In the wake of a changing world: the Ming-Qing transition (1618-1683) in unofficial contemporary historical writing in early modern East Asia

Thesis

The Ming-Qing transition (1618-1683) was an upheaval that not only consumed much of China, but also saw the Qing invasion of Joseon Korea and an influx of refugees into Tokugawa Japan. Accounts of the transition written by Ming and early Qing subjects made their way by land and sea to Korea and Japan. At the same time, due to a confluence of socio-economic developments in print and literacy, there emerged an intellectual culture of contemporaneity in East Asia i.e., a limited awareness, experienced by individuals across polity borders, that they were inhabiting a shared world.

The dissertation explores the production and circulation of information about the Ming-Qing transition in East Asia between the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Through the lens of non-state-commissioned works compiled across borders and in multiple linguistic mediums, I outline the creation of a transnational historiography about the end of the Ming dynasty. An intellectual culture of contemporaneity engendered the proliferation of information about recent events, and contributed to shifts in how educated individuals negotiated questions of historical truth and organised regional time and space.

Part One establishes contemporaneity as an intellectual trend in early modern East Asia, setting definitions and parameters (Introduction), and illuminating the circumstances behind the proliferation of unofficial, contemporary historical works (Chapter One). Part Two explores how educated individuals negotiated an early modern epistemological crisis, including the search for new sources of historiographical authority (Chapter Two), and methods by which compilers addressed concerns about historical truth (Chapter Three). Part Three surveys how educated individuals formulated the world around them, including the incorporation of recent information into unofficial knowledge texts (Chapter Four), and textual representations of the time and space of Ming China (Chapter Five).

Authors: Tham, CJ

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-ryqjn9mxa
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Ming-Qing transition; contemporaneity; transnational intellectual history; China; Japan; Korea; historical writing; East Asia; history
• Subjects: Japan--History--Tokugawa period, 1600-1868--Historiography; East Asia; Historiography; Ming-Qing dynasties, 1368-1912; Korea--History--Chosŏn dynasty, 1392-1910