Asia 867 Encountered African American Culture That Had Been His Extravagant Lifestyle and His Refusal to Take the Ad- Mediated in a Particularly German Manner
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Asia 867 encountered African American culture that had been his extravagant lifestyle and his refusal to take the ad- mediated in a particularly German manner. vice of Wu Zixu. Milburn emphasizes the gaps in cur- Gerund’s book would have been strengthened had rent knowledge about Wu history. This comes across points of comparison among her case studies been more most clearly in chapter three, “Reflections on the Royal prominently interwoven. In addition, the German con- House of Wu.” Reading early texts against newly dis- text for the reception of Lorde, Walker, and Morrison covered archaeological evidence, Milburn shows dis- could have been filled out. These criticisms aside, the crepancies in the nomenclature of Wu kings and in the analysis is insightful and more complex than this short precise relations among members of the royal house. review can fully convey. Gerund has produced a rich Part Two shifts the focus to depictions of Wu in the study that will interest scholars of German and Amer- writings of scholars and poets of the middle and late ican history. imperial era, long before the archaeological evidence TIMOTHY L. SCHROER was discovered. The chapters here are organized University of West Georgia Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/119/3/867/13478 by guest on 01 October 2021 around particular sites in Jiangnan associated with Wu personages. Chapter four, “Commemorating Master Ji ASIA of Yanling,” features a temple dedicated to Prince Jizha in the city of Changzhou, where the prince’s fief had OLIVIA MILBURN. Cherishing Antiquity: The Cultural been located. Milburn traces the cult of Jizha to the Construction of an Ancient Chinese Kingdom. (Harvard- Tang (618–907), and shows how the temple became a Yenching Institute Monograph, number 89.) Cam- wealthy foundation by the Ming (1368–1644) and bridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, distrib- hosted visits by touring emperors in the Qing (1644– uted by Harvard University Press. 2013. Pp. xii, 392. $39.95. 1911). King Helu¨’s tomb, located outside Suzhou, is the subject of chapter five, “The Tomb at Tiger Hill.” The kingdom of Wu (585–473 B.C.E.) provided some of Though Tiger Hill was crowded with Buddhist temples the most enduring personalities in the Chinese literary and other institutions in the late Ming, for Suzhou li- canon: the cultured diplomat Prince Jizha, the famed terati the tomb remained important as “one of the few beauty Xi Shi, and the wise minister Wu Zixu. In this tangible reminders of southern independence and thoroughly researched book, Olivia Milburn explores power” (p. 275). Chapter six, “Numinous Cliff and the cultural construction of this ancient kingdom, and Gusu Tower,” describes two Suzhou sites associated readers learn about both the ancient kingdom itself and with King Fuchai and his lover, Xi Shi. These two sites the ways that writers in imperial China interpreted Wu. provided less tangible connections to the Wu kingdom. The title, Cherishing Antiquity, is a translation of the Late imperial literati could visit Numinous Cliff Moun- Chinese term huaigu, denoting poems on the past in- tain, yet no trace of Fuchai’s palace that once stood spired by visits to places of historical significance. Mil- burn applies huaigu broadly to encompass a large va- there remained. Gusu Tower provided a greater chal- riety of writings about Wu, from poems, to local lenge, as its precise location was unknown. Neverthe- histories, to bronze and stone inscriptions. Wu was an less, both sites were adaptable to the conventions of especially interesting subject for later writers because huaigu poetry, as they provided inspiration for rumi- the site of its capital, Suzhou, was located in the heart nations on a doomed king doting on a palace woman in of Jiangnan, a region known for its cultural florescence luxurious surroundings. in late imperial times. In its own time, however, the The strengths of this book lie in the author’s metic- state and people of Wu occupied the cultural margins ulous attention to detail in tracking references to im- of “China,” or the Zhou confederacy. ages of the Wu kingdom in later writings. While this The six substantive chapters of the book are divided might challenge readers with little background in Chi- into two parts. In Part One, Milburn shows how Wu was nese history and literature, Milburn expertly shows how portrayed in texts produced during the Warring States older images were recycled in later writings. Beyond the era (475–221 B.C.E.) and the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.E.– history of texts, some readers will want more descrip- 220 C.E.). For readers unfamiliar with early Chinese his- tion and analysis of the historical contexts. One won- tory, this section also serves the useful function of in- ders about the context of Buddhism in the Six Dynasties troducing major figures and events of Wu and its rival era, when at least two of the sites discussed were con- kingdoms. Chapter one, “The Royal House of Wu,” in- verted from privately owned estates to Buddhist tem- troduces the kings of Wu. More crucially for later writ- ples. Likewise, the precise relationship in the late Ming ings, it shows how one member of the Wu royal house, between commercialization and a revived interest in lo- Prince Jizha, was remembered in early accounts, as an cal culture is open to debate. Were commercial inter- ambassador who traveled to other states in the Zhou confederacy, demonstrating his mastery of Chinese cul- ests in Suzhou a threat to the city’s cultural legacy (p. 300), or did they in fact undergird the revival of interest ture in the process. Helu¨ (r. 514–496 B.C.E.) and Fuchai (r. 495–473 B.C.E.) are the subject of chapter two, “The in the city’s history? That said, this longue dure´e ap- Last Kings of Wu.” Accounts of the surprisingly sudden proach to textual analysis has its advantages; tracing the demise of Wu centered on the failings of the final ruler: production of images about this ancient kingdom across AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW JUNE 2014 868 Reviews of Books more than two millennia reveals the changing priorities What makes this study particularly interesting is that of each generation of writers. the author demonstrates that this border policy was STEVEN B. MILES part and parcel of longstanding Manchu policies on the Washington University in Saint Louis northern border. The book is less clear, however, about the specifics of GANG ZHAO. The Qing Opening to the Ocean: Chinese the foreign trade that was given such free rein. Junks Maritime Policies, 1684–1757. (Perspectives on the that carried a hundred tons of cargo did not “weigh” Global Past.) Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. that amount. Gang Zhao confuses Dutch and English 2013. Pp. viii, 267. $56.00. ships (p. 107). It is also unlikely that sixty-four Western countries were trading in Canton by 1800. Contrary to Globalization theory has forced many historians of Asia what the author states, Chinese officials were sent on to rethink the continent’s recent, and increasingly also various occasions to Manila and Batavia to conduct the not-so-recent, past. This applies as well to historians Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/119/3/867/13478 by guest on 01 October 2021 of Chinese maritime trade. This subject has tradition- commercial espionage. Particularly bothersome—and ally been studied by students of John King Fairbank, the editors should share the blame for this—is that the largely on the basis of archival documents from the Chi- author often puts a book title in a footnote without add- nese bureaucracy and within the framework of China’s ing the relevant page numbers. tributary relationship with the surrounding world. Yet Moreover, numerous questions on policy remain un- as early as the 1950s, the Chinese anthropologist and answered. For instance, the Kangxi emperor reneged historian Tian Rukang published two pioneering arti- on his earlier-declared “open door” policy and again cles about the relative importance of Qing-era private forbade overseas private trade to Southeast Asia, with traders whose overseas ventures had nothing to do with the exception of Vietnam. Why is this not persuasively the policies of the court. His writings have inspired a explained? Even if his successors allowed overseas number of historians of early modern Southeast Asian trade again, they did so while imposing rather draco- trade, including Jennifer Cushman on Siam, Li Tana on nian measures on those going overseas and by imposing Vietnam, George Souza on Macao, and me on Chinese all kinds of taxes. trade with the Indonesian archipelago. In the maritime My main criticism of this otherwise very useful study history field, new studies have appeared that, based on is that Gang Zhao does not clearly distinguish between a mix of Western and Asian sources, focus on the Chi- the commercial coastal trade and the trade to overseas nese junk trade with the Nanyang and seek to explain destinations when he draws our attention to the enor- the growing Chinese presence all over the Nanyang mous expansion of Chinese customs offices along the from the late sixteenth century onward. These studies Chinese coast in the eighteenth century. Also, a more also show how, in contrast to state-supported early detailed explanation would have been useful regarding modern European enterprise in Asia, Chinese overseas trade was organized exclusively around private enter- the often diverging interests between the court and lo- prise, with very little overseas intervention by the Chi- cal authorities in collecting duties at the border sta- nese imperial government before the close of the nine- tions.