In this thesis, I discuss a group of compositionally related 'core' chapters within the Yi Zhou shu, a collection of 59 texts from ancient China that has received very limited attention in scholarship. The texts in this collection are difficult to read and interpret because of their poor preservation and the lack of concise commentaries. I develop a methodological strategy for the identification of philologically related texts within the collection, which allows me to single out a group of texts related by compositional structures, rhetorical patterns and characteristic formulaic expressions. I call such chapters 'kingly consultations', considering that most of such texts are presented as speeches involving sage rulers of the Western Zhou (mid. 11th century - 771 BC), in which they share the fundamental wisdoms of kingship. I argue that these texts are remnants of an important ritualised textual practice, which has left traces not only in the Yi Zhou shu, but also in other collections, such as the Liu tao (Six Bow Cases), which is commonly classified among 'military' texts. I reconstruct elements of the socio-political context of the kingly consultations using comparative insight. I examine the numerical lists used for systematisation of knowledge against similar lists in the Pali canon. I also explain the significance of the expressions that emphasise the secretive transmission of texts against better known esoteric textual communities in China and Japan. Such comparison allows me to preliminarily identify the communities behind the kingly consultations as based on strict knowledge-based hierarchy, but prone to segmentation. Finally, I position the kingly consultations within the broader context of the practice of treasure texts. This practice is an important development in ancient China that led to the emergence of a new type of textual authority by 'detaching' earlier epigraphic texts from their precious material carriers and introducing them into novel environment of manuscript culture.

This dissertation explores the interaction between literati and various social forces in east China in the mid-seventeenth century by focusing on their military performance. Based on a wide range of sources, the study focuses on about twenty literati, most of whom have never been previously researched from a military history perspective. It examines the diversity and complexity of Chinese literati as they pursued power over and within local society, paying special attention to the interrelation between them (literati and society). It argues that Chinese literati in this time period had much less aptitude in changing China than has been previously thought. Both individual and group case studies show that they mainly focused on the realization of an ideal goal, but were unwilling or ill-equipped to adapt themselves to changing conditions as well as environments. This study also indicates that the local military forces as well as ordinary peasants generally played a more crucial role than the literati; the latter's superior position could only be realized in times of peace. That civil and military officials affected each other in fact is an expression of a larger relationship between the central government and its own military forces or with certain local forces. Finally, this study concludes that Chinese literati as a whole had no idea how to integrate and lead the other social forces to reach an ideal goal in that specific time period.

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Readings of contemporary accounts of the Japanese invasion of Choson Korea and Ming China's intervention, by Japanese, Korean, and Chinese writers; analysis of the writers' disparate world-views and how they each envision their country and its neighbours. This thesis uses contemporary writings from across the region to study the significance of the East Asian War of 1592-1598 for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese senses of identity, and argues that the war was a crucial moment in the development of those identities. Despite the 1592-1598 conflict affecting millions of people, and resulting in almost unprecedented cross-border flows of people and information, most previous considerations of its effect on identity have focused on court documents. In the first dedicated study of identities in the East Asian War, this thesis shifts from the hitherto emphasis on politicians and commanders to prioritize individuals at the frontiers of cross-border contact. This shift of focus from centre to periphery contributes to our understanding of two areas of history. In terms of the East Asian War as a historical event, it provides a far more nuanced picture of what this momentous conflict signified for people at the time. In terms of the history of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese identities, it demonstrates persuasively that the sense of belonging to a country held real meaning for people across society, influencing the actions even of those totally removed from the state. Tracing the legacy of frontier writings again contributes to both the history of the war and of identity, by revealing how peripheral insights and central biases combined to give birth to the orthodox narratives of the war, some of which remain influential to this day. Personal writings show how first-hand encounters in the war modified but also re-inforced already well-established identities, making national identities of immediate significance for an immeasurably wider group than in peace time. The late sixteenth-century growth in printing and literacy subsequently greatly amplified the impact of the East Asian War by allowing real-life interaction to be endlessly re-told as a dramatic clash between China, Korea, and Japan. This study restores the war to its proper place as a key moment in the longer development of national identities in East Asia. It also calls for a primary-source based, East-Asia centred reconsideration of theories on the historical development of collective identity, which remain overly influenced by later European experience.