Chinese History and Culture: Sixth Century B.C.E. to Seventeenth Century

507 Pages·2016·3.62 MB·English

by  Ying-shih Yü

Chinese History and Culture
VOLUME 1
MASTERS OF CHINESE STUDIES
Chinese History and Culture
VOLUME 1
SIXTH CENTURY B.C.E. TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Ying-shih Yü
With the editorial assistance of Josephine Chiu-Duke and Michael S. Duke
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK
Columbia University Press wishes to express its appreciation for assistance given by the Chiang
Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange and Council for Cultural Affairs in the
publication of this book.
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New York Chichester, West Sussex cup.columbia.edu
Copyright © 2016 Columbia University Press All rights reserved E-ISBN 978-0-23154201-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Yü, Ying-shih, author.
Title: Chinese history and culture : sixth century B.C.E. to seventeenth century / Ying-shih Yü; with
the editorial assistance of Josephine Chiu-Duke and Michael S. Duke.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, 2016. | Series: Masters of Chinese studies |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015040772 (print) | LCCN 2015049874 (ebook) | ISBN 9780231178587 (vol. 1
: cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231542012 (electronic) | ISBN 9780231178600 (vol. 2 : cloth : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9780231542005 (electronic : vol. 2) Subjects: LCSH: China—History. | China—
Civilization.
Classification: LCC DS736 .Y867 2016 (print) | LCC DS736 (ebook) | DDC 951—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2015040772
A Columbia University Press E-book.
CUP would be pleased to hear about your reading experience with this e-book at cup-
[email protected].
COVER DESIGN: CHANG JAE LEE
Dedicated to Monica Shu-ping Chen Yü
CONTENTS
Author’s Preface
Editorial Note
List of Abbreviations
Chronology of Dynasties
1. Between the Heavenly and the Human
2. Life and Immortality in the Mind of Han China
3. “O Soul, Come Back!”: A Study in the Changing Conceptions of the
Soul and Afterlife in Pre-Buddhist China
4. New Evidence on the Early Chinese Conception of Afterlife
5. Food in Chinese Culture: The Han Period (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.)
6. The Seating Order at the Hong Men Banquet
7. Individualism and the Neo-Daoist Movement in Wei-Jin China
8. Intellectual Breakthroughs in the Tang-Song Transition
9. Morality and Knowledge in Zhu Xi’s Philosophical System
10. Confucian Ethics and Capitalism
11. Business Culture and Chinese Traditions: Toward a Study of the
Evolution of Merchant Culture in Chinese History
12. Reorientation of Confucian Social Thought in the Age of Wang
Yangming
13. The Intellectual World of Jiao Hong Revisited
14. Toward an Interpretation of the Intellectual Transition in Seventeenth-
Century China
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Address of Professor Ying-shih Yü on the Occasion of Receiving the John W. Kluge
Prize at the Library of Congress and Acceptance Speech on the Occasion of Receiving the Tang
Prize for Sinology
Index
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
Collected in these two volumes are essays published during the past
five decades, on various aspects of Chinese cultural and intellectual
traditions and their modern transformations. Written on different
occasions and in different times, they are scattered in a great variety of
publications, some obscure and out of print. However, since all of them
possess, to a greater or lesser degree, a unity of theme regarding the
Chinese tradition in its historical changes, I consider it desirable to make
them accessible to the general reading public by way of reprinting in a
collected form.
It is my extraordinary fortune that two of my highly esteemed
colleagues, Professors Josephine Chiu-Duke and Michael S. Duke,
agreed to serve as editors of my two volumes. They have edited each
and every one of my essays with meticulous and diligent care, resulting
in the elimination of a great deal of imperfections in the original versions.
I am particularly grateful to both of them for providing, in the “Editorial
Note,” a lucid account of my views discussed in these essays. It is also
remarkable that instead of taking my views in the English essays as a
self-contained category, they have made every effort to understand them
in the context of my published oeuvre as a whole and specifically
emphasized their interrelatedness to my Chinese writings.
In this connection, a word may be said about my bilingual historical
writings. Generally speaking, since the 1970s, it has been an established
practice on my part to write book-length monographical studies in
Chinese and present these findings in a more concise format in English
as articles in journals, periodicals, or symposia. The difference is more
than between a longer and a shorter version, however; it also has
something to do with two different ways of historical representation. Full
documentation is often emphasized in Chinese historical writings—
traditional and modern—as a positive feature. As a result, direct
quotation of original sources has been established as a common
historical method. On the other hand, I deeply appreciate the Western
style of argumentation in historical studies that, more often than not,
refrains from extensive quotation of sources. Thus, in writing bilingually, I
often secretly wished that my two versions might somehow strengthen
and supplement, as well as complement, each other.
I wish to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to
Professor David Der-wei Wang for his kindness and, indeed, patience in
including these two volumes of mine in a series of books he has
specifically designed for Columbia University Press. I also wish to thank
all of the various presses for generously granting their respective
permissions to reprint my essays, Mr. Jeff S. Heller of Princeton’s East
Asian Studies Department for conveying materials back and forth to the
editors, and Ms. Su Hue Kim for her years of preparing my many drafts
into typed form.
I dedicate these two volumes to my wife, Monica Shu-ping Chen Yü,
whose abiding love and support have sustained me throughout my
career.
Ying-shih Yü
September 2, 2015