An Art of Transformation

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Huang
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Qing Empire ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Genealogical Analysis ◽  
Physical Transformation ◽  
Material Practice ◽  
Early Modern China ◽  
Qianlong Emperor

Abstract This article examines the phenomenon of yaobian 窯變, or kiln transformations, in late imperial and early modern China as material epistemology and material practice. By providing a genealogical analysis of documentations of yaobian in late imperial texts spanning the twelfth through the nineteenth centuries, the article relates their supernatural connotations to the production of Qing-period Jingdezhen Jun-style wares, variously known as flambé wares or kiln transmutation glazes. The article advances that the significance of such eighteenth-century yaobian porcelain wares lies in their very inexplicability of craftsmanship and ability to index both physical transformation as well as infinite formal transformation for the Qing empire, particularly during the reign of the Qianlong emperor (1736–1795).

scholarly journals Why was there no capitalism in early modern China?

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIAGO NASSER APPEL
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Public Debt ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Imperial China ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Early Modern China

ABSTRACT In this paper, we ask the following question: why couldn’t Early Modern China make the leap to capitalism, as we have come to know it in the West? We suggest that, even if China compared well with the West in key economic features - commercialization and commodification of goods, land, labor - up to the 18th century, it did not traverse the path to Capitalism because of the “fact of empire”. Lacking the scale of fiscal difficulties encountered in Early Modern Europe, Late Imperial China did not have to heavily tax merchants and notables; therefore, it did not have to negotiate rights and duties with the mercantile class. More innovatively, we also propose that the relative lack of fiscal difficulties meant that China failed to develop a “virtuous symbiosis” between taxing, monetization of the economy and public debt. This is because, essentially, it was the mobilization of society’s resources - primarily by way of public debt or taxes - towards the support of a military force that created the first real opportunities for merchants and bankers to amass immense and unprecedented wealth.

scholarly journals A Port City in Northeast China: Dengzhou in the Long Eighteenth Century

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
RONALD C. PO
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Port City ◽  
Port Cities ◽  
The South ◽  
Southeast China ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern China

AbstractIf we were asked to recall a coastal city of early modern China, most of us would choose Shanghai, Canton, Xiamen, or Macau. These port cities became famous for facilitating trans-regional sea trade that linked the Qing Empire to the rest of the world. Attentive observers know that all of these cities are located on the Southeast China coast, by which we mean the coastal areas south of Shanghai. Taking Shanghai as the dividing line between the northeastern and southeastern coastlines, the port cities of the south are far more likely to be familiar to us than are those of the north. I consider this phenomenon (i.e. the focus on the coast of early modern China) to be a “Southeast China centrism.” And although we might all concede that some southeastern seaports were vital to transoceanic interactions, it is shortsighted to ignore the northern port cities and the role they played in connecting China with the maritime world. In this article I investigate the importance of Northeast China's port cities by focusing particular attention on the less familiar coastal seaport of Dengzhou. By detailing and examining the political and economic importance of this port city in the early modern period, I will show that Qing China's northeastern coast was no less important than the southeast. Even if China's northern port cities might not have been as economically vibrant as those in the south, we should not overlook their functions and histories. Indeed, they also attained unique patterns of political and economic development throughout the long eighteenth century.

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