Yulian Wu

Luxurious Networks

Salt Merchants, Status, and Statecraft in Eighteenth-Century China

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Yulian Wu is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 320
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. Januar 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 236mm x 156mm x 25mm
• Gewicht: 622g
• ISBN-13: 9780804798112
• ISBN-10: 0804798117
• Artikelnr.: 45001289

Autorenporträt

Yulian Wu is Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Carolina.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: Merchant culture in the Material World of Eighteenth-Century
China
chapter abstract
The introduction presents the Huizhou salt merchants, with emphasis on the
unprecedented economic and political privileges they enjoyed in High Qing
China. The author challenges the conventional analysis focused on
merchant-literati status negotiations, arguing that this framework is based
upon written texts produced by the literati themselves, and is hence not
reflective of the merchants' own concerns. By reviewing the extant literary
descriptions of Huizhou salt merchants, the author proposes to explore
their own voices and opinions by analyzing their interactions with material
objects. This indicates the emergence of a novel and vital network between
the Qianlong emperor, the imperial household department, court officials,
and Huizhou salt merchants, constructed between the capital Beijing, the
urban centers of Jiangnan, and the remote countryside of Huizhou. A focus
on these salt merchants sheds new light on Manchu emperors' political
strategies and reveals merchants' role in luxury consumption in High Qing
China.
1Courting the Court
chapter abstract
this chapter sets the scene for this study, examining the historical and
political reasons for the Huizhou salt merchants' rise and their connection
with the court during the High Qing period. It explains how the Manchu
court reformed existing salt monopoly policies by appointing the emperors'
bondservants as salt bureau officials and by establishing the new position
of head merchant. These two policies injected the Manchu emperors' own
networks into the salt monopoly institution and allowed the court to
effectively exert influence on the wealthiest commercial centers of the
Lower Yangzi area. The Huizhou salt merchants, on the other hand, created
new and direct ties with the court by obtaining head merchant positions.
These merchants thus achieved unprecedented economic and political
privileges that took advantage of the Manchu court's own ethnic strategies.
2Furnishing the Court
chapter abstract
Chapter 2 examines the Huizhou head merchants' interaction with the most
precious and expensive goods in eighteenth-century Jiangnan. It explores
how these businessmen produced and procured objects for imperial use
through the tribute system, manufacturing, and the Qianlong emperor's
empire-wide book collecting project. This chapter shows in detail how the
Huizhou salt merchants procured objects from local workshops, markets, and
private collections and how their personal networks and managerial ability
enabled them to "run errands" for the court. While the salt merchants
supplemented formal state bureaucratic systems and served as the emperor's
informal agents in Jiangnan, they also facilitated an exchange of style and
taste between the capital and Jiangnan.
3Collecting as a "Collector"
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses merchants' roles in collecting culture during the
High Qing period through a study of the salt merchant Wang Qishu and his
collection of seals. The Qianlong emperor's personal interest in collecting
and his compilation of a large series of court-sponsored catalogues led to
a recognition of collectors in Qing society. Collectors (shoucangjia)
emerged as a unique social category, and collecting came to be seen as a
valued form of expertise. By locating Wang Qishu's case in this High Qing
context, the author examines how Wang used different elements associated
with his seal collection to assert himself as a collector. Wang's
contemporaries also saw him as a collector passionate about seals, as an
expert in seal connoisseurship, and as financially capable of amassing a
distinguished collection. Through his collection, Wang assumed the role of
"collector"-a new social status symbol-and thereby legitimized his position
in society.
4Luxury and Lineage
chapter abstract
This chapter takes the case of the Bao family from Tangyue village to
explore the ways in which salt merchants patronized lineage construction
projects as a means to expand the influences of their families in the
countryside of Huizhou and to strengthen a connection with urban scholarly
elites. By tracing the construction process of three lineage projects
sponsored by the Bao household-the publishing of a new genealogy, the
construction of a shrine, and the donation of charitable lands-the author
shows how the Bao merchants patronized specific lineage construction
projects, which functioned as luxury items sanctioned by Confucian moral
example. Through these cultural objects, the Bao family expanded their
influence in their rural homeland in Huizhou, and displayed their moral
values for the benefit of scholarly elites in the court and Jiangnan urban
centers, creating connections between the countryside and the city, and the
central and local.
5Materializing Morality
chapter abstract
This chapter examines the salt merchants' role in constructing chastity
arches-stone structures honoring women who maintained chaste widowhood-in
She county in Huizhou. In the High Qing era, the Manchu court
systematically patronized the construction of monumental objects, such as
stone arches, with the dual object of inculcating Confucian morality in
their illiterate subjects and displaying their imperial legitimacy. The
Huizhou salt merchants, seeing an opportunity to expand their influence,
devoted themselves to chastity arch construction in the local community of
Huizhou, thus publicizing the virtuous deeds that the court rewarded. While
these merchants used their economic prowess to participate in the state's
cultivation project, their financial support of these arches was itself a
product of the court's salt monopoly policies. At the same time, these
monuments gave these wealthy businessmen the opportunity to bolster their
reputations, display their wealth, and lay claim to legitimate dominance in
local society.
Conclusion: Cultured and Cosmopolitan Men (tongren): Objects, Merchants,
and the Manchu Court in High Qing China
chapter abstract
The conclusion argues that the Huizhou salt merchants emerged as "cultured
and cosmopolitan men" who distinguished themselves with knowledge and skill
in a wide range of fields, being famed for their managerial prowess.
Through their production and consumption of a variety of objects, these
merchants played multiple roles in the fluid material world of High Qing
China, whether as the emperor's informal agents or arbiters of taste,
lineage patrons or moral advocates. By playing these roles, these salt
merchants also constructed a dynamic and fluid urban-rural and
central-local relationship in the high Qing period. Study of these salt
merchants thus sheds new light on the Qianlong emperor's political strategy
in Jiangnan and reveals the differences and transformations of consumer
cultures in China from the late Ming to the high Qing.