This article takes Fu Chang's Precedents of Ritual Protocol for Jin's Imperial Ministers and Xun Chuo's Annotations to the Report on Jin's Official Posts as a means to observe the interactions between ...This article takes Fu Chang's Precedents of Ritual Protocol for Jin's Imperial Ministers and Xun Chuo's Annotations to the Report on Jin's Official Posts as a means to observe the interactions between books and political processes during the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties. Both Fu Chang and Xun Chuo were employed as high-ranking officials, with a background of being from the Central Plain, by the regime of the Later Zhao founded by Shi Le. Their purpose for writing the two books was to provide guidance for the regime's institutional establishment. The collapse of Shi Le's regime led to the flow of people and their possessions to the south. During these movements, the two books along with other materials and records were brought to Jiankang and then contributed to the institutional and cultural development in the middle and late Eastern Jin Dynasty. As historical facts and references for political reformation, these books revealed the duality of institutional writings. The collection and dispersion of books after the Disaster of Yongjia, as well as the social and cultural changes, should be placed in a wider political process for further examination.展开更多
This historiographic essay contends that warfare made and unmade the Qing dynasty between 1644 and 1911, and its study has helped to create the field of modem Chinese history during the past seventy years. It advances...This historiographic essay contends that warfare made and unmade the Qing dynasty between 1644 and 1911, and its study has helped to create the field of modem Chinese history during the past seventy years. It advances three principal claims. First, the literature on war, especially interstate conflict, can serve as a synecdoche for the development of the modem China field as a whole since the 1950s. The research interests of late Qing specialists have oscillated along an ＂external-internal-external＂ axis that corresponds with three distinct periods of intellectual inquiry, scholarly production, and generational dominance. Second, historians have reached inaccurate conclusions about the state capacity of the Qing Empire after 1840 through a crude analysis of the First Sino-Japanese War, a mistake they can rectify by adopting a longer-term perspective on the state-making process. Third, scholars have deftly traced the changing role of military power in modem Chinese politics but have also adopted the interpretive categories of wen and wu from literati discourse without sufficient critical reflection. In the future, researchers may seek to explore the intersection of warfare and the environment, technology, and ethnic identity, approaches that will continue to move the field in comparative, global, and Inner Asian directions.展开更多
In a world bursting with every kind of digital toy and modern convenience, many people find comfort going back in time to a simpler era. Or at least that’s what book sales suggest.
文摘This article takes Fu Chang's Precedents of Ritual Protocol for Jin's Imperial Ministers and Xun Chuo's Annotations to the Report on Jin's Official Posts as a means to observe the interactions between books and political processes during the Western and Eastern Jin dynasties. Both Fu Chang and Xun Chuo were employed as high-ranking officials, with a background of being from the Central Plain, by the regime of the Later Zhao founded by Shi Le. Their purpose for writing the two books was to provide guidance for the regime's institutional establishment. The collapse of Shi Le's regime led to the flow of people and their possessions to the south. During these movements, the two books along with other materials and records were brought to Jiankang and then contributed to the institutional and cultural development in the middle and late Eastern Jin Dynasty. As historical facts and references for political reformation, these books revealed the duality of institutional writings. The collection and dispersion of books after the Disaster of Yongjia, as well as the social and cultural changes, should be placed in a wider political process for further examination.
文摘This historiographic essay contends that warfare made and unmade the Qing dynasty between 1644 and 1911, and its study has helped to create the field of modem Chinese history during the past seventy years. It advances three principal claims. First, the literature on war, especially interstate conflict, can serve as a synecdoche for the development of the modem China field as a whole since the 1950s. The research interests of late Qing specialists have oscillated along an ＂external-internal-external＂ axis that corresponds with three distinct periods of intellectual inquiry, scholarly production, and generational dominance. Second, historians have reached inaccurate conclusions about the state capacity of the Qing Empire after 1840 through a crude analysis of the First Sino-Japanese War, a mistake they can rectify by adopting a longer-term perspective on the state-making process. Third, scholars have deftly traced the changing role of military power in modem Chinese politics but have also adopted the interpretive categories of wen and wu from literati discourse without sufficient critical reflection. In the future, researchers may seek to explore the intersection of warfare and the environment, technology, and ethnic identity, approaches that will continue to move the field in comparative, global, and Inner Asian directions.
文摘In a world bursting with every kind of digital toy and modern convenience, many people find comfort going back in time to a simpler era. Or at least that’s what book sales suggest.
