DOCSLIB.ORG

Tracing and Re-Conceptualizing Ethnicity in Ancient North China, 770 Bc - Ad 581

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Tracing and Re-Conceptualizing Ethnicity in Ancient North China, 770 Bc - Ad 581 View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS BECOMING ZHONGGUO, BECOMING HAN: TRACING AND RE-CONCEPTUALIZING ETHNICITY IN ANCIENT NORTH CHINA, 770 BC - AD 581 YANG SHAO-YUN BA (HONS), NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2007 i Acknowledgments I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Associate Professor Huang Jianli, who was my supervisor throughout the two years of the Masters programme. From the start, Professor Huang committed himself to helping me realize my dreams of an academic career specializing in Fragmentation-period history, and his advice, while often tough and blunt in its delivery, has always been true to that commitment and proven to be both timely and correct. In September 2005, Professor Huang encouraged me to attempt a dissertation topic I was truly interested in, rather than settle for the ‘safe’ option I had chosen earlier; this advice led me into twenty very fruitful months of research on questions of ethnicity in ancient Chinese history, at first focusing on the Age of Fragmentation but later broadening to include Eastern Zhou, Han, and Wei-Jin. That research, in turn, enabled me to produce an application that successfully secured a fellowship to pursue a PhD in the United States. At the end of May this year, Professor Huang again stepped in to convince me that the broadening scope of my research now necessitated a drastic restructuring of the dissertation. A huge amount of detailed analysis on Northern Dynasties history would have to be discarded from the draft if the conceptual discussions of ethnicity in earlier periods - which I increasingly found to be vital to my main argument - were to have any place in the main text. The process of amputating entire chapters was certainly painful, but its result has been a much more coherent and purposeful dissertation than I would otherwise have written. For all the above reasons, I am thankful to Professor Huang and honoured to call him my teacher. ii Victor Ban read two very different drafts of this dissertation, and suggested many important changes and refinements. Victor, who in April completed his own MA at Harvard with a dissertation on Northern Wei food culture, is a brilliant student and a dependable friend whom I would be delighted to have as a colleague someday. I would like to thank him for his invaluable input; any remaining errors in the dissertation are, of course, my own responsibility entirely. Sincere thanks go also to my classmate Ng Eng Ping for offering me information on the 1950s minzu-buzu debate in the PRC, and for many enlightening and entertaining conversations about famous Chinese historians. My wife Estelle and my parents have given me so much love, understanding, patience, and support during the writing of this dissertation that the credit for its completion is more theirs than mine. And, as always, I give my greatest thanks and praise to God from whom all blessings flow. iii Contents Summary iv Abbreviations used in footnotes vi 1 - Introduction 1 Context and scope Literature review: The sinification/sinicization framework The anthropological framework The Chinese Marxist framework of minzu ronghe Research questions 2 - The Eastern Zhou Worldview: Zhongguo, Tianxia, and the Barbarians 22 Zhongguo/Zhuxia as the centre of the ‘civilized world’ Yi/Rong/Man/Di: The mysterious ‘barbarians’ Huaxia as the ethnic identity of Zhongguo people? 3 – Changes in Han and Wei-Jin Discourses on Ethnicity and Ethnic Difference 38 Li (‘ethics’) and de (‘virtue’): The universalist Confucian measure of ethnicity Hua: The ethnic identity of the literati Hu: A label for foreigners from the north and west Zulei (‘race’) and xin (‘heart’): The proto-racist Confucian measure of ethnicity 4 - Northern Wei and the Supra-ethnicization of the Hua/Yi Dichotomy 61 Fourth-century ‘barbarian’ regimes in Zhongguo Adoption of classical Eastern Zhou and Five Phases discourses Adoption of the labels Hua and Hu Adoption of Gongyang/Guliang and Zuoshi discourses 5 - The Xianbi Construction of ‘Han’ Ethnic Identity 79 A new hypothesis on the origins of Han as an ethnonym When is a Xianbi a Han but not a Han’er? The myth of ‘Xianbified Han’ and ‘sinified Xianbi’ Conclusion: Deconstructing Hanhuà 100 Bibliography 105 Appendix: Glossary of names, terms, and phrases from the ‘Chinese’ (Zhongguo/Han/Hua) language 127 iv Summary My dissertation explores the nature of ethnic identity in the core region of north China during a period of 1,351 years from the beginning of Eastern Zhou (770- 256 BC) to the end of the Northern Dynasties (AD 399-581), these being periods commonly perceived as starting in a state of ethnic diversity and conflict, and ending with a population that was close to homogeneous in sharing a ‘Huaxia’, ‘Hua’, or ‘Han’ ethnic identity. The dissertation's key research question is whether the conventional analytical framework of progressive ethnic assimilation of minority/'barbarian' peoples by a distinct ‘Huaxia’/‘Hua’/‘Han’ ethnic group is supported by a thorough examination of the evidence. My argument, developed through a critical study of the construction, evolution, and manipulation of ethnonyms in ancient north China, is that the ethnic assimilation framework is untenable in its present form. Today, over one billion Chinese citizens know themselves ethnically as ‘Han’, and millions of descendants of migrant Chinese worldwide know themselves ethnically as ‘Hua’, together forming an ethnic group regarded as the largest in the world. Historians, both Chinese and non-Chinese, routinely assert that the prototype for this ethnic group was a ‘Huaxia’ people whose ethnic identity took shape no later than Eastern Zhou. But, contrary to mainstream Chinese scholarly opinion since the 1940s, there is no record at all of ‘Huaxia’ being used as an ethnonym rather than a toponym at any time between 770 BC and AD 581. While there is inconclusive evidence from a single ancient text, Zuoshi Chunqiu, that ‘Hua’ may have been an ethnic identity in sixth-century BC Eastern Zhou, this identity apparently faded from ethnic discourse at some time thereafter and was only revived in the third century AD, due largely to the growing influence of Zuoshi Chunqiu among the elite. Meanwhile, ‘Han’ was a political, not an ethnic, affiliation that fell out of use in north China after v the end of the Eastern Han empire (AD 25-220), and was only reintroduced as an ethnonym by the Xianbi people of the Mongolian steppe in the fourth or fifth century. The Xianbi relabelled the ‘Hua’ ethnic group as ‘Han’, and further adapted ‘Hua’ from an ethnonym to a supra-ethnic identity based on geography and culture, enabling themselves to hold a dual identity as both ethnically Xianbi and supra-ethnically Hua. They thereby overcame the Hua/Yi dichotomy of contemporary Confucian ethnic discourse (a discourse rooted in Zuoshi Chunqiu), in which ‘barbarians’ (Yi) were inherently inferior and unworthy to rule over the ‘Hua’, and in fact appropriated this dichotomy for use in their own relations with peoples and regimes outside their north Chinese empire. Thus between 399 and 581 there was a ‘Han’ ethnic group in north China for the first time in history, but there is no credible evidence that other peoples were giving up their own ethnonyms in favour of ‘Han’ - even if they were adopting ‘Hua’ as a supra-ethnic identity, or adopting cultural elements previously unique to the ethnic group they knew as ‘Han’. vi Abbreviations used in footnotes BQS Li Baiyao 李百药, Beiqi Shu 《北齐书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) BS Li Yanshou 李延寿, Beishi 《北史》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) GY Gongyang commentary to Chunqiu《春秋公羊传》 (authorship uncertain) HHS Fan Ye 范晔, Houhan Shu 《后汉书》(Zhonghua Shuju edition) HS Ban Gu 班固, Hanshu 《汉书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) JS Fang Xuanling 房玄龄, Jinshu 《晋书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) JTS Liu Xu 刘昫, Jiu Tangshu 《旧唐书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) LQ Yang Xuanzhi 杨衒之, Luoyang Qielanji 《洛阳伽蓝记》 LS Yao Silian 姚思廉, Liangshu 《梁书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) NQS Xiao Zixian 萧子显, Nanqi Shu 《南齐书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) SGZ Chen Shou 陈寿, Sanguo Zhi 《三国志》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) SJ Sima Qian 司马迁, Shiji 《史记》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) SLG Cui Hong 崔鸿 (ed. Tang Qiu 汤球), Shiliuguo Chunqiu Jibu 《十六 国春秋缉补》 (Jinan: Qilu, 2000) SS Shen Yue 沈约, Songshu 《宋书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) SuiS Wei Zheng 魏征, Suishu《隋书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) TPYL Li Fang 李昉 (ed.), Taiping Yulan 《太平御览》 WS Wei Shou 魏收, Weishu 《魏书》(Zhonghua Shuju edition) XTS Ouyang Xiu 欧阳修, Xin Tangshu 《新唐书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) ZhouS Linghu Defen 令狐德棻, Zhoushu 《周书》 (Zhonghua Shuju edition) vii ZS Zuoshi Chunqiu 《左氏春秋》/ Zuozhuan 《左传》 (authorship uncertain) ZZTJ Sima Guang 司马光, Zizhi Tongjian 《资治通鉴》 1 Chapter 1 Introduction For all of the ethnic strife that occurred during the period of division after the Han dynasty, this was paradoxically also the period when many of the ethnic groups that figured so prominently in ancient Chinese history disappeared, and became absorbed in the great unity of the “Han Chinese.”… [I]ntermarriage gradually blurred the lines of ethnic distinction. Children of the once unmistakably alien northern elite became indistinguishable from ethnic Chinese – in fact, became Chinese; and the once multi-ethnic populations of both north and south China successfully re-imagined themselves together as fellow Chinese. The Chinese t’ien-hsia [Tianxia] absorbed intruders from the periphery of what was still very much a closed system, and made one out of many. With some adjustment, China retained both its centrality in the East Asian ecumene and its distinctly Chinese identity.1 Thus did the US historian Charles Holcombe summarize the history of a period I call China’s Age of Fragmentation (316-589)2 , but his words could easily have been translated directly from any general history text published in China within the last twenty years, so typical are they of conventional wisdom in the field.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907)
    Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907) BuYun Chen Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 BuYun Chen All rights reserved ABSTRACT Dressing for the Times: Fashion in Tang Dynasty China (618-907) BuYun Chen During the Tang dynasty, an increased capacity for change created a new value system predicated on the accumulation of wealth and the obsolescence of things that is best understood as fashion. Increased wealth among Tang elites was paralleled by a greater investment in clothes, which imbued clothes with new meaning. Intellectuals, who viewed heightened commercial activity and social mobility as symptomatic of an unstable society, found such profound changes in the vestimentary landscape unsettling. For them, a range of troubling developments, including crisis in the central government, deep suspicion of the newly empowered military and professional class, and anxiety about waste and obsolescence were all subsumed under the trope of fashionable dressing. The clamor of these intellectuals about the widespread desire to be “current” reveals the significant space fashion inhabited in the empire – a space that was repeatedly gendered female. This dissertation considers fashion as a system of social practices that is governed by material relations – a system that is also embroiled in the politics of the gendered self and the body. I demonstrate that this notion of fashion is the best way to understand the process through which competition for status and self-identification among elites gradually broke away from the imperial court and its system of official ranks.
    [Show full text]
  • Volume 19 (2012), Article 2
    Volume 19 (2012), Article 2 http://chinajapan.org/articles/19/2 Fogel, Joshua A. “On Saeki Arikiyo’s Monumental Study of the ‘Treatise on the People of Wa’” Sino-Japanese Studies 19 (2012), article 2. Abstract: Saeki Ariyiko was one of the world’s premier historians of ancient Japanese and East Asian history. His knowledge of texts and his ability to use them in creative ways and thus bring antiquity to life were virtually unmatched. One of his last works was a reading of the single most commented upon text in Sino-Japanese historical and cultural relations, the Treatise on the People of Wa in the Chronicle of the Kingdom of Wei (known in Japan as Gishi Wajinden). Saeki’s book, entitled Gishi Wajingden o yomu 魏 志倭人伝を読む (Reading the Treatise on the People of Wa in the Chronicle of the Kingdom of Wei), appeared in two volumes (over 450 pages in total) and was published by Yoshikawa kōbunkan in 2000. To give a flavor of the work, I offer a translation of the introductions to each of the volumes. Sino-Japanese Studies http://chinajapan.org/articles/19/2 On Saeki Arikiyo’s Monumental Study of the “Treatise on the People of Wa” Joshua A. Fogel Saeki Ariyiko 佐伯有清 (1925-2005) was one of the world’s premier historians of ancient Japanese and East Asian history. His knowledge of texts and his ability to use them in creative ways and thus bring antiquity to life were virtually unmatched. Although I never had the honor to study with or even meet him, I have long been an admirer of his scholarship both for his approach and product.
    [Show full text]
  • GLOBAL HISTORY and NEW POLYCENTRIC APPROACHES Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History
    Foreword by Patrick O’Brien Edited by Manuel Perez Garcia · Lucio De Sousa GLOBAL HISTORY AND NEW POLYCENTRIC APPROACHES Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History Series Editors Manuel Perez Garcia Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai, China Lucio De Sousa Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Tokyo, Japan This series proposes a new geography of Global History research using Asian and Western sources, welcoming quality research and engag- ing outstanding scholarship from China, Europe and the Americas. Promoting academic excellence and critical intellectual analysis, it offers a rich source of global history research in sub-continental areas of Europe, Asia (notably China, Japan and the Philippines) and the Americas and aims to help understand the divergences and convergences between East and West. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15711 Manuel Perez Garcia · Lucio De Sousa Editors Global History and New Polycentric Approaches Europe, Asia and the Americas in a World Network System Editors Manuel Perez Garcia Lucio De Sousa Shanghai Jiao Tong University Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Shanghai, China Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan Pablo de Olavide University Seville, Spain Palgrave Studies in Comparative Global History ISBN 978-981-10-4052-8 ISBN 978-981-10-4053-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4053-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937489 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018, corrected publication 2018. This book is an open access publication. Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
    [Show full text]
  • Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Relations of the Korean Peninsula with the Eurasian Steppe
    SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 301 May, 2020 Archaeological Perspectives on the Early Relations of the Korean Peninsula with the Eurasian Steppe by Kang, In Uk Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS FOUNDED 1986 Editor-in-Chief VICTOR H. MAIR Associate Editors PAULA ROBERTS MARK SWOFFORD ISSN 2157-9679 (print) 2157-9687 (online) SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series dedicated to making available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor-in-chief actively encourages younger, not yet well established scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including romanized modern standard Mandarin and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino-Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. Submissions are regularly sent out for peer review, and extensive editorial suggestions for revision may be offered. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form.
    [Show full text]
  • Jingjiao Under the Lenses of Chinese Political Theology
    religions Article Jingjiao under the Lenses of Chinese Political Theology Chin Ken-pa Department of Philosophy, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City 24205, Taiwan; [email protected] Received: 28 May 2019; Accepted: 16 September 2019; Published: 26 September 2019 Abstract: Conflict between religion and state politics is a persistent phenomenon in human history. Hence it is not surprising that the propagation of Christianity often faces the challenge of “political theology”. When the Church of the East monk Aluoben reached China in 635 during the reign of Emperor Tang Taizong, he received the favorable invitation of the emperor to translate Christian sacred texts for the collections of Tang Imperial Library. This marks the beginning of Jingjiao (oY) mission in China. In historiographical sense, China has always been a political domineering society where the role of religion is subservient and secondary. A school of scholarship in Jingjiao studies holds that the fall of Jingjiao in China is the obvious result of its over-involvement in local politics. The flaw of such an assumption is the overlooking of the fact that in the Tang context, it is impossible for any religious establishments to avoid getting in touch with the Tang government. In the light of this notion, this article attempts to approach this issue from the perspective of “political theology” and argues that instead of over-involvement, it is rather the clashing of “ideologies” between the Jingjiao establishment and the ever-changing Tang court’s policies towards foreigners and religious bodies that caused the downfall of Jingjiao Christianity in China. This article will posit its argument based on the analysis of the Chinese Jingjiao canonical texts, especially the Xian Stele, and takes this as a point of departure to observe the political dynamics between Jingjiao and Tang court.
    [Show full text]
  • Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Ps4 Guide
    Dynasty warriors 8 xtreme legends ps4 guide Continue Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends - Full edition of Bonus Characters successfully complete the specified task to unlock the corresponding character. Note: The point at which some characters become available will vary depending on the order of completion of the stages: Jin Deng Ai: Successfully complete Stage 6: Battle on Mount Tielong. Guo Huai: Successfully complete Stage 4X: The Journey of Xiaou Ba, Stage 5X: The Battle of the New Hefei Castle, or Stage 7: The Uprising of Guanqiu Jian and Wen Tsin. Jia Chong: Successfully complete Stage 3: Battle of Mount Shinshi. Wang Yuanji: Successfully complete Stage 1: Battle of the U Chang Plains. Wen Yang: Successfully completes Stage 2: Battle of Xiangyang. Xiahou Ba: In stage 4X: Xiahou Ba Journey, Jiang Wei defeat before he meets up with Xiahou Ba, and then completes stage 5: Battle of the Eastern gates. Joon Hui: Successfully complete Stage 6: Battle of Mount Tielong. Juge Dan: Successfully complete Stage 5: East Gates Battle. Shu Bao Sannyang: Successfully complete Stage 11X (hypothetical): Pacific Nanzhong. Guan Ping: Successfully complete Stage 11X (hypothetical): Pacific Nanzhong. Guan Suo: Successfully complete Stage 9: Battle Fan Castle. Guan Xing: Successfully complete Stage 9: Battle fan castle. Guan Yinping: Successfully complete Stage 9: Battle Fan Castle. Huang Jun: Successfully complete Stage 7: Battle of Chengdu. Jiang Wei: Successfully completes Stage 12 (historic): Battle of Jieting or Stage 12 (Hypothetical): Luoyang invasion. Liu Shan: Successfully complete Stage 11 (historic): Battle of Tianshui or Stage 13 (hypothetical): Capture Wei. Ma Chao: Successfully complete Stage 8: Battle of Mount Dinjun.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of the Death Mystery of Huo Qubing, a Famous Cavalry General in the Western Han Dynasty
    Journal of Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology DOI: 10.23977/jfsst.2021.010410 Clausius Scientific Press, Canada Volume 1, Number 4, 2021 An Analysis of the Death Mystery of Huo Qubing, a Famous Cavalry General in the Western Han Dynasty Liu Jifeng, Chen Mingzhi Shandong Maritime Vocational College, Weifang, 261000, Shandong, China Keywords: Huo qubing, Myth, Mysterious death Abstract: Throughout his whole lifetime, Huo Qubing created a myth of ancient war, and left an indelible mark in history. But, pitifully, he suddenly died during young age. His whole life was very short, and it seemed that Huo was born for war and died at the end of war. Although he implemented his great words and aspirations “What could be applied to get married, since the Huns haven’t been eliminated?”, and had no regrets for life, still, his mysterious death caused endless questions and intriguing reveries for later generations. 1. Introduction Huo Qubing, with a humble origin, was born in 140 B.C. in a single-parent family in Pingyang, Hedong County, which belongs to Linfen City, Shanxi Province now. He was an illegitimate child of Wei Shaoer, a female slave of Princess Pingyang Mansion, and Huo Zhongru, an inferior official. Also, he was a nephew-in-mother of Wei Qing, who was General-in-chief Serving as Commander-in-chief in the Western Han Dynasty. Huo Qubing was greatly influenced by his uncle Wei Qing. He was a famous military strategist and national hero during the period of Emperor Wudi of the Western Han Dynasty. He was fond of horse-riding and archery.
    [Show full text]
  • Hang Tu 涂航 2 Peabody Terrace, #1703, Cambridge, MA, 02138 Email: [email protected] Phone: +1-443-345-6628 Education： H
    Hang Tu 涂航 2 Peabody Terrace, #1703, Cambridge, MA, 02138 Email: [email protected] Phone: +1-443-345-6628 Education： Harvard University 2015-Present East Asian Languages & Civilizations Ph.D. University of Washington June 2014 English Language and Literature M.A. Sun Yat-Sen University July 2012 English Language and Literature B.A. Dissertation: “Revolution Remains: Literature, Thought, and Memory Politics in Contemporary China” Committee: Professor David Der-wei Wang (Chair), Professor Elizabeth J. Perry, Professor Jie Li Publications: Book Chapters: “Cultural Imperialism Redux? Reassessing the Christian Colleges of Republican China,” co- authored with Elizabeth J. Perry, in China and the World—The World and China: A Transcultural Perspective, Vol. 3 (Gossenberg: OSTASIEN Verlag, 2019). “Anticipatory Utopia and Redemptive Utopia in Post-revolutionary China,” in Utopia and Utopianism in the Contemporary Chinese Context: Texts, Ideas, Spaces, David Der-wei Wang eds. (Hong Kong University Press, forthcoming). English Journal Articles: “Pleasure and Sin, Li Zehou, Liu Zaifu, and the Political-Theological Motif in Post-Mao Cultural Reflections,” in Prism: Theory and Modern Chinese Literature, accepted. Chinese Journal Articles: “Le yu zui: Li Zehou, Liu Zaifu, yu wenhuafansi de liangzhonglujing” 樂與罪：李澤厚, 劉 再復, 與文化反思的兩種路徑” [Pleasure and sin: Li Zehou, Liu Zaifu, and the two routes of cultural reflection in post-Mao China], in Huawenwenxue 華文文學 [Sinophone Literature], Feb. 2019. (Peer-reviewed) “Meiyu dai zongjiao: houwusi shidai de meixue sichao” 美育代宗教：后五四時代的美學 思潮 [An aesthetic education with religious sentiments: notes on a political-theological motif in post-May Fourth aesthetics], in Nanfangwentan 南方文壇 [Southern Forum], Jan. 2019. (Peer-reviewed) “Huidao kangde: Li Zehou yu bashiniandai de qimeng sichao” 回到康德：李澤厚與八十 年代的啟蒙思潮 [Back to Kant: Li Zehou and the question of enlightenment in post-Mao China], in Sixiang 思想雜誌 [Reflexion] , Dec.
    [Show full text]
  • Official Colours of Chinese Regimes: a Panchronic Philological Study with Historical Accounts of China
    TRAMES, 2012, 16(66/61), 3, 237–285 OFFICIAL COLOURS OF CHINESE REGIMES: A PANCHRONIC PHILOLOGICAL STUDY WITH HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF CHINA Jingyi Gao Institute of the Estonian Language, University of Tartu, and Tallinn University Abstract. The paper reports a panchronic philological study on the official colours of Chinese regimes. The historical accounts of the Chinese regimes are introduced. The official colours are summarised with philological references of archaic texts. Remarkably, it has been suggested that the official colours of the most ancient regimes should be the three primitive colours: (1) white-yellow, (2) black-grue yellow, and (3) red-yellow, instead of the simple colours. There were inconsistent historical records on the official colours of the most ancient regimes because the composite colour categories had been split. It has solved the historical problem with the linguistic theory of composite colour categories. Besides, it is concluded how the official colours were determined: At first, the official colour might be naturally determined according to the substance of the ruling population. There might be three groups of people in the Far East. (1) The developed hunter gatherers with livestock preferred the white-yellow colour of milk. (2) The farmers preferred the red-yellow colour of sun and fire. (3) The herders preferred the black-grue-yellow colour of water bodies. Later, after the Han-Chinese consolidation, the official colour could be politically determined according to the main property of the five elements in Sino-metaphysics. The red colour has been predominate in China for many reasons. Keywords: colour symbolism, official colours, national colours, five elements, philology, Chinese history, Chinese language, etymology, basic colour terms DOI: 10.3176/tr.2012.3.03 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Bryan Kristopher Miller
    Bryan Kristopher Miller Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeology Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany Tel: +49 (0) 3641 686-742 [email protected] ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT Research Associate: Faculty of History, University of Oxford (Nomadic Empires Project) 2015-2019 Research Fellow: Gerda Henkel Foundation (Research Fellowship) 2014-2015 Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (at Bonn University) 2011-2014 Postdoctoral Research Fellow: American Center for Mongolian Studies/Henry Luce Foundation 2010-2011 Visiting Assistant Professor: Rowan University, History Department 2009-2010 Adjunct Professor: State University of New York – FIT, Art History Department Spring 2009 Teaching Assistant: University of Pennsylvania, East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2005-2006 Research Assistant: University of California, Los Angeles, Art History Department 1997-2000 Teaching Assistant: University of California, Los Angeles, Institute of Archaeology 2000 Teaching Assistant: University of California, Los Angeles, East Asian Studies Department 1998 Research Assistant: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Antiquities Department 1998-1999 ACADEMIC EDUCATION Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2009 Dissertation: Power Politics in the Xiongnu Empire Committee: Paul Goldin, Nicola Di Cosmo, Bryan Hanks, Victor Mair; Nancy Steinhardt M.A., University of California, Los Angeles, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology 2000 Thesis: The Han Iron Industry: Historical Archaeology of Ancient Production Systems Committee: Lothar von Falkenhausen, David Schaberg, Charles Stanish Ex., National Chengchi University, Taiwan, Russian Language Department 2002-2004 Ex., Duke Study in China Program, Capital Normal University/Nanjing University 1996 B.A., Washington University in St. Louis, Archaeology & East Asian Studies (Dean’s List) 1997 ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS Research Affiliate: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Dept.
    [Show full text]
  • The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2012 Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Wai Kit Wicky Tse University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, and the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Tse, Wai Kit Wicky, "Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier" (2012). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 589. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/589 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dynamics of Disintegration: The Later Han Empire (25-220CE) & Its Northwestern Frontier Abstract As a frontier region of the Qin-Han (221BCE-220CE) empire, the northwest was a new territory to the Chinese realm. Until the Later Han (25-220CE) times, some portions of the northwestern region had only been part of imperial soil for one hundred years. Its coalescence into the Chinese empire was a product of long-term expansion and conquest, which arguably defined the egionr 's military nature. Furthermore, in the harsh natural environment of the region, only tough people could survive, and unsurprisingly, the region fostered vigorous warriors. Mixed culture and multi-ethnicity featured prominently in this highly militarized frontier society, which contrasted sharply with the imperial center that promoted unified cultural values and stood in the way of a greater degree of transregional integration. As this project shows, it was the northwesterners who went through a process of political peripheralization during the Later Han times played a harbinger role of the disintegration of the empire and eventually led to the breakdown of the early imperial system in Chinese history.
    [Show full text]
  • The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This Is Episode 144. Last
    Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 144. Last time, Jiang Wei had launched yet another Northern campaign, trying to catch his enemies off guard while they were dealing with an internal rebellion by Zhuge Dan. This time, Jiang Wei was focusing his attention on the town of Changcheng (2,2), a key grain store for the Wei forces. He put the town under siege and it looked like the town was about to fall. But just then, a Wei relief force showed up. Sigh, I guess we’ll have to take care of these guys first. So Jiang Wei turned his army around to face the oncoming foe. From the opposing lines, a young general rode out with spear in hand. He looked to be about 20-some years old, with a face so fair that he looked as if he were wearing powder, and his lips were daubs of red. This young man shouted across the field, “Do you recognize General Deng?!” Jiang Wei thought to himself, “That must be Deng Ai.” So he rode forth to meet his foe, and the two traded blows for 40 bouts without either gaining an edge. Seeing that the young warrior showed no signs of faltering, Jiang Wei figured he needed to pull some shenanigans to win this fight. So he turned and fled down a mountain path on the left. The young general gave chase, and as he approached, Jiang Wei pulled out his bow and fired an arrow at the man. But his foe had sharp eyes and quickly dodged the arrow.
    [Show full text]