Susan Naquin | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Historian and author |
Academic background | |
Education | BA., History MA., East Asian Studies Ph.D., History |
Alma mater | Stanford University Yale University |
Thesis | Millenarian Rebellion in China: The Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813 (1974) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | University of Pennsylvania Princeton University |
Susan Naquin is an American historian and author. She is a professor emerita at Princeton University. [1]
Naquin's research centers on the social and cultural history of late imperial and early modern China (1400-1900),focusing on topics such as millenarian peasant uprisings,families,rituals,pilgrimages,temples,the history of Beijing,and Qing material culture. [1] She has authored and co-authored research articles and five books including Millenarian Rebellion in China:The Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813,Shantung Rebellion:The Wang Lun Uprising of 1774,Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century,Peking:Temples and City Life,1400-1900 and Gods of Mount Tai:Familiarity and the Material Culture of North China,1000-2000 and is a co-editor of the book Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China. She is the recipient of Princeton University's 2009 Graduate Mentoring Award [2] and the 2010 American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction. [3]
Naquin is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society, [4] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [5]
Naquin earned a bachelor's degree in History from Stanford University in 1966. She went on to receive a master's degree in East Asian Studies in 1968 and a Ph.D. in history in 1974,both from Yale University. [6]
Naquin began her academic career as an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania in 1977,and was promoted to associate professor in 1981 and professor in 1988. In 1993,she joined Princeton University as a professor of History and of East Asian Studies and has been professor emerita since 2013. [7]
Between 1978 and 1984,Naquin was a co-editor of the journal Ch’ing-shih wen-t’i 清史問題 (now called Late Imperial China). In 2012,she joined the Elling Eide Foundation Board of Directors, [8] concurrently serving on the Geiss-Hsu Foundation Board of Trustees until 2018. [9]
Naquin was a Faculty Fellow of Princeton University's Society of Fellows from 2000 to 2003, [10] while serving as the Chair of the East Asian Studies Department from 2001 to 2005 and as Acting Chair in 2007. [7]
Naquin has contributed to the field of history by studying the social and cultural life of late imperial and early modern China,especially north China,including millenarian peasant uprisings,sectarian organizations,pilgrimage and temple organizations,the history of Beijing,and the material culture of the Qing dynasty. Her source material has included Qing archives,stone stele,local histories,and religious paraphernalia. [1]
Naquin has authored five books,focusing on Chinese history,especially the religious and cultural practices of imperial China from 1400 to 1900. Her work has been translated into Chinese under her Chinese name,Han Shurui 韓書瑞. In her books Millenarian Rebellion in China:The Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813 and Shantung Rebellion:The Wang Lun Uprising of 1774,she used newly accessible Qing dynasty archives,including testimonies from captured rebels,to analyze sectarian networks,millenarian beliefs,and how they led to violence in 1813 and 1774. In his review of the book for The Historian ,Robert Kapp wrote,"With the aid of this extraordinary material,she has constructed an absorbing narrative not only of the founding of the rebel movement and the planning of the uprising but also of the attack on the Forbidden City...". [11]
In the book Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century,Naquin and her co-author Evelyn S. Rawski took a regional approach to China and highlighted the increasing commercial activity and economic development in the 18th century. In 2000,she published Peking:Temples and City Life,1400-1900,a study of the function of religious institutions as important public spaces in the capital city and city life. About this book,Michael Dillon remarked,"A book of extraordinary complexity and comprehensiveness that contains insights on all aspects of the life of the city... This monumental memorial to the monuments of imperial Peking will become a standard text." [12] In addition,she co-edited the book Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China with Chün-fang Yü,which was a collection of essays on sacred sites in imperial and modern China. Robert Ford reviewed the book for the Journal of Asian Studies and commented,"This collection of nine essays,prefaced by a substantial introduction by the editors,is the most important and broad-ranging book on its subject ever published." [13] Her 2022 work,Gods of Mount Tai:Familiarity and the Material Culture of North China,1000-2000 was an exploration of the transformations of the Lady of Mount Tai,North China's most important female deity,through a visual history of overlooked statues,prints,murals,and paintings. In a review published in the Journal of Chinese Religions ,Vincent Goossaert wrote "Naquin's book,in the making for some fifteen years and long awaited by the scholarly community,is as towering,rock-solid,impressive,and memorable as its subject." [14]
Naquin has explored many facets of the religious history of imperial China,particularly during the Qing dynasty. In books and articles,she discussed the emergence and endurance of the White Lotus religion,a sect that originated from Buddhist and Daoist traditions in 16th-century China,with a primary focus on its central figure,the Eternal Mother,and its growth over the subsequent four centuries. [15] In addition,she demonstrated how the rebellions in North China in the Qing dynasty were connected and stemmed from this White Lotus religion. [16] Using media from the 17th to the 20th century,she also showed how the Tanzhe Monastery and Mount Miaofeng in Beijing's suburbs,each sustained a local reputation through their history,pilgrims,and landscapes. [17]
Naquin has also studied late imperial China,especially the Qing dynasty. In an article in the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies,jointly written with Thomas Shiyu Li,Naquin researched the historical significance of Beijing's Baoming temple in terms of both the religion and court politics of Ming and Qing China. [18] [19] She has written on collectors and collecting,and in 2004 she examined how the Palace Museum in Beijing presented itself and its collections as "treasures of the Forbidden City" in exhibitions sent abroad,and helped shape the global understanding of Chinese art and history. [20] [21] [22]
Naquin's research has provided insights into the material culture and artisanal technologies of late imperial China. She highlighted the significance of non-luxury material culture in the Ming and Qing periods,particularly that of the Greater North China Plain,and advocated for a regional perspective as a frame for lesser-known sources. [23] Additionally,in a book chapter,she analyzed the technologies behind temple culture in late imperial China,focusing on the town of Shouzhou in northern Anhui province,and argued that temples were not only social centers,but also required a complex assemblage of technologies to construct and maintain. [24]
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. The group was known as "Boxers" in English because many of its members practised Chinese martial arts, which at the time were referred to as "Chinese boxing". It was defeated by the Eight-Nation Alliance of foreign powers.
The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted from 1850 until the fall of Tianjing in 1864, although the last rebel army was not wiped out until August 1871. The conflict resulted in approximately 20 to 30 million deaths, approximately one-tenth to one-twentieth of China's population at the time. The established Qing government won decisively, although at great cost to its fiscal and political structure.
The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as among the unequal treaties.
Zhili, alternately romanized as Chihli, was a northern administrative region of China since the 14th-century that lasted through the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty until 1911, when the region was dissolved, converted to a province, and renamed Hebei in 1928.
The Niujie Mosque is the oldest mosque in Beijing, China. It was first built in 996 during the Liao dynasty and was reconstructed as well as enlarged under the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty.
The White Lotus is a syncretic religious and political movement which forecasts the imminent advent of the "King of Light" (明王), i.e., the future Buddha Maitreya. As White Lotus sects developed, they appealed to many Han Chinese who found solace in the worship of the Queen Mother of the West.
The White Lotus Rebellion was a rebellion initiated by followers of the White Lotus movement during the Qing dynasty of China. Motivated by millenarian Buddhists who promised the immediate return of the Buddha, it erupted out of social and economic discontent in the impoverished provinces of Hubei, Shaanxi, and Sichuan. The rebellion began in 1794, when large groups of rebels claiming White Lotus affiliations rose up within the mountainous region that separated Sichuan province from Hubei and Shaanxi provinces. A smaller precursor to the main rebellion broke out in 1774, under the leadership of the martial-arts and herbal-healing expert Wang Lun in Shandong province of northern China.
Empress Xiaoxianchun, of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Fuca clan, was the first wife of the Qianlong Emperor. She was empress consort of Qing from 1738 until her death in 1748.
Wang Lun was the leader of the White Lotus sect in Shandong province, China in the 1770s. He preached a millenarian philosophy, emphasizing the imminent coming of the Buddha Maitreya.
The Gansu Braves or Gansu Army was a unit of 10,000 Chinese Muslim troops from the northwestern province of Kansu (Gansu) in the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). Loyal to the Qing, the Braves were recruited in 1895 to suppress a Muslim revolt in Gansu. Under the command of General Dong Fuxiang (1839–1908), they were transferred to the Beijing metropolitan area in 1898, where they officially became the Rear Division of the Wuwei Corps, a modern army that protected the imperial capital. The Gansu Army included Hui Muslims, Salar Muslims, Dongxiang Muslims, and Bonan Muslims.
The Eight Trigrams uprising of 1813 broke out in China under the Qing dynasty. The rebellion was started by some elements of the millenarian Tianli Sect (天理教) or Heavenly Principle Sect, which was a branch of the White Lotus Sect. Led by Lin Qing and Li Wencheng, the revolt occurred in the Zhili, Shandong, and Henan provinces of China.
Shamanism was the dominant religion of the Jurchen people of northeast Asia and of their descendants, the Manchu people. As early as the Jin dynasty (1115–1234), the Jurchens conducted shamanic ceremonies at shrines called tangse. There were two kinds of shamans: those who entered in a trance and let themselves be possessed by the spirits, and those who conducted regular sacrifices to heaven, to a clan's ancestors, or to the clan's protective spirits.
The Lüzu Temple (吕祖宫) is a Taoist temple in Beijing, China. Built during the Qing dynasty, it is located near the Liulichang quarter in the old city.
Mount Miaofeng is a mountain in the northwestern Beijing, an extension of the Taihang Mountains. It is located in the Mentougou District of Beijing about 70 kilometers to the northwest of downtown Beijing.
Liu Shiduan was the founder and leader of the Big Swords Society. It was a martial arts society whose main task was to protect the property of landowners in Caozhou prefecture in late Qing China.
Identity in China was strongly dependent on the Eight Banner system during the Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1644–1912). China consisted of multiple ethnic groups, of which the Han, Mongols and Manchus participated in the banner system. Identity, however, was defined much more by culture, language and participation in the military until the Qianlong Emperor resurrected the ethnic classifications.
Evelyn Sakakida Rawski is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of History of the University of Pittsburgh and a scholar in Chinese and Inner Asian history. She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, United States of Japanese-American ancestry. She served as president of the Association for Asian Studies in 1995–1996.
Baguadao or Eight Trigram Teaching (八卦教) is a network of Chinese folk religious sects, one of the most extended in northern China. The tradition dates back to the late 17th century Ming dynasty, and was heavily persecuted during the following Qing dynasty when affiliated sects organised an uprising in 1813, led by Lin Qing. Affiliated sects appeared under various names, but during the latter half of the 18th century they adopted Bagua Jiao as their common designation.
Bixia Yuanjun, also known as Taishan Niangniang, is the goddess of Mount Tai, childbirth and destiny in Chinese traditional religion (Taoism).