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East Asian History NUMBER 25/26 . JUNE/DECEMBER 2003 Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University Editor Gerem ie R. Barme Associate Editor Helen Lo Editorial Board Mark Elvin (C onvenor) B0rge Bakken John Clark Louise Edwa rds Colin Jeffcott W. J. F. Jenner Li Ta na Kam Louie Gavan McCormack David Marr Tessa Morris-Suzuki Kenneth We lls Design and Production Helen Lo, Oanh Collins, Marion Weeks, Tristan Norman Business Manager Marion Weeks Printed by Goanna Print, Fyshwick, ACT This is the combined twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth issue of East Asian History, printed in December 2004, in the series previously entitled Papers on Far Eastern History. An externally refereed journal, it is published twice a year Contributions to The Editor, East Asian History Division of Pacific and Asian History Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies Austra lian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Phone +61 26125 3140 Fax +61 26125 5525 Email ma [email protected] Subscription Enquiries to Subscriptions, East Asian History, at the above address, or to ma [email protected] Annual Subscription Australia A$50 (including GST) Overseas US$45 (GST free) (for two issues) ISSN 1036-6008 iii � CONTENTS 1 The Origins of Han-Dynasty Consort Kin Power Brett Hinsch 25 Inventing the Romantic Kingdom: the Resurrection and Legitimization of the Shu Han Kingdom before the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Simon Shen 43 Illusions of Grandeur: Perceptions of Status and Wealth in Late-Ming Female Clothing and Ornamentation Sarah Dauncey 69 The Legal and Social Status of Theatrical Performers in Beijing during the Qing Ye Xiaoqing 85 In the Tang Mountains We Have a Big House Michael Williams 113 The Eve of Park's Military Rule: the Intellectual Debate on National Reconstruction, 1960-61 Kim Hyung-A 141 Japanese Orphans from China: History and Identity in a 'Returning' Migrant Community LiNarangoa 161 Sun-Facing Courtyards: Urban Communal Culture in Mid- 1970s' Shanghai Nicole Huang 183 Liu Dong and his Defence of Theory and Confucianism as Practice Gloria Davies 191 The Weberian View and Confucianism Liu Dong -translated by Gloria Davies iv Cover calligraphy Yan Zhenqing ,ID'j1�gHn, Tang calligrapher and statesman Cover illustration A memorial from the chief eunuch Bian Dekui - "The Legal and Social Status of Theatrical Performers in Beijing During the Qing" by Ye Xiaoqing, see p.81. THE LEGAL AND SOCIAL STATUS OF THEATRICAL PERFORMERS IN BEIJING DURING THE QING Ye Xiaoqing ��N The jianmin �.§!;, or "debased people" of the Ming EJ!3 and Qing m dynas This article is part of an ongoing project sup ties can be divided into two groups. The former, concentrated in a particular ported by Macquarie University Research Grants and the Australian Research Council. locality, were mainly descendants of people who had been persecuted for I am very grateful for their generous sup political reasons and forced into certain base occupations under the previous port. The article was originally presented at dynasty. They compulsorily inherited their status and occupation generation the Law in Chinese Society conference held after generation, and for many of them, the original circumstances that led at the Australian National University, 9-10 December, 2000. I would also like to give my to their low status was no longer known.! The latter were not limited to a appreciative thanks for the helpful comments particular area, but were classified as debased because of their chosen oc and suggestions made by the two anonymous cupation. These included opera performers-the lowest class of jianmin. readers for East Asian History. It was for the former group that the emperor Yongzheng �IE (r. 1723-35) 1 Matthew H. Sommer, Sex, law andsociety in abolished the status of jianmin, not the latter. late imperial Ch ina (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2000), and Anders Hannson, The debased people were deprived of many legal rights, of which the most Chineseoutcasls-discriminationand eman important was participation in the imperial examinations. Some occupations, cipation in late imperial Ch ina (Leiden and such as yamen runners, were not generally despised despite their legal status. New York: E.J. Brill, 1996) are studies on these Actors, however, were called by the derogatory term ling {� and you 111, regional groups. The former concentrates on yuehu �p and the latter deals with several and were subject to both legal discrimination and social condemnation. The different groups of jianmin. circumstances of actors in Beijing, however, may have been different from 2 There were eunuch performers in the palace, those in the provinces. Based on material largely from the Imperial Household but they belonged to a different category and Department, this paper concentrates on actors within the jurisdiction of the are beyond the scope of this article. capital and the Court.2 The Legal Status oiLing or You-'ActOr.5' The Qing inherited the Bureau of Instruction (fiaofangsi �JJJ'§]) from 3 Sommer translates the term yuehu as 'Yue the Ming. It employed yuehu � F as musicians.3They were debased people, households'. See Sommer, Sex, law, and society, pp.215-16. selected from the provinces to serve in the palace. During the Ming, the 69 70 YE XIAOQING 4 Ten years before the Manchus entered Ming duties of the Bureau of Instruction included entertainment and ceremonial China, a Ming court official, Zhu Shichang musical performances in the Palace. Even before entering Beijing, the Qing tJ/.t!l:� ( , -1650), who was stationed in court had decided not to employ female yuehu in the Palace4 As early as Liaoyang ��, surrendered to the Qing. In a memorial to Hong Taiji .!l:l:t�, he requested 16 44, the firstyear of the dynasty, eighteen eunuchs were chosen to perform that captured Han r!l!iChinese women not be music for the emperor when he visited several temples. At that time, the classifiedas yuehu. This angered Hong Taiji: state ceremonial music was still performed by the yuehu in the Jiaofangsi. "Does Zhu Shichang not know that I have In 1651, an imperial edict formally banned female yuehu from the Palace, already banned theyuehu'Your memorial was submitted to pander to the Han Chinese, for their role to be performed by 48 eunuchs5 However, male yuehu remained your own fame. Your body is with the Qing, in the Jiaofangsi. but your heart is still inclined to the Ming The legal status of the yuehu as jianmin was still retained. In 17 23, ... " Sun Yingshi l%J!!fJi'f, who helped Zhu the first year of the Yo ngzheng reign, the Provincial Censor Nian Xi :tF-\l!� Shichang draft the memorial, was executed. Zhu and his brother were exiled, but released submitted a memorial advocating the abolition of the categOIY of yuehu in under an amnesty proclaimed in 1645 (the Shanxi and Shaanxi. Nian noted that these people were descendants of Ming second year of the reign of the Shunzhi )IW! officials who had supported the emperor Jianwen JI)( against the coup m emperor). Cf. Qingshigao [Draft history of of Prince Yan ilf(ii/tr, the future emperor Yongle When his coup the Qing dynasty] (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju 7l<�. edn., 1977), vo1.32, pp.952<H3. See also succeeded, Yongle decreed that the daughters and wives of the supporters Man-Han mingchen zh uan [Biographies of of the former emperor would be condemned to the status of guanji '§tBZ famous Manchu and Han officials] (Harbin: (official prostitutes) "generation after generation." Nian proposed that, as Heilongjiang Renmin Chubanshe, 1991), vol.4, pp.4462-3. these people were the descendants of loyal officials, it was unjust that they had been reduced to this status. Retention of the category of yuehu was of 5 Qinding Da Qing huidian shili [Imperial commissioned Collected Regulations and no benefit to the state, and its abolition would be a moral act. Yongzheng Precedents of the Qing Dynasty] (Beijing: approved, and ordered the Ministry of Rites to draft the appropriate regula Zhonghua Shudian, 1991), vol.6, p.1043. The tions. Yongzheng then formally rescinded the status of jianmin for these Jiaofangsi was located to the south of the Dongsi pailou; the area is still called Yanyue particular yuehu, the descendants of the loyal Ming officials now resident in hutong [Perform music lanel. Nearby is the Shanxi w[l§ and Shaanxi �[I§6 Bensi hutong, Bensi referring to the Jiaofangsi. Four months after Nian's memorial, the Salt Investigating Censor of Liang The Goulan hutong [Balustrade laneJ, the red Zhe m#JT, Ge-er-tai 1!�r*, submitted a memorial advocating rescinding the light district during the Ming, is also nearby. See Yu Minzhong, et a!., eds., Rixia jiuwen debased status ofthe duomin I!l.§': ("fallen people") andgaihu D§ F ("beggar kao [Studies on the Old News of the Capi households") of Shaoxing f.ig�, as they were the descendants of "rebellious tall (Beijing: Guji Chubanshe, 1985), vol.2, generals" during the Song *' Afterlisting a number of discriminatory regula pp.762-3; Zhang Qingchang, Beijingjiexiang tions regarding occupation, clothing and so on, Ge-er-tai wrote: mingcheng [History of the names of Beijing streets and lanes] (Beijing: Beijing Yuyan Wen These people have been in disgrace for several centuries, since approp hua Daxue Chubanshe, 1997), p.356; Ye Zufu, riate punishment during the Song. Have they not had to eke out a livelihood "Yuanming liangdai de jiaofang-ji lishishang generation after generation in the most shameless manner? This is because Beijingshi dongcheng qu Yanyue hutong deng they have had no way to reform themselves. If it were not for your Majesty's santiao hutong" [The Jiaofangsi in the Yuan and Ming dynasties-the history of three unbounded benevolence, they would be reincarnated generation after hutong i'-i!3[i'1], including the Yanyue hutong, generation, and will finally be buried in the sea of sin.