Part I: What is new about Ming-Qing? Quantitative expansion in biographic sources

1. Discussion—Modeling Ming and Qing Lives and Resources for Ming and Qing Biography and ProsopographyMark Elliott, Martin Heijdra, Michael Szonyi

2. Part I: What is new about Ming-Qing? • Quantitative expansion in biographic sources • Qualitative changes/new features to life history as illustrated by exemplary works on Ming • Qualitative changes/new features to life history as illustrated by exemplary works on Qing Part II: How might the CBDB project address these changes? • What kind of data needs to be collected to produce new and exciting work such as the exemplary works above? What new fields are needed in the CBDB to capture these new features? • Proposals for most effective systematic harvesting: what sources should be priorities?

3. Fuzhou Fuzhi 福州府志 1754 edition

4. Mingshilu明实录 consists of about 3000 juan • Taizu shilu太祖实录 j233 (洪武26/1393) contains 25 names excluding foreign names • 5 of these names are found in the Index of 89 Ming Biographical Collections • If j233 is representative, this suggests that there may be biographical data for around (25 x 3000 =) 75 000 individuals, of whom (20 x 3000=) 60 000 do not have biographies in the standard collections

6. Profile of Qing-era sources of biographical data

7. Nancy Tomasko: Chung Hsing (1574-1625), a literary name in the Wan-li era (1573-1620) of Ming China • Establishes network around poet Zhong Xing 鍾惺 using titles (and content) of poem dedications • Found biographies of people not mentioned elsewhere in new genre of diaries (e.g. Yuan Zhongdao袁中道 ’s Yuan Xiaoxiu riji袁小修日記 ) • Other new sources used include anthologies of examination papers (often include important dates with papers not included in the collected works of an individual), temple gazetteers (include visits by famous people, e.g. Jinling fancha zhi金陵梵刹志 ); Peking Gazette (Wanli di chao 萬曆邸鈔, has assignment dates etc. not reproduced elsewhere) • Other data were established from facts and names mentioned in Prefaces, often in only one edition of a work and not in others; do not stop at one edition

8. Lucille Chia: Wu Mianxue and the Publishing World of Late Ming China / Kathryn Lowry, The tapestry of popular songs in 16th- and 17th-century China : reading, imitation, and desire • Importance of establishing publication and printing networks, but what we know of commercial printers comes largely from their imprints, not from much else • Many are “central people” without a “central” biography • “Journeyman-editors” (Lowry) such as Deng Zhimo鄧志謨: well-connected in publishing, but lacking biographies; but Deng actually wrote his own correspondence collection Deyuji得愚集 • Most famous example is Wu Mianxue 吳勉學: scholarly editor/ author/ publisher based in Nanjing of more than 60 often voluminous titles; yet he is elusive and not in standard biographies • Some info on Wu comes from a Qing genealogy; but most data from the publications themselves: where he was active, who were his colleagues, what were his relationships with fellow-Huizhou people etc.

9. Jennifer Eichman: Spiritual seekers in a fluid landscape: a Chinese Buddhist network in the Wanli period (1573-1620) • Uses epistolary sources (printed letters in collected works) to establish network of scholars, officials and monks around Zhuhong 袾宏 (ca. 70 people) • While many individuals had biographies in standard sources, the network is only visible by analyzing names in letters • New relationships to check in Ming: societal membership (voluntary associations, literary); e.g., through analysis of meeting discussions (huiyu會語), as recorded in works of particular persons • There are also biographical works written by monks: Zhuhong wrote Wangshengji往生集(Rebirth Biographies)on prominent laymen and women

10. Barbara Volkmar: Die Fallgeschichten des Artzes Wan Quan: medizinisches Denken und Handeln in der Ming-Zeit • In ’80s Wan Quan 萬全’s dates in secondary biographies were 200 years apart; estimates of his birthday ranged from late 14th century to 1482, 1488, 1495, 1499, 1567 (Volkmar’s findings: 1500) • Dates and other biographical details found by reading prefaces, using local gazetteers, and establishing relationships with patients as mentioned in medical case studies • Genre of medical “case studies” seen by some (Cullen, Furth) as new in 16th century, in fact goes back to 12th century • Factoid: Wan reverted to publishing his family’s medical knowledge only after an unauthorized rough draft had been plagiarized by Huang Lian黃廉. After Wan’s death, Wu Mianxue 吳勉學republishes in 1601 this unauthorized, superseded version, although he now lists Wan Quan as the author

11. Ming-Qing jinshi timing beilu「明清進士題名碑錄」

12. Ming-Qing jinshi timing beilu suoyin「明清進士題名碑錄所引」

13. Shandong tongguan lu(list of Shandong provincial officials, 1859)

14. Sample entry 1 from Shandong tongguan lu

15. Sample entry 2 from Shandong tongguan lu

16. Priorities

17. Priorities (Qing)

18. For Ming biographies, in addition to standard biographies, local gazetteers, and epigraphical material: • Essential to encode book relationships: • is published by…/ publisher of… • wrote preface for… • coauthor with… • editor of.../compiler of…/commentator of… • even: carver of…, collector of…, keeper of the blocks of… • New societal networks (religious, literary): • attended meeting of…/ belonged to…/ opposing… • Perhaps extended scholarly relationships: • not only follower of…, but also: critic of…/ competitor of…/ plagiarizer of…/ zhuangyuan in year of degree received was… • More specialized fields are visible, necessitating more classifications and relationships: • has as medical specialty…; patient of… • in gazetteers, listed in … category • More and more diverse informational works: • technical and philosophical works such as Mingru xue’an (明儒學案), Chou ren zhuan (疇人傳), but also Wangshengji(往生集) • also genealogies, inscriptions on art objects, medical case studies, meeting discussions, diaries, letter collections, examination essay anthologies, temple gazetteers, general prefaces, temple gazetteers • Crucial is analyzing names in Table of Contents in Prose and Poetry Collections (poetry dedications, letters)