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Classical Historiography for Chinese History

Research guide for Chinese Historiography

General

  • Farmer, Edward L., Romeyn Taylor, & Ann Waltner. Ming History: An Introductory Guide to Research. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis History Department, 1995.
  • Franke, Wolfgang. An Introduction to the Sources of Ming History. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1968.
  • Shin, Leo, The Making of the Chinese State: Ethnicity and Expansion on the Ming Borderlands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  • Shulman, Frank Joseph, compiler and editor, with contributions by Patricia Polansky & Anna Leon Shulman. Doctoral Dissertations on China and on Inner Asia, 1976-1990: An Annotated Bibliography of Studies in Western Languages. Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press, October 1998. xxviii, 1055p. (Bibliographies and indexes in Asian studies, no.2). Several hundred doctoral dissertations dealing in their entirety or in part with Ming period China are included within this new, comprehensive, descriptively annotated, classified, cross-referenced and extensively indexed guide to over 10,000 dissertations on China, Hong Kong, Macao, Mongolia, Taiwan, Tibet and the overseas Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan communities.
  • Twitchett, Denis, & Frederick W. Mote, eds. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty 1368-1644, Part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Volumes Seven and Eight of The Cambridge History of China are devoted to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), providing the largest and most detailed account in any language. Both volumes also include extensive bibliographic notes.
    • Contents: Introduction - Frederick W. Mote; 1. The Rise of the Ming Dynasty, 1330-1367 - Frederick W. Mote; 2. Military Origins of Ming China - Edward L. Dreyer. The Hung-wu Reign, 1368-1398 - John D. Langlois, Jr.; The Chien-wen, Yung-lo, Hung-hsi, and Hsuan-te Reigns, 1399-1435 - Hok-lam Chan; 5. The Cheng-t'ung, Ching-t'ai, and T'ien-shun Reigns, 1436-1464 - Denis Twitchet and Tilemann Grimm; 7. The Cheng-te Reign, 1506-1521 - James Geiss; 8. The Chia-ching Reign, 1522-1566 - James Geiss; 9. The Lung-ch'ing and Wan-li Reigns, 1567-1620 - Ray Huang; 10. The T'ai-ch'ang, T'ien-ch'i, and Ch'ung-chen Reigns, 1620-1644 - William Atwell; 11. The Southern Ming, 1644-1662 - Lynn A. Struve; 12. Historical Writing During the Ming - Wolfgang Franke.
  • ---. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 8: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part 2, 1997. Summarizing all modern research, Volume Eight offers detailed studies of governmental structure, the fiscal and legal systems, international relations, social and economic history, transportation networks, and the history of ideas and religion. Although written by specialists, these volumes intend to explain and describe the Ming period to general readers without a specialized knowledge of Chinese history, as well as scholars and students.
    • Contents: Introduction - Frederick W. Mote & Denis Twitchett; 1. Ming Government - Charles O. Hucker; 2. Ming Fiscal Administration - Ray Huang; 3. Ming Law - John D. Langlois, Jr.; 4. The Ming and Inner Asia - Morris Rossabi; 5. Sino-Korean tributary relations under the Ming - Donald N. Clark; 6. Ming Foreign Relations: South-East Asia - Wang Gung-wu; 7. Relations with Maritime Europeans, 1514-1662 - John E. Wills, Jr.; 8. Ming China and the emerging World Economy - William Atwell; 9. The Socio-economic development of Rural China under the Ming - Martin Heijdra; 10. Communications and Commerce - Timothy Brook; 11. Confucian Learning in late Ming Thought - Willard Peterson; 12. Learning from Heaven: the introduction of Christianity and of Western ideas into late Ming China - Willard Peterson; 13. Official Religion in the Ming - Romeyn Taylor; 14. Ming Buddhism - Y?Chun-fang; 15. Taoism in Ming culture - Judith A. Berling.
  • Wang, Richard T. Ming Studies in Japan 1961-1981: A Classified Bibliography. Ming Research Series. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985.
  • Zheng, Yangwen, The Social Life of Opium in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Bibliographies

  • Allsen, T. A. "Lists of current bibliography in Western languages," Ming Studies 1 (1975): 60-65; 2 (1976): 38-42.
  • ---. "Survey of Recent Soviet Contributions to Ming History," Ming Studies 1 (1975): 14-35.
  • Chan, Hok-lam "Bibliographic Survey of Ming Studies in Archeological Periodicals from the PRC, 1972-1975." Ming Studies 2 (1976): 43-56.
  • Gong Huayang, compiler. "Works on Ming History (1991)." Ming Studies 37 (1997): 22-95.
  • Higgins, R. L. "Doctoral Dissertations on the Ming Dynasty." Ming Studies 1 (1975): 36-59.
  • Huang Yuji 黃 虞 稷 (d. 1691). Qian qing tang shu mu 千 頃 堂 書 目. Reprint, Shanghai, 1935. Library catalog list of Ming books. See Teng, Ssu-yu, & Knight Biggerstaff. An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chinese Reference Works. Revised Edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 17; Franke, Wolfgang. An Introduction to the Sources of Ming History. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1968, p. 25.
  • Li Jinhua 李 晉 華. Ming dai ji zhuan shu kao 明 代 紀 傳 疏 考. Harvard Yenching Index, Supplement . 1932. A bibliography of official publications issued by Ming emperors.
  • ---. Ming shi zuan xiu kao 明 史 纂 修 考. YCHP, 1933.
  • Ma, T. L., et al. "Recent Ming Bibliography in Chinese Periodicals," Ming Studies 3 (1976) : 31-35.
  • Mindai dokaroku sakuin ko 明 登 科 錄 索 引 稿, compiled at Kyoto University by the Institute of Humanistic Studies, Late-Ming Early-Ch'ing Society and Culture Research Group, 1995.
  • Nishimura Gensho. "Historical Studies in Japan, 1974: Ming-Ch'ing," Ming Studies 3 (1976): 19-30.
  • Tian zhong ji 天 中 紀. 1569. A Ming encyclopedia, of possible interest because of the "very miscellaneous" information in it. See Teng, Ssu-yu, & Knight Biggerstaff. An Annotated Bibliography of Selected Chinese Reference Works. Revised Edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p. 93.
  • Yamane Yukio 山 根 幸 夫, Mindaishi kenkyu bunken mokuroku 明 代 史 研 究 文 件 目 錄 (Bibliography of works on the study of Ming history). Tokyo, 1960. Books and articles in Chinese and Japanese on Ming history.
  • Zhao Lingyang, Ming shi lu zhong zhi Dong nan ya shi liao 明 實 錄 中 之 東 亞 史 料. 2 vols. Hong Kong, 1968. Selections from the MSL relating to Southeast Asia. See Wilkinson, Endymion. The History of Imperial China: A Research Guide. Cambridge: Harvard East Asia Monograph, 1973, p. 67.

Other Sources

  • Brook, Timothy. Geographical Sources of Ming-Qing History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1988.
  • Mote, Frederick W. Review of An Annotated Catalog of the Rare Books in the Gest Collection of Princeton University Library.CEAL Newsletter 43 (1974) 23-28. Discussion of Ming rare books.
  • Stackmann, Ulrich. Die Geschichte der Chinesischen Bibliotek Tian Yi Ge vom 16. Jahrhundert bis in die Gegenwart. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990.
  • Wilkison, Wade F. "Newly Discovered Ming Dynasty Guard Registers." Ming Studies 3 (1976): 36-45.
  • Standaert, Nicolas, Ad Dudink, Yi-long Huang, & Pingyi Chu, compilers and editors. Xujiahui cang shu lou Ming Qing Tian zhu jiao wen xian 徐 家 匯 藏 書 樓 明 清 天 主 教 文 獻 (Archives of Catholicism in Ming-Qing China from the Hsu-chia-hui [in Shanghai] Repository of Books). Taipei: Fu-jen University Divinity School, 1996.
  • For Ming merchant route manuals, see Wilkinson, Endymion. The History of Imperial China: A Research Guide. Cambridge: Harvard East Asia Monograph, 1973, p. 123.
  • Foreign travellers to Ming China: see Wilkinson, Endymion. The History of Imperial China: A Research Guide. Cambridge: Harvard East Asia Monograph, 1973, p. 188.
  • For bibliographies on Ming foreign relations, see Franke, Wolfgang. An Introduction to the Sources of Ming History. Kuala Lumpur: University of Malaya Press, 1968, p. 202.

Recent Articles

  • Atwell, William S. "Time, Money, and the Weather: Ming China and the 'Great Depression' of the Mid-Fifteenth Century." The Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 61 No. 1 February 2002: 83-113.
  • Berg, Daria. "Cultural Discourse on Xue Susu, a Courtesan in Late Ming China." International Journal of Asian Studies 6 2 (2009): 171-200.
  • Chan, Hok-Lam. "Xie Jin (1369-1415) as Imperial Propagandist: His Role in the Revisions of the Ming Taizu Shilu." T'oung Pao Volume 91 Numbers 1-3 2005: 58-124.
  • Chen, Gaohua. "Autocracy of the Early Ming Depicted in the Great Warnings (Da gao)." Chinese Studies in History v. 33 no. 3 Spring 2000: 28-49.
  • Chen, Xinquan. "A Tentative Analysis of the Slaughter of Meritorious Officials and Veteran Generals by Zhu Yuanzhang." Chinese Studies in History v. 33 no. 3 Spring 2000: 50-67.
  • Daniels, Christian. "Historical Memories of a Chinese Adventurer in a Tay Chronicle; Usurpation of the Throne of a Tay Polity in Yunnan, 1573-1584."International Journal of Asian Studies Volume 3 Issue 1 January 2006: 21-49
  • Ditmanson, Peter. "Venerating the Martyrs of the 1402 Usurpation: History and Memory in the Mid and Late Ming Dynasty." T'oung Pao Volume 93 Numbers 1-3 2007: 110-158.
  • Fan, Jinmin et al. "The Social Background of the Emergence of Regional Merchant Groups in the Ming Dynasty." Frontiers of History in China volume 2 number 3 July 2007: 345-78.
  • Feng, Tianyu. "Some Late Ming Western Technical Terms and Their Implications for Cultural Transformation: 'Brain', 'Geometry', 'Globe', and 'Cathay'."Frontiers of History in China volume 1 number 1 January 2006: 47-60.
  • Gao, Xiang (Deng, Yilin and Deng, Shiwu, tr). "The Rise of a New Tradition: Changes in Values and Life Styles in Late Ming China." Frontiers of History in China volume 5 number 1 March 2010: 1-29.
  • Guo, Houan. "On Zhu Yuanzhang's Philosophy of Ruling the Nation." Chinese Studies in History v. 33 no. 3 Spring 2000: 80-104.
  • Hsu, Hong. "The Transformation of Social Customs in Ming Dynasty Fujian." Frontiers of History in China v. 3 no. 4 December 2008: 551-77.
  • Kim, Youngmin. "Luo Qinshun (1465-1547) and His Intellectual Context." T'oung Pao Volume 89 Fasc. 4/5 2003: 367-441.
  • Liang, Hongsheng. "Motivations for, and Consequences of, Village and Lineage (Xiangzu) Development by Jiangxi Scholars of the Wang Yangming School."Chinese Studies in History Volume 35 Issue 1 Fall 2001: 61-96.
  • Liu, Zhenggang (Luo, Yu and Li, Dan tr.). "The Interactions of Customs at the Borderland in the Ming and Qing Dynasties: Taking Hainanese Women as an Example." Frontiers of History in China volume 5 number 1 March 2010: 125-44.
  • Luo, Xiaoxiang. "Soldiers and the City: Urban Experience of Guard Households in Late Ming Nanjing." Frontiers of History in China volume 5 number 1 March 2010: 30-51.
  • Nimick, Thomas G. "The Selection of Local Officials Through Recommendations In Fifteenth-century China." T'oung Pao Volume 91 Numbers 1-3 2005: 125-182.
  • Rhee, Younghoon. "A Comparative Historical Study of the Census Registers of Early Choson Korea and Ming China." International Journal of Asian StudiesVolume 2 Issue 1 January 2005 : 25-56.
  • Schneewind, Sarah. "Visions and Revisions: Village Policies of the Ming Founder in Seven Phases." T'oung Pao Volume 87 Fasc. 4/5 2001: 317-359.
  • Shin, Leo K. "The Last Campaigns of Wang Yangming." T'oung Pao Volume 92 Numbers 1-3 2006: 101-128.
  • Struve, Lynn A. "Dreaming and Self-search during the Ming Collapse: The Xue Xiemeng Biji, 1642-1646." T'oung Pao Volume 93 Numbers 1-3 2007: 159-192.
  • Swope, Kenneth M. "The Beating of Drums and Clashing of Symbols: Music in Ming Dynasty Military Operations." The Chinese Historical Review Volume 16 Number 2 Fall 2009: 147-177.
  • Wang, Hongjiang. "On the Strengthening of Imperial Autocracy at the Beginning of the Ming." Chinese Studies in History volume 33 number 3 Spring 2000: 12-27.
  • Wu, Yanhong et al. "The Emperor's Four Bodies: Embodied Rulership and Legal Culture in Early Ming China." Frontiers of History in China volume 2 number 1 March 2007: 25-59.
  • Yuan, Zujie. "Dressing for Power: Rite, Costume, and State Authority in Ming Dynasty China." Frontiers of History in China Volume 1 2006 - Volume 5 2010: 181-212.
  • Zhang, Dexin. "A Brief Discussion of Zhu Yuanzhang's Relations with the Yuan Dynasty." Chinese Studies in History volume 33 number 3 Spring 2000: 68-79.
  • Zhao, Jie. "A Decade of Considerable Significance: Late-Ming Factionalism in the Making, 1583-1593." T'oung Pao Volume 88 Fasc. 1/3 2002: 112-150.

Recent Monographs

  • Brook, Timothy. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
  • Cass, Victoria. Dangerous Women: Warriors, Grannies and Geishas of the Ming. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1999.
  • Clunas, Craig. Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470-1559. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004.
  • Dardess, John. A Ming Society: T'ai-ho County, Kiangsi, Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
  • Dardess, John. Blood and History in China: The Donglin Faction and Its Repression, 1620-1627. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002.
  • Greenbaum, Jamie. Chen Jiru (1558-1639): The Background to, Development and Subsequent Uses of Literary Personae. Leiden: Brill, 2007.
  • Grove, Linda, & Christian Daniels, eds. State and Society in China: Japanese Perspectives on Ming-Qing Social and Economic History. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1984.
  • Huang, Ray. 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981.
  • Liew, Foon Ming. The Treatises on Military Affairs of the Ming Dynastic History (1368-1644): An Annotated Translation of the Treatises on Military Affairs Chapter 89 and Chapter 90, Supplemented by the Treatises on Military Affairs of the Draft of the Ming Dynastic History, A Documentation of Ming-Qing Historiography and the Decline and Fall of the Ming Empire. Hamburg: OAG, 1998.
  • McLaren, Anne. Chinese Popular Culture and Ming Chantefables. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998. Study of a set of traditional texts that contain an oral genre favored in popular society in the 15th century.
  • Naquin, Susan. Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
  • Robinson, David. Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven: Rebellion and the Economy of Violence in Mid-Ming China. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.
  • Roy, David, trans. The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei. Volume One: "The Gathering." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993.
  • Schneewind, Sarah. Community Schools and the State in Ming China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.
  • Standaert, Nicolas, ed. Handbook of Christianity in China, Volume One: 635-1800. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2001.
  • Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. Albany: SUNY Press, 1996.
  • von Glahn, Richard. Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000-1700. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
  • Waldron, Arthur. The Great Wall of China: From History to Myth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • Ward, Julian. Xu Xiake (1587-1641): The Art of Travel Writing. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2001.
  • Wilson, Thomas A. Genealogy of the Way: The Construction and Uses of the Confucian Tradition in late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995.

Recent Biographic Indexes

  • Combined Indexes to Eighty-nine Collections of Ming Dynasty Biographies. Harvard-Yenching Index. 3 vols. 1935. Not new, but basic. See Wilkinson, Endymion. The History of Imperial China: A Research Guide. Cambridge: Harvard East Asia Monograph, 1973, p. 104
  • Goodrich, L. Carrington, & Fang Chao-ying, eds. Dictionary of Ming Biography, 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
  • Gu jin tu shu ji cheng zhong Ming ren zhuan ji suo yin 古 今 圖 書 集 成 中 明 人 傳 記 料 索 引. Hong Kong, 1963. Index to biographies of Ming people in the Gu jin tu shu ji cheng.
  • Mindai tokaroku sakuin ko 明 登 科 錄 索 引 稿. Compiled at Kyoto University by the Institute of Humanistic Studies, the "Late-Ming Early-Ch'ing Society and Culture Research Group," 1995.
  • Ming Qing li ke ti ming bei lu suo yin 明 清 歷 科 題 名 碑 錄 索 引 . 4 vols. Taipei, 1969. For jin shi 進 士. Wilkinson, Endymion. The History of Imperial China: A Research Guide. Cambridge: Harvard East Asia Monograph, 1973, p. 105
  • National Central Library (Taiwan), Ming ren zhuan ji zi liao suo yin 明 人 傳 記 資 料 索 引. 2 vols. 1965/66. See Wilkinson, Endymion. The History of Imperial China: A Research Guide. Cambridge: Harvard East Asia Monograph, 1973, p. 104; andMing Studies 1 (1975) 66-78
  • Yamane Yukio 山 根 幸 夫. Nihon genzon Mindai chihoshi denki sakuin ko 日 本 現 存 明 代 地 方 志 傳 索 引 稿 (Index to Ming biographies in local gazetteers in Japan) Tokyo, Toyo bunko, 1964.
  • ---. Nihon genson Minjin bunshu mokuroku 日 本 現 存 明 人 文 書 目 錄 (Index to collected writings of Ming authors in Japanese libraries). Tokyo, 1966 See Wilkinson, Endymion. The History of Imperial China: A Research Guide. Cambridge: Harvard East Asia Monograph, 1973, p. 144. Also 1978 revised version by Yamane, Kyoto: Toyoshi kenkyukai 東 洋 史 研 究 會, 1972.)

Translations of Government offices and titles

  • Hucker, Charles. "An Index of Terms and Titles in the Governmental Organization of the Ming Dynasty." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 23 (1960/61) 127-51.
  • ---, ed. Chinese Government in Ming Times: Seven Studies. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
  • ---. "Governmental Organization of the Ming Dynasty" Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 21 (1958): 1-66.
  • Wu, Silas. "The Transmission of Ming Memorials," T'oung-Pao 54 (1978): 275-87.