Project MUSE®: Late Imperial China - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/114
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Late Imperial China.daily12026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 1 (1965) through current issue
Latest Articles: Late Imperial ChinaTWOProject MUSE®Late Imperial China1086-32570884-3236Latest articles in Late Imperial China. Feed provided by Project MUSE®List of Contributors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977476
<p></p>
Chang Xu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Transnational Asian Studies at Rice UniversityBony Schachter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese History and Culture at the Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityZheng Chen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of California, Los AngelesGary Chi-hung Luk is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977481">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/114/image/coversmallList of Contributors2025-12-13text/htmlen-USList of Contributors2025-12-132025TWOProject MUSE®15692026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-12-13In Memory: Janet M. Theiss (1964-2025)
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977477
<p></p>
Janet Theiss served as co-editor of Late Imperial China from 2007-2013 and associate editor from 2013 until her death on November 2, 2025, of an aortic rupture. Janet was a treasured friend and colleague of many in this community. She will be sorely missed.Janet brought intellectual curiosity, hospitality, wit, resilience, and warmth to her every endeavor. She served on faculty in History at the University of Utah for 28 years. An undergraduate seminar at Swarthmore College with Lillian Li sparked her interest in China and she spent a formative period in the late 1980s studying and teaching English in Chengdu. She did her graduate work at the University of California at Berkeley under the supervision of Wen-hsin
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977481">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/114/image/coversmallIn Memory: Janet M. Theiss (1964-2025)2025-12-13text/htmlen-USIn Memory: Janet M. Theiss (1964-2025)2025-12-132025TWOProject MUSE®87212026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-12-13Ingot Medicines, Duanwu Rituals, and Bodily Care in the Eighteenth-Century Qing Imperium
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977478
<p></p>
"Upon receiving the miraculous medicines," Canglai exclaimed, "the hazy mist and humid air in Guangdong and Guangxi immediately vanished."1 Canglai, lieutenant-governor of Guangdong, made this extraordinary claim in a 1727 memorial thanking the Yongzheng emperor. These miraculous medicines, said to repel the humidity and unfavorable qi at the southern border of the Qing, were ingot medicines (Ch. dingzi yao 錠子藥 or yaoding 藥錠; Ma. dingdzi okto).2 "Ingot medicine" is a generic term for medications that are molded into various shapes (figure 1) and can be applied topically to heal wounds or taken
Figure 1
Purple gold ingot pendant 嵌螺钿大喜纹葫芦形紫金锭佩 (left) and purple gold ingot in the shapes of the Eight Auspicious Signs
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977481">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/114/image/coversmallIngot Medicines, Duanwu Rituals, and Bodily Care in the Eighteenth-Century Qing Imperium2025-12-13text/htmlen-USIngot Medicines, Duanwu Rituals, and Bodily Care in the Eighteenth-Century Qing Imperium2025-12-132025TWOProject MUSE®1550942026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-12-13From Regal Way to Political Quietism: Zhu Quan, Disciplinary Communities, and Ming–Qing Daoism
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977479
<p></p>
On January 28, 1444, the Prince of Ning, Zhu Quan 朱權 (1378–1448), published his final work, Jade Slips from the Great Clarity, the Supreme Way of the Celestial Luminaries (Tianhuang zhidao taiqing yuce 天皇至 道太清玉冊). In this magnum opus, Zhu represents Daoism as the most crucial aspect of Chinese kingship. Centuries later, Ji Yun 紀昀 (1724–1805) and his collaborators on a court-sponsored anthology biographized Zhu Quan as a resentful hermit who had used Daoism to make a convenient escape from politics, illustrating the radical changes that cultural perceptions of Daoism underwent in late imperial China. Early Ming imperial elites understood Daoism to be China's regal way—the sine qua non for the exercise of royal
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977481">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/114/image/coversmallFrom Regal Way to Political Quietism: Zhu Quan, Disciplinary Communities, and Ming–Qing Daoism2025-12-13text/htmlen-USFrom Regal Way to Political Quietism: Zhu Quan, Disciplinary Communities, and Ming–Qing Daoism2025-12-132025TWOProject MUSE®1218002026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-12-13The Frustrated Scholar: Miao Gen (1766–1835) in the Sino-Vietnamese World of Wen
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977480
<p></p>
Miao Gen 繆艮 was a self-proclaimed frustrated scholar. As an aspiring official, he repeatedly failed the civil service examinations; as a private secretary, he struggled to support his family on a modest salary. Always looking for opportunities, he had sojourned across much of Southeast China before settling in Guangdong in 1810. Despite his desire for recognition and success, he remained unable to advance in his career or gain substantial standing as a scholar. It was a surprise for Miao when, in 1833, a group of foreign admirers requested an audience with him in Guangzhou. These admirers were Vietnamese envoys who brought news that one of his works, the Wenzhang youxi 文章游戲 (Compositions for Amusement) series, had
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977481">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/114/image/coversmallThe Frustrated Scholar: Miao Gen (1766–1835) in the Sino-Vietnamese World of Wen2025-12-13text/htmlen-USThe Frustrated Scholar: Miao Gen (1766–1835) in the Sino-Vietnamese World of Wen2025-12-132025TWOProject MUSE®1436642026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-12-13Finding "Traitors" on Multiple Frontiers: Official Narratives of Hanjian from the 1620s to the Opium War
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977481
<p></p>
In 1839–1840, during his anti-opium campaign in Guangdong, Qing imperial commissioner Lin Zexu confronted not only foreigners in the opium traffic but also coastal residents whom he condemned as hanjian 漢奸. After confiscating some 20,000 chests of opium from foreign merchants, Lin raided the Chinese assemblages of boats and sheds that traded opium and provisions with them in the Pearl River estuary. Among those captured for being a hanjian was a longtime private comprador on Western vessels. Dismissed by Emperor Daoguang in late 1840 for mishandling the anti-opium campaign, Lin remained in Guangdong to assist his successor Kišan (Qi-shan 琦善). Both attributed defeats in battles against the British in 1840–1842—the
... <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/977481">Read More</a>
Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/114/image/coversmallFinding "Traitors" on Multiple Frontiers: Official Narratives of Hanjian from the 1620s to the Opium War2025-12-13text/htmlen-USFinding "Traitors" on Multiple Frontiers: Official Narratives of Hanjian from the 1620s to the Opium War2025-12-132025TWOProject MUSE®1575342026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002025-12-13