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This dissertation studies the nexus of empire, environment, and market that defined Qing China in 1750-1850, when unprecedented commercial expansion and a rush for natural resources – including furs, pharmaceuticals, and precious minerals – transformed the ecology of China and its borderlands. That boom, no less than today’s, had profound institutional, ideological, and environmental causes and consequences. Nature itself was redefined. In this thesis, I show that it was the activism, not the atavism, of early modern empire that produced “nature.” Wilderness as such was not a state of nature: it reflected the nature of the state. Imperial efforts to elaborate and preserve “pure” ethnic homelands during the boom were at the center of this process. Using archival materials from Northeast China and Mongolia as case studies, the dissertation reassesses the view that homesteaders transformed China’s frontiers from wilderness to breadbasket after 1850. I argue instead that, like the Russian East and American West, the Qing empire’s North was never a “primitive wilderness” – it only seemed so to late 19th century observers. Manchuria and Mongolia, in fact, had served local and global markets. The boom years of the 1700s in particular witnessed a surge in poaching, commercial licensing, and violent “purification” campaigns to restore the environment, stem migration, and promote “traditional” land-use patterns. Results were mixed; conservation succeeded in some territories, while others suffered dramatic environmental change: emptied of fur-bearing animals, stripped of wild pharmaceuticals, left bare around abandoned worker camps. Beginning with changes in material culture in the metropole, the dissertation follows the commodity chain to production sites in the frontier, providing a fresh look at the politics of resource production and nature protection in the Qing empire. / East Asian Languages and Civilizations

This dissertation investigates China’s relationship with Inner Asia—encompassing Tibet, Mongolia, and Xinjiang—by focusing on information exchange, economic integration, and worldview formation from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries in an international context. Supplementing modern and classical Chinese sources with multilingual materials in Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchu, Japanese, and a range of European languages, my research diversifies scholarly understanding of China’s development as a nation by emphasizing the significant roles of Inner Asian peoples in building the Qing empire. I argue that, instead of a marginal hinterland, Inner Asia was the contact zone that brought Eurasian cultures and knowledge systems together. Moreover, this work challenges the binary discourse of metropole/periphery in the history of imperialism, colonialism, and globalization by demonstrating that the integration of knowledge systems in modern Eurasia started from Inner Asia. Engaging with the scholarship of comparative world history, I argue for the Great Convergence, a novel term that signifies the information exchange, economic integration, and knowledge formation that mobile communities and intelligence networks in Inner Asia facilitated between China, South Asia, and Europe. My research features interdisciplinary methods that bridge the gap between international history and world philology, among other disciplines. This dissertation analyzes information and economic networks between China and Inner Asia. More broadly, the present study contributes to the literature on imperialism, transnationalism, mobility, ethnicity, and science/knowledge in global and comparative contexts. To be specific, this dissertation investigates how Inner Asian mobile communities, such as Tibetan monks, Mongolian pilgrims, and Ladakhi caravans facilitated Qing understandings of other Eurasian empires, including Tsarist Russia, Ottoman Turkey, Mughal India, Afsharid Iran, and Durrani Afghanistan. Moreover, I argue that Qing information gathering significantly promoted the international integration of information networks and knowledge systems in early modern Eurasia. Finally, this dissertation generalizes historical trends of knowledge exchange to explore the phenomenon of the Qing empire’s knowledge involution caused by political censorship and information non-transparency. Accordingly, this research sheds light on knowledge divergence between China and Europe to answer why the Qing empire did not achieve a modern scientific revolution compared with its European counterparts.

This essay analyzes Zhang Dai’s life and his major literary work, and argues that the expression of self is the core of his writings. By contextualizing Zhang Dai’s work in the Ming-Qing dynastic transition, this essay explains the hidden motives of Zhang Dai to justify, preserve and identify his self through literary practice, suggests that this explosion of self-expression is not only a literary response to the historical event of dynastic transition, but also a reflection of the cultural and literary trends of the 17th century. This essay also provides close readings and genre study to Zhang Dai’s poems, prose and biographical writings, and demonstrates how the expression of the writer’s self works in different types of literary genres.

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Yes / Ancient Chinese herbal texts as far back as the 4th Century Zhou hou bei ji fang describe methods for the use of Qing Hao (Artemisia annua) for the treatment of intermittent fevers. Today, the A. annua constituent artemisinin is an important antimalarial drug and the herb itself is being grown and used locally for malaria treatment although this practice is controversial. Here we show that the ancient Chinese methods that involved either soaking, (followed by wringing) or pounding, (followed by squeezing) the fresh herb are more effective in producing artemisinin-rich extracts than the usual current method of preparing herbal teas from the dried herb. The concentrations of artemisinin in the extracts was up to 20-fold higher than that in a herbal tea prepared from the dried herb, but the amount of total artemisinin extracted by the Chinese methods was much less than that removed in the herbal tea. While both extracts exhibited potent in vitro activities against Plasmodium falciparum, only the pounded juice contained sufficient artemisinin to suppress parasitaemia in P. berghei infected mice. The implications of these results are discussed in the context of malaria treatment using A. annua infusions.

The present paper deals with the event known as the Bathang incident, in the Sichuan- Tibetan border area in 1905, during which there was an uprising against the Chinese imperial administration, leading to the murder of Feng Quan, the Assistant High Commissioner to Tibet, and his retinue. In addition to the secondary literature, the paper utilizes mainly Chinese primary sources, along with travelogues and diaries written by Western missionaries and travellers. The initial portion of the first chapter describes the geographical characteristics of the broader area of Kham. Next follows a summary of the historical and political development of the territory, with an emphasis on the development of relations between Kham, Tibet, the Mongols and China, including the internal development and formation of its specific environment and culture. The second chapter turns to Bathang itself. The first subchapter is dedicated to the exceptional natural conditions in Bathang. The second section provides an overview of the historical development of the Bathang area and its gradual integration, first into the Mongol empire and then into the realm of the Qing dynasty. The introduction of the native chieftains system is also described. The third chapter contains an analysis of Bathang's inner power relations, with...

La période qui s’étende de la fin du XVIIIe siècle à la première moitié du XIXe constitue un âge d’or de la numismatique chinoise. Suite à l’édition en 1751 du Qinding qianlu, nombreux sont les collectionneurs qui s’intéressent à la monnaie et qui s’engagent dans la publication de catalogues, de monographies ou d’études érudites. Ces publications qui s’inspirent des méthodes appliquées en littérature par le courant d’érudition appelé l’ « Ecole des vérifications et des preuves » (kaozhengxue), entraînent une révolution méthodologique dans les études numismatiques. L’œuvre la plus représentative de cette période est le Guquanhui de Li Zuoxian (1807-1876) publiée en 1864. Cet ouvrage rassemble les collections, ainsi que les idées d’une communauté de passionnés qui correspondaient régulièrement, s’échangeaient des monnaies, estampages ou encore manuscrits et se réunissaient parfois. Mettre en évidence la nature des correspondances entre membres de ce cercle et l’existence d’échanges marchands et amicaux entre passionnés à la capitale permet de comprendre dans quelle mesure les échanges informels ont contribué à l’élaboration de critères d’étude des monnaies et à faire faire un bond qualitatif sans précédent à la numismatique chinoise. Il s’agit de voir quand quelle mesure les réseaux de sociabilité existant entre collectionneurs ont contribué aux progrès significatifs de cette époque, c’est-à-dire de retracer l’apparition d’une exigence de scientificité dans le milieu des collectionneurs privés. Cette recherche questionne aussi l’articulation entre le goût de la collection et la réflexion historique savante. / The period from the late eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth constitutes a golden age for Chinese numismatics. Following the publication in 1751 of the Qinding qianlu (The Imperially Ordered Catalogue of Coins), many collectors became interested in coins and engaged themselves in publishing catalogues, monographs, or studies. These publications using the methods employed in littérature by the « Evidential studies » (kaozhengxue), created a révolution in methods in numismatics studies. The most représentative work of this period is the Guquanhui (Catalogue of Ancient Coins) published by Li Zuoxian (1807-1876) in 1864. This book brings together the collections and the ideas of a community of collectors that met regularly, exchanged coins, rubbings or unpublished documents. These informal exchanges have contributed to the invention of criteria for the study of coins and to the qualitative leap made in Chinese numismatics. An attempt will be made to understand how social networks between collectors have conrtbuted to the significant progress of that time, and to trace the emergence of a requirement of scientific approach among coin collectors. This reserch also questions the relation betwwen the taste for collection and historical thinking.

Ce projet propose la contextualisation, la traduction et l'annotation du « Shugai 書概 [Précis de calligraphie] » de Liu Xizai 劉熙載 (1813-1881), esthète, calligraphe, lettré-fonctionnaire et pédagogue de la fin du XIXe siècle. Nous nous pencherons sur la façon d’aborder l’histoire des genres calligraphiques et l’histoire des écoles liées aux grands maîtres ainsi que sur l’esthétique propre à cette pratique de tradition lettrée, perceptible à la façon de juger d’une œuvre et d’exprimer les relations étroites entre le calligraphe et son écriture. Cette réflexion débouchera sur une analyse détaillée des images et des termes pour dire la conception, la réalisation et la réception d'une œuvre. Parmi ces termes, nous analyserons l'emploi des termes d'origine corporelle utilisés dans un cadre critique. Notre corpus textuel est centré sur le « Précis de calligraphie » dont nous proposons une traduction inédite en français, tout en s'ouvrant sur l'ensemble du Précis des arts dont le « Précis de calligraphie » fait partie et sur les traités antérieurs sur lesquels il prend appui. Notre corpus est également visuel et comprend les stèles bei et les estampages de stèles ainsi que les livres de calligraphies modèles tie. Nous pourrons ainsi faire correspondre les descriptions et évaluations esthétiques à la réalité visuelle des œuvres et mieux comprendre comment la pratique et l’art de la calligraphie étaient conçus et présentés à la fin de la Chine impériale, avant la rencontre avec les pratiques et les concepts de l'art occidental. / This project proposes to contextualize, translate and annotate the "Shugai 書概[Synthesis of calligraphy]" written by Liu Xizai 劉熙載 (1813-1881), a thoughtful scholar and calligrapher of the late Qing Dynasty. This treatise is an overview of calligraphic art and terminology of traditional Chinese aesthetic. The “Synthesis of calligraphy” details practices and concepts. It presents the jointure between the key terms of aesthetics and Chinese calligraphy. We will analyse how the history of writing styles and schools are presented and the way a work of art is judged, in its relations to the writter and to the viewer. We will open a discussion on the choice of images and metaphors to speak about the practice of calligraphy and reception of a work of art and how it originates in the specific artistic and aesthetic experience of the scholars in traditional China. Among these key terms, we will seek to analyze those of bodily origin. The core focus is the “Synthesis calligraphy”, that we will thoroughly translate, while engaging the entire Yigai [Treatise on the Arts] from which the “Synthesis of calligraphy” is a part and previous treatises to which it refers. The project also includes visuals: steles (bei) and rubbings of headstones and model calligraphy books (tie). This will allow us to match the descriptions and appreciations of the art pieces with the reality of visual works and to better understand how calligraphic practice and art were conceived and expressed at the end of imperial China before its encounter with Western art.

published_or_final_version / Chinese / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy