Information, Territory, and Networks
Douban
The Crisis and Maintenance of Empire in Song China
Hilde De Weerdt
sinopsis
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674088429
The occupation of the northern half of the Chinese territories in the 1120s brought about a transformation in political communication in the south that had lasting implications for imperial Chinese history. By the late eleventh century, the Song court no longer dominated the production of information about itself and its territories. Song literati gradually consolidated their position as producers, users, and discussants of court gazettes, official records, archival compilations, dynastic histories, military geographies, and maps. This development altered the relationship between court and literati in political communication for the remainder of the imperial period. Based on a close reading of reader responses to official records and derivatives and on a mapping of literati networks, the author further proposes that the twelfth-century geopolitical crisis resulted in a lasting literati preference for imperial restoration and unified rule.
contenidos
List of Figures, Maps, and Tables
Preface and Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
I. Contemporary Dimensions of Empire: The Court
1. The Dissemination of the Archives and the Formation of the Late Imperial Archival Mentality
2. Court Gazettes and Short Reports
II. Transhistorical Dimensions of Empire: The Chinese Territories
3. The Reconstitution of Empire in Empire Maps
III. Margins, Borders, and Frontiers
4. Strategic Discourse: Building Frontiers in the Public Domain
5. The Multiplexity of Premodern Borders
IV. Imperial Information Networks
6. The Notebook Phenomenon
7. Informant Networks and Literati Identities
8. Representing the Foreign Other
Conclusions and Prospects
Appendix 1: Supplementary Tables
Appendix 2: A Note on Topical Markup
Bibliography
Index
