scholarly journals Symbols and Function of the Zhang Clan Han Army Sacrificial Rite

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Shuyun Guo
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Fundamental System ◽  
Special Group ◽  
Ancestor Worship ◽  
Special System ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Organizational ◽  
And Function

The Eight Banners System is the social organizational structure of the bannerman (qiren, 旗人) from the Qing dynasty and the fundamental system of the country under Qing rule. It is divided into three types: the Manchu Eight Banners, Mongolian Eight Banners, and Han Army Eight Banners. The Han Army was a special group in the Qing dynasty between the bannerman and the commoners (minren, 民人). The sacrificial rite of the Han Army is a form of comprehensive shamanic ritual based on the traditional ancestor worship of the Han people. However, it is influenced, to some extent, by the shamanic ritual of the Manchus involving trance-dance. It finally took shape as a unique sacrificial form different from both the Manchu shamanic rite and the traditional ancestor worship of the Han minren. As a special system of symbolic rituals, the Han qiren’s sacrificial form embodies shamanic concepts and serves two functions: (1) dispelling evil and bringing in good fortune for the community; and (2) unifying the Han bannermen’s clans and strengthening the culture, identity, and tradition of the Han people, who were living under Manchu rule during the Qing dynasty.

Running Away from the Palace: Chinese Eunuchs during the Qing Dynasty

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-164
Author(s):  
MELISSA S. DALE
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Running Away ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Continuum

AbstractBy exploring cases of runaway eunuchs, this paper aims to contribute to understandings of unfree status during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and more broadly to the reconstruction of the social history of eunuchs. The abundance of cases in the historical record of palace eunuchs running away, often repeatedly, reflects poorly on the imperial court's treatment of its eunuchs and effectiveness at times in controlling its eunuch population. Confessions from captured eunuchs reveal that for many life serving as a palace eunuch proved too restrictive and too oppressive to endure. The repeated flight of eunuchs suggests that for some, the possibility of punishment was preferable to continued service and waiting for an authorised exit from the system due to old age or sickness. As the majority of palace eunuchs were illiterate, cases of runaway eunuchs give voice to eunuchs and reveal: (1) the tensions that characterised labour relations between the imperial household and its eunuch workforce and (2) that eunuch status does not fit neatly into the binary of free or unfree status, but rather is something more complicated that lies on the continuum in between.

Manchuria in Modern East Asia, 1600s–1949

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Shao
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Ming Dynasty ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Social Orders ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Japan And China

Manchuria is an English geographical term that, in the past three centuries or so, has referred to the region that approximately overlaps the region of Northeast China (Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces) in the People’s Republic of China. A scholar’s choice of using or rejecting this term might be associated with their understandings of the historical changes in the territoriality of this region. From the 17th century to the mid-20th century, different powers contested over this region, including different tribes of the Jurchens, before the Manchus founded the Qing Dynasty; Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty; the Russians and Japanese; the Republic of China Government and Warlord regime; Japan and China; as well as the Communist Party of China and the Nationalist Party of China. All these contestations redefined the relationship between this region and China Proper, reshaping the social orders, communal identities, and statehood of the local peoples. Located at the nexus of the modern history of multiple ethnic groups and states, studies of modern Manchuria often require scholars to take transnational approaches, or at the least to adopt cross-border perspectives.

The last guardian of the throne: the regional army in the late Qing dynasty

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Linan Peng
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Coordination Failure ◽  
Late Qing Dynasty ◽  
Late Qing ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
The Late Qing Dynasty ◽  
Poor Recruitment ◽  
And Training

Abstract This paper investigates the organizational structure of the Xiang Army, one of the best-known regional armies in the late Qing dynasty. The army developed an organizational form to overcome problems that plagued the imperial army of the central government, namely, the poor recruitment and training of soldiers, the lack of incentives to fight in battles, and the coordination failure. This organizational structure, I argue, played a central role in the rise of the Xiang Army in the Qing dynasty.

Centralization and decentralization of power structure: A theory of ruling risks and empirical evidence from Chinese history

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 506-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenghan Cao
Keyword(s):  
Qing Dynasty ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Power Structure ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Chinese History ◽  
The Qing Dynasty ◽  
Han Ethnicity ◽  
The Social

In Chinese history, the power relationship between the central and local governments has undergone perennial and critical changes. These changes have given rise to three questions: First, why did some dynasties adopt feudalism at an early stage, merely to curtail the local authority in times of stability? Second, why did the Yuan and Ming dynasties employ a native chieftain system, while the Qing dynasty struggled to bureaucratise the native officers in ethnic minority areas? Third, why were the dynasties of Han ethnicity so hesitant to set up a provincial government while nomadic societies did not view this as a dilemma? Furthermore, why was the Qing dynasty, which was ethnically Han, able to break down these contradictions and create a stable provincial government and provincial state? This paper demonstrates that these changes may be explained by the propensity of the rulers to minimise the ruling risks and constraints that they encountered. Specifically, the ruler’s decision to centralise or decentralise power was constrained by certain challenges, such as fiscal and administrative costs, military technology limitations and political competition. These constraints impelled the ruling class to deviate from the system of prefectures and countries. Under these circumstances, the central government was forced to endure higher social risks and also the potential delegation of power. However, it would reduce the social and delegate risks provided that the constraints were loosened, which triggered the evolution of a power structure between the central and local governments. Another potential driving force behind the changes in the power structure was the dynamic between the social and agency risks. When these risks increased, the central government would readjust the centralisation and decentralisation of power at different government levels to control the rising risks.

Grammatical Descriptions in Manchu Grammar Books from the Qing Dynasty

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.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document