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"Ming Dynasty"
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Printing and book culture in late imperial China
Despite the importance of books and the written word in Chinese society, the history of the book in China is a topic that has been little explored. This pioneering volume of essays, written by historians, art historians, and literary scholars, introduces the major issues in the social and cultural history of the book in late imperial China. Informed by many insights from the rich literature on the history of the Western book, these essays investigate the relationship between the manuscript and print culture; the emergence of urban and rural publishing centers; the expanding audience for books; the development of niche markets and specialized publishing of fiction, drama, non-Han texts, and genealogies; and more.
eBook
The socioeconomic effects of extreme drought events in northern China on the Ming dynasty in the late fifteenth century
This paper analyzes reconstructed data on temperature, precipitation, and extreme drought events in the late fifteenth century in Northern China, as well as historical records on population migration, financial crises, military farms, and national decisions during the Ming dynasty. We specifically examine the socio-economic effects of extreme drought events, which led to long-term changes causing the collapse of the Ming dynasty. Our results indicate that the first Cold Valley and the frequent extreme drought events of the Little Ice Age in the late fifteenth century led to a sharp reduction in the military farm system. Extreme droughts caused a large-scale population migration in Northern China and led to the collapse of the tax payment and corvee systems. To cope with the extreme droughts, the local financial reserve was reduced by 51.3%. As a result, local finances became extremely tight. To alleviate fiscal pressures, the court was forced to change the socioeconomic model implemented in the beginning of the Ming dynasty to the corvee equalization method and silver coin tax collection method. These new measures resulted in a decline of the dynasty’s control over households, to the abandonment of military farms, and to reduced control over the country’s social risks. This article explains the mechanism through which climate events led to the collapse of the Ming dynasty. We specifically explore the relationship between socioeconomic transformation and extreme drought in the late fifteenth century in order to better understand the relationship between climate change and social response.
Journal Article
The romance of the three kingdoms
A new translation and abridgement of one of the four classical Chinese novels - an epic story of warring factions in the era of China's Han dynasty. Part historical and part legend, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms dramatizes the lives of feudal lords and their retainers, recounting their personal and military battles, intrigues and struggles to achieve dominance for almost a hundred years. It is one of the most beloved works of East Asian literature, and the most famous historical novel in China. -- Publisher website.
Book
Ji'an Literati and the Local in Song-Yuan-Ming China
Drawing on largely local sources, including local gazetteers and literati inscriptions for religious sites, this book offers a comprehensive examination of what it means to be 'local' during the Southern Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties in Ji'an prefecture (Jiangxi).
eBook
Representing lives in China : forms of biography in the Ming-Qing Period, 1368-1911
\"The chapters in this ground-breaking volume examine the complex practices of biographical writing in Ming and Qing China. The authors draw on a rich variety of sources to answer some basic questions: Who were the writers of these texts and the subjects of their biographical constructions? What motivated these textual productions and sustained the routes from (re)creations to (re)publications? The informed and fascinating readings illuminate the enduring appeal of representing and represented lives in Chinese history.\" -- publisher website
Book
Genealogy and Status
By shedding light on a long-forgotten epigraphic genre that flourished in North China during the Mongol Empire, or Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Genealogy and Status explores the ways the conquered Chinese people understood and represented the alien Mongol ruling principles through their own cultural tradition. This epigraphic genre, which this book collectively calls \"genealogical steles,\" was quite unique in the history of Chinese epigraphy.Northern Chinese officials commissioned these steles exclusively to record a family's extensive genealogy, rather than the biography or achievements of an individual. Tomoyasu Iiyama shows how the rise of these steles demonstrates that Mongol rule fundamentally affected how northern Chinese families defined, organized, and commemorated their kinship. Because most of these inscriptions are in Classical Chinese, they appear to be part of Chinese tradition. In fact, they reflect a massive social change in Chinese society that occurred because of Mongol rule in China.The evolution of genealogical steles delineates how local elites, while thinking of themselves as the heirs of traditional Chinese culture, fully accommodated to Mongol imperial rule and became instead one of its cornerstones in eastern Eurasia.
eBook
The hidden land : the garrison system and the Ming dynasty
\"'The Hidden Land' means that a large amount of land in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) was 'hidden' or unknown, since the land was managed by both the administrative and the military systems, and only the former was made public while the latter was being hidden due to confidentiality issues. This is one of the author's creative findings as a result of his solid textual research and rigorous argumentation. Since the Ming state management system had a great impact on the land, the population, the taxes and corvâee, the imperial examinations, the justice, the grass-roots organizations and the frontier ethnics during the 500 years from Ming to Qing (1636-1912), the views on the garrisons and guards (weisuo) in the military system are of great help to review the essential issues of the period, which were often misunderstood or neglected before. In addition, the author introduces the present situation, existing problems and basic historical materials in the Ming study which will be beneficial to the Ming researchers and enthusiasts\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Li Mengyang, the North-South Divide, and Literati Learning in Ming China
Li Mengyang (1473-1530) was a scholar-official and man of letters who initiated the literary archaist movement that sought to restore ancient styles of prose and poetry in sixteenth-century China. In this first book-length study of Li in English, Chang Woei Ong comprehensively examines his intellectual scheme and situates Li's quest to redefine literati learning as a way to build a perfect social order in the context of intellectual transitions since the Song dynasty. Ong examines Li's emergence at the distinctive historical juncture of the mid-Ming dynasty, when differences between northern and southern literati cultures and visions were articulated as a north-south divide (both real and perceived) among Chinese thinkers. Ong argues that this divide, and the ways in which Ming literati compartmentalized learning, is key to understanding Li's thought and its legacy. Though a northerner, Li became a powerful voice in prose and poetry, in both a positive and negative sense, as he was championed or castigated by the southern literati communities. The southern literati's indifference toward Li's other intellectual endeavors--including cosmology, ethics, political philosophy, and historiography--furthered his utter marginalization in those fields.
eBook