Saluting the Yellow Emperor Sinica Leidensia Edited by Barend J. ter Haar Maghiel van Crevel In co-operation with P.K. Bol, D.R. Knechtges, E.S. Rawski, W.L. Idema, H.T. Zurndorfer VOLUME 104 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/sinl Saluting the Yellow Emperor A Case of Swedish Sinography By Perry Johansson LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 The lion share of this book originates fromSinofilerna published in Swedish by Carlsson 2008. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Johansson, Perry. Saluting the yellow emperor : a case of Swedish sinography / Perry Johansson. p. cm. — (Sinica leidensia, ISSN 0169-9563 ; v. 104) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-22097-3 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. China—Civilization— To 221 B.C.—Historiography. 2. Sinologists—Sweden—History—20th century. 3. Historiography—Sweden—History—20th century. 4. Excavations (Archaeology)— China. 5. Karlgren, Bernhard, 1889–1978. 6. Andersson, Johan Gunnar, 1874–1960. 7. Hedin, Sven Anders, 1865–1952. 8. Myrdal, Jan. I. Title. DS741.25.J65 2012 932.0072’022485—dc23 2011037324 ISSN 0169-9563 ISBN 978 90 04 22097 3 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 22639 5 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. “With a little help from my friends” CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Chapter One What was Sinology? ............................................... 11 China As Career ........................................................................... 12 The Research of Bernhard Karlgren .......................................... 14 Inflating China .............................................................................. 16 Race and Empire ........................................................................... 20 Sex, Power and Karlgren’s Alter Ego ........................................ 23 Striking at Mediocrity .................................................................. 32 The Backbone of the Ruling Class ............................................. 34 Language and Power .................................................................... 37 Sinophilia ....................................................................................... 42 Chapter Two Archaeology and the Western Origin of China ... 45 The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities .................................. 46 Johan “China Gunnar” Andersson ............................................ 49 Unearthing a Chinese Stone Age ............................................... 50 The Mandarin Archaeologist ...................................................... 52 The Great Urn Traffic in Lanzhou ............................................ 56 The Archaeologist As Official of the Chinese Empire ........... 59 Orientalism in China ................................................................... 64 Chapter Three The Swedish Chinese Expedition ...................... 67 Sven Hedin under Attack in Beijing ......................................... 69 The Despot of Xinjiang ............................................................... 73 Meeting Chiang Kai-shek ............................................................ 76 Islamophobia Along the New Silk Road .................................. 81 Chapter Four Empire and Ethnography .................................... 87 The Plundering of Mongolian Culture ..................................... 90 The Golden Temple ..................................................................... 96 Chapter Five The Karlbeck Syndicate ......................................... 101 A Swedish Crown Prince in the Forbidden Palace ................ 101 Railway Constructor and Amateur Collector .......................... 103 viii contents Collecting As Entrée to the Upper Class ............................... 105 Secretly Collecting for Western Museums ............................. 108 Treasure Seeker in China .......................................................... 111 China’s Cultural History under Threat .................................. 115 Back in Stockholm ..................................................................... 117 Chapter Six Distorting History .................................................... 121 The Peking Man Discovery ....................................................... 125 Chapter Seven Osvald Sirén’s Spiritual Far East ....................... 129 Snubbed by Feng Yuxiang, Received by the Emperor ......... 135 Starting a New Life in Paris ..................................................... 138 Smuggling via Diplomatic Pouch ............................................ 140 Modern Buddhism, Fascist Scholars, Chinese Art ............... 144 Old Times and New ................................................................... 150 Chapter Eight Swedish Maoism ................................................... 155 Political Pilgrims ........................................................................ 156 The Communist League Marxist-Leninists (KFML) ............ 159 The Swedish-Chinese Friendship Association ...................... 163 Sinology Hijacked ....................................................................... 166 Using Foreigners’ Strength to Propagandize for China ...... 172 China’s Financial Support ......................................................... 175 Utopia ........................................................................................... 176 Occidentalism ............................................................................. 180 Chapter Nine Report from a Chinese Village ........................... 185 Another Career in China .......................................................... 186 China’s Friend ............................................................................. 192 Chairman Jan Myrdal ................................................................ 197 Chapter Ten Anti-Imperialism? ................................................... 199 Revisiting the Silk Road ............................................................ 204 Myrdal avec Hedin ..................................................................... 209 “O My Friends, There is No Friend” ...................................... 211 Saluting the Yellow Emperor ................................................... 216 Sinophilia: A Conclusion .................................................................. 221 References ........................................................................................... 231 Index .................................................................................................... 241 INTRODUCTION This is a case study about sinology in Sweden, an examination of the development of this discipline in the twentieth century in a relatively small country on the periphery of Europe.1 Investigating a small intel- lectual community makes it possible to get much closer to individual researchers than is feasible in more general overviews. A limited study like this offers the opportunity to discuss individual Swedish experts on China, to get to know their living conditions and to read everything they published—all without turning into simple biography what is principally a discursive study. That said, Swedish sinology in the twentieth century was certainly not a marginal endeavor. The Swedish China researchers were some of the leading scholars of their time. Bernhard Karlgren performed path- breaking research in reconstructing the spoken languages of ancient China. Johan Gunnar Andersson unearthed the first proof ever of a Chinese Stone Age, while Sven Hedin rediscovered buried cities along the ancient Silk Routes. These scholars were also well connected to the international scholarly community. Karlgren studied with Chavanne, Maspero and Pelliot, and knew Fu Sinian. Andersson befriended Hu Shi and Ding Wenjiang, and hosted many of the most important sinol- ogists of the time at his museum in Stockholm. Osvald Sirén, who tra- velled tirelessly in China and the United States, and was very familiar with Paris, Tokyo and London, knew everyone of importance in the field of Chinese art history. Hedin’s international network of world- renowned scholars was immense. These were the scholars who in the late 1920s turned Stockholm into an important international hub for sinology.2 Ideas rarely exist on their own, ungrounded without material under- pinnings. Nor are they simply byproducts of international or social 1 I want to thank Sven Windahl and Jean T. Olson for their generous assistance in the copy editing of this book. 2 The Swedes spent a lot of time in China, but the East Asian collections in Stock- holm eventually came to be their institutional home base. The first directors of the museum, Johan Gunnar Andersson and Bernhard Karlgren,