Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:24:29.933Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Early Qing to 1723

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2011

Kang-i Sun Chang
Affiliation:
Yale University, Connecticut
Stephen Owen
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Changing contexts

From late Ming to early Qing

There is no easy consensus on what demarcates the beginning of the late Ming period. The conventional date, as followed in this volume, is the year 1573, the beginning of the Wanli reign. Literary historians eager to synchronize changes in literary trends with the “radicalization” of Wang Yangming’s (1472–1529) philosophy of introspection and intuitive awakening, however, tend to push the beginning of the late Ming to about the mid-sixteenth century. A certain amount of flexibility is built into any attempt at periodization, but how and where to apply the label of “late Ming” is particularly slippery and problematic. From the 1920s on, efforts have been made to trace the genealogy of the “new literature” or of different versions of modernity back to late Ming oppositional stances and the “romantic” and “individualist” concerns of its literary culture. From that perspective, dynastic decline promised new beginnings. In contrast, in the aftermath of the Manchu conquest, retrospection on the late Ming often yielded negative judgments that tended to conjoin political decline with cultural decadence, and the chief concern lay with pinpointing when that decline became inevitable.

The authors discussed in the previous chapter did not think of themselves as “late Ming writers.” There was generally no sense of an ending. Despite forebodings of a deepening crisis, the collapse of the Ming in 1644 caught many by surprise. In any case, dynastic decline did not seem to have undermined the cultural confidence of this period, which was an extraordinarily creative one. The label “late Ming” (Ming ji, Ming mo, or wan Ming) was a Qing invention that was sometimes accompanied by castigations of heterodoxy, frivolity, and excess. At the same time, early Qing literature was profoundly concerned with the Ming–Qing dynastic transition and the implications of the late Ming legacy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barr, Alan. “Disarming Intruders: Alien Women in Liaozhai zhiyi.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 49, no. 2 (1989):.Google Scholar
Barr, Alan. “The Early Qing Mystery of the Governor’s Stolen Silver.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 60, no. 3 (2000):.Google Scholar
Bryant, Daniel. “Syntax, Sound, and Sentiment in Old Nanking: Wang Shih-chen’s (Wang Shizhen) ‘Miscellaneous Poems on the Ch’in-huai (Qinhuai).’”Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 14 (1992):.Google Scholar
Chang, Kang-i Sun. “The Idea of the Mask in Wu Wei-yeh (1609–1671).”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 48, no. 2 (1988):.Google Scholar
Chang, Kang-i Sun. The Late-Ming Poet Ch’en Tzu-lung: Crises of Love and Loyalism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.
Chaves, Jonathan. “Moral Action in the Poetry of Wu Chia-chi (Wu Jiaji, 1618–1684).”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 46, no. 2 (1986):.Google Scholar
Chaves, Jonathan. “The Yellow Mountain Poems of Ch’ien Ch’ien-i (Qian Qianyi): Poetry as Yu chi.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 48, no. 2 (1988):.Google Scholar
Epstein, Maram. Competing Discourses: Orthodoxy, Authenticity, and Engendered Meanings in Late Imperial Chinese Fiction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001.
Fong, Grace. “Inscribing Desire: Zhu Yizun’s Love Lyrics in Jingzhiju qinqu.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 54, no. 2 (1994):.Google Scholar
Fong, Grace. “Writing from Experience: Personal Records of War and Disorder in Jiangnan during the Ming-Qing Transition.” In Military Culture in Imperial China, ed. Cosmo, Nicola Di. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Hanan, Patrick. The Invention of Li Yu. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Hegel, Robert. The Novel in Seventeenth-Century China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
Hegel, Robert. Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
Huang, Martin, ed. Snakes’ Legs: Sequels, Continuations, Rewritings, and Chinese Fiction. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004.
Huang, Martin. Desire and Fictional Narrative in Late Imperial China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2001.
Idema, Wilt, Li, Wai-yee, and Widmer, Ellen, eds. Trauma and Transcendence in Early Qing Literature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006.
(Kong Shangren), K’ung Shang-jen. Peach Blossom Fan (Taohua shan). Trans. Shih-hsiang, Chen and Acton, Harold, with the collaboration of Cyril Birch. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976.
Kafalis, Philip Alexander. In Limpid Dream: Nostalgia and Zhang Dai’s Reminiscences of the Ming. Norwalk, CT: Eastbridge, 2007.
Ko, Dorothy. Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culturein Seventeenth-Century China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.
Yu, Li. The Carnal Prayer Mat (Rou putuan). Trans. Hanan, Patrick. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1996.
Yu, Li. Silent Operas (Wushengxi). Trans. Hanan, Patrick. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1990.
Yu, Li. A Tower for the Summer Heat (Shi’er lou). Trans. Hanan, Patrick. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Li, Wai-yee. Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
Li, Wai-yee. “Full-length Vernacular Fiction.” In Columbia History of Chinese Literature, ed. Mair, Victor H.. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Li, Wai-yee. “Heroic Transformations: Women and National Trauma in Early Qing Literature.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 59, no. 2 (1999):.Google Scholar
Li, Wai-yee. “The Representation of History in the Peach Blossom Fan.”Journal of the American Oriental Society 115, no. 3 (1995):.Google Scholar
Lu, Tina. Persons, Roles, and Minds: Identity in Peony Pavilion and Peach Blossom Fan. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Lynn, Richard John. “Orthodoxy and Enlightenment: Wang Shih-chen’s Theory of Poetry and Its Antecedents.” In Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, ed. Bary, William Theodore and the Conference on Seventeenth-Century Chinese Thought. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.Google Scholar
McCraw, David. Chinese Lyricists of the Seventeenth Century. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1990.
McMahon, Keith. Causality and Containment in Seventeenth-Century Fiction. Leiden: Brill, 1988.
Meyer-Fong, Tobie. Building Culture in Early Qing Yangzhou. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003.
Meyer-Fong, Tobie. “Packaging the Men of Our Times: Literary Anthologies, Friendship Networks, and Political Accommodation in the Early Qing.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 64, no. 1 (2004):.Google Scholar
Owen, Stephen. Readings in Chinese Literary Thought. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1992.
Owen, Stephen. “Salvaging Poetry: the ‘Poetic’ in the Qing.” In Huters, Theodore, Wong, R. Bin, and Yu, Pauline, eds. Culture and State in Chinese History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Pastreich, Emmanuel. “The Pleasure Quarters of Nanjing and Edo as Metaphor: The Records of Yu Huai and Narushima Ryuhoku.”Monumenta Nipponica 55, no. 2 (2000):.Google Scholar
Peterson, Willard. Bitter Gourd: Fang I-chih and the Impetus for Intellectual Change. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
Plaks, Andrew. “After the Fall: Hsing-shih yin-yuan chuan (Xingshi yinyuan zhuan) and the Seventeenth-Century Chinese Novel.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 45, no. 2 (1985):.Google Scholar
Songling, Pu. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhiyi). Trans. Minford, John. London: Penguin Books, 2006.
Rolston, David, ed. How to Read the Chinese Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Rolston, David, ed. Traditional Chinese Fiction and Fiction Commentary: Reading and Writing between the Lines. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Wei, Shang and Wang, David, eds. Dynastic Crisis and Cultural Innovation: From the Late Ming to the Late Qing and Beyond. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2005.
Spence, Jonathan. The Death of Woman Wang. New York: Viking Press, 1978.
Spence, Jonathan. Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of Kang Hsi. New York: Vintage Books, 1988.
Spence, Jonathan. Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man. New York: Viking, 2007.
Strassberg, Richard. The World of K’ung Shang-jen: A Man of Letters in Early Qing China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Struve, Lynn. “History and the Peach Blossom Fan.”Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 2, no. 1 (1980):.Google Scholar
Struve, Lynn. “Huang Zongxi in Context: A Reappraisal of His Major Writings.”Journal of Asian Studies 47, no. 3 (1988):.Google Scholar
Struve, Lynn. The Ming-Qing Conflict, 1619–1683: A Historigraphy and Source Guide. Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 1998.
Struve, Lynn. Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tiger’s Jaw. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
Yüeh, Tung. The Tower of Myriad Mirrors: A Supplement to Journey to the West. Trans. Lin, Shuen-fu and Schulz, Larry L.. 2nd edn. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2000.
Volpp, Sophie. “The Literary Circulation of Actors in Seventeenth-Century China.”Journal of Asian Studies 61, no. 3 (2002):.Google Scholar
Wakeman, Frederic Jr.The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-Century China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Wakeman, Frederic Jr.“Romantics, Stoics, and Martyrs in Seventeenth-Century China.”Journal of Asian Studies 43, no. 4 (1984):.Google Scholar
Wang, John. Chin Sheng-t’an. New York: Twayne, 1972.
Widmer, Ellen, and Chang, Kang-i Sun, eds. Writing Women in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Widmer, Ellen. “The Epistolary World of Female Talent in Seventeenth-Century China.”Late Imperial China 10, no. 2 (1989):.Google Scholar
Widmer, Ellen. “The Huanduzhai of Hangzhou and Suzhou: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Publishing.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 56, no. 1 (1996):.Google Scholar
Widmer, Ellen. Margins of Utopia: Shui-hu hou-chuan and the Literature of Ming Loyalism. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1987.
Pei-yi, Wu. The Confucian’s Progress: Autobiographical Writings in Traditional China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Yenna, Wu. The Chinese Virago: A Literary Theme. Cambridge, MA: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University, 1995.
Yenna, Wu. The Lioness Roars: Shrew Stories from Late Imperial China. Ithaca: East Asian Program, Cornell University, 1995.
Yim, Lawrence C. H.“Qian Qianyi’s Theory of Shishi during the Ming-Qing Transition.”Occasional Papers (Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, Academia Sinica) 1 (2005):.Google Scholar
Yu, Pauline. “Canon Formation in Late Imperial China.” In Culture and State in Chinese History, ed. Huters, Theodore, Wong, R. Bin, and Yu, Pauline. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Zeitlin, Judith T.Historian of the Strange: Pu Songling and the Chinese Classical Tale. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993.
Zeitlin, Judith T.The Phantom Heroine: Ghosts and Gender in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Literature. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.
Zeitlin, Judith T.“Shared Dreams: The Story of the Three Wives’ Commentary on the Peony Pavilion.”Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 54, no. 1 (1994):.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×