The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture

625 Pages·2015·8.04 MB·English

by  Richard J. Smith

The Qing Dynasty
and Traditional
Chinese Culture

The Qing Dynasty
and Traditional
Chinese Culture
Richard J. Smith
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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Copyright © 2015 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
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passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Richard J. (Richard Joseph), 1944-
The Qing Dynasty and traditional Chinese culture / Richard J. Smith.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
978-1-4422-2192-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — 978-1-4422-2193-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) —
978-1-4422-2194-9 (electronic) 1. China—Civilization—1644-1912. I. Title
DS754.14.S6 2015
951/.03 – 23
2015001789
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
To Lisa and Tyler,
with gratitude, as always,
for the love, the help and the humor
And to my teachers and students,
for their continual inspiration

Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1 The Ming Dynasty Legacy 19
The Establishment of the Ming 22
The Evolution of Ming Institutions 28
Ming Culture 38
2 Conquest and Consolidation 48
The Fall of the Ming and the Rise of the Qing 50
The Qing Empire after 1644: A Brief Overview 62
3 The Qing Political Order 85
Imperial Rule and Metropolitan Offices 89
Administrative Integration 104
4 Social and Economic Institutions 124
Social Classes 127
Forms of Chinese Socioeconomic Organization 149
5 Language and Symbolic Reference 169
Distinctive Features of the Chinese Language 172
Mencius Meets King Hui 175
Types of Chinese Characters 177
Some Common Radicals 178
Language and Culture 185
6 Patterns of Thought 207
The Chinese Intellectual World 210
The Confucian Moral Order 219
Daoist Flight and Fancy 232
vii
viii Contents
7 Religious Life 238
State Sacrifices 241
Buddhism and Religious Daoism 251
Popular Religion 262
8 Arts and Crafts 272
Attitudes Toward Art 275
Crafts 282
Painting and Calligraphy 289
9 Literary Trends 306
Categories of Classical Literature 309
Vernacular Literature 325
10 Social Life 340
Early Lifecycle Ritual 344
Marriage and Beyond 354
Amusements 367
11 The Late Qing and Beyond, 1860–2014 381
Reform, Revolution, and China’s Inherited Culture 381
APPENDICES
Appendix A: A Note on Chinese Names 407
Appendix B: Weights and Measures, Exchange Rates and Costs 409
Appendix C: Regional Differences and Provincial Stereotypes 412
Appendix D: Glossary of Some Philosophical Concepts 416
Appendix E: Tables of Contents for Selected Editions of the
Wanbao quanshu (1612, 1636, 1758, and 1828) 419
Appendix F: Some English-Language Writings on Honglou Meng
(Dream of the Red Chamber) 424
Appendix G: The Three-Character Classic 429
Notes 446
Selected Bibliography of Western-Language Works 482
Online Bibliography 487
Index 585
About the Author 611
Preface
In the twenty or so years that have elapsed since a version of this book ap-
peared in print under the title China’s Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty,
1644–1912 (Westview Press, 1994), there has been an explosion of Western-
language scholarship on China—the Manchu-dominated Qing dynasty
(1636–1912) in particular. One reason, of course, is that new information
has become available, much of it produced by Chinese scholars on Taiwan
and the Chinese Mainland. Previously unavailable or undiscovered archival
materials in Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, and other relevant languages have
come to light, vastly enhancing our knowledge of the multicultural world
of the Manchus. At the same time, and in the same way, archaeological
discoveries have enhanced our understanding of the ways that the Manchus
established and ruled their vast empire.
This new information has not only advanced our knowledge of, and
heightened our appreciation for, political, social, economic, intellectual, and
cultural developments in the Qing period (now dated from the declaration
of the dynasty by the Manchus in 1636, nearly a decade before the conquest
of China in 1644, to the abdication of the last emperor in 1912). It has also
produced new ways of looking at the relationship between the Manchus and
their Chinese subjects, as well as the relationship between the Manchus and
other Inner Asian peoples (including the Mongols, Tibetans, and Central
Asians). One result has been the emergence of what has been called “The
New Qing History.” This scholarly approach is based on the idea that the
Qing empire and “China” were not, in fact, the same thing—that the Manchus
regarded China not so much as the “center” of their empire (although their
primary capital became the Chinese city of Bejing after 1644), but rather as
part (albeit an important part) of a much wider dominion that extended far
ix