In this dissertation I assess craft production during China’s contentious Northern Wei (or Beiwei) Dynasty (398-494 CE) from both technological and cultural perspectives. The Northern Wei were a “foreign” Xianbei ethnic group who imposed their rule over north China for almost a century. I combine materials analyses of architectural ceramics excavated at royal building sites in the dynasty’s capital city of Datong with historical texts to understand the environmental, political, ethnic, religious, and technological forces that shaped production. I conclude that production processes reflect the complex interaction of new political and religious ideas and practices with longstanding craft traditions. Analyses of mineral and chemical composition of architectural ceramic samples by petrographic thin section and instrumental neutron activation analysis show that artisans selected and processed raw clay materials to achieve certain technical properties, such as low-shrinkage, required for final products. They maintained and refined established techniques such as using molds to facilitate forming of the clay body, and employed downdraft kilns to maintain steady firing temperatures, as shown in thermal expansion tests. They also introduced new techniques such as methods of burnishing roof tiles to increase water resistance. Decorative changes, such as the appearance of lotus patterns on roof tile ends, reflect the expansion of Buddhist influences, underscoring that royal building materials also carried significant political and ritual power in addition to their functionality. These Beiwei materials also reveal details about craft organization: inscriptions found on roof tiles complement details from historical texts, suggesting that ethnic Han artisans worked in construction projects for their new Xianbei rulers. The lack of skilled artisans at this time of constant warfare forced the rulers to adopt a special household-based structure to control and maintain non-Xianbei artisans at a certain social level. With time, these artisans were able to use their skills to gain economic independence and a certain level of management over their production. Architectural ceramics reveal intertwined economic, social, and political variables that played crucial roles in the technological choices and organization of production during this key transitional period of China’s early medieval history.

The core aim of this interdisciplinary research is to provide a critical analysis of the influence of Darwinism and Social Darwinism on a sample of modern Chinese writings. To achieve these aims, the researcher uses a range of both Chinese and English sources to explore their close affinities with Darwinism and Social Darwinism. Following this course, the research examines how Darwinian thought was introduced to the Chinese reading public in the late nineteenth century through a translation of Thomas Henry Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics by Yen Fu, and the subsequent impact of this work and Darwinian thought in general on seven literary and political figures: K'ang Yu-wei, Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, Hu Shih, Chen Duxiu, Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong. From an historical perspective, the Opium Wars and imperial invasions of China in the nineteenth century severely weakened the country’s political, economic, diplomatic, military, educational and cultural power. For these reasons and others, from 1840 to 1949, China experienced a tumultuous period of social and political transformation, which has eventually led to her revival in the twenty-first century. It will be seen that each of the literary figures examined here used evolutionary thought to justify revolution at various points on China’s long march to modernity. Progressive Darwinian ideas sharply contrasted with the old Confucian values upheld within Chinese communities. Nevertheless, the faults and weaknesses of Qing China awakened many pioneering revolutionaries who sought to reverse the status quo by initiating a series of radical reforms and revolutionary movements. Many within the Chinese intellectual elite looked to the tide of change and progress coming from the West, which they hoped might replace the recent historical stagnation and Confucian dogma embedded in Chinese culture and society. In this vein, many of these pioneering revolutionaries set about driving the historical transformation of China by selecting, translating and interpreting Darwinian ideas in their own writings. From Yen Fu in the nineteenth century to Mao Zedong in the twentieth century, evolutionary thought went hand in hand with China’s modernization.