The Solon Sable Tribute, Hunters of Inner Asia and Dynastic Elites at the Imperial Centre

Inner Asia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-63
Author(s):  
Ning Chia
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Demand ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
Imperial Authority ◽  
Inner Asia ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Cultural Importance

Abstract This article discusses the political and cultural importance of the Qing sable tribute for the expression and maintenance of imperial authority by focusing on the Solon, the largest sable-hunting group of the Qing dynasty in Heilongjiang. The political use of fur tribute items at the Qing centre reveals how the privilege of wearing fur defined the boundaries of the ruling hierarchy and, therefore, why sable tribute throughout the dynasty was a mechanism for maintaining relations between the Manchu court and the hunting population. The high demand for sable and other furs by the Qing emperor and other members of the political elite explains why the Qing empire needed the hunting population and their native places in the borderlands.

‘Treasures of the Golden Chest Brought to Light…’: Revisiting the Sources and Purport of the ‘Truthful Record of the Qing Dynasty’

2018 ◽  
pp. 11-23
Author(s):  
Boris V. Bazarov ◽  
◽  
Ekaterina V. Sundueva ◽  
Chingis Ts. Tsyrenov ◽  
Evgenii V. Nolev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Inner Asia ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Source Studies ◽  
Tibetan Studies

The article analyzes a corpus of sources that formed the basis of the most notable record of the Qing Empire, the ‘Truthful Record of the Qing Dynasty’ (Qingshilu). The analysis is based on a careful study of Russian, Chinese and Mongolian scholarship. A historical treatise ‘Truthful Record of the Mongols under the Qing Dynasty’ based on the Qingshilu and written in the Old Mongolian script was published in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China in 2013. A team of researchers from the Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN) has been working on its translation, source studies and historical analysis, as its materials supplement the available data on the purport and sources of the Qingshilu. Review of its sources allows a better assessment of the veracity of the historical data of the ‘Truthful Record of the Qing Dynasty’ and a deeper understanding of its rich historical material on the Manchu dynasty ruling China, as well as Inner Asia during the Qing period. The article reviews the sources of the Qingshilu as listed in the ‘Truthful Record of the Mongols under the Qing Dynasty.’ Information on the Man Wen Lao Dang (‘The Old Archive of the Manchu Language’) is amassed and analyzed. The Man Wen Lao Dang was one of the sources used in compiling of early chronicles of the deeds of the first Manchu rulers into the ‘Truthful Record.’ The official historiographical and record-keeping tradition was then emerging in China under the Manchu dynasty. The authors assess the purport of the ‘Truthful Record of the Qing Dynasty’ throughout the spectrum of historical and political functions of the treatise. Analyzing of the sources of the ‘Truthful Record of the Qing Dynasty,’ including official documents untainted by compilers’ interpretation, and studying the import of the text in the political life allows to contend great value and veracity of the Qingshilu. The authors see new possibilities for studying international relations in the history of Inner Asia.

A Private Secretary from Golden Gate: Lin Shumei in Jinmen (Quemoy), Taiwan and Xiamen

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-107
Author(s):  
Ying-kit Chan
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Exponential Growth ◽  
Golden Gate ◽  
Career Trajectory ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Qing Dynasty

Abstract The exponential growth of the population from the founding decades of the Qing Dynasty to the early nineteenth century placed tremendous stress on the local bureaucracies, which increasingly depended on county clerks and runners and the nondegree-holding literati to reduce costs within the Qing Empire. This article investigates the life of Lin Shumei 林樹梅 (1808–1851), a private secretary, or muyou 幕友, from Jinmen who had served in semiofficial capacities in Taiwan and Xiamen, highlighting the kind of opportunities that were available to him in the imperial bureaucracy. By plotting the career trajectory of Lin Shumei, the article shows that the defence, governance and settlement of the frontier regions of the Qing Empire depended more on the expertise of ‘men on the spot’ such as Lin than on policies devised in the imperial and provincial capitals.

The poetic forms and two longer poems in the Manju gisun i yobo maktara sarkiyan

2010 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-99
Author(s):  
Hoong Teik Toh
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Preliminary Account ◽  
First Time ◽  
Supplementary Volume ◽  
Translated Literature

AbstractIt is generally assumed that, throughout the Qing dynasty, there was only translated literature in the Manchu language and that, by the nineteenth century, the Manchu literati had become too “sinicized” to unleash literary creativity in their native language. Nevertheless the discovery of a mid-nineteenth-century manuscript of Manchu literary verse, penned by the well-known prose translator Jakdan, points to the fact that Manchu belles-lettres existed even at a time when the role of Manchu in practical arenas was much in decline within the Qing empire in China. In addition to a preliminary account of the poetic forms found in Jakdan's Manju gisun i yobo maktara sarkiyan (“Transcript of bantering in Manchu language”), a supplementary volume to the Jabduha ucuri amtanggai baita (“Leisurely delights”), two intricate poems from the collection of Manchu verse are here presented (in transcription), translated and annotated for the first time.

Horse Theft, Law, and Punishment in Xinjiang during the Qianlong Reign

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-164
Author(s):  
Jianfei Jia
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Law ◽  
Almost All

There are a large number of criminal cases in the Manchu archives, which occurred in Mongolia and Xinjiang and were reported to the Qing emperors. These criminal cases can be roughly divided into two groups: homicide cases and horse theft cases. Based on the records of the Manchu archives, this paper will focus upon horse theft cases in Xinjiang during the Qianlong reign. Xinjiang was a place populated by many ethnic groups under the Qing rule. In the Qing records, we found that almost all of the ethnic groups were involved in horse theft cases. The questions at issue are: why did such horse theft cases matter in the Qing dynasty, especially to the extent they even had to be reported to the central government and the Qing emperors? Based on what law were the criminals of different peoples punished in the judicial trials?My arguments are as follows: based on the Qing records, one can learn that the legislation in Xinjiang had been less mature than that in China proper, and there had not been specific regulations or laws on criminal cases including horse theft being enacted by the Qing court in Xinjiang; the law was subject to variation based on the emperors’ own will, which largely reflects the limitations and challenges that the Manchu rulers were facing during their reign in such a newly-conquered multi-cultural territory. What is certain is: first, in general, the ethnicities of horse theft criminals and owners of the stolen horses were considered by the Qing magistrates, and the criminals were punished on the basis of their and the owners’ ethnicities, thus, a diversified statutory base appeared to be applied in these trials. Second, the punishment for criminals in horse theft in Xinjiang at the time was more severe than that in other parts of the Qing Empire, and the penalties were generally borrowed from that inDaqing lüli, which, to some extent, could reflect the strong influences of Chinese and Manchu legislation.

The Qing Dynasty and Its Neighbors

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 281-304
Author(s):  
Victor Lieberman
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
State Formation ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Forward Movement ◽  
Inner Asia ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Symbolic Resources ◽  
Imperial Expansion

Peter C. Perdue'sChina Marches Westargues that the Qing dynasty's ability to break through historical territorial barriers on China's northwestern frontier reflected greater Manchu familiarity with steppe culture than their Chinese predecessors had exhibited, reinforced by superior commercial, technical, and symbolic resources and the benefits of a Russian alliance. Qing imperial expansion illustrated patterns of territorial consolidation apparent as well in Russia's forward movement in Inner Asia and, ironically, in the heroic, if ultimately futile, projects of the western Mongols who fell victim to the Qing. After summarizing Perdue's thesis, this essay extends his comparisons geographically and chronologically to argue that between 1600 and 1800 states ranging from western Europe through Japan to Southeast Asia exhibited similar patterns of political and cultural integration and that synchronized integrative cycles across Eurasia extended from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries. Yet in its growing vulnerability to Inner Asian domination, China proper—along with other sectors of the “exposed zone” of Eurasia—exemplified a species of state formation that was reasonably distinct from trajectories in sectors of Eurasia that were protected against Inner Asian conquest.

One Painting, Two Emperors, and Their Cultural Agendas

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-117
Author(s):  
Cheng-hua Wang
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Chinese Painting ◽  
Production Mechanism ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Third ◽  
Artistic Vision ◽  
Second Year

Abstract This research focuses on one of the most famous paintings made at the court of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911)—Qingming shanghe (Up the River during Qingming). Commissioned by the Yongzheng emperor (r. 1723–1735) and completed in the second year of the Qianlong emperor's reign (1736–1795), the painting is a rare example of Qing court art that reveals how Qianlong furthered his father's artistic vision while formulating his own in the first fifteen years of his long tenure as ruler. This vision involved how to reinterpret and reinvent the Chinese painting tradition through time-honored themes. The article is divided into four sections. In the first, it brings attention to the salient and crucial but long neglected stylistic features of the painting—those that emphasize theatricality and spectatorship. These interconnected features link and characterize the paintings commissioned by Yongzheng. The second section shifts to discuss the emerging cultural agenda of Yongzheng as seen through the manner in which court art references the Chinese painting tradition. The most remarkable act regards the reinterpretation of old painting themes that include Qingming shanghe and Baijun tu (One Hundred Horses). The third section analyzes how the paratextual elements of Qingming shanghe, especially Qianlong's poem and inscription, inform us of the emperor's views about the production mechanism of court painting and the political meaning of this work. The last section, based on Qianlong's understanding of the painting, highlights the emperor's cultural agenda associated with the idea of yuanben, which pointed to new versions of old themes made by his painting academy.

scholarly journals Research on the Distribution and Scale Evolution of Suzhou Gardens under the Urbanization Process from the Tang to the Qing Dynasty

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Tiantian Zhang ◽  
Zefeng Lian
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urbanization Process ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Suzhou City ◽  
World Cultural Heritage ◽  
Urban Pattern ◽  
The City ◽  
Historical Periods

Suzhou city was the cultural centre of ancient south China. It continues the urban pattern of more than 800 years ago. Suzhou gardens are the essence of Chinese gardening art, as well as the valuable world cultural heritage site. This paper compared the evolution in the distribution and scale of Suzhou gardens among five historical periods, and discussed the influence of urbanization on gardening. It revealed that: (1) The distribution of Suzhou gardens was affected by the layout and changes of the political centre and commercial centre of Suzhou city; (2) The scale of Suzhou gardens was mainly affected by the available land scale within the city and the wealth of its owner; (3) The cityscape of ‘half city occupied by gardens’ was largely resulted from the rapidly increasing number of small courtyard gardens in the Qing Dynasty; (4) The evolution of Suzhou gardens’ distribution and scale affected interior layouts. The evolution and social development of ancient cities can affect the distribution and scale of gardens. At the same time, the popularization of gardening art also optimizes the cityscape.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document