This article investigates how Li Yuanyang, a Yunnanese scholar of the Ming Dynasty, pursued cultural orthodoxy both for himself and his homeland. Through reconstructing Yunnan's history, harmonising Buddhism with Confucianism, and showcasing the Chinese values practised in Yunnan, he positions himself as an orthodox Confucian literatus and defines Yunnan as an integral part of Chinese civilisation. Simultaneously, Li exhibits strong regional characteristics, perhaps unconsciously at times. He adopts some Bai-centric accounts, inherits Dali's pre-Ming Buddhist legacy, and especially extols local moral exemplars, highlighting the cultural refinement of Yunnan individuals. Thus, his identity is double-sided, functioning as both a Chinese and a native scholar.
The founder of the Hong Kong branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, John Francis Davis, published the first translation of a Chinese play into English, Laou-Seng-Urh, or 'An Heir in Old Age', in 1817. While significant in both literary and scholarly terms, Davis's work is also worthy of attention for its political undercurrents. An anonymously penned introduction draws connections between Davis's translation and theatrical performances in the context of Qing diplomacy, including Macartney's embassy of 1793, while an accompanying 'Advertisement' highlights Davis's role as interpreter on Amherst's subsequent embassy of 1816. This article conclusively attributes these paratexts to the second secretary of the Admiralty, Sir John Barrow. Records from the East India House library, the John Murray Archive, and back-numbers of The Quarterly Review reveal how Barrow exploited Davis's translation to promote British diplomatic engagement with China and celebrate the embassy on which he had staked his own reputation as a China expert. Though Laou-Seng-Urh achieved few of its political objectives, it nevertheless inadvertently influenced the trajectory of nineteenth-century academic sinology in Europe.
This study explores the intricate design of title pages in nineteenth-century Persian lithographed books, comparing the Eastern-style title pages prevalent in Indian publications with the Western-influenced designs found in Iranian lithographed books. Rooted in Indian publishing traditions, the Eastern model emphasised structured bibliographic details, refined calligraphy, and floral ornamentation. In contrast, the Western-style Iranian model drew inspiration from Persian manuscript and bookbinding traditions, a broader ornamental vocabulary shared across media, particularly the lachak va turanj (medallion-and-corner) compositional scheme. While Iranian designers rarely adopted the Eastern model in books published in Iran, Indian publications occasionally incorporated Persian design elements, demonstrating selective cross-regional exchanges in Persianate book design. Rather than developing a standardised informational layout, Iranian title pages prioritised visual composition and ornamental hierarchy, often relegating bibliographic information to colophons or extended dedicatory texts. Accordingly, the Western style is defined less by informational structure than by visual organisation, which distinguishes it fundamentally from the Eastern model. This study focuses on Iranian and Indian examples, drawing on rare Persian lithographed books to examine how differing conceptions of the book shaped title page design in the nineteenth century.
This article examines how the Ban & umacr; Fahd of Mecca successfully established and maintained a scholarly dynasty specialising in hadith transmission across multiple generations during the Mamluk and early Ottoman periods (eighth/fourteenth-eleventh/seventeenth centuries). Drawing on social reproduction theory, the study analyses the deliberate strategies through which this family transformed itself from judge-merchants into 'the hadith transmitters of the Hijaz'. The analysis focuses on Taq & imacr; al-D & imacr;n Muhammad (d. 871/1466) as the pivotal figure who systematically forged the family's scholarly identity through multiple interconnected strategies: intensive early education of children and relatives, strategic exploitation of Mecca's position as a pilgrimage centre to build networks with visiting scholars, creation of a family library that became a regional resource, development of sophisticated information management tools (indexes, notebooks, summaries), cultivation of excellence in manuscript copying, and elaboration of genealogical claims linking the family to 'Al & imacr; ibn Ab & imacr; T & amacr;lib. These practices were consciously transmitted across several generations, creating a cumulative effect that sustained the family's reputation into the early eleventh/seventeenth century. The study demonstrates that this scholarly dynasty succeeded not through passive inheritance but through active, systematic cultivation of multiple forms of capital-economic, social, cultural, and symbolic-deployed strategically to reproduce elite status across generations.
This article examines the endurance of timbering and rafting along the upper Yellow River in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a case study of Fernand Braudel's 'social time' of that critical section of the waterway, marked by intensified commerce and shifting political dynamics. The Muslim consolidation of midstream Ningxia, anchored in upstream Linxia, exemplified how Hui economic dominance intertwined with territorial control. These networks, later repurposed to support China's resistance against Japanese imperialism, were abruptly disrupted by mid-twentieth-century dam construction and socialist collectivisation. Beyond economic history, the article interrogates historiographical silences surrounding Hui economic territorialisation. While external observers, including Republican officials and Japanese strategists, acknowledged Hui commercial monopolies, state historiography under the People's Republic of China has often downplayed them to maintain narratives of ethnic harmony. Analysing cinematic representations across different eras of the twentieth century, the article further argues that film serves as a counterpoint to official narratives, offering an alternative medium where Hui agency and economic territoriality are articulated and contested. By bridging economic history, historiography, and visual culture, this study highlights the political stakes of ethnic commerce and the ways in which Hui identity has been shaped and reshaped across different political regimes.
