A Western Organ in Medieval China I. The Chinese Texts

1926 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-211
Author(s):  
A. C. Moule
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
The West ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Chinese Texts ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

It is well known that the Chinese have had a little organ calledshêngoryüfor many ages, made with bamboo pipes which are fitted with free reeds, and played by suction. The wordsshêngandhuang, the reed, occur in theOdeswhich date from before 500b.c., and are traditionally explained as referring to an instrument like that which is still in use. But attention has not, I think, been called to the fact that a reed organ from the West was brought to China in the thirteenth century, and created so much interest at the time that it was reconstructed to play the Chinese scale. Ten or twelve of these instruments seem to have been made and to have been used in the Imperial orchestra during the Yüan dynasty (1280–1368), but I cannot find that they were used after that period. Three descriptions of theHsing lung shêng, as the organ was named, have been found in books of the fourteenth century, and translations of these are here given, with explanatory notes very kindly contributed by the Reverend Canon F. W. Galpin.

Zaitún's Five Centuries of Sino-foreign Trade

1958 ◽  
Vol 90 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 165-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Howard Smith
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
The West ◽  
Modern City ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
The City ◽  
European Markets

The modern city of Ch'üan-Chou, in the Province of Fukien, China, and Situated Near to Amoy on the Formosa Strait, was from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries the chief port for the ocean-going trade between China and the West, particularly during the Sung (A.D. 960–1280) and the Yüan (A.D. 1280–1368) dynasties. An extensive and lucrative trade was carried on with Java, Sumatra, India, and the Persian Gulf. Through Arabic, Persian, and Syriac speaking intermediaries precious products of China found their way on to the European markets. In the thirteenth century the city of Zaitún, as it was known in the West, excited the admiration and wonder of the Polos, the early Franciscan missionaries, and Muslim travellers by the size and wealth of its commercial undertakings. With the fall of the Mongol (Yüan) dynasty about the middle of the fourteenth century the city fell on evil times from which it never fully recovered, for though some considerable trade was carried on during the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, Ch'üan-chou as an international port declined, and its great rival, Canton, grew from the time that Portuguese traders were allowed to establish themselves at Macao.

scholarly journals The quasi-genderless heresy: The Dhūtaists and Master Jizhao

2004 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
VALENTINA BORETTI
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Chan Buddhism ◽  
Jin Dynasty ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

This paper looks at the professional alternatives that Buddhism offered to women by analysing the important role played by a female master in the as yet little studied Dhūta movement, a form of ‘heretical’ Chan Buddhism that flourished during the final years of the Jin dynasty and afterwards in the Yuan dynasty. By examining the descriptions of female master Jizhao and male master Puguang, as seen in epitaphs composed by officers-literati and preserved in a Bejing gazetteer dating back to the mid-fourteenth century, this paper aims to highlight some features of the Dhūtaists' discourse of femininity and also to point out the differences vis-à-vis orthodox Chan constructs, in order finally to evaluate whether such a discourse could have an influence on the general definitions and content of gender roles.

A “Black Cult” in Early Medieval China: Iranian-Zoroastrian Influence in the Northern Dynasties

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-224
Author(s):  
SANPING CHEN ◽  
VICTOR H MAIR
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Common People ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

AbstractThrough an analysis of Chinese theophoric names - a genre that emerged in the early medieval period largely under heavy Iranian-Sogdian influence - we suggest that there was a contemporary ‘black worship’ or ‘black cult’ in northern China that has since vanished. The followers of this ‘black cult’ ranged from common people living in ethnically mixed frontier communities to the ruling echelons of the Northern Dynasties. By tapping into the fragmentary pre-Islamic Iranian-Sogdian data, we link this ‘black cult’ to the now nearly forgotten ancient Iranic worship of the Avestan family of heroes centered around Sāma. This religio-cultural exchange prompts an examination of the deliberate policy by the ethnic rulers of the Northern Dynasties to attract Central Asian immigrants for political reasons, a precursor to the Semu, the Mongols’ ‘assistant conquerors’ in the Yuan dynasty.

scholarly journals True Identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-119
Author(s):  
Ching-Ling Wang
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
The Song Dynasty ◽  
Fundamental Research ◽  
Buddhist Painting ◽  
Image Production ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

In the Rijksmuseum collection there is a painting depicting the Buddhist deity Water-Moon Avalokite´svara. The identification and dating of this painting are complex. It had long been considered to be a Chinese work of the Song Dynasty and dated to the twelfth century; later it was regarded as a Chinese work from the Yuan Dynasty and dated to the fourteenth century; more recently opinion shifted and it was seen as a Korean Buddhist painting from the Goryeo Dynasty and dated to the first half of the fourteenth century. This essay aims to serve as a fundamental research by examining the iconography and style of this painting in detail. The author argues on the basis of style that this painting is a late fourteenth-century Japanese hybrid creation that combines both Chinese iconography and the colouring of Chinese Song Buddhist painting with decorative elements of Korean Goryeo Buddhist painting. In light of the recent research into the inter-regional connection of East Asian Buddhist image production, the Rijksmuseum Water-Moon Avalokite´svaraprovides an example of the artistic interactions between China, Korea and Japan in the fourteenth century.

scholarly journals From Military Leaders to Administrative Experts: The Biography of the “Treacherous Minister” Temüder and his Ancestors

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1213-1230
Author(s):  
Wonhee Cho
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Han Chinese ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Fiscal Reform ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Persian Language ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

Abstract Temüder (d. 1322) was an influential Mongol official of the Yuan dynasty in the early fourteenth century. The compilers of the Yuanshi listed him as one of the six “treacherous ministers,” and it is easy to simply dismiss him accordingly. However, a closer examination of the life of Temüder himself and his ancestors reveals how the Mongol elites adapted and changed throughout time, and specifically how the earlier generation of military leaders transformed into administrative experts in civil administration and fiscal reform. Based on his biography in the Yuanshi, supplemented with a few scattered records from literary collections of Han-Chinese contemporaries and Persian-language sources, this article reconstructs the lives of Temüder, his ancestors, and his sons. In addition to balancing Temüder’s overwhelmingly negative image, this article ultimately shows how the ruling outsiders – here, the Mongol elites exemplified by the case of Temüder – also gained new expertise to further consolidate their rule over China, and provides a more complex and nuanced perspective for understanding the mid- to late-Yuan period.

scholarly journals ALANS IN SERVICE OF THE YUAN. DYNASTY THE ORIENTAL CHRONICLES.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.Л. Чибиров
Keyword(s):  
Southern China ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Historical Science ◽  
The West ◽  
Common Enemy ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

Трагические последствия нашествия татаромонгол на Аланию наряду с уничтожением государственности имели следствием последующие волны миграции уцелевшего населения, что способствовало возникновению крупных аланских поселений на западе и востоке Евразии. Мигрировавшие на территорию современной Венгрии аланы достаточно известны исторической науке, чего нельзя сказать о той их части, которая в свое время по тем или иным причинам ушла в Китай и Монголию. В начале ХIII в. перед захватившими Северный Китай монголами стояли две первоочередные задачи: завоевание Южного Китая и организация управления над огромной территорией. Для этих целей они использовали представителей покоренных народов и в их числе алан как военную силу. Будучи в состоянии феодальной раздробленности, аланские князья не консолидировались в борьбе с общим врагом, наоборот часть из них по разным причинам перешла на сторону противника, другие же подчинились монголам после захвата Алании. В статье приводится множество примеров перехода на сторону врага аланских князей с подвластным населением и участие их в войнах монгольских ханов ради защиты интересов Юаньской империи. Процесс движения аланских всадников на восток проходит в три этапа: после поражения алан в 1222 г, до завоевания Алании Батыем и после окончательного покорения Алании в 1239 г. Судя по китайским и другим источникам, 30тысячная аланская конница принимала активное участие во всех военных операциях монголов на востоке, проявив себя как отличные воины. Часть алан (или асуды) была направлена во Внутреннюю Монголию, где они со временем, живя разбросанно среди монгольских племен, ассимилировались, потеряв язык, культуру, религию. После падения монгольской династии Юань (1368), дружина аланасов покинула Китай вместе с последним монгольским императором Тогонтимуром. Tragic consequences of the TatarMongolian invasion into Alania, along with the destruction of the statehood resulted in the subsequent waves of migration of the survived population, which contributed to the establishment and growth of large Alanian settlements both in the west and in the east of Eurasia. The Alans,who migrated to the territory of Hungary, are quite wellknown in the historical science, which is not the case with the part of the Alanswho moved to China and Mongolia for whatever reasons. In the early ХIIIth century the Mongolians taking over the Northern China faced the following challenges: conquering Southern China and arranging administration for this huge territory. For these purposes they used representatives of the conquered peoples, among themAlans, as military force. Being in the state of feudal disunity, the Alanian princes were not able to unite in the fight against a common enemy in fact, part of them, for various reasons, defected to the enemy, others subjected to their authorityafter the occupation of Alania by Mongolians. The article gives a large number of examples of Alanian princes defection to the enemy with theirdependents and their participation in wars on the side of Mongolian khans to protect the interests of the Yuan Dynasty. The Alanian cavalrymens movement to the east was carried out in three stages: after the defeat of the Alans in 1222, before Batu Khans conquest and after the final conquest of Alania in 1239. According to the Chinese and other sources, Alanian cavalry, totaling to approximately 30000 warriors, was actively involved in all military operations of the Mongols in the east, where they proved to be great warriors. Part of the Alans (or Asuds) had been sent to the Inner Mongolia, where dispersed among Mongolian tribes, they were being assimilated losing their language, culture and religion. After the fall of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty (1368), the Alanian retinue left China with the last Mongolian emperor Toghontemr.

scholarly journals Islamic Astronomy in China: Two New Sources for the Huihui Li (“Islamic Calendar”)

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 697-700
Author(s):  
Benno Van Dalen ◽  
Michio Yano
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Chinese Text ◽  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Accurate Prediction ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Explanatory Text ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty

In this talk we will discuss some aspects of the exchange of astronomical knowledge that took place between the Muslim world and China in the thirteenth and fourteenth century. In that period both the eastern part of the Muslim world, consisting of Persia and surrounding countries, and China, ruled by the Yuan Dynasty, were part of the Mongol world empire. In particular in the period between 1260 and 1280, astronomers as well as astronomical books and instruments were exchanged between Persia and China. As a result, extensive descriptions of a Chinese luni-solar calendar can be found in Arabic and Persian astronomical works from the Mongol period, whereas a Chinese text entitled Huihui Li (“Islamic Calendar”) can be seen to be a translation of a typical Islamic astronomical handbook with tables and explanatory text, in Arabic and Persian called zīj. Islamic astronomy had a good name in China because of its accurate prediction of eclipses, and the Huihui li was used parallel with the official Chinese calendar for almost 300 years.

Copper-engraving in China: The First Chinese-European Co-Operative Project in the Field of Art

1997 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Hartmut Walravens
Keyword(s):  
Yuan Dynasty ◽  
New Technique ◽  
The West ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
Eastern Turkestan ◽  
The Yuan Dynasty ◽  
Qianlong Emperor

While copper-printing can be traced back to the Yuan Dynasty in China, the art of copper-engraving was introduced by the Italian missionary, Matteo Ripa, in 1711. The first work to be printed with this new technique was Illustrations of 36 Vista ofthejehol Palace (1712). The Qianlong emperor wanted pictures of his military campaigns in Eastern Turkestan engraved on copper, and so he arranged for a series of sixteen engravings to be executed in Europe. Following the success of this initiative, pictures of his subsequent military exploits were engraved on copper by Chinese artists. Thus, while the West learned a great deal from China about paper and printing, copper-engraving is a technique which China acquired from the West in spite of a supposed lack of interest in the West.

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