East Asian History NUMBER 4 . DECEMBER 1992 THE CONTINUATION OF Papers on Far Eastern History Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University Editor Geremie Barme Assistant Editor Helen Lo Editorial Board John Clark Igor de Rachewiltz Mark Elvin (Convenor) Helen Hardacre John Fincher Andrew Fraser Colin Jeffcott W.].F. Jenner Lo Hui-min Gavan McCormack David Marr Tessa Morris-Suzuki Michael Underdown Business Manager Marion Weeks Production Oanh Collins & Samson Rivers Design Maureen MacKenzie, Em Squared Typographic Design Printed by Goanna Print, Fyshwick, ACT This is the fourth issue of East Asian Historyin the series previously entitled Papers on Far Eastern Hist01J1. The journal is published twice a year. Contributions to The Editor, East Asian Hist01Y Division of Pacific & Asian History, Research School of Pacific Studies Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2600, Australia Phone 06 249 3140 Fax 06 249 5525 Subscription Enquiries Subscription Manager, East Asian History, at the above address Annual Subscription Rates Australia A$45 Overseas US$45 (for two issues) iii CONTENTS 1 From Biographical History to Historical Biography: a Transfonnation in Chinese Historical Writing Brian Moloughney 31 Human Conscience and Responsibility in Ming-Qing China Paolo Santangelo-translated by Mark Elvin 81 In Her View: Hedda Morrison's Photographs of Peking, 1933-46 Claire Roberts 105 Hedda Morrison in Peking: a Personal Recollection Alastair Morrison 119 Maogate at Maolin? Pointing Fingers in the Wake of a Disaster, South Anlmi, January 1941 Gregor Benton 143 Towards Transcendental Knowledge: the Mapping of May Fourth Modernity/Spirit Gloria Davies iv Cover calligraphy Yan Zhenqing �JU�;g�n, Tang calligrapher and statesman Cover photograph Portrait of Hedda Morrison by Adolph Lazi, Stuttgart, 1931-32 (reproduced courtesy of Franz Lazi) The Editorial Board would like to express their most appreciative thanks to Mr Alastair Morrison for his generous help with the production costs of this issue. FROM BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY TO HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY: A TRANSFORMATION IN CHINESE HISTORICAL WRITING � BrianMoloughney The duty of the official historian lies in encouraging goodness and I am grateful to S. A. M. Adshead, Geremie reproving evil, documenting the achievements and virtues of the dynasty Barme, Lo Hui-min and Igor de Rachewiltz, with honesty, narrating the careers of loyal ministers and eminent persons all of whom read drafb of this article and and recording the shameful conduct of traitorous officials and obsequious suggested ways in which it might be improved. people, and cor,veying these things for posterity.l 1 LiAo, "flaiguan xingzhuang zou" [Memorial on obituaries for officials) (All 819) in Ii wen The biographical essay provided the core to traditional Chinese historical gongji [The collected works of Li Ao) (1875 writing. The success of a dynasty was thought to be dependent upon the edition), juan 10, pp.1a-h. Beginning his virtues of its emperors, ministers and officials and thus a principal concern memorial in this way, Li Ao is restating the of the historian was the recording of exemplary lives, the writing of ethos of traditional historiography, an ethos that has it� origins in interpretations of biography. And as the art of classical Chinese prose lay in succinctness, it was Ch unqiu [The spring and autumn annals). the essay that became the vehicle for this biographical writing.2 Such a close For early expression of this ethos see Zuo­ association of biography and history ensured that biographical writing zhuall [The luo commentary] for the years displayed all the characteristics of traditional Confucian historiography. Chenggong 14 and lhaogong 31 in Du Yu, Ch unqiu jing zhuan jijie [Collected inter­ History was seen as a record of the working out in the lives of people of the pretations of The sp ring and autumn annals principles of political morality that were thought to govern the state and and its commentaries], reprint ed. (Shanghai: society, principles enshrined in the Confucian classics.3 Shanghai Guji Chubanshe, 1978), 1: 735 and This was to change with "the radical erosion" of the Confucian tradition 2: 1,592. In his autobiographical post�cript to Shiji [Historical records], Sima Qian that began in the last decade of the nineteenth century and culminated in the describes the 'virtues' of Ch unqiu in a collapse of institutional and scriptural Confucianism.4 Although the authority similar way: "It calls good g<xxl and bad of the Qing administration had been challenged much earlier in the century, bad, honours the worthy and condemns the unworthy." See Shiji, reprint ed. (Beijing: it was only in the 1890s that the framework of Neo-Confucian discourse lhonghua Shuju, 1959). juan 130, p.3297. began to fracture and the legitimacy of a Confucian state was called into 2 "It is when the text is concise while the question. The first calls for a new history, a history radically different from events are rich that we have narrative writing the official historiography of the traditional state, were part of this erosion at it� best." Liu lhiji, Shi tong [Understanding of the Confucian tradition. The enOffi10US importance that was attached to history],reprint ed. (Guizhou: Renmin Chub-an­ she 1985), vol. 1, p.217. This translation is history, to its function as a storehouse of precedent and as a record of from Stuart H. Sargent, "Understanding IOVF.1l exemplary lives, meant that new perceptions of the past directly challenged 1 2 BRIAN MOLOUGHNEY Ihistory: the nar'dtion of event�," Renditions and undennined the tradition. Increasing exposure to the radically different 15 (Spring, 19H1): 31. For furtherdiscussion world of the West, and in particular to the way Western traditions were on how the laborious task of inscribing perceived in Japan, encouraged a perception of the past that was a far cry characters on bamboo or stone encou.dged succinctness and how the nar'dtive economy from that of "the rationalistic Confucianism which wielded history as displayed in texts such as Ch unqiu con­ philosophy by example.") New questions were asked of the past and very st. dined Chinese prose, see Qian Zhongshu, different methods employed in response to them. Biography very qUickly Guanzhui hian [Pipe-awl chapters[ (Hong lost its status as the principal narrative perspective in historical writing. Kong: Zhonghua Shuju, 1980), 1: 163-4. For many this meant that biographical writing might be established for 3 "The classics are the principles of gover­ nance, the histories the evidence." Zhao Yi, the first time as an independent genre, free from the strictures imposed by Nianershi zhaji [Notebook on the twenty­ traditional historiography. Such freedom allowed biography to be seen in a two standard histories], reprint ed. (Beijing: new light. Much greater interest was shown in portraying the individuality Zhonghua Shuju, 19H7), preface, p.2. and personality of a subject. These changes were reflected in a new 4 The abolition of the imperial examination relationship between biography and history and encouraged the emergence system in 19 05 and then the removal of the Confucian classics fr om the schoolcurr iculum of independent historical biographies as a sub-genre of modern historical in 19 12, as well as the collapse of the writing. imperial state it�elf in 1911, marked the The considerable interest which has been shown in the development of culmination of this pnx:ess. It is Hao Chang a Marxist historiography in China is only natural, yet this was but one aspect in Liang Ch 'i-ch ao and intellectual trans­ ition in Ch ina, 1890-1907 (Cambridge, of the many changes that came in historical writing as a consequence of the Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971), p.296, collapse of the Confucian tradition. One of the features of the new history who talks of the process as being a ".ddical of the early twentieth centurywas its great diversity. This article is an auempt erosion" of the Confucian t.ddition. The concept 'scriptu.dl ConfucianL�m' comes from to bring out more of that diversity. The biographical perspective was central Mark Elvin's discussion of the most important to traditional historical writing, thus by looking at how the relationship textual evidence of "a deep-seated, and between history and biography developed, and at how this relationship indeed terminal, sickness of the old body of changed with the collapse of the official traditional historical enterprise, thought," in "The collapse of scriptu'dl Con­ fucianism," Paperson far has/ern History41 something more of the nature of the changes that came with the emergence (Mar. 1990): 45-76. of the new history can be seen. 'i "The name becamehopelessly unrectified." See Joseph Levenson, "The inception and displacement of Confucianism," Diogenes The Emergence of Biographical Writing 42 (Summer 1963): 77. 6 Zuozhuan, Xiang gong 24. See Du Yu, Ch unqiu, vol.2, p.IOl1. Such criteria of Biographical writing in China probably had its origins in the desire to distinction continued to be influential down establish a presence beyond death. The ZuozhuantiJf.(Zuo conU11entary) into the twentieth century. One example of states that such a presence could be achieved in one or more of three ways: this is Lin Yutang's use of the Zuozhuan through moral force, distinguished service, or the power of words. When categories in assessing the achievement of Sun Yatsen: see Lin Taiyi, Lin Yutang zhuan knowledge of such distinction did not fade this was what was meant by (Taibei: Lianjing Chubanshe, 19H9), pp.63- achieving immortality, "to die yet not perish. "(, Without a belief in an after­ 4. life yet with a strong conU11itmentto the continuity of the family and the clan, 7 Three common forms of necrology or there evolved very early in the Confucian tradition the notion that the only funerary writing were: the grave record way to establish a presence beyond death was through the power of the (muzhi ��) which was buried with or near the coffin; the g.dve notice (muhiao wriuen word.