UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Re-Writing Dali: the Construction of an Imperial Locality in the Borderlands, 1253-1679 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/80h5n4j0 Author Wright, Eloise Elizabeth Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Re-Writing Dali: the Construction of an Imperial Locality in the Borderlands, 1253-1679 By Eloise E. Wright A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Nicolas Tackett, Chair Professor Wen-Hsin Yeh Professor Janaki Bakhle Professor William F. Hanks Summer 2019 Abstract Re-Writing Dali: the Construction of an Imperial Locality in the Borderlands, 1253-1679 by Eloise E. Wright Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Nicolas Tackett, Chair This dissertation examines the interactions of two late imperial Chinese regimes of understanding, experiencing, and moving through space through a local study of Dali, a district in the south- western borderlands of Mongol Yuan and Chinese Ming states. The city of Dali had been the capital of independent Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms until it was conquered by Mongol armies in 1253 and subsequently incorporated into the Yuan empire. Over the next four centuries, the former nobility of the Dali kingdom transformed themselves into imperial scholar-gentry, educating their sons in literary Chinese, taking the civil service examinations, and establishing themselves as members of the literati elite. As a result, their social relationships and their place in the world, that is, their identities, were reconstructed in dialogue with the institutional, political, and discursive practices that now shaped their daily lives. Through examination of writings produced in Dali during the Yuan and Ming, I argue that Dali elite families used their proximity to and facility in the written word to maintain their position within the status hierarchies of local society. At the same time, the concept of the “locality” provided a framework within which local elites were able to express a sense of difference both comprehensible and acceptable to the state. As a result, Dali’s position in the world as it emerged over the first four centuries of colonisation was neither a differentiated periphery nor a homogenised locality but a praxis of the native place as the legitimated form of spatialised identity for civilised men. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS: Introduction: Space, Language, Identity ......................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Place, People, History — Representations of Dali ................................. 25 Chapter Two: Reading Like a State? Appropriating the Gazetteer Genre .................. 84 Chapter Three: Elite Status and Local Identity Intertwined ...................................... 137 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 194 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 196 Appendices ................................................................................................................... 210 i LIST OF MAPS AND TABLES: Figures: Figure 1.1 Map of Dali .................................................................................................. 28 Figure 1.2: Hierarchy of Dali Civilian Units ................................................................. 39 Figure 1.3: Hierarchy of Dali Military Units ................................................................. 41 Figure 3.1 Number of Yun-Gui civilian jinshi during the Ming dynasty ..................... 174 Figure 3.2 Number of Yun-Gui military jinshi during the Ming dynasty .................... 174 Figure 3.7 Dali fuzhi shenglan map (Taihe county only) .............................................. 185 Figure 3.8 Yeyu shiguan map .......................................................................................... 187 Tables: Table 1.1 Stele text on the division of water ................................................................. 31 Table 1.2: Postal Routes, Sentry Routes, and Police Stations ....................................... 50 Table 1.3 Nine Sons and their Descendants ................................................................. 63 Table 2.1: Extant Ming gazetteers that include Dali .................................................... 87 Table 2.2: Ba Zhaoxiang’s gazetteer data ..................................................................... 91 Table 2.3: Shandong and Zhejiang comprehensive gazetteer contents ........................ 96 Table 2.4: Local gazetteers mentioned in provincial gazetteers .................................. 103 Table 2.5: Dali fuzhi contents ....................................................................................... 107 Table 2.6: Enfeoffment proclamations in Chongxiu Dengchuan zhouzhi .......................... 120 Table 2.7: Chongxiu Dengchuan zhouzhi contributors ...................................................... 122 Table 2.8 Yunnan tongzhi contents ................................................................................. 127 Table 2.9: Yunnan tongzhi - jimi zhi contents .................................................................. 133 Table 3.1 Dali region government schools .................................................................. 170 Table 3.2 Spatial distribution of graduates within the Dali region ............................. 175 Table 3.3 Charity schools ............................................................................................ 179 Table 3.4 Dengchuan school lands (1644) ................................................................... 179 Table 3.7 Dali fuzhi shenglan (Taihe county only) ....................................................... 183 Table 3.8 Yeyu shiguan ................................................................................................... 186 Table 3.9 Academies in the Dali region ...................................................................... 189 Table 3.10: Sixteen views of Dengchuan and their poets ........................................... 191 ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED: A note on pagination: block printed books in late imperial China were constructed by printing a double-leaf page, folding it in half with the printed side outwards, and stitching the open ends together into a volume (juan 卷); page numbers and bibliographical information were printed down the centrefold. Each number page consists of two folios, termed a and b. As a result, classical citations consist of the juan number followed by the page number and folio letter, eg [title] 3.5a. Many facsimile editions are made from unbound pages, so each facsimile page will include two or four classical folios — in these circumstances I have given the classical pagination because it is more precise. Otherwise, I have preferred the more accessible edition; I have also listed online editions where I know of them. Finally, where English translations are available I have included those page numbers with the citation. BCZZ: Zhou Yue 周鉞 (ed.), (Yongzheng) Binchuan zhouzhi (雍正)賓川州志 [(Yongzheng-era) Binchuan subprefecture gazetteer]. 1727 block-printed edition; manuscript copy of printed edition facsimile in DLCS FZP vol 5, 517-599; transcribed edition Dali: Dali Baizu zizhizhou wenhuaju fanyin, 1984; digital facsimile and transcribed edition in Erudition gazetteers collection. Citations use transcribed pagination. BGTJQS: Zhao Shun (attr.), Bogu tongji qianshu. Late 17th century manuscript edition (substantially revised and updated from earlier editions) held in Yunnan provincial library; facsimile in DLCS SJP vol 2, 41-129; 1979 bound mimeograph edition of transcribed manuscript. Citations use classical pagination. CXDCZZ: Ai Zixiu 艾⾃修 (ed), (Chongzhen) Chongxiu Dengchuan zhouzhi (崇禎)重修鄧川州志 [(Chongzhen-era) Revised Dengchuan subprefecture gazetteer]. 1646 block-printed edition (text dated 1644); partial facsimile in DLCS FZP ; transcribed edition Dali: Dali Baizu zizhizhou wenhuaju fanyin, 1983. Citations use transcribed and classical pagination. DL: Xie Zhaozhi 謝肇淛, Dianlüe 滇略 [Record of Dian]. 1621 block-printed edition extant imprints include National Library of China (Beijing) rare books items #16004 and #A01373 and Shanghai Library rare book #756615-18; standard block-printed edition in Siku quanshu vol 494, 97-250; digital edition. Citations use classical pagination from the Siku quanshu edition. DLCS FZP: Yang Shiyu 楊世鈺 (ed.), Dali congshu — fangzhi pian ⼤理叢書―⽅志篇 [Collected works on Dali — gazetteers], Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2007. 10 vols. DLCS JSP: Yang Shiyu 楊世鈺 (ed.), Dali congshu — jinshi pian ⼤理叢書―⾦⽯篇 [Collected works on Dali — inscriptions], Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1993. 10 vols. Citations include both page number of image (vols 1-9) and page number of transcription (vol 10). DLCS SJP: He Shengdi 和⽣弟 and Wang Shuiqiao 王⽔橋 (eds.), Dali congshu — shiji pian ⼤理叢書―史籍篇 [Collected works on Dali — historical materials], Kunming: Yunnan minzu chubanshe, 2012. 13 vols. DLCS ZPP: Yang Shiyu 楊世鈺 and Zhao Yinsong 趙寅松 (eds.), Dali congshu — zupu pian ⼤ 理叢書―族譜篇 [Collected works on Dali — genealogies], Kunming: Yunnan