominent example of this sea-shift in the Sinological consensus on race in China: Frank Dikötter’s The Discourse of Race in Modern China. That such scholarship, deficient in the most basic scholarly standards, was overwhelmingly feted upon its publication, continues to be cited as an authority and to receive inordinate recognition reveals Western academia’s problematic attitudes towards China and the issue of racism. This paper will show how all of the above phenomena can be understood in terms of the “epistemology of ignorance.” By misappropriating the discourse of the critical philosophy of race, Sinology’s epistemology of ignorance universalises Western racism. Sinology has weaponised the discourse of race.

Medical Treatment of Criminals in Premodern China Based on Qing Era Local Archives: Focusing on the Case of Ba County in the late 18th Century.

This study aimed to confirm what kind of medical treatment was given to criminals by the local governments in Qing China and the role of the government doctors in charge of the criminals' medical care. Using local administrative and historical materials, I explore the procedures and methods of medical treatment and explain the treatment processes for criminals. The findings demonstrate that, although different from modern ideals, in premodern China under the emperor's rule, there were provisions for ailing criminals to receive medical treatment. In the Qing era, the execution of actual punishments worked as a keynote of judicial policy, and the number of criminals managed by local government offices was larger than before. The government doctors took charge of the criminals' medical treatment, but it seems that their position in the Qing era was not popular due to low salaries and psychological resistance to treating guilty criminals. Moreover, the government doctors dispatched to treat criminals were required to play an additional role. They had to testify that there were no other causes of death other than disease, which demonstrates that the government doctor played a role in determining whether the death was a crime. However, their treatment practices for criminals demonstrate the use of traditional medicine from the Tang and Song era onwards. There are two reasons for this. First, unlike the private market, there was no economic incentives for doctors to use new medicines and prescriptions. Second, because of the fear of being reprimanded for the death of the criminal, using classical prescriptions was a way for doctors to defend the adequacy of their medical practice. From an institutional perspective, medical care for criminals through government doctors was guaranteed during the Qing era. However, government doctors were not selected for their medical competence, nor were they provided with adequate incentives to practice good medical care. Even some government doctors devoted themselves to medical care, the quality of care was not systematically guaranteed. This provides evidence of the poor medical environment surrounding criminals in premodern China.