Comments on: Voices from China’s Past: Children, History, and the Household Instructions of Mr. Yan

By: Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog

Frog in a Well - The Korea History Group Blog — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:02:23 +0000

[...] and playright Lao She, the “household instructions” of the 6th century scholar-official Yan Zhitui, and the role of Yue Fei and Qin Gui and patriotism in the Song dynasty and historiography of the [...]

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 22:11:11 +0000

Rick,

Glad to be of help.

By: rick

rick — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:25:57 +0000

Jeremiah, thanks so much. That’s an excellent source.

By: Danwei : Danwei Picks: Raising a child in the VI Century

Danwei : Danwei Picks: Raising a child in the VI Century — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:23:05 +0000

[...] Children, history, and the household instructions of Mr. Yan: Jeremiah at the Granite Studio looks at child raising practices in Chinese history:Yan Zhitui (531-591) was born into a family of scholar-officials at a time when being a scholar-official wasn’t necessarily the easiest gig in the world, the tail end of the "Age of Division"….An era of family values, it was not. [...]

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:35:05 +0000

Rick, My source for maps when I'm preparing lectures is this page from the Visual Sourcebook for Chinese Civilization. It has good maps for most periods of Chinese history as well as a timeline with links to other useful images. I hope this helps.

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:26:14 +0000

I hope everyone gets a chance to check out Sam's response. As usual, Sam gives a very clear and cogent answer to my incoherent and muddled question. For those in the PRC, here is a nanny-friendly link to Sam's post. Thanks, Sam!

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:22:52 +0000

Scott,

Actually such things are usually not simple at all, which is why these sources can be suggestive of many things. I really wasn’t, um, “maintaining” any one interpretation exclusive of others (hence, the term ’suggest’). Perhaps I should have made that clearer.

As for questioning our assumptions of normative behavior in Chinese families using household insructions as a source, I defer to the work done by historians such as Patricia Ebrey, Susan Mann, Dorothy Ko, and Charlotte Furth as well as the anthropologist James Watson.

In short, I agree with you Scott. You raised a great point, people in positions of authority, especially heads of households in Chinese history, like to make lists of rules. Agreed. I’m just suggesting another aspect of the same issue.

Thanks for stopping by.

By: rick

rick — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:21:28 +0000

I’ve long been interested in Chinese history, but just about every time I find a book on it, there are no maps. It makes it difficult for me to comprehend the changes from the Hsia period through the Spring and Autumn periods through to more modern times like the Ming or Ch`ing. Could you direct me to some maps that denote those periods so I can match the history to the geography?

Thanks, regardless of your response.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:34:28 +0000

OK…my response is here:
http://uselesstree.typepad.com/useless_tree/2008/01/mencian-child-r.html

By: ScottLoar

ScottLoar — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:06:56 +0000

Jeremiah,

A question of emphasis, simple control of the household as you maintain or simply the penchant for written precepts to govern daily life. I think the latter is more likely and characteristic, thus my post.

ScottLoar