EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Cross-sectional 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 228 Multiple parallels between the Rong Cheng shi description of the ‘Nine Provinces’ and transmitted texts, as well as an examination of landmarks occurring in the manuscript and the transmitted descriptions of the ‘Nine Provinces’, show close similarity with the Yugong 禹貢 (ca. 5th–3rd century BC) and its derivations dating from the 3rd-2nd centuries BC (Youshilan 有始覽 , Shidi 釋地 , Zhifangshi 職方氏 , especially with the latter). Despite the general circulation of the “Nine Provinces” model, a particular focus on the Han River, as a demarcation line between South and North, does set the Rong Cheng shi version apart. This paper will discuss the significance of this demarcation in early Chinese texts and its legacy in the earliest extant maps and Yugong topography generally. It will show that how the focus on the Han River not only reflected a Chu conception of space, encompassing territories up to the southern sea, but also acted as a counterbalance to the Yugong-type focus on the Yellow River. Feng Linda (University of Toronto) From Flour to Alchemy: Situating a Ninth-Century Tale of Marvel Key words: Tang dynasty China, wheat flour, alchemy, foreign traders, narratives The starting point of this paper is a ninth-century narrative tale with an unconventional twist on the consumption of wheat, and which presents a variation on the medieval Taoist concept of health- threatening worms (chong) dwelling inside the human body. Titled “Lu Yong” after its protagonist, this story describes a parasite that lives in the stomach of the protagonist, who as a consequence consumes a large amount of flour in his daily life. The tale, which is classified under the category “The Swarms of Crawlers” (kunchong) in the narrative compendium Taiping guangji, begins as its protagonist attempts to tackle the civil service examinations, and develops into the commodification of this unusual flour- consuming parasite as it propels the protagonist into a series of adventures that eventually culminates in an oceanic treasure hunt and in a significant windfall. Throughout the story, wheat is given praise as something of a numinous grain, and its role in the story suggests a tantalizing connection between wheat and the parasitic chong in that both entities are said to metabolize the “essential qi of the four seasons.” This paper will compare and situate this unusual narrative against contemporary Tang writ- ings on elixir-making and materia medica. By unpacking the story’s logic of representation and setting it within the context of food history, pharmacology, and the geography of trade, this paper investigates the relationships among agricultural grain, alchemy, and the traffic in esoteric knowledge as they are envisioned in this Tang-dynasty tale. Gu Songjie (Minzu University of China) The Oirat Mongol Surrenders in Hunchun during the High-Qing Period, 1742–1755 Key words: Qing Dynasty, Hunchun, The Oirat Mongols, military Surrender, Inclusion of social minorities By using Manchu archival sources, this paper revisits a forgotten episode of military histories happened in high Qing era and shall study the social impact of its aftermath. In order to effectively govern the sur- render Oirat Mongols after the war in 1672, the Qing had relocated them from Xinjiang to Hunchun. During the years of 1742 to 1755, the Qing court dispersed an extensive number of Oirat Mongols to Hunchun. The intention was to avoid the revival of the Oirat Mongols of a possible coup d'état. The Oirat Mongols were then forced to migrate to a small town in Jilin, which was not only situated at the borders between the Qing China and Choson Korea, it was also a garrison of China which was watched by the Eight-banner system. As those scattered Oirats were only ordinary people who were seen as the lower class of the Mongol community, the Qing court conveniently deciphered a scheme to infuse the population with other ethnic minorities. This paper will examine the lives of the Oirats who came under the government of the Manchu in Hunchun, and examine the significance and historical impact of this migration system forcefully imple- mented by the Qing state.