Organizers: John E. Herman, Virginia Commonwealth University; Leo K. Shin,
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
Chair: R. Kent Guy, University of Washington, Seattle
Discussant: John R. Shepherd, University of Virginia
The purpose of this session is to examine travel writings of China's frontiers during the late imperial period so that we may begin to understand and appreciate the dynamic, multi-layered process of identity formation and social-cultural relations between an expanding Chinese state/society and the indigenous frontier societies. Modern historians have relied heavily on travel writings to shed light on the Chinese frontier as a place where military conquest and state consolidation, commercial and urban development and land reclamation occurred, yet few scholars have rigorously examined such travel accounts in their social-cultural and literary contexts. In locating the frontier through Chinese travel writings we expose ourselves to the possibility that our authors used the frontier as an arena to protest conditions in China proper; created an "exotic" frontier stage through which a journey of self-exploration could take place; or adorned their frontier canvas with portraits painted in visceral-laced colors in anticipation of the colonial project. In short, the task of this session is to determine what the travel writings selected for study tell us about the indigenous frontier societies, the authors themselves, the intended audience, and the culture of publishing in late imperial China.
The papers of this panel seek to further our understanding of, and enhance our sensitivity to, frontier travel writings, which we view not solely as a depository of information about the frontier as a place, but as a site where political and social-cultural identities are shaped. Since the proliferation of travel writings from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries coincided with the dramatic expansion of China's geo-political borders, this panel has been organized along a north-south axis: the initial two papers are devoted to examining travel writings of China's south and southwest frontiers from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, while the final two papers discuss travel writings of China's north and northwest frontiers from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Given the exploratory nature of this panel, this format will allow the panelists, the Panel Chair, R. Kent Guy, the Panel Discussant, John R. Shepherd, and the audience to initiate a dialogue on the temporal and spatial differences both within and between China's frontiers, and how Chinese travelers communicated their experiences to the vast Chinese audience.
The Culture of Travel Writings in Late Ming China
Leo K. Shin, Simon Fraser University
Descriptions of people and geography of distant places by the growing population of literati-travelers in late imperial China, whether they were based on imagination or personal experiences, have served as a major source of information on Chinese frontiers for both contemporary readers and modern historians. While modern scholars have analyzed such travel writings on the basis of their "accuracy," few have sought to explore the intricate relationships between the creation and consumption of these texts and the cultural and socio-economic milieu in which they were produced.
This paper examines in particular the proliferation of travel writings between the mid-sixteenth and the mid-seventeenth centuries, a period known for its socioeconomic and tumultuous political changes. It aims to compare and contrast the purposes, contents, and significance of an influential group of texts that offer relatively detailed descriptions of south and southwest China (e.g. Wang Shixing's [1547-98] Guangji yi and Xu Xiake's [1586-1641] Xu Xiake youji) where a minority of "civilized" households (min) were seen as surrounded by a majority of "barbarians" (man).
This paper contends that while travel writings from the late imperial period do include formed observations about the southern frontier, their significance lies more broadly in their revelation of the dialectical relationship between representation and perception. Specifically, the paper argues that a close reading of such texts will unveil how late Ming literati, by portraying people and customs "foreign," helped define and demarcate the boundaries of Chineseness (hua-ness).
The Cant of Conquest: Creating "Barbarians" and "Chinese" in
the Southwest
John Herman, Virginia Commonwealth University
The intent of this paper is to focus attention on the writings of Han travelers involved in contact situations with the indigenous non-Han of southwest China from 1550 to 1750. I will examine a variety of categories in which Han travelers conceived of "barbarians" and "Chinese" in southwest China: mode of subsistence, family relationships, status of women, sexual practices, religious rituals, medical practices, martial skills, etc. It will be argued that as a result of these contact situations, antithetical categories of "barbarian" and "civilized" were applied to a variety of indigenous non-Han peoples and that these antithetical categories, which were the extreme end points on a relatively fluid spectrum, played an important role in China's colonization of the southwest during the late imperial period.
Following an introductory discussion of writings by Yang Shen (1488-1559) (Shengan quanji) and Tian Rucheng (ca.1500-1570) (Yanjiao jiwen), two influential visitors to the southwest during the sixteenth century, I will examine the works of several seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century visitors to the southwest, specifically Xu Xiake's (1586-1641) Xu Xiake youji, Kuang Lu's (1604-1650) Chiya, Chen Ding's (ca. 1650) Qian youji, Tian Wen's (1635-1704) Qian shu, Huang Yuanzhi's (ca. 1680s), Qianzhong zaji, Lu Ciyun's (ca. 1680s) Dongxi xianzhi, and Lan Dingyuan's (1680-1733) Lun bianjiang sheng miaoman yishu.
Xinjiang: The Literary Conquest
Laura Newby, University of Oxford
Between 1760 and 1911, Chinese perceptions of, and policies towards, the Xiyu and its inhabitants underwent a radical transformation. A geographically ill-defined dependency became an inalienable part of China and in the process the local peoples, primarily Turkic-Muslims, were conceptually transformed from barbarian to citizen. This paper will examine the shifting and often conflicting attitudes that the Qing elite exhibited towards the region and its inhabitants.
As Joanna Waley-Cohen's recent study of exile has highlighted, in addition to the official writings of Qing administrators, there also exists a largely neglected body of writing on Xinjiang, including poetry and personal correspondence, produced by exiled officials. Given that most literati had no direct contact with this distant outpost of the empire, the images and attitudes conveyed in the writings of these reluctant sojourners, men such as Lin Zexu and Xu Song, exercised significant influence not only on policy, but on the cultural processes which accompanied Xinjiang's incorporation into China.
Inevitably, this paper will tell us more about the writers than their subjects, specifically about how the Qing elite defined themselves, and their notions of culture and civilization. Contrasting Chinese accounts with those of Westerners, notably Russian and British travelers and explorers, will further shed light on Chinese attitudes towards the "new frontier." What were the exotic, romantic qualities of the region that so attracted them? What were their hopes and dreams for the region and how, if at all, did they reconcile these with the reality?
The Nature of the Nation: Northwest China Through Chinese Eyes
Jonathan Lipman, Mt. Holyoke College
After spending a year (1937-38) investigating social, economic, and cultural conditions in northwest China, Gu Jiegang admitted that he and his traveling companion (the ethnographer Wang Shumin) were ashamed-they had been so close to the geographical center of their nation, but both they and their hosts felt as if they were on the frontier. Ideally, he wrote, "China" would expand and expand until the frontier and the national boundary were congruent, and until that time, "frontier work" should occupy all patriotic Chinese. This paper will study Gu and Wang's travel writings, and those of other Chinese from the "Zhongyuan" who visited Gansu, Qinghai, and Ningxia during the years after Zuo Zongtang's reconquest of the 1870s, to answer the following questions: What did this internal frontier look like to them? In their eyes, who lived there? What was and what ought to be the relationship between Gan-Ning-Qing and the rest of China? What ideological and ethnocentric baggage did these wanderers bring with them to their observations and conclusions? The travel accounts of Fan Changjiang and Ma Hetian, among others, will be included, as will the writings of selected Euro-American observers (the Ekvall family, Eric Teichman, Claude Pickens) for comparison.