Making the palace machine work : mobilizing people, objects, and nature in the Qing Empire
Title:
Making the palace machine work : mobilizing people, objects, and nature in the Qing Empire
Asian history
Asian history.
Author:
Siebert, Martina, editor.
ISBN:
9789463720359
Publication Information:
Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, c2021.
Physical Description:
333 pages : illustrations (some color), facsimiles, maps, plans ; 24 cm.
Series:
Asian history
Asian history.
Contents:
Moving pieces: on the reuse of interior decoration components in Qing palaces / Shuxian Zhang -- Working the Qing palace machine: the servants' perspective / Christine Moll-Murata -- Manager or craftsman: skillful bannermen of the Qing dynasty, 1644-1912 / Kai Jun Chen -- Kupiao and the accounting system of the imperial household workshops / Yijun Wang and Kyoungjin Bae -- The story of an image: Ding Guanpeng's "Ultimate bliss" and the auspiciousness of reproduction / Qiong Zhang -- Piecing shards together: the uses and manufacturing of imperial porcelain / Guangyao Wang -- Resplendent innovations: fire gilding techniques at the Qing court / Te-cheng Su and Hui-min Lai -- Transporting jade: objects, ecology, and local bureaucracy in Qing Xinjiang / Yulian Wu -- Decluttering: on the classification of objects at the Imperial Household Department / Elif Akcetin -- Growing and organizing lotus in Qing imperial spaces: interlocking cycles of money and nature / Martina Siebert -- The medicine supply system of the Qing court / Xueling Guan -- Where there is peace, there are elephants / Hui-chun Yu
Abstract:
This volume brings the studies of institutions, labour, and material cultures to bear on the history of science and technology by tracing the workings of the Imperial Household Department (Neiwufu) in the Qing court and empire. An enormous apparatus that employed 22,000 men and women at its heyday, the Department operated a "machine" with myriad moving parts. The first part of the book portrays the people who kept it running, from technical experts to menial servants, and scrutinises the paper trails they left behind. Part two uncovers the working principles of the machine by following the production chains of some of its most splendid products: gilded statues, jade, porcelain, and textiles. Part three tackles the most complex task of all, managing living organisms in nature, including lotus plants grown in imperial ponds in Beijing, fresh medicines sourced from disparate regions, and tribute elephants from Southeast Asia.
Corporate Subject:
Geographic Term:
Bibliographical References:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Field 805:
npmlib 11100965 DS754.14 M35 os2 yh