Book Talk: ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฉ๐ถ ๐๐ช๐ณ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฏ๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐ข
Authors/Speakers:
He Bian, Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Princeton University
Mรฅrten Sรถderblom Saarela, Special Collections Librarian, Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, Boston College
About the book: As the territory of Qing China expanded, so evolved the ways in which birds, beasts, fish, trees, and flowers came to be known in the multilingual empire. The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High Qing China is the first systematic study of how the Qing court sought to codify Manchu and Chinese words for animals and plants throughout the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on Manchurian and other Inner Asian species. Calling for renewed attention to Manchu dictionaries as an important source for Qing intellectual and cultural history, Bian and Sรถderblom Saarela show how Qing lexicographical practices embodied major revisions to the Chinese encyclopedic tradition, realigned the relationship between words and things, and left a lasting impact on natural historical scholarship in the modern era. The updated form of Chinese learning, along with the malleable lexicon of the Manchu language, proved useful for the Manchu elite in displaying the reach and intellectual depth of Qing imperial power. Manchu was transformed from the language of a single people into the lexicographic faรงade for an imperial order of things.