Viewing posts for the category chinese history

“Networks and Interactions” graduate conference

Posted by: mchu in conference member presentations chinese history comparative history european history networks 7 years, 4 months ago

Team members Hilde De Weerdt, Julius Morche and Ming-kin Chu participated in the “Networks and Interactions” graduate conference at Leiden University (May 9-11, 2014). Hilde served as a discussant for the panel “Social and Economic Networks in Texts”, in which both Julius and Ming-kin as well as Silke Vanbeselaere (KU Leuven) presented papers. In his paper “An Economic Model of Political Communication: Informational Networks in Venetian Long-Distance Trade, 1350-1500”, Julius showed how economic network theory can be used to evaluate both the commercial links between Venetian patricians and the transmissions of political information enabled through these interconnections, and argued that the extent to which commercial and communication networks were mutually embedded necessitated a new model to capture the dynamics of the transmission of political information in early modern long-distance trade. Ming-kin offered a case study of the relationship between early Southern Song literati and the chief councilor Qin Gui through an analysis of Zheng Gangzhong’s epistolary writings in his presentation “Epistolary network in Middle Period China: the Case of Zheng Gangzhong 鄭剛中 (1088-1154)”. He showed how Zheng Gangzhong attempted to build a good rapport with the people surrounding the councilor Qin Gui in order to maintain the former’s position in Sichuan, discussing in particular the relationship between Zheng’s epistolary network and Qin’s long tenure as chief councilor. In her discussion, Hilde highlighted the panel contribution’s distinct conceptual use of “networks”, namely as a particular kind of interpersonal relationship, a philological tool, and a theory of relationships, flows and interactions.

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Two frameworks for understanding spatial control and political integration in Chinese history

Posted by: Hilde de Weerdt in chinese history networks digital humanities 7 years, 6 months ago

Two frameworks for understanding spatial control and political integration in Chinese history

Hilde De Weerdt

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Isn't the Siku quanshu enough? Reflections on the impact of new digital tools for classical Chinese

Posted by: Hilde de Weerdt in chinese history digital humanities 7 years, 7 months ago

Isn't the Siku quanshu enough?
Reflections on the impact of new digital tools for classical Chinese

At a recent workshop a Chinese cultural historian whom I hold in high esteem raised the following question: "Isn't the Siku quanshu enough?" The implication was that the search functionality of one of the largest digital corpora of classical Chinese texts has made a great contribution to Chinese cultural studies, that this is sufficient, and that no more precious research time should be spent on the creation, application, and revision of digital tools. The position is representative of a good proportion of humanities scholars. We have all become avid users of databases and search engines but we are concerned about the digitization of everything. Below I respond to the specific question regarding the Siku quanshu; the points I raise can also be read as a response to the more general question why humanities scholars should not rely on a limited set of large commercial text databases and why they should take an active interest in the question of which databases and which tools can best serve humanities research questions and methods in the future.

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Report of First Pembroke Workshop

Posted by: julius in conference chinese history comparative history european history eurasian history networks 7 years, 7 months ago

A report of the group's first workshop "New Perspectives on Comparative Medieval History: China and Europe, 800-1600" (Pembroke College, Oxford, 30/09-01/10/2013) has been published on H-Soz-U-Kult.

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International Medieval Congress 2013

Posted by: mchu in member presentations chinese history comparative history 8 years, 2 months ago

On July 1-4, 2013, the International Medieval Congress (IMC) was held at the University of Leeds. Hilde organised and chaired a session on “Comparative Approaches to Elite History” (session 202) on the first day of the Congress. The panel featured papers by R.I. Moore, Hsien-huei Liao, and “Communication and Empire” research associate Julius Morche. The session explored comparative approaches to late medieval elite history focusing on elite responses to crises. R. I. Moore examined how the eleventh century can be seen as a crisis moment in global history by comparing elite responses to crises across Eurasia. Liao Hsien-huei presented findings from a comparative project on strategies for coping with the future in medieval Asia and Europe, focusing in particular on Chinese elite networks and mantic practices.

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