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ahorbinskiBibliographic Data: Hostetler, Laura. Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Main Argument:
Historiographical Engagement: Joseph Needham, C. D. K. Yee
Introduction: Argument, Sources, Examples Hostetler looks at both cartography and ethnography, and notes that the Qing emergence of "accurate, to-scale, cartographic representation of the empire and its frontiers is contemporaneous with similar developments in early modern Europe" and that the division of geography into cartography and ethnography occurring in both China and Europe is a product of the historical period in which it took place, not merely of location (4). Hostetler argues that the shift in cartographic representation which took place by the C18 "is related to new ways in which the state came to be conceptualized during the early modern period…territory came to be viewed more and more as a resource to be dominated or controlled by a political center. The land took on a value separate and distinct from those who occupied it. Futhrermore, the eventual creation of nations was often predicated on an ideology of sameness" (15-16). She also argues that "it is much more useful to think about cartography as an increasingly international enterprise where the more meaningful division is between indigenous, early modern, and modern–as judged by the kinds of technologies and priorities employed in making, and subsequently reflected by, the map" (21).
Chapter 1: Argument, Sources, Examples The Qing colonial empire was confronted with a series of conflicting demands, namely how to justify its rule over inner Asia, the south and southeast, and over the Han peoples, while preserving (and creating) Manchu identity. There were two routes out of this dilemma: "one path was to look beyond previous precedents of sinicizaiton entirely by turning to early modern technologies of rule not rooted narrowly in Confucian thought" and the other "was to create a universal ideology of rule based on, but extending beyond, Confucian principles" (36, 37). These principles were united in the Qing Imperial Illustrations of Tributaries, which represents the Qing emperor as the center of a culturally diverse political unity within a uniform format.
Chapter 2: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Qing maps of the empire, which adopted several new practices: 'the mapping of the entire Qing empire so that it could all be taken in by the viewer at once, and the adoption of the latest (international) technology both in undertaking surveys and scientifically depicting the information obtained on maps. …it is no coincidence that the representational conventions chosen for the atlas of the empire belonged to an emerging international map rhetoric–one that did not require schooling in a specific language, other than that of science, to understand" (51). Mapping projects took place independently in France, Qing China, and Russia during the 1660s, as rulers of these states came to share "an increasing awareness of their own kingdom's position as one country located on a finite globe. All were striving to consolidate their rule within their domains, and simultaneously working towards establishing boundaries in an early modern world context where sovereignty was gradually becoming increasingly tied to territorial integrity" (74). In the case of Russia and China, these mapping projects literally put these states on the map--the map of Europe in the case of Russia, and the map of the world in the case of China.
Chapter 3: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Qing ethnography, which in the early modern period came to rely on direct observation and to play a role in empire-building. Ethnographic writing in general shares certain fundamental similarities: "in essence those who do the depicting define the peoples described. Dominant groups or powers thus restrict minorities by speaking both about and for them, circumscribing their rights or potential to define themselves. In the colonial context the goal of the colonizer, or imperial authority, is precisely and unabashedly to learn about, or rather construct, the identity of those to be ruled. Such knowledge simplifies the task of governance" (98-99).
Chapter 4: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the colonization of Guizhou, which began in the Ming but was fully consolidated only under the Qing, and which first used assimilationist but then more frankly suppressive policies. Under the Qianlong emperor, the preference was to maintain the appearance of Miao submission (these people having proven particularly rebellious) via the respect for some Miao practices--and at the same time to describe them and other peoples ethnographically.
Chapter 5: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the development of ethnographic writing in Guizhou, epitomized by four related trends: the numbers of categories of ethnic groups increase, as do the numbers of geographic areas in which investigations were made. Additionally, "administrative concerns, at issue throughout, are increasingly represented as goals accomplished. As more information is gathered over time there is reason to believe that it has been collected through observation of the groups in question" (156). These trends correspond with developments in ethnography in early modern Europe; "just as mapping of territory allowed for increased knowledge of and control over physical geography, depicting peoples was a way of knowing, and a means to better controlling, the human geography of area into which the Qing was expanding" (157).
Chapter 6: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Miao albums, "a genre of illustrated manuscripts that describe non-Han groups in various parts of south China" which began as administrative documents and which were executed by hand between 1692 and 1741 (159). These albums are distinct from gazetteers in several ways: one, "they were conceived and designed specifically by and for officials assigned to governing remote areas of the empire"; second, "whereas the gazetteers dealt with many different facets of the peoples, products, and geography of the province, the albums were concerned uniquely with the customs and manners of non-Han populations," and finally, "the albums singled out and defined the peoples they portrayed as notably different from the majority population of the Qing, but nonetheless as subjects of the realm" via the hand-painted color illustrations: "to this extent the albums were instrumental in constructing a sense of a collective 'we' that came to constitute the multiethnic nature of the Qing dynasty and later the People's Republic of China" (179).
Chapter 7: Argument, Sources, Examples The content of the Miao albums changes over the two centuries of their production as non-Han groups came to be regarded as naturally bellicose and untrustworthy and the production of new ethnographic knowledge dropped away as a concern. But the albums themselves came to be valued as collectors' items in China and abroad; "they became objects of attention among foreign scholars; and they provided source material for twentieth-century historical ethnographers" (182).
Conclusion: Argument, Sources, Examples
Critical assessment: Really this book should have been three articles. Hostetler makes a lot of assertions that she cannot actually prove in the name of making her subject relevant; really she should have spent more time on the early modern.
Further reading: Subrahmanyan, "Connected Histories"; Perdue, China Marches West; Hevia, Cherishing Men from Afar; Mullaney, Coming to Terms with the Nation
Main Argument:
Simultaneous developments in cartographic and ethnographic modes of representation notable for their emphasis on empirical knowledge derived from direct observation and precise measurement suggest that the Qing was not isolated from global changes during the early modern period, nor was it simply a recipient of European knowledge; it was an active participant in a shared world order. … In short, during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries Qing China was more fully a part of what can be called the early modern world than has been generally recognized.(1-2)Ethnography and mapping were central to these discursive imperial strategies, and early modern states employed both to extend their claims to universal empire. Specifically, "in mapping the territory of the expanding empire, the Qing four purposely chose to use the same idiom, or map language, in which its competitors functioned" and "as with much early modern European ethnography, Qing ethnography was also directed toward use in governance of an expanding empire" (23).
Historiographical Engagement: Joseph Needham, C. D. K. Yee
Introduction: Argument, Sources, Examples Hostetler looks at both cartography and ethnography, and notes that the Qing emergence of "accurate, to-scale, cartographic representation of the empire and its frontiers is contemporaneous with similar developments in early modern Europe" and that the division of geography into cartography and ethnography occurring in both China and Europe is a product of the historical period in which it took place, not merely of location (4). Hostetler argues that the shift in cartographic representation which took place by the C18 "is related to new ways in which the state came to be conceptualized during the early modern period…territory came to be viewed more and more as a resource to be dominated or controlled by a political center. The land took on a value separate and distinct from those who occupied it. Futhrermore, the eventual creation of nations was often predicated on an ideology of sameness" (15-16). She also argues that "it is much more useful to think about cartography as an increasingly international enterprise where the more meaningful division is between indigenous, early modern, and modern–as judged by the kinds of technologies and priorities employed in making, and subsequently reflected by, the map" (21).
Chapter 1: Argument, Sources, Examples The Qing colonial empire was confronted with a series of conflicting demands, namely how to justify its rule over inner Asia, the south and southeast, and over the Han peoples, while preserving (and creating) Manchu identity. There were two routes out of this dilemma: "one path was to look beyond previous precedents of sinicizaiton entirely by turning to early modern technologies of rule not rooted narrowly in Confucian thought" and the other "was to create a universal ideology of rule based on, but extending beyond, Confucian principles" (36, 37). These principles were united in the Qing Imperial Illustrations of Tributaries, which represents the Qing emperor as the center of a culturally diverse political unity within a uniform format.
Chapter 2: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Qing maps of the empire, which adopted several new practices: 'the mapping of the entire Qing empire so that it could all be taken in by the viewer at once, and the adoption of the latest (international) technology both in undertaking surveys and scientifically depicting the information obtained on maps. …it is no coincidence that the representational conventions chosen for the atlas of the empire belonged to an emerging international map rhetoric–one that did not require schooling in a specific language, other than that of science, to understand" (51). Mapping projects took place independently in France, Qing China, and Russia during the 1660s, as rulers of these states came to share "an increasing awareness of their own kingdom's position as one country located on a finite globe. All were striving to consolidate their rule within their domains, and simultaneously working towards establishing boundaries in an early modern world context where sovereignty was gradually becoming increasingly tied to territorial integrity" (74). In the case of Russia and China, these mapping projects literally put these states on the map--the map of Europe in the case of Russia, and the map of the world in the case of China.
Chapter 3: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Qing ethnography, which in the early modern period came to rely on direct observation and to play a role in empire-building. Ethnographic writing in general shares certain fundamental similarities: "in essence those who do the depicting define the peoples described. Dominant groups or powers thus restrict minorities by speaking both about and for them, circumscribing their rights or potential to define themselves. In the colonial context the goal of the colonizer, or imperial authority, is precisely and unabashedly to learn about, or rather construct, the identity of those to be ruled. Such knowledge simplifies the task of governance" (98-99).
Chapter 4: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the colonization of Guizhou, which began in the Ming but was fully consolidated only under the Qing, and which first used assimilationist but then more frankly suppressive policies. Under the Qianlong emperor, the preference was to maintain the appearance of Miao submission (these people having proven particularly rebellious) via the respect for some Miao practices--and at the same time to describe them and other peoples ethnographically.
Chapter 5: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at the development of ethnographic writing in Guizhou, epitomized by four related trends: the numbers of categories of ethnic groups increase, as do the numbers of geographic areas in which investigations were made. Additionally, "administrative concerns, at issue throughout, are increasingly represented as goals accomplished. As more information is gathered over time there is reason to believe that it has been collected through observation of the groups in question" (156). These trends correspond with developments in ethnography in early modern Europe; "just as mapping of territory allowed for increased knowledge of and control over physical geography, depicting peoples was a way of knowing, and a means to better controlling, the human geography of area into which the Qing was expanding" (157).
Chapter 6: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter looks at Miao albums, "a genre of illustrated manuscripts that describe non-Han groups in various parts of south China" which began as administrative documents and which were executed by hand between 1692 and 1741 (159). These albums are distinct from gazetteers in several ways: one, "they were conceived and designed specifically by and for officials assigned to governing remote areas of the empire"; second, "whereas the gazetteers dealt with many different facets of the peoples, products, and geography of the province, the albums were concerned uniquely with the customs and manners of non-Han populations," and finally, "the albums singled out and defined the peoples they portrayed as notably different from the majority population of the Qing, but nonetheless as subjects of the realm" via the hand-painted color illustrations: "to this extent the albums were instrumental in constructing a sense of a collective 'we' that came to constitute the multiethnic nature of the Qing dynasty and later the People's Republic of China" (179).
Chapter 7: Argument, Sources, Examples The content of the Miao albums changes over the two centuries of their production as non-Han groups came to be regarded as naturally bellicose and untrustworthy and the production of new ethnographic knowledge dropped away as a concern. But the albums themselves came to be valued as collectors' items in China and abroad; "they became objects of attention among foreign scholars; and they provided source material for twentieth-century historical ethnographers" (182).
Conclusion: Argument, Sources, Examples
Thinking of these various representations of the Qing empire as different kinds of maps–maps of varying scale as well as maps representing both territory and peoples–points to an important characteristic of visual representation of empire in the early modern period. Peoples and territories, while both attracting closer scrutiny, increasingly came to be mapped in separate genres. Cartography and ethnography were in the process of diverging during this period to become separate disciplines. (207)Additionally, the fact that the Qing empire was not able to remain at the forefront of global technologies in the C19 should not blind us to the fact that in the C18 and earlier, the story was different.
Critical assessment: Really this book should have been three articles. Hostetler makes a lot of assertions that she cannot actually prove in the name of making her subject relevant; really she should have spent more time on the early modern.
Further reading: Subrahmanyan, "Connected Histories"; Perdue, China Marches West; Hevia, Cherishing Men from Afar; Mullaney, Coming to Terms with the Nation