On Future Trends in Ch’ing Studies: Three Views

-1030N FUTURE TRENDS IN CH'ING STUDIES THREE VIEWS Last fall the editors asked senior scholars in the field for their opinions on the future directions of Ch’ing studies. Three responded, and we thank them and publish their replies. Their varied suggestions indicate the diversity of interests in the Ch'ing field, and reflect the careers and contributions of the writers. All possibilities for future research have not, however, been explored. Therefore, we invite further contributions from anyone who has additional ideas to offer. -104H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y J O H N K IN S FA1RBA NK Francis Lae Hlgghson Prolasaor of History, Emsr/tus 1 7 3 7 C A M B R I D G E S T . . ROOM 3 0 3 A C A M B R I D G E . M A S S . 0 2 1 3 9 R H O N E ( 6 1 7 ) 4 9 5 - 5 7 2 2 November 20, 1978 MEMORANDUM The next phase of Ch'lng studies should see the exploration of Chinese popular literature in its rise during the 19th century. This should help to put the foreign contact with China in a more realistic perspective and perhaps reduce its significance by building up the other concerns of Chinese daily life in this period. Along with this should come an exploration of Chinese forms of voluntary association and other organized manifestations of community lire beginning with philanthropy, famine relief and associations for mutual help. The rise of new institutional forms in the 19th century may be found to have some foreign inspiration, but here again this should appear in a broader context of Chinese indigenous motivation. In selected circumstances the network of Chinese kinship and personal relations should be traced out and shown at work. No doubt this can best be done in connection with biographical research,and a premium should be put on the study of recorded individuals in their family and community relations. Social history and the history of ideas or thought should not be allowed to develop at the expense of instit^tional__studies,which are still necessary. The working of the salt administration, pawn­ shops, mining, the junk trade and steam shipping, urbanization in connection with railways and industries, the histories of old style academies and new schools— there is a multitude of economic, social and political structures that need to be better understood rather than taken for granted. The inside, content story of the examination system in the late Ch'ing still remains to be excavated in intellectual terms. We need case studies of official careers beyond the formal level, working out the concepts and the relationships dominant in individual lives. The late Ch'ing Mian^faaHnn women remains an untold story. It will require the accumulation of data over a very broad terrain. The history of the Christian church in China deserves attention for itself and not as an off-shoot of missionary endeavor. A strategy that seeks to focus on regions and communities should be alert to find bodies of material that provide the stuff of daily life. JKF -105HARVARD UNIVERSITY DepartmentofEastAsianLanguagesandCi v i li z at io ns 2 Di v i n i t yAvenue Cambridge, Massachusetts02138 Telephone617- 495-2754 February 7, 1979 Professor James H. Cole Department of History 237 Hall of Graduate Studies Yale University New Haven, Connecticut 06520 Dear Professor Cole: I will not be offended if you throw this in the wastebasket, because it is long past your January deadline. But if there is still time I would like to suggest three things that we need to know more about: (1) The workings of the Ch'ing empire as a whole. To what extent were China proper, Manchuria, the Mongolias, Sinkiang, Tibet, and the southwest tribal areas ever autarkic little worlds? What were the mechanisms that tightened or loosened the interrelationships between them? What effects did the inclusion of Inner Asian terri­ tories within the empire have on China proper? (2) The bases of the central government, especially the monarchy. On idiom, besides the emperor's servants (eunuchs, bondservants, bannermen , and...