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MING CHINA by Timothy R. Sedo A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILL PDF

302 Pages·2010·3.18 MB·English
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LINZHANG COUNTY AND THE CULTURALLY CENTRAL PERIPHERY IN MID- MING CHINA by Timothy R. Sedo A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in The Faculty of Graduate Studies (History) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2010 © Timothy R. Sedo, 2010 ABSTRACT This dissertation offers a local history of a small, peripheral county located in the most northern part of Henan Province during the Ming dynasty known as Linzhang County. Henan suffered a great deal from the wars that recurred frequently from the end of the Six Dynasties Period through the late fourteenth century and Linzhang County was among its many places that seemed to “fall behind” as the economic and cultural centres of the empire shifted to the south. Linzhang could however, claim a direct link with some of the empire’s most culturally central heartlands of the past. Given that the foundation of the Ming state followed a period of prolonged alien rule under the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, promotion of such “cultural centrality” was at the discursive core of the Ming state’s restorationist legitimacy. In this context, even a small peripheral county that went largely untouched by the dramatic commercial transformations characterizing southern China throughout the 15th to 17th centuries could rightfully claim a degree of “centrality” within the Ming realm. One particular mid-Ming magistrate named Jing Fang, realized this opportunity and in his tenure actively promoted projects that publicly linked the county to its distant antiquity. In just a few years Jing Fang successfully rectified Linzhang’s historic record; compiled and edited the county’s gazetteer; promoted the cult of the region’s most famous ancient culture hero, Ximen Bao; and renovated the county’s most important historic sites, temples and public buildings. Jing Fang’s dizzying pace of activity reveals the use and power of a stylized antiquity as a vital resource for local governance in north China during the mid-Ming period. While the dominant southern, or Jiangnan model of Ming studies emphasizes relatively autonomous commercial development and literati academic achievement as the key to late imperial wealth and culture, this “northern,” or perhaps more precisely “central” study gives more credit to state supervision and popular culture in the sustenance of the Ming. It also offers a new local vantage point to begin to rethink the deeply regional characteristics of the composite Ming realm. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract................................................................................................................................ii Table of Contents................................................................................................................iii List of Figures.....................................................................................................................vi Acknowledgements............................................................................................................vii Dedication............................................................................................................................ix 1 Beyond Jiangnan: Micro-History in the “Culturally Central” Periphery...............1 1.1 Introduction: First Impressions........................................................................................1 1.2 The Jiangnan Model of Ming Studies..............................................................................6 1.3 Beyond the Jiangnan Model...........................................................................................14 1.4 A Regional Approach.....................................................................................................17 1.5 A Mid-Ming A Resource History..................................................................................20 1.6 Gazetteer Sources: From the Macro to the Micro..........................................................25 1.7 Linzhang Gazetteer Particulars......................................................................................32 1.8 Gazetteer Strategies........................................................................................................36   2 Linzhang Orientations: Reading and Seeing the Locality........................................41 2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................41 2.2 Reading the Locality: a Marginal Preface......................................................................46 2.3 Seeing the Locality: the 1506 Gazetteer’s Prefatory Map.............................................64 2.3.1 Symbolic Scale, Selection and Sign Language..............................................72 2.3.2 Zhong: Power and Authority..........................................................................75 2.3.3 State and Water..............................................................................................80 2.4 Conclusion....................................................................................................................100 3 Creating the Confucian Saint: the Canonization of Ximen Bao............................102 3. 1 Introduction.................................................................................................................102 3.2 Ximen Bao in the Early Textual Record......................................................................109 3.2.1 Inept and Disloyal: the Lushi chunqiu.........................................................109 3.2.2 Impatient and Quick Tempered: the Han Feizi............................................112 3.2.3 Local Resistance to Ximen Bao’s Rule: The Huainanzi..............................113 3.3. The Confucian Shift: Ximen Bao in the Zhan guo ce/Shuo yuan and in the Shi ji.....116 3.3.1 A Confucian Pupil: The Zhan guo ce and the Shuo yuan...........................116 3.3.2 The Canonical Account: the Shi ji...............................................................118 3.4 Contextualizing Ximen Bao and the Shi ji: Shamans, He Bo and Magical Efficacy.........................................................................................................122 3.4.1 Female Shamans in the Pre-Han Period.......................................................123 3.4.2 He Bo and Water Sacrifices.........................................................................126 3.4.3 The Decline in State Shamanism.................................................................133 3.5 Constructing the Confucian Saint................................................................................135 iii 3.5.1 Opening the 12 Irrigation ditches: Managerial Efficiency...........................137 3.5.2 What about Shi Qi........................................................................................141 3.6 Conclusion...................................................................................................................144   4 The Religious Rise, Fall and Rehabilitation of Ximen Bao in Linzhang County: 220 -1644 AD.............................................................................146 4.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................146 4.2 From the Secular to the Religious: Ximen Bao Worship Following the Han Period....................................................................................................................149 4.3 Ye and the North China Plain during the Six Dynasties Period..................................153 4.4 The Religious and Social Life of the Ximen Bao Shrine during the Six Dynasties Period...................................................................................................156 4.5 The End of the Six Dynasties and the Fall of the Ximen Bao Shrine..........................160 4.6 The Late Imperial Rehabilitation of Ximen Bao in Linzhang County.........................162 4.6.1 Cultural Centrality and the Mid-Ming Textual Revival of Ximen Bao.......164 4.6.2 Ximen Bao as City God: Building/Renovating Linzhang’s City God Temple.........................................................................................169 4.6.3 Public Performance and the Restoration of the City God Temple in Linzhang....................................................................................174 4.6.4 A Mid-Point Renovation?............................................................................177 4.7 Claiming Ximen Bao....................................................................................................179 4.8 Conclusion....................................................................................................................187 5 “From the Minute that he Stepped out of the Cart:” Jing Fang’s Magistrate Activism in a 1506 Northern Gazetteer..............................................190 5.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................190 5. 2 Finding the Banal Magistrate......................................................................................191 5.3 Career Local Administrators: the Rank-and-File Magistrate.......................................197 5.4 A Transplanted History: The Jing Family in Shandong’s Dingtao County.................200 5.5 Waiting for Work.........................................................................................................209 5.6 “From the Moment that Jing Fang stepped out of the Cart:” An Activist Magistrate’s Successes..............................................................................................212 5.7 Local Gazetteer as Personal Biography: Jing Fang’s 1506 Gazetteer.........................220 5.7.1 Jing Fang’s Biography.................................................................................225 5.7.2 The Magistrate’s Private/Public Charity......................................................227 5.7.3 The Magistrate’s Moral Sway......................................................................228 5.7.4 The Magistrate’s Statecraft..........................................................................229 5.7.5 The Magistrate’s Judicial Cunning..............................................................232 5.8 Losing the Trail: Jing Fang Record in Subsequent Appointments..............................234 5.9 Conclusion: Jing Fang as Mid-Ming Magistrate..........................................................237 6 Conclusions: Reflections of an Unworthy Magistrate: Linzhang County in the Late Ming.............................................................................................................241 6.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................241 6.2 Droughts, Famines, Epidemics and Floods: the late Ming Context in Linzhang County.........................................................................................................242 iv 6.3 Dislocation and Social Unrest in late Ming Linzhang County....................................246 6.4 Zhang Erzhong in the Late Ming.................................................................................250 6.5 A Brief Record of an Unworthy Magistrate of Linzhang County...............................253 6.6 Conclusions: Reading Back from Zhang Erzhong.......................................................259 Bibliography.....................................................................................................................264 Appendices.......................................................................................................................283   Appendix A: Translation of Ximen Bao Passage from the Lushi Chunqiu.......................283 Appendix B: Translation of Ximen Bao Passage from the Han Feizi...............................285 Appendix C: Translation of Ximen Bao Passage from the Huainanzi..............................286 Appendix D: Translation of the Ximen Bao Passage from the Shuo Yuan........................288 Appendix E: Translation of Ximen Bao Passage from the Shi ji.......................................289 Appendix F: Translation of Yu Xin’s “A Poem for the Ximen Bao Temple”...................292 Appendix G: Historical Chart of Changing Jurisdictions for Anyang and Linzhang Counties......................................................................................293 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Historic Monument in Linzhang County……………………………..................2 Figure 1.2 William Skinner’s Physiographic Macroregions……………………................18 Figure 2.1 “Map [of the Terrain] within the [County] Borders” (境內之圖)……………..70 Figure 2.2 “Map of the County Seat” (縣治之圖)………………………………………...71 Figure 2.3 Yao Jianzhi’s Map of the Zhang River During the Shang Period…………......87 Figure 2.4 Yao Jianzhi’s Map of the Zhang River During the Late Zhou Period………....88 Figure 2.5 Yao Jianzhi’s Map of the Zhang River During the Ming Period……………...90 Figure 3.1 Monument to Ximen Bao in Linzhang County……………………………….107 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation could have never been completed without a great deal of help, support, and guidance from a number of people. I first stumbled onto this topic when a Ming documents reading group that I was a part of at the University of Toronto randomly selected a gazetteer from the Tianyige collection to read in the fall of 2003. I would like to thank the initial members of this group, Desmond Cheung, Darryl Sterk, Adam Bohnet and Ihor Pidhainy who are probably just as shocked as I am that somehow our arbitrary selection seven years ago grew into this dissertation project. While at the University of British Columbia I have had the great fortune of being surrounded by an incredible group of teachers, scholars, colleagues and friends. I am extremely grateful to the Centre for Chinese Research and its Director, Alison Bailey, for her continued support and for graciously housing me and my books over the past few years. At various stages in this project, I received insightful suggestions, comments and criticism from Leo Shin, Diana Lary, Alexander Woodside, Timothy Cheek, Alison Bailey, Michael Szonyi, Thomas Nimick, Roger Des Forges, Jing Liu, Cherie Hanson, Michael Schoenhals, Guo Xiaolin, Grace Fong and Robin Yates. I also could have not have asked to be surrounded by a better cohort of classmates. I would especially like to thank: David Luesink, Malcolm Thompson, Dai Lianbin, Huang Xin, Anna Belogurova, Jack Hayes, Noa Grass, Tom Woodsworth, Nick Simon, Craig Smith, and Heidi Kong. I am also thankful to all of my friends in China, Shi Lei, Han Minjie, Che Lin, Chen Runyo, Bao Jiajian, Fu Lingchao, and Mat Morgan who generously provided me with all of their insider’s knowledge of China. My experiences in China would have never been the same without it At key stages of this project I received generous financial support for which I am thankful including: the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation. I am also grateful to other members of UBC’s History Department, especially Gloria Lees, Leslie Paris, and Danny Vickers who have helped me secure funding at the times when I needed it the most I reserve a special thanks for the following people who have played important roles in my growth and intellectual development: to Ralph Crozier, Richard King and Greg Blue who first introduced me to China and encouraged me every step of the way as I began my studies; to Jason Young who generously offered to read through the entire dissertation and kept me sane while finishing this final draft in the cold of a Montreal winter; to Zhang Dewei who I could also count on for help and guidance through tricky passages of Chinese text; to Matt Irving, John Welk, Roy Turner, and Ben Liu who kept me honest; to my brother and sister who keep me grounded; and to Abhishek Kaicker, for always having something intelligent to say about everything– a warm thank you to all of you. I would also like to offer a very special thanks to my close mate Desmond Cheung for being with me every step of the way. From U of T to UBC, his friendship, erudition, and generous help is a major factor behind this dissertation’s completion. I cannot thank him enough. I am especially grateful to my teacher Timothy Brook who urged me to pursue my own interests and provided me the intellectual freedom to do so. With patience he vii guided me through Ming sources and was always generous with his time when I had questions and problems. His learning, dedication, and intellectual curiosity continue to inspire me. I reserve my last thanks for my wife and my parents. Debbie Wong has kept my spirits high while completing this dissertation and has provided me with the emotional supported that I needed to see this project to its completion. She also kept me fed and if you ever have the fortune of eating her food you will know how truly lucky I am. To my parents, words cannot express my thanks and gratitude for your support and guidance throughout the years. Writing a dissertation is a complicated and stressful process and knowing that I could always count on your love and support means the world to me. I dedicate this dissertation to you. viii DEDICATION   To  my  parents   ix Chapter 1: Beyond Jiangnan: Micro-History in the “Culturally Central” Periphery 1.1 Introduction: First Impressions When traveling to a new place, first impressions are always important. In 2006, I had the opportunity to travel to my area of study, Linzhang County (臨漳縣), for the first time. Getting there was not particularly easy and required riding a small beat-up “bun-van” from Handan city located in the southernmost tip of Hebei Province for almost two hours before I reached the “county city” (縣城) of Linzhang. Linzhang is somewhat off the beaten path. Few Chinese have ever heard of the place and it is not directly linked to the national highway or railway system. The preferred mode of transportation for many in the area is still two-wheeled carts pulled by donkeys. With no large scale industry to speak of, historic sites that are far too esoteric to be of interest to most people and a predominately agricultural landscape there is little reason for most to visit Linzhang county. Yet after almost two hours of being thrown around inside the suspension-less minivan, which somehow managed to magnify every bump in the potholed road, we emerged onto a pristinely paved circle with a massive spire that soared into the sky. Amused by a foreigner wanting to stop and look at something so routine to the locals, the driver in a barely intelligible local dialect asked if I wanted to stop and have a look. I responded with an enthusiastic “yes” and in seconds I was outside of the cramped van and walking around the monolith that somehow resembled both a dollar sign and the head of a mythical creature all at the same time. 1

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memory, and historical allusion to help deal with the present and to shape their speculate on this point, this historic allusion was not likely lost on his 82 For more discussion of Li Bing and his legendary son Erlang (二郎) see
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