[Review] 李立 、史青:《清代雲南「夷人圖說」研究》(Li Li & Shi Qing: Research on Qing Dynasty Ethnographic Albums from Yunnan Province)

Li Li 李立 & Shi Qing 史青, Qingdai Yunnan ‘Yiren tushuo’ yanjiu 清代雲南「夷人圖說」研究 (Research on Qing Dynasty Ethnographic Albums from Yunnan Province), Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2021. ISBN 9787101153354, 164 pages, 68 RMB.

Reviewed by Li Yutong 李雨桐 (Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg)

This book provides a comprehensive examination of ethnographic albums in Yunnan during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). The authors Li Li (Yunnan Normal University) and his co-author Shi Qing (Yunnan Forestry Technical College) focus on two central aims. The first is to concentrate on the content depicted and documented in the ethnographic albums. In order to achieve the goal, the authors illustrate the intricate details of the characteristics and customs of diverse ethnic groups in Yunnan during the Qing dynasty. The second aim revolves around the motivations of the illustrators. The book endeavors to uncover the underlying rationales that drove the creation of these ethnographic albums. Whether their motivations stemmed from a scholarly desire to document the diversity of ethnicities or whether they were swayed by political, social, and cultural conditions in frontier regions, the illustrator’s intentions added layers of complexity to the local history of Yunnan.

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[Review] 曹新宇:《祖師的族譜—明清白蓮教社會歷史調查》 (Cao Xinyu: A genealogy of the patriarchs. A social historical investigation of the White Lotus Teachings in the Ming and Qing dynasties)

Cao Xinyu 曹新宇, Zushi de zupu—Ming Qing Bailianjiao shehui lishi diaocha 祖師的族譜—明清白蓮教社會歷史調查 (A genealogy of the patriarchs: A social historical investigation of the White Lotus Teachings in the Ming and Qing dynasties), Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 2023. ISBN: 978-7-1001-8416-8, 316 pages, 128 RMB.

Reviewed by Barend J. ter Haar (University of Hamburg)

Everybody working in the field of new religious groups in late imperial China will be familiar with Cao Xinyu’s 曹新宇 essential contributions, especially the 2012 donation of a cache of northern Chinese religious images and texts he received from an elderly lady in Wanquan 萬全 County (in the far north of Hebei Province) who wanted to ensure that her cultural inheritance ended up in the right hands. The complete find was published in Taiwan the following year and thus became generously available to international scholars (p. 1–7).[1] The present book is the mainland China reedition of the 2016 book, first published on Taiwan to accompany the seven-volume printed compendium containing the entire trove, but in simplified characters and with several sections added at the end.[2] In this review, I will take the reader briefly through the book, accompanied by some analytical or empirical comments (references given are to the book under discussion).

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Chinese-European Lecture Series 2024

Crafting Legacy: Tracing the Threads of Traditional Craftsmanship

The making of things to fulfill daily and luxury needs is probably as old as mankind. However, it was only the emergence of industrial mass production that led to the separation between craft object and machine-made object and thus the concept of traditional craftsmanship in contrast to the former came into play. This has by no means led to the frequently invoked death of the traditional crafts though. Craftsmanship, in the sense of unique skills and specialized knowledge through which materials are manipulated, is a universal testament to human ingenuity and cultural heritage that transcends temporal and geographical boundaries. This lecture series delves deep into the heart of traditional craftsmanship, spotlighting questions of knowledge transmission and the pivotal role of networks in sustaining and developing these practices.

Through a panoramic exploration spanning continents and centuries, the lecture series puts the focus on the intricate web of relationships that facilitate the passage of practical knowledge—from master to apprentice, across familial ties, and through vibrant professional networks.

Central to this exploration are the multifaceted networks that underpin traditional craftsmanship: (1) Geographically, how did trade routes and cultural exchanges facilitate the spread of techniques and materials? How did geographical networks shape the evolution of craftsmanship within specific regions, and how did they interact with distant cultures through trade and migration? What role did trade routes and cultural exchanges play in shaping techniques and styles? (2) Interpersonally, how did personal networks within communities foster collaboration and skill-sharing among artisans? How did informal apprenticeships and community networks nurture the growth of traditional crafts? How did the personal networks of artisans intersect with broader institutional frameworks? (3) Institutionally, what institutional structures, such as guilds and workshops, provided support and regulation for craftsmen? How did these institutions and their roles evolve over time?

Yet, amid this rich tapestry of knowledge transmission, lies the elusive challenge of studying tacit knowledge among non-elite artisans. How do we capture and study the nuances of skills passed down through generations, frequently undocumented and deeply ingrained in embodied practices? This lecture series grapples with this dilemma, exploring methodologies and approaches to uncover the practical knowledge embedded within traditional crafts.

We also invite lectures to explore the continuing role and resilience of traditional craftsmanship in the face of modernization and globalization in the present time. What role play cultural initiatives, grassroots movements and digital platforms in the transmission and revitalization of knowledge in the traditional crafts?

The series aims at bringing together approaches from various disciplines exploiting a vast array of sources, including archaeological findings, historical texts, material objects and ethnographic insights, in order to illuminate the socio-economic dynamics that underpin the dissemination of non-elite knowledge.

工艺传承——追寻传统工艺的脉络

制作物品以满足日常或奢华需求的历史或许从人类的诞生那一刻开始就相伴而生了。然而,工业化大规模生产的出现才导致了手工艺品和机器制造品的分离,从而也就产生了与工业化生产相对应的传统手工艺概念。而且,这也没有导致人们经常提到的传统手工艺的消亡。从利用材料的独特技能和专业知识方面讲,手工艺是人类智慧和文化遗产的普遍成果之一,它超越了时间和地域的限制。本年度讲座将深入探讨传统工艺的核心问题,重点关注知识的传播以及网络在维持和发展这些应用中起到的作用。

通过跨越各大洲和数个世纪的全景式探索,本年度系列重点放在促进实用知识传播的错综复杂的关系网上:从师傅到学徒,跨越家族的纽带,并通过富有活力的职业关系网。

这个探索的核心在于探索支撑传统手工艺的多方面网络:(1)地理因素,贸易路线和文化交流怎样促进技术和材料的传播?地理网路如何影响特定地区的手工艺演变的?地理网络如何使得相距甚远的文化之间如何通过贸易和移民联系在一起的?贸易路线和文化交流对技术和风格样式的形成起到什么作用?(2)人际交往,社群内的人际网络是怎样促进工匠间的合作和技能共享的?非正式学徒制和社群网络如何促进了传统手工艺的发展?手工艺人的个人网络和更广泛的制度网络是如何交织的?(3)制度方面,哪些制度结构,例如行会和作坊,为手工艺人提供支持或实施监督?随着时间的推移,这些机制及其作用是如何演变的?

然而,在这些丰富的知识和技能传承过程中,研究作为非精英人群的手工艺人的隐性知识却面临着无法预估的挑战。我们如何捕捉和研究这些世代相传中的知识与技能的细微差别?这些技能往往没有文献记载,而是深深地扎根于具体实践中。本系列讲座将努力解决这一问题,讨论探索传统手工艺中蕴含的知识技能的方法和路径。

我们还将邀请学者探讨传统手工艺在当今现代化和全球化浪潮中的持续作用和生命力。探讨文化倡议、基层运动和数字化平台在传统工艺的传承和复兴中发挥的作用。

该系列的目标还包括汇集各个学科的研究方法,利用考古发现、历史文献、实体文物、人类学田野调查等,阐明非精英知识传承所依赖的社会和经济条件。

[Review] 王锐:《革命儒生:章太炎传》 (Wang Rui: The Revolutionary Confucian Scholar. A Biography of Zhang Taiyan)

Wang Rui 王锐, Geming rusheng: Zhang Taiyan zhuan 革命儒生:章太炎传 (The Revolutionary Confucian Scholar. A Biography of Zhang Taiyan), Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2022. ISBN 9787559855367; 344 pages; 88 RMB.

Reviewed by Fabian Hiller (PhD candidate @ University of Tübingen)

Wang Rui’s new biography of Zhang Taiyan, entitled The Revolutionary Confucian Scholar, is part of a wave of new research on Zhang Taiyan in China sparked by the publication of the revised version of the Zhang Taiyan nianpu changbian  章太炎年谱长编 (Nianpu biography of Zhang Taiyan) and the new edition of Zhang Taiyan quanji 章太炎全集 (The complete works of Zhang Taiyan).[1] While the book is structured chronologically and written in the easy-to-follow style of a history textbook, the author supplements the biographical narrative with abundant information from different primary and secondary sources. Wang takes the approach of a historian when looking at Zhang Taiyan, differentiating this work from many recent more philosophical approaches, a trend that has been especially prominent among Western scholars.[2]

Zhang Taiyan has always been a highly controversial and complex figure within the tapestry of early modern Chinese history, his identity adorned with various attributions. In crafting this book, Wang strategically focuses on two seemingly contradictory yet interwoven dimensions of Zhang’s persona – that of a revolutionary and a Confucian scholar (hence the book’s title). This dual focus not only broadens the understanding of Zhang Taiyan but also underscores the intricate interplay between these seemingly divergent facets of his life. Wang’s narrative doesn’t limit itself to a detached exploration of Zhang’s individuality; instead, it serves as a captivating lens through which the author recounts the broader context of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China.

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[Review] 賈麗英:《出土簡牘與秦漢社會身份秩序研究》(Jia Liying: Unearthed Manuscripts and the Study of the Order of Social Identities during the Qin and Han Dynasties)

Jia Liying 賈麗英. Chutu jiandu yu Qin Han shehui shenfen zhixu yanjiu 出土簡牘與秦漢社會身份秩序研究 (Unearthed Manuscripts and the Study of the Order of Social Identities during the Qin and Han Dynasties). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2023. ISBN: 978-7-5227-1694-7, xiii+447 pages, 218 RMB.

Chun Fung Tong 唐俊峰 (Heidelberg University)

Since the seminal work by Nishijima Sadao 西嶋定生 in the early 1960s, the nature, institutional design, and social implications of rank (jue 爵) during the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE–220 CE) continue to attract scholarly attention. Using unearthed legal and administrative materials, recent research has substantially expanded, revisited, or even refuted Nishijima’s model. In light of the newest works of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean scholars, Jia Liying’s book offers a timely synthesis of this long-standing academic debate.

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[Review] 王永平:《信仰與習俗—社會文化史視野下的唐代道教》(Wang Yongping: Beliefs and Customs. Tang Dynasty Daoism from the Perspective of Socio-Cultural History)

Wang Yongping 王永平, Xinyang yu xisu: shehui wenhua shi shiye xia de Tang dai daojiao 信仰與習俗—社會文化史視野下的唐代道教 (Beliefs and Customs: Tang Dynasty Daoism from the Perspective of Socio-Cultural History), Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2023. ISBN 9787522811406, 725 pages, 128.80 RMB.

Reviewed by Franciscus Verellen (EFEO)

Wang Yongping is a Professor of History at the Capital Normal University in Beijing and a leading scholar of Daoism under the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Following in the wake of his earlier books on Tang entertainments (1995), the cultural history of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties period (2000), and Daoism in Tang society (2002), the present volume addresses four related subjects: (1) Daoism and the Tang social order, with special reference to the place of women; (2) the trajectories of selected Daoist priests and their networks of social relationships; (3) Daoism in daily life under the Tang, notably the Daoist imprint on seasonal festivals, folk customs, and popular practices; and (4) the interaction and different degrees of integration between the Three Teachings (Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism). In ten chapters, framed by an introduction and an afterword, Wang thus explores the broad impact of Daoism on the everyday life of Tang society.

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[Review] 张翔:《大同立教——康有为政教思想研究》(Zhang Xiang: Establishment of Confucianism on Datong: A Study of Kang Youwei’s Political and Religious Philosophy)

Zhang Xiang 张翔, Datong lijiao: Kang Youwei zhengzhi sixiang yanjiu 大同立教——康有为政教思想研究 (Establishment of Confucianism on Datong: A Study of Kang Youwei’s Political and Religious Philosophy), Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2023. ISBN 9787520185844, 356 pages, 128 RMB.

Reviewed by Federico Brusadelli (University of Naples “L’Orientale”)

Since the beginning of the 21st century, studies on Kang Youwei (1858–1927) have experienced a steady and consistent surge, especially in the context of reassessing the late Qing period beyond the traditional interpretation of the “Western shock” as the predominant (if not the only) impulse to the radical transformation of China at the dawn of the 20th century. Over the last decades, more careful observation of the developments from the Jiaqing 嘉庆 period (1796–1820) onward has demonstrated the multiplicity of “intellectual paths” that Chinese élites were exploring well before the acceleration imposed by the forced penetration of Euro-Atlantic concepts (and their Japanese re-elaborations). These observations align with a more nuanced and detailed approach to the evolution of Chinese concepts, as seen in the light of Begriffsgeschichte[1]. In this framework, Kang Youwei appears as a towering figure, not just for his leadership in the failed attempt at reforming the Empire in 1898, but more broadly as one of the most influential and stimulating interpreters of the conceptual restructuring of his time. Hailed as a bold and progressive reformer by his supporters, only to be labeled as a nostalgic conservative after the Xinhai revolution (1911) and the farce of the Zhang Xun 张勋 Restoration he supported in 1917, Kang remained after his death an ambiguous and contradictory figure, embodying all the ambiguities and tensions of the tumultuous transition between Empire and Nation. Although Mao Zedong 毛泽东 himself appreciated Kang’s utopian thrust and a young Li Zehou 李泽厚 tried to combine the materialist and progressive philosophical foundation of the philosopher’s “bourgeois reformism” with Marxism in the mid-1950s,[2] Communist scholarship on Kang remained for more than three decades anchored in an orthodox interpretation of the late Qing period as the “last stage of feudal capitalism,” which deprived Kang of any concrete viability.

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[Review] 张西平:《中国和欧洲早期思想交流史》(Zhang Xiping: History of the Intellectual Exchange between China and Europe in the Early Modern Period)

Zhang Xiping 张西平, Zhongguo he Ouzhou zaoqi sixiang jiaoliushi 中国和欧洲早期思想交流史 (History of the Intellectual Exchange between China and Europe in the Early Modern Period), Beijing: Beijing Daxue Chubanshe 北京大学出版社, 2021. ISBN: 978-7-301-32228-4, 531 pages, 138 RMB.

Reviewed by Zhou Yuping 周宇平 (Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg)

This monograph by Zhang Xiping, distinguished professor at Beijing Language and Culture University (北京语言大学) and Beijing Foreign Studies University (北京外国语大学), focuses on the intellectual exchange in philosophical and religious fields between China and Europe. This includes classical and medieval philosophies and Christianity in Europe and Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism in China. First published in 2001 and republished in 2010 and 2021, the 2021 edition of the book belongs to the book series Ruxue yu Ouzhou wenming yanjiu 儒学与欧洲文明研究 (Studies on Confucianism and European Civilization). According to Zhang, the 2021 edition inherited the structure of the previous editions but with a few amendments to details, which readers can notice from his citation of more recent publications (p. 530).[1]

The book covers a period spanning 300 years from 1500 to 1800 and consists of a total of 16 chapters divided into two sections. The first section deals with the transfer of European ideas to China, and the second examines the dissemination of Chinese thought and culture in Europe. Zhang’s primary sources in his study are the writings of Catholic missionaries in China during the Ming- and Qing-period. Some of these writings are translations and annotations on the works of well-known European and Chinese thinkers. Among the missionaries, the Jesuits and their publications are the focus of this research.

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[Review] 魏善玲《國民政府對海外留學生的救助》(Wei Shanling: The Guomindang Government’s Aid to Overseas Chinese Students, 1937–1946)

Wei Shanling 魏善玲, Guomin zhengfu dui haiwai liuxuesheng de jiuzhu 國民政府對海外留學生的救助(1937—1946) [The Guomindang Government’s Aid to Overseas Chinese Students (1937–1946)], Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe 南京大學出版社, 2022. ISBN 9787305250149, 385 pages, 88 RMB.

Reviewed by Christina Philips

Wei Shanling’s book on the Guomindang Government’s Aid to Chinese Overseas Students is an in-depth analysis of the discourse between various government institutions on the disbursement of financial aid for living expenses and return tickets to struggling overseas Chinese students during the Second Sino-Japanese War and its aftermath until 1946. The study is a result of Wei’s doctoral research at Nanjing University and was published in the “Universities and Contemporary China” (Daxue yu xiandai Zhongguo 大學與現代中國) series, edited by her supervisor Zhu Qingbao 朱慶葆, who also contributed a preface on the role of universities in the making of modern China.

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[Review] 常建华《清前期国家治理与民生政策》(Chang Jianhua: Policies on Governance and People’s Livelihood in the Early Qing Period)

Chang Jianhua 常建华, Qing qianqi guojia zhili yu minsheng zhengce 清前期国家治理与民生政策 (Policies on Governance and People’s Livelihood in the Early Qing Period), Beijing: Zhonghua shuju 中华书局, 2021. ISBN 9787101153910, 535 pages, 88 RMB.

Reviewed by Royston Lin (Albert-Ludwig University of Freiburg)

Chang Jianhua’s Policies on Governance and People’s Livelihood in the Early Qing Period represents a growing interest and trend among Chinese scholars in revisiting Qing (1644–1911) history in recent years. It includes eighteen essays, all of which were previously published in various Chinese academic journals between 2008 and 2020, by the author on topics ranging from the political consolidation of the Qing to the dynasty’s economic policies. The compilation is one of eleven volumes from the fourth edition of the ‘Collected Papers of Nankai Historians’ (南开史学家论丛).

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