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An extended review of Maura Dykstra, Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State. (Harvard East Asian Monographs Series.) Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2022. xxxv, 262 pp. ISBN 978 0 674 27095 4.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2024

Lin Zhou
Lin Zhou*
Affiliation:
Independent scholar, Shenzhen, China Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Maura Dykstra's 2022 monograph Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State (Harvard Asia Center, 2022) has attracted controversy in the academic community. This paper analyses the book's use of documents from the Ba County Archive, held in the SIchuan Provincial Archive. While reviewing the monograph's arguments drawn from these materials, the paper also introduces the Ba Archives and the methodologies that may be employed to interpret them.

Keywords

Qing DynastyChinese lawChinese historyBa County ArchiveChinese administration
Type
Article
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Bulletin of SOAS , First View , pp. 1 - 13
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

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References

1 Qiao, George Zhijian, “Was there an administrative revolution?”, Journal of Chinese History 8/1, 2024, 1–20CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Bradley Reed, “A review of Maura Dykstra, Uncertainty in the Empire of Routine: The Administrative Revolution of the Eighteenth-Century Qing State”, H-Net Reviews (September 2023).

2 This book review was initially published on the social media platform Zhihu (知乎), https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/656109323?utm_id=0. This edition retains most of the previous content, but adds a brief introduction to the Ba County Archive and discusses how to use county-level archives of the Qing Dynasty in research work.

3 Ni Daoshan 倪道善, Ming Qing dang'an gailun《明清档案概论》(Chengdu: Sichuan daxue chubanshe, 1990), 146.

4 Ni Daoshan, Ming Qing dang'an gailun, 143.

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7 Zhang Jixin 张集馨, Dao-Xian huan hai jian wenlu 《道咸宦海见闻录》, cited from cited from Wei Guangqi 魏光奇, Youfa yu wufa: Qingdai de zhou xian zhidu ji qi yunzuo 《有法与无法：清代的州县制度及其运作》 (Beijing: Shangwu yin shu gua, 2010), 359.

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12 Chaling association means the porters from Chaling (茶陵） County of Hunan Province.

13 Sichuan Province Archives (Ba County Collection) 四川省档案馆藏清代《巴县档案》: (1864) 6-27-08568 (“Chuqi fang fang Chuan Cha lifu Liao Xijiu Yang Kunshan deng wei zheng shengyi dijie dou'ou an” 储奇坊川茶力夫廖锡九杨坤山等为争生意地界斗殴案).

14 Na Silu (author) 那思陆著, Fan Zhongxin 范忠信, and You Chenjun (annotators) 尤陈俊校, Qingdai zhou xian yamen shenpan zhidu《清代州县衙门审判制度》 (Beijing: Zhongguo zhengfa daxue chubanshe, 2006), 6–7.

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16 尤陈俊 You Chenjun, “Guan bu jiu ren yu jiansong zhi feng: Zhou xian guan shiji renqi dui Ming–Qing defang yamen lisong nengli de yingxiang” 《官不久任与健讼之风：州县官实际任期对明清地方衙门理讼能力的影响》,  Shehui kexue 《社会科学》 4, 2022.

17 周琳 Zhou Lin, Shanglü an fou: Qingdai Chongqing de shangye zhidu 《商旅安否：清代重庆的商业制度》 (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2021).

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