Learning and Territorial Expansion in the Kangxi Emperor’s “Investigation of Things”

• In Event: Science and Empire in East Asia: Qing Imperial Order and the Spatial Dynamics of Knowledge

Abstract

This paper discusses the integration into Chinese scholarship of knowledge relevant to the Qing imperial territory and to its expansion, by focusing on a collection of ninety-three jottings by the Kangxi emperor edited posthumously as the Kangxi Collection of the Investigation of Things in Times of Leisure (Kangxi jixia gewu bian). The occurrence of the term “investigation of things” reflects the claim that the jottings are relevant to the enterprise of knowing as defined in the framework of neo-Confucian orthodoxy. A significant number of these jottings set their topics in the context of a specific geographical location. Their investigation results not only in reinforcing the legitimacy of Qing rule of former Ming territories, but also in showing the advantages that the inhabitants of these territories can and will derive from this rule, as well as from further territorial expansion. Textual references and traveller’s accounts are used to tackle matters pertaining to geography in connection with its straightforward economic and political implications, but also in connection with its implications for such matters as the imperial clan’s right to rule. Based on a cartographic analysis of the jottings, this paper shows how the collection effectively contributed to an expansion of Chinese scholarly learning based on the Qing territorial expansion.

Author

• Catherine Jami, CNRS