Author Archives: tp86kuta

Doing Research on the History of Emotions
Wednesday
2:00 pm – 3:45 pm
Room 2

• Organised and Chaired by Angelika C. Messner
• Angelika C. Messner, “Doing Emotions & Experiencing Pain in 17th Century China”
• Sharon Sanderovitch, “Voice, Visage, and the Imperial Person/a: On the Construction of Royal Emotions in Imperial Edicts and Panegyrics of the Han Dynasty”
• Rodo Pfister “Inner Cinnabar, Introspection and Body Maps—The Medieval Chinese Selbstgefühl (Self-Consciousness)”
• Valerie Pellatt, “Baring the Chinese Soul: Depiction of Emotional States and Character Traits in the Stage Directions of huaju of the Early Twentieth Century”
• Lee Cheuk-yin, Discussant

Sinologists so far contributed extensively to the emotion lexicon in the Chinese past, recognizing that emotions are differently perceived and conceptualized in aesthetic, philosophical and medical contexts. However, what is extremely missing, are microscopic-like close readings of texts that refer to everyday experiences and related practices. Refraining from any haste abstraction and generalization this panel aims at exploring practices and narratives in relation to emotions and their role in exploring new spaces of knowing. Each of the four papers presents particular moments in Chinese history by discussing their emotion-related relevance.”

Angelika C. Messner, “Doing Emotions & Experiencing Pain in 17th Century China“

The memory narrative Yangzhou shi ri ji 揚州十日記 (Record on the Ten Day [Massacre] at Yangzhou, 1645) reveals insights into the ways people experienced pain and suffering in the course of the traumatic experience of a massacre upon the city population during the dynastic fall. In this text, physical pain due to cruel injury as well as emotional despair (tong 痛 and shang 傷) are expressed throughout in terms of visceral processes and changes. Medical texts on the other hand hardly ever refer to qing 情 (emotions, love) from a meta-perspective, but rather tackle the issue of the basic fabric of daily life from the perspective of a logic of the concrete.  Dwelling on the meticulously studied cases of emotional suffering as they are presented in the writings of Chen Shiduo 陳士鐸 (1627–1707), my paper seeks to integrate concepts and words with corporeal realities of emotion and suffering. Tracing the various techniques to resolve crisis and suffering and by bringing them together with the collective terms for the heart, lung, spleen, liver and the kidneys, and with the related technical terms denoting the physiological functions of generating and storing qi 氣 and related pathological changes, I shall argue for new ways to doing research on emotions in history. 

Sharon Sanderovitch, “Voice, Visage, and the Imperial Person/a: On the Construction of Royal Emotions in Imperial Edicts and Panegyrics of the Han Dynasty”

Recently, the relation between rulers’ projected emotions, strategies of power, and monarchic government has received formal acknowledgement from scholars of both the history of emotions and monarchic institutions. A section on “Monarchies” in the recently published Early Modern Emotions: An Introduction (2017), and a chapter on “Ruling Emotions” in the new Routledge History of Monarchy (2019) are one indication for this reciprocity. Informed by this developing sensibility in the global, mostly theoretical discourse, I examine the construction of royal emotions in Han edicts and panegyrics—that is, in representations of the imperial voice and in poetic portraits of the imperial figure. Centering on two periods in the long span of the Han dynasty—the reigns of Wendi 文帝 (r. 180–157 BCE) of the Western Han and Zhangdi 章帝 (r. 75–88 CE) of the Eastern Han—I highlight two points of importance for the study of early-imperial Chinese monarchy and the history of emotions more broadly. First is the role of emotions of self-assessment (guilt, remorse, fear of misperfomance) in the construction of the Chinese monarch’s authority, in addition to joy, grief, and paternal love that are more familiar from discussions of early-modern European monarchies. The other, complimentary point of analysis concerns the cultural and institutional practices that supported the construction and projection of royal emotions in textual products that were thereby cast and perceived—to draw on Peirce’s typology of signs—as indexes of the imperial person rather than icons of the imperial persona.

Rodo Pfister, “Inner Cinnabar, Introspection and Body Maps—The Medieval Chinese Selbstgefühl (Self-Consciousness)”

Su Shi (1037–1101 CE) evokes a hanging scroll—a “Master Yan Luo”—as a lifestyle element in his heptasyllabic regulated poem Travel to Zhang’s Mountaineer Garden. He furthermore transmits the Treatise on the Oral Instruction about Nourishing Life, wherein such a depiction of the inside of the male torso is used to visualise in meditation the inner topography of one’s own living body. The mediative use of such body maps is documented for the period of at least the 11th c. to the 15th c. CE (Pfister 2016). For literati and high officials alike these were a means to cultivate and modulate their bodily feeling of oneself (Selbstgefühl, Frank 2002). Chen Pu (fl. 1078 CE?) describes in his psychologic masterpiece Mister Chen’s Instructions on the Inner Cinnabar nine phases of transformation. With a high grade of specificity the adept is guided through the learning process. This includes altered states of consciousness, changes of the integral bodily self, or the interpretation of inner light experiences (phosphenes and visuall hallucinations), occurring during meditation in the calm room, where sensory input is reduced. The concept of the bodily self (shēn 身) forms the base of the lived experience and emotions. As the feeling of oneself it can be modulated by the mere-exposure effect of body maps, or by prolonged training of meditative techniques.

Valerie Pellatt, “Baring the Chinese Soul: Depiction of Emotional States and Character Traits in the Stage Directions of huaju of the Early Twentieth Century”

The spoken Chinese drama which evolved from the beginning of the twentieth century created a need, and an opportunity, for Chinese playwrights to explore overtly and in some depth, the personality traits and transient emotions of the characters they created. The need arose from the raising of the fourth wall, and the absence of the traditional prologue, self-introduction and asides customary in traditional forms. The newly introduced spoken drama (huaju) required actors to express themselves fully as characters without any third person explication. This constraint, however, gave playwrights a platform to tell the director and actors exactly what they intended the character to be. Without the traditional costume, symbolism and gesture which informed the audience of the age, occupation, rank and gender of the roles, there was a need for some prescription. No longer reliant on symbolism, the actors had to represent realistically the personalities of the characters they played, from their own experience, or that of the playwright or director. Cao Yu’s directions focus on the nature of people, not only on how their appearance reveals their inner turmoil, but also on explicit labelling of what troubles them. The establishing directions at the beginning of acts and scenes, and the parenthetic directions within the dialogue became a new theatrical vehicle and, perhaps unintentionally, a window onto the Chinese psyche. The stage directions of the drama of the early decades of the century invite a detailed analysis in psychological terms.

Thursday
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Room B

• Organised by Jakub Hrubý, Andreas Janousch, Annette Kieser, and Monique Nagel-Angermann
• Chaired by Andreas Janousch
• Andreas Janousch, “Approaching Death (linzhong 臨終): Deathbed Rituals during the Six Dynasties (222–589)”
• Annette Kieser, “Concepts of Death and Burial during the Six Dynasties (222–589)”
• Monique Nagel-Angermann, “Death and Burial: Narratives about the Rulers of the Sixteen States (300–430)”
• Jakub Hrubý, “Early Medieval Testamentary Edicts”
• Antje Richter, Discussant

How did men and women during Early Medieval China (2nd to early 7th centuries CE) approach death? How did they prepare for it? And, how were the dead provided for in their abode, the tombs? These are only a few of the questions that the papers of this panel intend to bring into focus. As Emily Vermeule has powerfully argued in her classic study on Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry, the shared experience of all sentient beings, death, could be imagined in a simultaneous multiplicity, depending on artistic and literary genres, religious affiliations, familial traditions, and ritual context. It is the express purpose of this panel to bring into focus this multiplicity in the expectations and imaginations, both as the living were approaching the moment of death and later after their demise, of their condition as the deceased in the tomb. To this end, the panel unites not only historians of different fields (religious traditions, political, and social history), but also specialists of material culture, archeologists, to stimulate a multidisciplinary debate across the scholarly disciplines. Based on careful contextual readings and analyses of a wide variety of textual sources – such as official dynastic histories, ritual texts, biographical writing, Buddhist and Daoist scriptures and historical writing – as well as material evidence from burial archaeology this multidisciplinary approach will provide a more complex understanding of the elites’ notion of death and the role it played in their lives during Early Medieval China.

Andreas Janousch, “Approaching Death (linzhong 臨終): Deathbed Rituals during the Six Dynasties (222–589)“

In many religious traditions all over the world the critical process when an ill or old person approaches death became highly ritualized. Famously, in the Tang dynasty (618-906) in Pure Land Buddhism the moment of death (linzhong) was soteriologically so charged, as it temporarily opened the door to escape the samsaric cycle, that precise instructions were issued to ensure the rebirth in a pure realm of a buddha. The proposed paper intends to explore the diversity of ways this critical moment, linzhong, was anticipated, lived, imagined, and represented during the Early Medieval period, when practices were not yet highly standardized, when, in fact, new practices were emerging together with the burgeoning variety of innovative religious methods and rituals (both Buddhist and Daoist), and when the north-south divide facilitated the diversification of local customs. For this purpose, a wide range of written sources will be analyzed. These include, prescriptive and descriptive, religious and non-religious, circulated and entombed (muzhiming 墓誌銘) texts: biographies of Buddhist monks/nuns and laity (Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳, Biqiuni zhuan 比丘尼傳), the standard dynastic histories, Shishuo xinyu 世說新語, anomaly accounts, and biographies of other religious specialists among others. Casting the net widely, the paper pretends to work towards a typology of deathbed rituals, not only to shed a light on the prehistory of later, more well-known practices but also to capture the multiplicity of the condition of the dead. 

Annette Kieser, Concepts of Death and Burial during the Six Dynasties (222–589)

This paper will focus on the material evidence from burial archaeology in Early Medieval South China. A large number of tombs have been excavated around the former capital of the Six Dynasties of the South, Jiankang (modern Nanjing), and also in secondary centres that were located along the Yangzi river as well as its tributaries. Given the long time span as well as the wide geographical distribution of tombs, a certain diversification was to be expected. However, an analysis of the structure of these tombs, their ornamentation as well as the remaining burial goods reveals an astonishing range of differences in design and content from tombs excavated in neighbouring burials even. Several case studies from different parts of Southern China will focus on these differences. Taking into account the historical background, my paper will offer possible explanations for the manifold burial patterns evident in the south. It will show that diversity not only reflects burial patterns of various social but also different ethnic groups. Very pronounced local differences of the burials may also point to local centres or strongholds. This analysis will pave the way for a deeper comprehension of the different concepts concerning death and “eternity” as well as the treatment of the deceased. It will also contribute to our understanding of the southern Chinese society in a period of unrest and migration during Early Medieval China.

Monique Nagel-Angermann, “Death and Burial: Narratives about the Rulers of the Sixteen States (300–430)”

The period of the Sixteen States (300–430) in northern China was characterized by rather short-lived regimes mostly founded by non-Han rulers, some of them avid supporters of Buddhism. Narratives about their history were composed by later historians, the Shiliuguo chunqiu 十六國春秋 by Cui Hong (478–525), the Weishu 魏書 by Wei Shou (506–572) and the Jinshu 晉書 ordered by Tang Taizong (r. 626–649) and compiled by his historians between 646 and 648. Although the Sixteen States was condemned as illegitimate, they left their mark on the political and cultural development of China. Testaments and last wills are acknowledged as valuable documents revealing personal concepts of death as well as political statements of intent. Moreover, it is well attested, that imperial burials can serve as demonstrations of power closely connected to ritual and religion. A comprehensive analysis of the attitude of the rulers of Sixteen States towards their own death and their treatment of burials is still missing. Therefore, I will compare specific death-related historiographical narratives about several rulers of the Sixteen States in order to show how later historians presented them as mortal beings and as emperors on the death bed. Narratives about their own burials and the dealing with others’ burials will be deconstructed in order to understand the historiographers’ judgments about the rulers of the Sixteen States.

Jakub Hrubý, “Early Medieval Testamentary Edicts“

Chinese archives preserve a number of testamentary edicts (yizhao 遺詔), representing the last wills of the emperors of the late imperial China. Together with the accession edicts these came to be seen as the most important documents determining and strengthening the legitimacy of the imperial succession. While in late imperial history the issue of such an edict became the regular and expected conclusion of any given reign, the official dynastic histories provide us with merely a dozen or so testamentary edicts for the early medieval period. Given the number of medieval dynasties it seems that this practice was not nearly as widespread or regular as in later times. The transmitted testamentary edicts vary greatly both in length and content. Some were issued from a deathbed of an emperor, some promulgated only after his death by his successor. Despite their unquestionably legitimizing importance the issue of succession is not the only topic as they often provide the posterity with instructions regarding the burial and sometimes even a kind of reflection on the life and reign of the given emperor. This paper will analyse the content of the edicts preserved in the official histories such as Sanguozhi 三國志, Songshu 宋書, Nan Qishu 南齊書, Weishu 魏書, and Jinshu 晉書, as well as the circumstances of their issuance, focusing on gradual development of this important imperial institution and evolving nature of the medieval emperorship.

Imperial
Wednesday
11 am – 12:45 pm

• Chaired by Harriet Zurndorfer
• Jiyan Qiao, “From Literati Self-Governance to Statism—The Political Theory of Wang Anshi as Antidote to Mid-Eleventh Century Republicanism”
• Jinghuo Zhang, “Representing Drama Scene within Inches: New Explanation on Bronze Mirrors with Pattern ‘Half-Open Door’ in Song Dynasties (960–1279)”
• Yiying Pan, “Bandits, Porters, and Waged Laborers: Weaving Spaces for the Itinerant Population in 18th- and 19th-Century Sichuan and Beyond”
• Chiara Rutigliano, “Guangxu Era Telegrams in the Historical Archives of the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale:’ The Specific Roles of the Zongli Yamen and the Grand Council”

Jiyan Qiao, “From Literati Self-Governance to Statism—The Political Theory of Wang Anshi as Antidote to Mid-Eleventh Century Republicanism”

As the theorist of a watershed political event in China’s middle period (c. 750–1550), Wang Anshi 王安石 (1021–1086) has been studied by generations of prominent scholars around the world, giving rise to what Ari Levine calls “an industry of sinology.” Surprisingly, however, not only do major controversies remain unresolved to this day, but a number of central issues have not been addressed or are still left half-answered. For instance, we all know the reform officially launched in 1069/2 aimed for unifying morality 一道德 (yi daode). But what were the specific values this morality was made up of? Beyond what Peter Bol has told us, can we know more? And how did Wang plan to make it uniformly upheld by everyone across the vast realm? Since James Liu’s monograph published in 1959, we have been calling the reform the “New Policies”—does this capture the gist of what was being fundamentally changed? During their first meeting in 1068/4, Emperor Shenzong 神宗 (r. 1067–85) asked Wang Anshi what should be done first in governance, to which Wang responded: “Beginning with choosing the method” (yi ze shu wei shi 以擇術為始). Paul Smith has shown us what Wang’s method looked like in state economy, but was this the main sphere Wang was referring to? Most of the ten thousand words in his well-known letter to Emperor Renzong 仁宗 (r. 1023–63) were, after all, on creating the kind of personnel Wang deemed desirable. And, what was the method of governance that Wang wanted his to replace, to begin with? As the first step in a full-scale study that is likely to revise our understanding of Northern Song intellectual and political history, this paper takes up the formidable task of answering this set of closely interconnected questions. It does so first and foremost by locating the context of Wang Anshi’s theoretical writings at the theory and practice of literati self-governance that had become the mainstream by the mid-eleventh century. After having made this case, I then proceed to reconstruct Wang’s political theory, showing that he worked out a systematic way to put an end to the growing moral individualism and value pluralism—symptoms of chaos to him—that the republican form of government gave rise to and to reestablish the state personified by the emperor as the absolute center of all individuals’ lives, so as to realise the perfect order he envisioned, and focus the government’s job on changing human nature, so that this order can last forever. I conclude this paper by summarising my answers to the questions raised in the beginning and drawing out some implications they may have for comparative studies, for instance with early twentieth century Germany.

Jinghuo Zhang, “Representing Drama Scene within Inches: New Explanation on Bronze Mirrors with Pattern ‘Half-Open Door’ in Song Dynasties (960–1279)”

This paper focuses on a specific type of Song (960–1279) Bronze Mirror, which is decorated with a pattern of drama characters and landscape scene such as bridge, palace, river, etc. Found in various regions, not only in China, but this sort of mirror can also be found in Korea and Japan. However, the meaning of this pattern is still to be figured out. For its depicting a specific visual element of “Half-open door,” which frequently appeared in the tomb, many scholars may deem it as a reflection on religious beliefs. Some suggest that it shall be “Tang Ming Huang visits the Moon palace”, some believe it depicts the story of “Xiwangmu (Queen Mother of the West) and Zhoumuwang (King Mu) meet in the Mountain Kunlun,” while the discussion remains inconclusive.
Through analysing previous viewpoints of scholars on this pattern carved on a mirror, this paper will propose a new explanation, that this pattern actually depicts the story of “Pei Hang” written by Pei Xing first published in Tang Dynasty (608–907) and become prevalent during Song Dynasties, which also echo the development of drama at that time.

Yiying Pan, “Bandits, Porters, and Waged Laborers: Weaving Spaces for the Itinerant Population in 18th- and 19th-Century Sichuan and Beyond”

This paper examines how scholar-officials in Sichuan adjusted their strategies for managing the itinerant population from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. The paper concentrates on administrative responses to a particular type of local bandits called guolu, who continued to perplex administrators since their initial emergence in the 1730s. Bringing together rich materials (i.e. local archives, inscriptions on local fort-constructions, central-level memorials and military cartographies), this paper argues that the scholar-officials shifted from a “legal approach” to an “environmental approach” for tackling the guolu since the late-eighteenth century. Before the 1770s, scholar-officials cared more about how to align the guolu with a discriminated legal category (such as “bare sticks”) and designate legal punishments accordingly. From the 1770s to the 1820s, triggered by the successive regional chaos stemming from the Second Jinchuan Campaign (1771–1776) and the “White Lotus” War (1796–1804), the administrators’ accumulated knowledge about the spatial practices of the itinerant people in general and relied heavily on the spatial knowledge of these itinerants. Specifically, administrators discerned the umbrella networks (i.e. networks of river transportation or salt circulation) that connected the guolu to transporters and labourers in proto-industries; they also realized the necessity to nourish these multilayered non-agrarian networks and leave spaces for the itinerant population, because of the state-level demand for resolving the tension between a streamlined bureaucracy and shrinking fiscal capacity. This paper further claims that this local lesson of Sichuan pushed the Qing state to re-conceptualize the demography-space relationship on the imperial scale since the nineteenth century.

Chiara Rutigliano, “Guangxu Era Telegrams in the Historical Archives of the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale:’ The Specific Roles of the Zongli Yamen and the Grand Council”

My Ph.D. project aims to analyse an impressive corpus of official Chinese telegrams from the late Imperial Era found in the historical archives of the University of Naples “L’Orientale.” To date, the telegrams are still insufficiently studied and researched. The unexpected documents, which came to light in the 1990s, consist of a considerable number of telegrams from 1884 to 1899, during the reign of Emperor Guangxu (1875–1908), on the eve of the collapse of the Manchu Empire and the imperial system in its entirety. We are uncertain about the reasons of their transfer but suspect they were probably transferred to Naples from Beijing’s Grand Council by the Italian sinologist Guido Amedeo Vitale (1872–1918). My research not only aims at recovering the fundamental data which are inherent to the internal and external affairs exchanged during the Celestial Empire, but also it identifies and takes into account the historical context in which the events of the telegrams developed in a particularly complex political and cultural era. After a historical introduction on the development of the imperial telegraphic communications system, my contribution to the 23rd EACS Biennal Conference intends to present an analysis of the structure and dynamics that regulated imperial communications via telegraph. Two important Qing institutions played a decisive role: the Zongli Yamen 總理衙門 and the Grand Council 軍機處 . I intend to clarify the role they played and define the duties of the officials working within their premises, in order to clarify the ways they contributed to the conservation of this important material.

Early China
Tuesday
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Room A

• Chaired by Yegor Grebnev
• Jakub Maršálek, “On the Frontier of Two Worlds: Imports in the Cemetery of Liuwan”
• Yegor Grebnev, Alice Yu Cheng “Reconsidering the Early History of the ‘Eastern Capital’ of Zhou at Luoyi through Reassessment of Textual Sources and Archaeological Evidence”
• Tsang Wing Ma, “The Evidence of “Accordion Fold” in Qin China: An Analysis of the Materiality of Tablet nos. 9-2283, [16-5] and [16-6] from Liye, Hunan”
• Anthony Terekhov, “Two Types of Omen Classification in the ‘Wuxingzhi’ Chapter from Hanshu”

Jakub Maršálek, “On the Frontier of Two Worlds: Imports in the Cemetery of Liuwan”

It is widely acknowledged that during the Late Neolithic and particularly in the following Early Bronze Age Periods, the region of the Chinese Northwest gradually became part of the still widening network of contacts. However, while scholars traditionally paid considerable attention to interactions of the local cultures with areas both to the East and West, their southward contacts became focus of research only in recent years, mainly due to the excavations of an important Zongri site. Those attracted attention to issue of relations of agricultural populations from the lower areas of the Northwest with foraging groups on the northern fringes of the Tibetan Plateau. In my paper, I will consider this issue in a case study of the well-known Liuwan cemetery, spanning over time approximately from the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE to the middle of the following millennium. Over this long period, the cemetery most likely represents continuous development of one local community, probably originating in local foragers which went through acculturation in contact with agricultural immigrants from the lowlands. In order to map the interaction network of this community, I will focus on the imported materials— jade, turquoise, and cowrie shells—and I will point out that their occurrence offers rather surprising pattern which is best to be explained by the different areas of their origin, the turquoise and cowrie shells probably being obtained via traditional contacts with foragers on the Tibetan Plateau.

Yegor Grebnev, Alice Yu Cheng “Reconsidering the Early History of the ‘Eastern Capital’ of Zhou at Luoyi through Reassessment of Textual Sources and Archaeological Evidence”

In this paper, we re-examine textual and archaeological evidence related to the foundation of an “eastern capital” at Luoyi 洛邑 after the conquest of Shang by Zhou in the mid-eleventh century BC. According to traditional accounts, the new city was conceived by King Wu 周武王 and completed by the Duke of Zhou 周公. As pointed out by Khayutina (2008), the Eastern capital is repeatedly highlighted in the shu 書 (scriptures) but largely absent from the shi 詩 (odes), which prioritise the earlier ritual centres in the west. We elaborate this line of inquiry by proposing translations and analysis of two previously unexplored chapters of the Yi Zhou shu 逸周書 (Leftover Zhou Scriptures): “Duo Yi” 度邑 (Making Measurements of the Capital) and “Zuo Luo” 作雒 (Establishment of the Capital at Luo). We propose that these texts—as well as other texts in the shu corpus—reflect Eastern Zhou attempts to reshape the foundational past by linking the Zhou conquest of Shang directly to the establishment of Luoyi, thereby reflecting a possible Eastern Zhou filter in the history of the formation of the shu corpus. By surveying recently discovered archaeological evidence, we further challenge the traditional account pointing out the discrepancies between textually and archaeologically attested periods of active construction and occupation of the “capital” site(s) at the area of Luoyi.

Tsang Wing Ma, “The Evidence of ‘Accordion Fold’ in Qin China: An Analysis of the Materiality of Tablet nos. 9-2283, [16-5] and [16-6] from Liye, Hunan”

The late sinologist Tsuen-hsuin Tsien insightfully pointed out that the early Chinese bamboo and wooden slips are stored in two ways: one was the “roll form” in which the slips were rolled up as a scroll after being bound with a cord. Another was the “accordion form” in which the slips was placed face to face, from which the modern volume is derived. Despite having no physical evidence to prove his assumption of the second type of storage at his time, his categorisation is later proved correct by the newly-excavated texts. Some scholars have already suggested that some of the bamboo slips in the Tsinghua manuscript collection were stored in accordion form. Yet, such examples are those considered literary/intellectual texts, which were written on thin and long bamboo slips. The Qin administrative archive excavated from Liye in Hunan offers the first attested Qin example of this accordion form. The three flat tablets examined in this paper are nos. 9-2283, [16-5] and [16-6], which are of approximately same width and length. Analyzing the mirror-inverted imprints and the track of binding cords on these three tablets, I argue that they had been folded up as an “accordion” for storage after being bound with two sets of cord. This case study allows for a reconsideration of many issues regarding to the written administration under the Qin, including the way in which the administrative documents were filed.

Anthony Terekhov, “Two Types of Omen Classification in the Wuxingzhi Chapter from Hanshu”

The tradition of omen interpretation played a considerable part in Early Chinese political culture. Among the indications of its importance is the abundance of Chinese words designating omens: in early Chinese texts there are more than twenty different characters bearing semantics of this kind. Yet, in the majority of cases these terms are used indiscriminately, and only in the special works do the authors distinguish them to form some kind of omen typology. The oldest classification systems of this kind has been preserved in the earliest omenological work that has survived in its entirety—”The Treatise on the Five Processes” (Wuxingzhi) from Hanshu by Ban Gu (32–92 AD). It is a compendium of the earlier works of this kind, and thus it has preserved remnants of a few different systems of omen classification, two of them being most complete and coherent. Both originate from now lost omenological works: the first one goes back to the main source for the treatise—Hongfan wuxing zhuan lun by Liu Xiang (77–6 BC), itself based on earlier Hongfan wuxing zhuan (first part of the 2nd c. AD), and the second one to Yizhuan by Jing Fang (78–37 BC). The paper will introduce these two types of omen classifications, the principles of their organisation, and terms for the designation of omens used within, as well as meditate on the reasons for their differences and on the Early Chinese typologies in general.

Wednesday
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Room B

• William Nienhauser, “Wei Ran, Fan Ju, and Qin Politics of the Third Century BCE as seen in the Shiji”
• Cai Yixuan, “The Rise and Fall of Zhou Bo and Zhou Yafu: A Study in the Texts on Early Han Court Politics”
• Hongyu Huang, “A Study of Sima Qian’s Portrayal of the First Han Chancellor, Xiao He”
• Hans van Ess, Discussant

The panel focuses on four of the major figures in Qin-Han history: Wei Ran, Fan Ju, Xiao He and Chen Ping. William H. Nienhauser, Jr., the panel organizer, in his study deals with the manner in which Sima Qian juxtaposes accounts of Wei Ran and Fan Ju leading to the victory of Qin over the Six States. Weiguo Cao takes up the duplicity of Chen Ping—and of Sima Qian’s ambivalence in his account of Chen—in his paper. Hongyu Huang examines how Sima Qian narrated the role of Xiao He as the highest official at the start of the Han and how he maintained this status. Each of these men were to shape the destiny of their states, Wei Ran and Fan Ju by enabling Qin to overcome the Six States and unify the empire and Xiao He and Chen Ping to balance their relationships to Liu Bang and Empress Lü with their own access to power. The papers all address Sima Qian’s claim that he was attempting to record men who “supporting righteousness and harboring extraordinary schemes did not allowing themselves to miss the right moment and were able to establish a meritorious name throughout the empire” and reveal that in empowering their states they more often relied on “extraordinary schemes” than “righteousness.” Professor Hans van Ess will discuss the papers.

William Nienhauser, “Wei Ran, Fan Ju, and Qin Politics of the Third Century BCE as seen in the Shiji“

Although the lengthy reign of King Chao of Qin (307–251 BCE) saw several chancellors, there are two whom later scholars credited with Qin’s success or blamed for its trials on the way to its unification of the empire: Wei Ran (335–266 BCE), The Marquis of Rang, and Fan Ju (d. 255), the Marquis of Ying. Sima Guang calls Fan Ju “a gentleman who could put a state in danger of collapse” and Su Che argued that he did little to benefit Qin. However, although Wei Ran served as chancellor of Qin on five occasions, Sima Qian’s biography of Wei, after depicting the way Wei helped Queen Dowager Xuan win control of the state, consists of just two long persuasions and a coda explaining how Fan Ju was able to replace Wei as chancellor. The excesses of Wei Ran’s power and wealth are further highlighted in the memoir for Fan Ju. Sima Qian may have had personal reasons to identify with Fan Ju, since Fan had been beaten and disgraced early in his career. This paper, however, will focus on the possibility that emphasis on Wei Ran’s relationship with Queen Dowager Xuan and other maternal relatives in both biographies, as well as Fan Ju’s support for a general who surrendered to Zhao, may be intended to invite reflection on the role of maternal relatives and generals who surrendered in the Sima Qian’s own time.

Cai Yixuan, “The Rise and Fall of Zhou Bo and Zhou Yafu: A Study in the Texts on Early Han Court Politics”

Zhou Bo, the Marquis of Jiang, was a commoner, but one of the most important figures in aiding Liu Bang to establish and stabilise the Han Dynasty. He helped conquer many of the enemies and rebels outside the House of Liu, and within overthrew the Empress Lv’s descendants after her death to preserve the rule of the Liu’s. His biography in the Grand Scribe’s Records, the Hereditary House of the Marquis of Jiang, focuses first on his military achievements that helped him earned his enfeoffment and then limns his vicissitudes in the court as a powerful high-ranking official and general, eventually leading to his imprisonment under Emperor Wen whom he had helped put on the throne. His son, Zhou Yafu, also a successful general, is depicted in the second part of the chapter. Both men were brought down by legal officials. This paper will analyse in details the reasons for Sima Qian’s portrayal of father and son Zhous’ accomplishments as well as their downfall, and compare this portrayal to the parallel accounts of the Zhous in Ban Gu’s Han shu.    

Hongyu Huang, “A Study of Sima Qian’s Portrayal of the First Han Chancellor, Xiao He”

Chapter 53 of Shiji opens a sequence of five chapters that chronicle the lives of the most eminent and loyal ministers and military commanders of early Han. Xiao He, the subject of this chapter, was the long-time top aide to Gaozu of Han (Liu Bang) in the latter’s grand enterprise to overthrow the despotic Qin and unify China under Liu’s rule. The dramatically charged narrative of Chapter 53 stimulates the reader to pursue its essential questions: among Gaozu’s large group of talented followers, how did Xiao manage to distinguish himself to become the most senior statesman (zaixiang), and retain this coveted position till his last breath? From history’s vantage point, did he justly deserve so much power and prestige? My paper will attempt to respond to these two questions, examining Xiao both as a chief advisor who was instrumental in Gaozu’s rise to power and consolidation of a new empire and as a skilled subordinate who was able to allay Gaozu’s mounting suspicion and survive the emperor’s callous purging of powerful vassals who had outlived their usefulness to him. It will also explore Sima Qian’s use of foil, ambiguity and hu xian fa (telling the same story in different ways) as a means to lend his portrayal of Xiao He more tension and complexity.

Wednesday
9:00 am – 10:45 am
Room B

• Chaired by Joy Lidu Yi
• Kiraz Perinçek Karavit, “Confrontation of the Oral Culture with the Visual: Elements of Central Asian Legend in Late 6th Century Tomb Decorations in China”
• Joy Lidu Yi, “Cross-Cultural Buddhist Monastery Ruins on the Silk Road and Beyond—Lay-out and Function of Buddhist Monasteries Reconsidered”
• Tina Berdajs, “Sleeping Vessels: Chinese Ceramics in Slovene Museums”
• Remy Jarry, “Dunhuang’s Rise in Contemporary China: The Story of a Rebirth”

Kiraz Perinçek Karavit, “Confrontation of the Oral Culture with the Visual: Elements of Central Asian Legend in Late 6th-Century Tomb Decorations in China”

Chinese archeologists have unearthed several different tombs of deceased Central Asian expatriates dating to early middle ages. Miho Museum (Shigaraki, Japan) also hosts among its collections, panels from a funerary couch, said to have come from a tomb in northern China. Shijun Tomb (d. 579) discovered in 2003 in Xi’an, Yuhong Tomb (d. 592) excavated in Taiyuan in 1999 provide us with stone funerary couches and house-shaped sarcophagi. As for the Shumei Tomb, where the rectangular shape coffin platform is missing now, it is also from northern China and similar period. In all three cases, we have panels decorated with painted reliefs. Mostly epic themes and stories, the subjects are very rich. Along these scenes are represented some supernatural creatures. Some of these creatures had been explained by scholars basing on Sogdian/Zoroastrian and Chinese/Buddhist sources and references. In this presentation, I will attempt to make an interpretive suggestion for the association of horses with fishes. Why do these horses have fish tails? What could be their relation to water? The reason behind this motif is most probably a Central Asian legend about the origin of horses. I will touch upon the relations existing among them by exposing the shared motifs in relief carvings, historical documents, mural paintings, archaeological artefacts as well as tales and legends, still continuing to be told today in Central Asia and Anatolia. This case exposes an interesting model about the confrontation of the Central Asian oral culture with the Chinese visual and written one.

Joy Lidu Yi, “Cross-Cultural Buddhist Monastery Ruins on the Silk Road and Beyond—Lay-out and Function of Buddhist Monasteries Reconsidered”

The dissemination of Buddhism is not just limited to the teachings of the Buddha. The architectural configuration of Buddhist monasteries and images are also important components of Buddhist propagation. This research project will investigate the manner by which Buddhism was disseminated from the Gandhara area of Northwest India to the Western Regions and Central Plain China, based on new archaeological finds, literary sources, previous scholarship and earlier excavations of the monastery remains. Recent archaeological excavations of Buddhist monastery ruins in Xinjiang (Tuyuk cave monasteries) and Central Plain China (monasteries discovered above the rock-cut caves in Yungang) revealed important findings. These new materials have high research value and greatly enriched our appreciation of the content of Buddhist monasteries in the regions. Combined with archaeological materials excavated and found by previous scholars in Buddhist monasteries in Gandhara and Xinjiang during the 19th and 20th centuries, all of these now allow one to examine anew such monastery remains and in a new light explore the devotional practices and rituals at Buddhist monasteries in Xinjiang and their relations with those in Gandhara. From the current extant materials, it is clear that Buddhist monastery remains and art in Gandhara and the Western Regions have had great influence on early Buddhist monasteries in the Hexi Corridor and those in Central Plain China. However, the transformation of the architectural layout from Gandhara to Central Plain China still requires more scholarly research, especially in regard to their contribution to the globalization of Buddhism—here lies the major focus of this project.

Tina Berdajs, “Sleeping Vessels: Chinese Ceramics in Slovene Museums”

Ceramic vessels of Chinese origin enjoyed great interest from people living in the area of present-day Slovenia since at least the 17th century. At first, similarly to other parts of Europe, Chinese ceramics were especially popular among people of higher social strata, were they primarily served a decorative purpose in homes of noble families, but with time became more accessible to a wider circle of people. During the 19th and 20th centuries, many of these objects found their way into collections of several Slovene museums.
Today, the largest collection of Chinese ceramics held in a Slovene public institution is the collection at the National Museum of Slovenia with over 200 individual pieces of East Asian origin. With other, smaller collections around the country, they together form a strong basis for research of collectors, collections, and collecting practices of Chinese, and more widely, East Asian ceramics in Slovenia.
This paper presents the on-going research and the first in-depth look into the field of Chinese ceramics in Slovene museums. Known collections are presented and analysed through short case studies of selected objects. These case studies simultaneously illustrate the unique natures and characteristics of individual collections, contemporaneous collectors and their collecting practices, as well as present several commonalities which connect them through historical narratives.

Remy Jarry, “Dunhuang’s Rise in Contemporary China: The Story of a Rebirth”

Dunhuang’s history dates back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 AD–220 AD) when it was first created as a garrison in order to defend the Empire against invaders. In addition to its military function, Dunhuang had been evolving over the following centuries to become a prominent hub for trade and religious activities in Central Asia. Thus, Dunhuang had played an essential role as a multifaceted satellite of the Chinese Empire from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), thanks to its strategic location at the intersection of the North and South Silk Roads and its artistic excellence in Buddhist art (murals in particular). Yet, Dunhuang had fell into oblivion from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD) until its rediscovery during the first half of the 20th century. Interestingly, this modern rediscovery has progressively come along with the integration of the historical site as a quintessential part of the Chinese civilisation. From a forgotten place at the periphery of the Chinese world, Dunhuang has been transformed into a major and well-known destination, where mass tourism coexists with advanced scholarly research at the international scale. In parallel, this rebirth has been instrumental in the defence of China’s geopolitical interests, especially the promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative conceived by Xi Jinping. Thus, China’s integrated cultural heritage strategy tends to resume Dunhuang’s original role as a garrison, but in a symbolic way to support its quest for soft power. Our research paper intends to decipher a set of factors at the origin of Dunhuang’s rebirth from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The Global and the Local under the Tang
Wednesday
2:00 pm – 3:45 pm
Room B

• Michael Höckelmann, “Civilising Mission: Local and Global as Colonial Spaces in Tang Visions of Empire”
• Kelsey Granger, “Intercultural Marriage in Tang China: An Intersection between ‘Global’ and ‘Local’ Concerns”
• Chen Xue, “Foreigners or Natives? The Diverse Interpretations of the Identity of ‘Shatuo Turks’ from the Late Ninth to the Eleventh Century”
• Lance Pursey, “’A Sea of Rhymes, a Mirror of Sources’: The Eclectic Literary Scene in Huzhou in the Dali Era (766–779) as a Test of High-Mid Tang ‘Glocalisation’”

Scholars have labelled the Tang 唐 (618–907) ‘China’s Cosmopolitan Empire’ (Lewis 2009). Tang elites were exceptionally open to global influences in arts, music, and religion, while a great number of foreigners served in its civil and military services. Aside from the foreign, the local played a huge role in Tang society, too: While cultural and political life centred on the capitals Chang’an 長安 and Luoyang 洛陽 in the north, the population began shifting to the south and thus prepared the economic revolution of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. During much of the first half of the dynasty, the court was perambulating between Chang’an and Luoyang every year, and most members of the official service spent considerable parts if not all of their careers in one of the countless prefectures and counties of the realm. While the court from the mid-eighth century onwards remained entrenched in Chang’an—the occasional flight from rebels or invaders aside—many literati turned to the surrogate courts of provincial commissioners in the hope for better career prospects. At the same time, foreign invaders and traders remained a constant presence in most regions of the empire. What impact did the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ have on the social, cultural, and political life of the Tang? Is it appropriate to consider the Tang part of a ‘Global Middle Ages’ (Holmes and Standen 2018), emphasising its interconnectedness with the wider world, or is it necessary to employ other concepts in the analysis of this interplay?

Michael Höckelmann, “Civilising Mission: Local and Global as Colonial Spaces in Tang Visions of Empire“

Despite Tang China’s (618–907) alleged cosmopolitanism, contemporary writings such as frontier poems (biansai shi 邊塞詩) depict the local and the global as dismal places, where an official only ended up as a punishment. Areas like the South (Lingnan 嶺南), the Protectorate to Pacify the West (Anxi duhufu 安西都護府), and the many bridle-and-halter prefectures (jimi zhou 羈縻州) scattered throughout the realm all served as frontiers or counterpoints to the civilised centres of the court and capital(s). The ‘locals’ were the stereotypical other, uncouth, raw, even barbarian, upon which the magistrate, prefect or commissioner (and his aides), who came from the centre, exerted a civilising influence much like colonial officials. The interplay of global and local is evident in the chapters on prefectures (zhoujun 州郡) and borderlands (bianfang 邊防) that appear back to back in Du You’s 杜佑 (734–812) Tongdian 通典. Geographic treatises such as Li Jifu’s 李吉甫 (758–814) Yuanhe junxian tuzhi 元和郡縣圖志 were a way of gaining textual control over a hinterland of which large swaths were still undiscovered country. This paper looks at contemporary writings on local and border administration such as those above, institutional histories, and inscriptions (e.g., ting biji 廳壁記), to highlight the interplay between local and global as frontier zones or colonial spaces in the framing of bureaucracy and empire in the Tang period.

Kelsey Granger, “Intercultural Marriage in Tang China: An Intersection between ‘Global’ and ‘Local’ Concerns“

Research on Tang China is often rooted in considering global and/or local concerns within areas of daily life. Being a period noted both for its early cosmopolitanism and its later xenophobia as well as the complex interplay between identity, ethnicity, and cultural norms on a global and local scale, it is surprising that little attention has been paid to intercultural marriage within this framework. Much scholarship assumes that legal restrictions set out in Tang lüshu yi 唐律疏議 were fully implemented and followed in daily life, whereas my research seeks to prove that there were differences between state and popular perceptions of intercultural marriages as can be seen when comparing several extant xiaoshuo 小說 with accounts from the official histories. Equally, it can be tempting to assume that, amongst the increasingly intolerant legislation and outlook of the late Tang period, that intercultural marriages were heavily discouraged. Again, my research seeks to prove that these marriages often inhabited ‘grey areas’ of cross-cultural interactions, with accounts of such unions continuing to be written throughout the Tang period albeit producing differing reactions in authors and historians. Finally, each account studied herein is shaped not only by its author and its textual history but also by the geopolitical local atmosphere at its conception. By means of contextualising each case-study, I, therefore, hope to bring nuances therein to light and expand on the global and local anxieties, agendas, and agency at play within these accounts.

Chen Xue, “Foreigners or Natives? The Diverse Interpretations of the Identity of ‘Shatuo Turks’ from the Late Ninth to the Eleventh Century“

This paper questions the ethnic binary between Shatuo Turks and Chinese of the Five Dynasties’ ruling families. In modern historiography, Later Tang, Later Jin and Later Han were normally depicted being of Turkic origin, and historians tend to believe that this supposed ethnic difference determined historical figures’ choices and behaviours at the time. Many key events, such as the fictive kinships between Liao emperors and the so-called Shatuo monarchs, Shi Jingtang’s cession of the Sixteen Prefectures to Liao, and Later Zhou and Song’s determination to reclaim these territories, have constantly been explained via their ethnic differences. By examining sources especially tomb epitaphs and historical writings of late Tang, the Five Dynasties, Liao, and Northern Song, this paper argues that the educated elites at the time, including the so-called Shatuo imperial families of the tenth century, in fact had no consensus on who bore the Shatuo Turkic identity. Rather, the ‘Shatuo Turkic’ emperors and their forebears appeared in their contemporary discourses as having diverse geographical, cultural, or ethnic origins. Their ‘barbarian’ identity was more a later Song construction than a historical reality. The paper emphasises that ethnicity was only one of many discourses that shaped the ninth- to eleventh-century figures’ ideologies and behaviours, underscoring the fluidity of identities at the time which the Turkic–Chinese dichotomy fails to account for.

Lance Pursey, “’A Sea of Rhymes, a Mirror of Sources’: The Eclectic Literary Scene in Huzhou in the Dali Era (766–779) as a Test of High-Mid Tang ‘Glocalisation’”

The vision of cosmopolitan, even globalised, Tang empire disproportionately focuses on its capitals and its north and western frontier relations, whereas much of the southeast of China is neglected.
This paper examines five literary figures who crossed paths in the Jiangnan city of Huzhou in the Dali era to show that educated members of society were productive and influential outside the capitals and outside of officialdom. By examining the geographical places and textual allusions in the lives and works of the official Yan Zhenqing, the “tea saint” Lu Yu, the critic and poet Buddhist monk Jiaoran, the Daoist nun poet Li Ye, and the reclusive painter Zhang Zhihe I will reveal a cultural sensibility that was not directed towards the court and capitals, nor to a ‘globalised’ world beyond.
Rather, Jiangnan was becoming a revived cultural centre to rival the capitals of Chang’an and Luoyang, a centre that drew not on political prominence and cosmopolitanism but on eclectic traditions and innovation. And connected to other areas in the empire outside of the capitals.
If not everywhere in the Tang is cosmopolitan does it earn the title cosmopolitan empire? I argue that the Tang was an eclectic empire whose literati in different regional and official spheres drew in different degrees upon rich cultural heritages from both home and abroad. This eclecticism manifests in their literary output which resembles the title of Yan Zhenqing’s lost leishu, “A sea of rhymes, a mirror of sources”.