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The Resource Technology, gender and history in imperial China : great transformations reconsidered, Francesca Bray

Technology, gender and history in imperial China : great transformations reconsidered, Francesca Bray

Creator
Summary
What can the history of technology contribute to our understanding of late imperial China? Most stories about technology in pre-modern China follow a well-worn plot: in about 1400 after an early ferment of creativity that made it the most technologically sophisticated civilisation in the world, China entered an era of technical lethargy and decline. But how are we to reconcile this tale, which portrays China in the Ming and Qing dynasties as a dying giant that had outgrown its own strength, with the wealth of counterevidence affirming that the country remained rich, vigorous and powerful at least until the end of the eighteenth century? Does this seeming contradiction mean that the stagnation story is simply wrong, or perhaps that technology was irrelevant to how imperial society worked? Or does it imply that historians of technology should ask better questions about what technology was, what it did and what it meant in pre-modern societies like late imperial China? In this book, Francesca Bray explores subjects such as technology and ethics, technology and gendered subjectivities (both female and male), and technology and statecraft to illuminate how material settings and practices shaped topographies of everyday experience and ideologies of government, techniques of the self and technologies of the subject. Examining technologies ranging from ploughing and weaving to drawing pictures, building a house, prescribing medicine or composing a text, this book offers a rich insight into the interplay between the micro- and macro-politics of everyday life and the workings of governmentality in late imperial China, showing that gender principles were woven into the very fabric of empire, from cosmology and ideologies of rule to the material foundations of the state and the everyday practices of the domestic sphere. This authoritative text will be welcomed by students and scholars of Chinese history, as well as those working on global history and the histories of gender, technology and agriculture. Furthermore, it will be of great use to those interested in social and cultural anthropology and material culture.--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xviii, 278 pages
Contents
  • Introduction: The power of technology
  • Machines for living : domestic architecture and the engineering of the social order in late imperial China
  • Instructive and nourishing landscapes : natural resources, people and the state in late imperial China
  • Women's work and women's place : textiles and gender
  • Structures of feeling : decorum, desire and a place of one's own
  • Tales of fertility : reproductive narratives in late imperial medical cases
  • Science, technique, technology : passages between matter and knowledge in imperial Chinese agriculture
  • A gentlemanly occupation : the domestication of farming knowledge
  • Agricultural illustrations : blueprint or icon?
Isbn
9780415639569
Instance
Label
Technology, gender and history in imperial China : great transformations reconsidered
Title
Technology, gender and history in imperial China
Title remainder
great transformations reconsidered
Statement of responsibility
Francesca Bray
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
What can the history of technology contribute to our understanding of late imperial China? Most stories about technology in pre-modern China follow a well-worn plot: in about 1400 after an early ferment of creativity that made it the most technologically sophisticated civilisation in the world, China entered an era of technical lethargy and decline. But how are we to reconcile this tale, which portrays China in the Ming and Qing dynasties as a dying giant that had outgrown its own strength, with the wealth of counterevidence affirming that the country remained rich, vigorous and powerful at least until the end of the eighteenth century? Does this seeming contradiction mean that the stagnation story is simply wrong, or perhaps that technology was irrelevant to how imperial society worked? Or does it imply that historians of technology should ask better questions about what technology was, what it did and what it meant in pre-modern societies like late imperial China? In this book, Francesca Bray explores subjects such as technology and ethics, technology and gendered subjectivities (both female and male), and technology and statecraft to illuminate how material settings and practices shaped topographies of everyday experience and ideologies of government, techniques of the self and technologies of the subject. Examining technologies ranging from ploughing and weaving to drawing pictures, building a house, prescribing medicine or composing a text, this book offers a rich insight into the interplay between the micro- and macro-politics of everyday life and the workings of governmentality in late imperial China, showing that gender principles were woven into the very fabric of empire, from cosmology and ideologies of rule to the material foundations of the state and the everyday practices of the domestic sphere. This authoritative text will be welcomed by students and scholars of Chinese history, as well as those working on global history and the histories of gender, technology and agriculture. Furthermore, it will be of great use to those interested in social and cultural anthropology and material culture.--
Member of
Assigning source
Provided by Publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Bray, Francesca
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Critical Asian scholarship
Series volume
10
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Technological innovations
  • Technology
  • Sex role
  • China
Label
Technology, gender and history in imperial China : great transformations reconsidered, Francesca Bray
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
Introduction: The power of technology -- Machines for living : domestic architecture and the engineering of the social order in late imperial China -- Instructive and nourishing landscapes : natural resources, people and the state in late imperial China -- Women's work and women's place : textiles and gender -- Structures of feeling : decorum, desire and a place of one's own -- Tales of fertility : reproductive narratives in late imperial medical cases -- Science, technique, technology : passages between matter and knowledge in imperial Chinese agriculture -- A gentlemanly occupation : the domestication of farming knowledge -- Agricultural illustrations : blueprint or icon?
Control code
FIEb17781103
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xviii, 278 pages
Isbn
9780415639569
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
  • (NhCcYBP) 2012043561
  • (OCoLC)796752922
Label
Technology, gender and history in imperial China : great transformations reconsidered, Francesca Bray
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier.
Content category
text
Content type MARC source
rdacontent.
Contents
Introduction: The power of technology -- Machines for living : domestic architecture and the engineering of the social order in late imperial China -- Instructive and nourishing landscapes : natural resources, people and the state in late imperial China -- Women's work and women's place : textiles and gender -- Structures of feeling : decorum, desire and a place of one's own -- Tales of fertility : reproductive narratives in late imperial medical cases -- Science, technique, technology : passages between matter and knowledge in imperial Chinese agriculture -- A gentlemanly occupation : the domestication of farming knowledge -- Agricultural illustrations : blueprint or icon?
Control code
FIEb17781103
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
xviii, 278 pages
Isbn
9780415639569
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia.
Other physical details
illustrations
System control number
  • (NhCcYBP) 2012043561
  • (OCoLC)796752922

Subject

Member of

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