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The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High Qing China
Brief Description
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...
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The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High ...
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The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High Qing China is the first systematic study of the codification of Manchu and Chinese words for animals and plants in the eighteenth century. Bian and Söderblom Saarela show how Qing lexicographical practices left a lasting impact on natural historical scholarship in the modern era.
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Description
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 Söderblom 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 façade for an imperial order of things.
Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series
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Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780674297517
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 12 August 2025
Country: United States
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Illustration: 17 illus., 4 tables
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 152.0mm
Height: 229.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 406
About the Author
He Bian is an Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University. Mårten Söderblom Saarela is Special Collections Librarian at the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, Boston College.
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