Biographies of Buried Memory in Late Imperial China - Burying Autumn: Poetry, Friendship, and Loss. By Hu Ying. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016. ix, 380 pp. ISBN: 9780674737204 (cloth). - Fiction's Family: Zhan Xi, Zhan Kai, and the Business of Women in Late-Qing China. By Ellen Widmer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2016. xvi, 329 pp. ISBN: 9780674088375 (cloth).

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-500
Author(s):  
Nanxiu Qian
Keyword(s):  
Harvard University ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Late Qing China ◽  
Imperial China

scholarly journals CORPSE ADMONITION: WU KEDU AND BUREAUCRATIC PROTEST IN LATE QING CHINA

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-143
Author(s):  
Ying-kit Chan
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Unintended Consequence ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Arbitrary Power ◽  
Late Qing China ◽  
Imperial China ◽  
Further Development

AbstractIn late imperial China, an extremely small number of bureaucrats adopted corpse admonition (shijian尸諫) to protest with their death what they regarded as inadequacies or failings in the imperial structure. This article introduces the case of Wu Kedu 吳可讀, who killed himself to protest the designation, by the late Qing empress dowagers Ci'an and Cixi, of Guangxu as the emperor, and as the adopted son of Xianfeng and not as the heir to Tongzhi. The article argues that Wu Kedu's suicide, which was highly praised during and after its time, was an attempt to sway bureaucratic opinion to put a check on the arbitrary power of empress dowagers, but instead had the unintended consequence of reinforcing it. More importantly, Wu Kedu's corpse admonition was a precursor of the outpouring of voices of remonstrance over political issues at the turn of the twentieth century, leading to further development of the Chinese “constitutional agenda.”

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