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In our program’s library, I came across a copy of Chinese Views of Childhood edited by Anne Kinney. I remembered reading (or at least skimming) the book a few years ago for a seminar, but since I had a couple of hours to kill proctoring a make-up exam from last semester’s history class, I did what any graduate student would do: I skimmed it again.
Given that family and the perpetuation of one’s line occupies so high a place in Chinese culture, there have been surprisingly few studies of childhood and children in Chinese history. Certainly, as Kinney notes in her introduction, part of the problem is sources. Children do not often leave writings of their own, and so we are left to observe childhood through the gaze of parents or as memories recorded in later life, thus the contributors to this volume should be commended for doing a lot with a little.
One observation (and I apologize, I left the copy at the library so I don’t have the exact chapter in front of me) was the importance of socialization rather than inheritance in childhood development, and that made me recall Ann Waltner’s 1990 study Getting an Heir: Adoption
A 2,500-year old Shang era tomb discovered last January in eastern Jiangxi province has once again provided reseachers with some fascinating discoveries including the grisly unearthing of a burial chamber containing 47 bodies, victims of human sacrifice. Human sacrifice was a key part of Shang political and religious culture, with Shang kings acting in a role of ritual intermediary between the heavens, the imperial ancestors, and the world.
The tomb was discovered after police caught looters trying to excavate the site looking for buried treasure. One of the most impressive artifacts unearthed so far has been an ornately decorated red and black sword that lead archaeologist Xu Changqing has called “the most beautiful and best-preserved sword ever found in this part of China.”
One quibble, the National Geographic article quotes Adrienne Mayor :
Following history’s “axial age,” when sages including Confucius in China, Buddha in India, and Socrates in Greece “spoke out against the practice, human sacrifice became rare,” she said.
“Most cultures eventually replaced living sacrificial victims with symbolic rituals.”
But the article then adds this passage, not attributed to any scholar.
In China, however, sacrifices continued into the early Ming Dynasty, which lasted from A.D. 1368 to 1644.
On this date in 757, An Lushan was assassinated by a group of three conspirators including his own son and heir, An Qingxu. An Lushan was a general of Turkic descent who served in the armies of the Tang Emperor, Xuanzong (r. 712-756). Through his connections, including a rather close relationship with Xuanzong’s favorite concubine Yang Guifei, An Lushan received many imperial favors and positions, eventually commanding an army of nearly 180,000 troops. In 755, An Lushan rebelled, driving Xuanzong out of the Tang capital of Chang’an. He was a corpulent fellow, and his obesity seems to have led to health problems, the symptoms of which suggest he may have suffered from diabetes. He grew blind in one eye and became increasingly paranoid and prone to rage, alienating many of his officials and servants. An Lushan doted on his concubine, the lady Duan who had asipirations for their young son, An Qing’en, angering An Lushan’s other son, the crown prince An Qingxu. Fearing for his position, the crown prince conspired with the official Yan Zhuang and An Lushan’s personal servant Li Zhu’er to kill his father. On January 30, 757, while Yan Zhuang and An Qingxu waited outside, Li Zhu’er
The Chinese government and BOCOG desperately need to start listening to all the really smart, well-paid foreign PR firms they’ve hired if they want to avoid continually getting caught with their pants at ankle-height:
To whit:
January 20
The Sunday Times publishes an article claiming that at least 10 workers had been killed in the construction of the Olympic “Bird’s Nest” Stadium here in Beijing. The Times arrives at this figure through interviews with employees from the site.
Witnesses have told The Sunday Times of seeing workers plummet to their deaths from the perilous heights of the stadium, which was designed by a consortium including Arup, the British engineering firm, and Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects.
The bodies were swiftly removed by police, who sealed off accident scenes with orange tape and cleared other workers from the area while the dead were loaded into police vehicles, witnesses said.
Managers and police ordered the workers not to mention the deaths to anyone and not to talk about the accidents among themselves.
The usual-suspect trolls show up in the comments section of the Times article:
This is yet another cheap shot at running down the China Olympics, disguised
In 1901, following the Boxer debacle, Empress Dowager Cixi and the Qing court felt compelled to offer new reforms to shore up the crumbling dynasty. On January 29, she issued an edict that called on all Qing officials to advise the court on the best course for reform. In particular, she wanted ideas on how to overhaul government institutions, education, military organization, and the financial system. (Like the basketball team that has trouble with defense, free throws, dribbling, passing, and shooting but other than that, they’re great.) She needed a plan. She actually had a plan three years earlier whenKang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Tan Sitong advised the emperor during the 100 Days Reforms, but she didn’t like that plan so she called for the deaths of Kang and Liang, actually managed to execute Tan, and locked the emperor away in the Summer Palace on a small island (瀛臺 Yingtai) in an imperial garden west of the palace. Ironically, the new plan greatly resembled the old plan, but by the time she got around to agreeing to it, it was too late to save the dynasty anyway. Ladies and gentleman, the Norv Turner of de facto monarchs.
Today is the
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