published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Chinese Historical Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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This study highlights the influence of the Ming-Qing transition on legal justice in China. According to mainstream sinicisation (Hanhua ..) theory, Manchu was assimilated into the Han majority and ruled China using the old Ming government system. This study proves otherwise via an extensive examination of the transition’s effect on legal justice, particularly the abolition of the prefectural judge (tuiguan..) position during the early Qing Dynasty. In the Yuan and Ming eras, judges emerged as unique officials specialising in juridical responsibilities and demonstrating the sophistication of legal justice. However, institutional reform during the Qing Dynasty pushed local administrators (prefects; zhifus..) into taking over prefectural judiciary responsibilities, gradually blurring the functional line between justice and civil executives until prefectural judges were ultimately banished from service. This study investigates the reasons behind the elimination of the prefectural judge position and the decline of legal professionalism in sixteenth and seventeenth century China. The findings demonstrate the great differences between the Ming and Qing legal systems and an alternative perspective for assessing the significance of the Ming-Qing transition is proposed.

The final decade of the Qing Dynasty, 1901-1911, witnessed a proliferation of works of fiction that incorporated, to a large extent for the first time, themes and images relating to material and technological progress. These "science fantasies" of global and interplanetary peregrination and travel across epochal time have typically been situated along various degrees of confederacy with the values and ideology of modernising China at large. This study however addresses the complex and oft-obfuscated relationship between much of this speculative fiction and the late-Qing tabloid press, which is more closely associated with the satirical, grotesque, narcotic and libidinal. By investigating the subverting and distorting of nominally positivist images like imagined futures, space travel and utopia, the dissertation explicates the possibility for these works of fiction to express a cynical and critical subjectivity toward the ideology of "modern China" that was taking shape at this time. The study incorporates new perspectives on oft-encountered novels, like Wu Jianren's New Story of the Stone, alongside more marginal texts, like the popular sequels to the classics authored by Lu Shi'e, and several unattributed pseudonymous works of short experimental fiction. Through close analysis of these texts, I argue that the arena of "tabloid speculative fiction" was thematically united at the level of their "grotesque fantasies," in which the images of fantasy and the values of modernity were subverted by sexuality, lassitude and boredom. In highlighting this critical grotesquery, the study stresses the internal discontinuities that undergird the superficial homogeneity often attributed to late-Qing speculative fiction.

中國歷代政府均視地方治安為重要的政治議題，治安議題也就成為治史者瞭解古代中國政治運作的一門路徑。過去有關「明清基層社會與治安」的研究，向為中外學者頗感興趣的課題。本文的重點是討論明清之際基層社會的治安管理情況，為此提出了四個既是獨立但又環環相扣的問題。有別於過往研究，本文將以捕役這類普遍存在於明清基層社會，而又備受現今學者忽略的基層公務員為切入點，首先重新梳理他們在明清之際出現的原因以及演變過程，解釋他們在明中後期才成為專門的治安人員，並釐清包括捕役在內的應捕人專責維持社會秩序。其次, 闡述捕役在基層社會中的職能，指出他們擁有頗大的治安和司法權力。接著討論捕役機制存在待遇差劣以及人手編排不足等制度性問題，因而促使捕役濫用職權，從而達到經濟和治安目的。至於捕役犯罪情節的內容和影響，本文摒棄傳統以小說內容入手的做法，改以多部判牘內有關捕役犯罪的真實個案着手，得出「誣良為盜」和「屈打成招」是他們最常見的犯罪行為的結論，這些罪行對基層社會的治安和司法運作造成重大問題。最後把焦點從治安人員轉移到管理這些群體的地方官員上，透過地方官員對待捕役的態度，反映官員在治安管理上的困難和理解。他們一方面面對統治者的治安要求，另一方面又受制度上及資源上的限制，所以只能以加重懲罰的高壓方法來提高捕役完成治安任務的可能和減低他們犯罪的機會。這種態度表層意義反映他們只視捕役為「治安工具」，更深層意義是揭示地方官員對治安管理的終極理解──完成治安任務。要言之，本文透過捕役以及管理這些治安人員的地方官員，帶出地方治安管理的政策和問題，以另一個角度，瞭解明清之際基層社會的治安情況和特色。study focuses on the social public order and management of the local society during the Ming-Qing transition. Four independent but related questionsare raised for discussions to achieve such aims. First of all, this thesis focuses onthe buyi (捕役, literally local constables). They were a type of grass-root civilservant which permeates the local society of the Ming-Qing period, but long beenignored by the modern historians. In order to understand how they becameindispensable public security staffs and to clarify their responsiblities, their rolesand deeds in the transition period between Ming and Qing, as well as theirtransformation process in the due course are discussed. Secondly, the functions ofbuyi in the local society are explored to point out the great power on security andjudicial aspect they had seized. After that the institutional issues including a lackof manpower and low remuneration level are discussed, as such issues had pushedthe buyi to misuse their power to seek for their own benefits. The third questionrelated to the criminal committed by the buyi. In this chapter the crimes of thebuyi are reconstructed from judicial casebooks rather than the late Ming novels.From such cases the most common crimes of those buyi are fallen into thecatergories of Accused on innocent person and Tortured for confessions . Suchcrimes were serious problem to the local judiciary as well as the social order. Atlast our focus is shifted from those local security staff to those local officials. Inorder to reveal the difficulties and understanding on maintaining local social orderfrom the viewpoint of officials, how they treated those buyi is thoroughlydiscussed. On one hand the officials had to obey the nationwide policies imposedto them by the imperial authority, on the other hand they were restricted by thelocal institutions and resources, therefore the officials could only raise the level ofpenalties so as to lower the possibility of those buyi to commit crimes, and also toimprove their willingness to fulfil their duty. Such difficulties of the officialsmade them to treat the buyi as tools for social order maintenance . Incidentally, itrevealed that the ultimate understanding of Ming-Qing local officials on socialorder maintenance was to accomplish on surface their missions of social orderissued from their seniors, other than establish solutions to uproot sources ofcrimes or to build an effective and uncorrupted force of local constables.To conclude, this thesis asks us to pay attention to the policies and issues onlocal social order of late imperial China by exploring the buyi and the localofficials whom managing them.

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「詞史」為一理論術語，亦是作品的價值桂冠。此一觀念於明清之際興發，然而歷來大多是站在「詩史」的角度之下詮釋此一概念，而少對當時的「詞史」論述作一完整並細緻的討論。經過分析，筆者發現明清之際的「詞史」論述具有泛情化與個人化的傾向，故本文以現今「詞史」研究的學術反思為出發點，並進一步站在此特點之上，企圖建立一個考察「詞史」作品的「新詞史」視角。第一章是全文的基礎，包含兩個重點：一是分析明清之際的「詞史」概念特質，並闡述其產生背景與原因；二是將「詞史」與「詩史」、「曲史」一同比較，得出它們的細微差別。第二章至第四章從「詞史」論述中選取三個主要內涵，分別是「傳心」、「憶往」與「懷古詠史」，在這三章中，除了對這三類「詞史」論述有更仔細的分析外，並加入了與此三個主題相關的理論思考，形成新的考察視角，接著由這些主題衍伸而出，開展專題討論，作為「新詞史」之示例。「詞史」的泛情化與個人化，背離了過往重紀事的史觀，而與二十世紀初以來的新史學觀念相符，同樣指向心靈史與思想史之範疇。也因為「事」的剝離，其間文體跨越的標準，以及詞中「史」的性質都更為抽象、模糊，加上論述中賦予鑑賞者裁選的權力，故與新歷史主義亦有部分相似之處。本文採用新歷史主義的方法，注重文本與歷史的互動，選擇詞、史兩個方面皆有價值的作品：第一個專題以兩組骷髏詞為分析對象，從中可見兩種死亡觀的對話；接著以自壽詞與自題像詞為分析對象，觀察他們詞中的自傳意味；最後以〈虞美人〉詞牌為主的虞姬詞為分析對象，帶出英雄觀的討論。這三個專題之間又是彼此關聯，共同形成一個歷史場域，在詞中展現他們文學化的眾聲喧嘩。綜上所述，本文於理論與作品兩方面，希望能擺脫過往陳陳相因的定義與詮釋，而對於詞與史，有更多思考的可能。= As an academic term, Cishi can also be esteemed as a compliment of a piece of work. Cishi, developed into a concept in the duration of Ming and Qing Dynasty, has been long comprehended and interpreted under the gist of Shishi, without a thorough and detailed discussion over the contemporary discourse about Cishi. Through close reading and analysis, I found that the discourse about Cishi in the duration of Ming and Qing Dynasty has an inclination of pan-sentiment and personalisition. This dissertation is based on the reflection of present study on Cishi, and tries to make a step further to establish a "new Cishi" platform to inspect Cishi works. The first chapter is the fundament of this whole dissertation, which consists of two parts: one is to analyze the particularity of the concept of Cishi, and explain its background and reason, and the other is to compare the subtle differences among Cishi, Shishi and Qushi. I select three main connotations--expressing mind, retrospecting the past, and ode to history, to discuss among Chapter Two to Chapter Four. Besides the profoundly analyzing, I combine these three topics with respectively related theoretical thinking to form a new perspective. Subsequently, specific discussions expended from the topics are set examples of the "new Cishi". Pan-sentiment and personalisition of Cishi deviates from the traditional historiography view which concentrates on the event recording, whereas corresponds with the new historiography view blossoming in 20th century, which also points to the spiritual history and the history of ideas. For the reason of the separation from events, ambiguous standards of style, the abstract and vague quality of "history" in Ci, as well as the power of selecting entitled to the readers in discussion; Cishi also shares some similarities with new historicism. So in this dissertation, regarding the interaction between text and history, I adopt the method of new historicism to select those works which contribute both in Ci and in history. The first topic concentrates on two groups of skeleton Ci, which embodies two different views of death. The second topic sets the self-bithday-congratuation Ci and self-portrait-inscription Ci as objects of study to observe the connotation of autobiography within. In the very end, the third topic analyzes the character of Yuji(虞姬) which mainly appears in the Cipai(詞牌) of Yumeiren(虞美人), which also contains the discussion of the heroic outlook. Associated mutually, these three topics form a historical field, and burst into a literary chorus in Ci. As a conclusion, this dissertation explores in aspect of theory as well as works, tries to get rid of the past routinized definition and explanation in order to offer some new possible perspectives in both Ci and history.

This research analyses Qing women's writings and paratexts to explore how women applied their agency to re-shape the nature of everyday practice in the boudoir, arguing that dutiful activities were not only responsibilities for the fulfillment of womanhood, but also a location for self-expression and a channel to cross the boundary of private sphere and public society. The main body of this study examines activities concerning rong 容 (appearance) and gong 功/工 (achievements/work), the practical aspects in side 四德 (four womanly virtues) defined in the Confucian values. In the part about women's appearance, this research will examine women's self-adornment and looking in the mirror, and in the part about women's work, it focuses on garment making and cooking. On this basis, this study rethinks the connotation of "four virtues," and further explores women's agency manifested in their everyday details in the late imperial period. Scholars in gender history and women's literature have conducted fruitful studies on multiple aspects of women's daily life, such as women's production and consumption, material life, household duties, literary pursuit, leisure activities, and social communications. This research attempts to examine a less-studied aspect of women's self-representation: their subjective experience in the practical aspects of the "four female virtues." How did common practices about rong and gong relate to women's opinion on body and material, inspire their emotions, and reflect their rich inner reality? How did women empower themselves through these everyday activities and in turn transform duties into a platform of self-construction and self-expression? This research focuses on the Qing dynasty, a transitional period in history that bridged traditional and modern China, to explore how women's agency was constructed in, manifested through, and embedded in the commonest everyday domestic practices. Specifically, this research focuses on four particular activities that represented rong and gong: self-adornment, looking in the mirror, garment making, and food management. I argue that women in the Qing dynasty not merely fulfilled but also tactfully transformed the Confucian expectation of "four virtues" through common practices in the everyday, and in the meanwhile, they empowered themselves by creating personally meaningful worlds within the inner quarters.