The New Paradigm and the Old Style: Intellectual Transformation of the Literati in the Late Qing

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel Proposal Application

Abstract

The papers presented by this panel analyze intellectual history in the late Qing China from different perspectives, but link them thematically by their focus on the changes in thoughts. As is already known, although conventionally associated with a devastating socio-political crisis, the late Qing era (1851-1911) was also a time of rejuvenation for Chinese culture. The impact of the crisis was both broad and deep, prompting questions such as: how did the crisis affect literary intellectuals at the time? What were their attitudes in this time of transformation? How did they respond to the challenges brought about by the Westernization of traditional Chinese culture?

The first paper will touch on the controversy of Western detective fiction from 1896 onwards. By doing so it hopes to shed new light on the cultural transformation of Chinese society from the late Qing Dynasty. The second paper looks to focus on the academic alternation of Yun Yuding, a Late Qing official scholar, in the context of the paradigm shift in traditional classical learning. Based on the Biographies of Literati by the Qing National History Bureau, the third paper will analyze the transformation of the literati model in the discourse of imperial historical writing. Focusing on a Nirvana Image of Baoguang Temple (circa 1904) in Sichuan, the forth paper will discuss the contradiction between its revolutionary background and its conservative image, which is indicative of the paradox between Buddhist culture and religious art in the later Qing period.

Area of Study

• China and Inner Asia

Session Organizer

• Jiang Sun, Nanjing University

Chair

• Jiang Sun, Nanjing University

Individual Presentations

• Transition and Localization: A Controversy over Western Detective Fiction from the Late Qing Dynasty - Yi Yang, The University of Hong Kong

• Transformation of the Literati Model in the Imperial Historical Discourse: An Analysis of Biographies of Literati by the Qing National History Bureau - Huichen Xiao, Tsinghua University and National Library of China

• The New Pilgrimage and the Old-Style Image: An Image of Nirvana in Baoguang Temple, Xindu District, During the Late Qing Dynasty - Xiao Yang, University of Heidelberg

• Academic Transformation in the Chinese Literati: Reading Yun Yuding's Critiques in Chengzhai Diary - Xunqian Liu, University of Hong Kong

Discussant

• Yong Zhang, Tsinghua University