Local Resistance in Early Medieval Chinese Historiography and the Problem of Religious Overinterpretation

Official Chinese historiography is a treasure trove of information on local resistance to the centralised empire in early medieval China (third to sixth century). Sinologists specialised in the study of Chinese religions commonly reconstruct the religious history of the era by interpreting some of these data. In the process, however, the primary purpose of the historiography of local resistance is often overlooked, and historical interpretation easily becomes ‘overinterpretation’—that is, ‘fabricating false intensity’ and ‘seeing intensity everywhere’, as French historian Paul Veyne proposed to define the term. Focusing on a cluster of historical anecdotes collected in the standard histories of the four centuries under consideration, this study discusses the supposedly ‘religious’ nature of some of the data they contain

Imperialism, globalization and public finance: the case of late Qing China

This paper reviews recent revisionist studies of imperialism that demonstrate the complexities behind the late Qing state's strategy to accommodate to new challenges born out of foreign conflicts exacerbated by domestic crises. These publications have pointed scholars away from the exclusivity of external agency to the making of modern China. But looking at the role of globalization adds another dimension to understanding how imperialism engaged late Qing China's public finance system and indigenous banking institutions. China's centuries-old experience with global trade previous to the nineteenth century did not prepare the country for world-wide recession, and consequently, foreign banks acquiring a hold on the government's purse by the last decades of that century. From a 'broad-brush' perspective, the paper argues state-sponsored attempts at reform of public finance came too late, and in the long-term had grave repercussions

La sinologie immobile

Zurndorfer Harriet T. La sinologie immobile. In: Études chinoises, vol. 8, n°2, Automne 1989. pp. 99-120