The Government of the Natural in the Qing Dynasty

In traditional historical research, interpreting historical documents subjectively and manually causes problems such as one-sided understanding, selective analysis, and one-way knowledge connection. In this study, we aim to use machine learning to automatically analyze and explore historical documents from a text analysis and visualization perspective. This technology solves the problem of large-scale historical data analysis that is difficult for humans to read and intuitively understand. In this study, we use the historical documents of the Qing Dynasty Hetu Dangse,preserved in the Archives of Liaoning Province, as data analysis samples. China’s Hetu Dangse is the largest Qing Dynasty thematic archive with Manchu and Chinese characters in the world. Through word frequency analysis, correlation analysis, co-word clustering, word2vec model, and SVM (Support Vector Machines) algorithms, we visualize historical documents, reveal the relationships between functions of the government departments in the Shengjing area of the Qing Dynasty, achieve the automatic classification of historical archives, improve the efficient use of historical materials as well as build connections between historical knowledge. Through this, archivists can be guided practically in historical materials’ management and compilation.

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The Qing Imperial Academy of Medicine: Its Institutions and the Physicians Shaped by Them

East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine ◽

10.1163/26669323-04101003 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 63-92

Author(s):

Che-chia Chang

Keyword(s):

Medical Education ◽

Qing Dynasty ◽

Medical Service ◽

The State ◽

The Qing Dynasty ◽

Medical Academy ◽

Imperial Academy ◽

The Common ◽

The Government ◽

First Dynasty

This paper is intended to explain the changes in the activities of the Imperial Academy of Medicine during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). By tracing its precedents and comparing their functions, I will explain its role during the Qing dynasty. Furthermore, the seemingly hidebound institutional codes in fact reveal interesting information about the dynamics of the Academy. Through examining the impacts of the regulations on personnel and their careers, we are able to explain the very different requirements of the Qing rulers for their medical service. Up until the Ming period (1368-1644) there was an institutional boundary between medical services for the palace and those for the state, even though they shared the same personnel. The Qing was the first dynasty in which even this unclear line disappeared. In this sense, the Qing Academy did not simply copy the tradition of its predecessors. Instead, the services for the emperor’s individual needs became more and more central to its mission. Thus, the common people’s rather critical perceptions of the bureau were largely true. In spite of its increased emphasis on serving the imperial household, the Qing Academy retained its connections with the government. As an alien regime, the Manchu court’s concern for the security of its rulers was much higher than during the previous dynasty. To meet the needs of the new regime, the device of the Qing Academy emphasized fostering elites rather than selecting them. Now the Academy not only provided medical education to the junior members as in earlier periods, but also shaped them in behavior. This affected both the organization of the Imperial Medical Academy, and the strategies of the physicians employed in it.

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Grammatical Descriptions in Manchu Grammar Books from the Qing Dynasty

Histoire Épistémologie Langage ◽

10.1051/hel/2019004 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 41 (1) ◽

pp. 39-55

Author(s):

Takashi Takekoshi

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

Qing Dynasty ◽

The Qing Dynasty ◽

Chinese Scholars ◽

High Degree ◽

The 19Th Century

In this paper, we analyse features of the grammatical descriptions in Manchu grammar books from the Qing Dynasty. Manchu grammar books exemplify how Chinese scholars gave Chinese names to grammatical concepts in Manchu such as case, conjugation, and derivation which exist in agglutinating languages but not in isolating languages. A thorough examination reveals that Chinese scholarly understanding of Manchu grammar at the time had attained a high degree of sophistication. We conclude that the reason they did not apply modern grammatical concepts until the end of the 19th century was not a lack of ability but because the object of their grammatical descriptions was Chinese, a typical isolating language.

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