Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China, 1500-1800

by Peter N. Miller, Francois Louis

Overview

This book is a project in comparative history, but along two distinct axes, one historical and the other historiographical. Its purpose is to constructively juxtapose the early modern European and Chinese approaches to historical study that have been called "antiquarian." As an exercise in historical recovery, the essays in this volume amass new information about the range of antiquarian-type scholarship on the past, on nature, and on peoples undertaken at either end of the Eurasian landmass between 1500 and 1800. As a historiographical project, the book challenges the received—-and often very much under conceptualized—-use of the term "antiquarian" in both European and Chinese contexts. Readers will not only learn more about the range of European and Chinese scholarship on the past—-and especially the material past—-but they will also be able to integrate some of the historiographical observations and corrections into new ways of conceiving of the history of historical scholarship in Europe since the Renaissance, and to reflect on the impact of these European terms on Chinese approaches to the Chinese past. This comparison is a two-way street, with the European tradition clarified by knowledge of Chinese practices, and Chinese approaches better understood when placed alongside the European ones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472118182
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	06/13/2012
Series:	The Bard Graduate Center Cultural Histories of the Material World
Pages:	440
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Peter N. Miller is Dean and Professor at the Bard Graduate Center. He is the Series Editor for Cultural Histories of the Material World. 
 
François Louis is Associate Professor at the Bard Graduate Center.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Antiquarianism and Intellectual Life in Europe and China Peter N. Miller François Louis 1

Part 1 Antiquarianism and the Study of the Past

1 Writing Antiquarianism: Prolegomenon to a History Peter N. Miller 27

2 The Many Dimensions of the Antiquary's Practice Alain Schnapp 58

3 Far and Away? Japan, China, and Egypt, and the Ruins of Ancient Rome in Justus Lipsius's Intellectual Journey Jan Papy 81

4 Comparing Antiquarianisms: A View from Europe Peter N. Miller 103

Part 2 Authenticity and Antiquities

5 The Credulity Problem Christopher S. Wood 149

6 Artifacts of Authentication: People Making Texts Making Things in Ming-Qing China Bruce Rusk 180

Part 3 The Discovery of the World

7 Styles of Medical Antiquarianism Nancy G. Siraisi 207

8 Therapy and Antiquity in Late Imperial China Nathan Sivin 222

9 Wang Shizhen and Li Shizhen: Archaism and Early Scientific Thought in Sixteenth-Century China Kenneth J. Hammond 234

10 The Botany of Cheng Yaotian (1725-1814): Multiple Perspectives on Plants Georges Métailié 250

Part 4 Antiquarianism and Ethnography

11 The Study of Islam in Early Modern Europe: Obstacles and Missed Opportunities Noel Malcolm 265

12 Thinking About "Non-Chinese" in Ming China Leo K. Shin 289

Part 5 Antiquarianism and a "History of Religion"

13 From Antiquarianism to Philosophical History: India, China, and the World History of Religion in European Thought (1600-1770) Joan-Pau Rubiés 313

14 Whose Antiquarianism? Europe versus China in the 1701 Conflict between Bishop Maigrot and Qiu Sheng D. E. Mungello 368

15 From Antiquarian Imagination to the Reconstruction of Institutions: Antonius van Dale on Religion Martin Mulsow 381

List of Contributors 413

Index 415