Abstract
This article explores how the East Asian monsoon exacerbated social tensions in southeastern China and thereby fostered historical transformations in the region. By placing water at the center of late imperial Chinese social history, it demonstrates how disputes and animosities ebbed and flowed with the shifting of the seasonal winds. It also suggests the ways dynamic environmental events might complicate our notions of historical time.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 362-384 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Journal of Asian Studies |
| Volume | 82 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1 2023 |
Funding
An evolving version of this article was presented first at an Association for Asian Studies panel on early modern southeastern China, later at a Conference on Maritime Asia at the University of Cambridge, and finally at a workshop sponsored by the Chabraja Center for Historical Studies. Among the participants in these gatherings, the author thanks Lucille Chia, Michael Szonyi, Wenhsin Yeh, KunChin Lin, Jonathon Glassman, Paul Ramirez, William Monter, and especially Keith Woodhouse for their insightful feedback. She is grateful to three anonymous reviewers for the journal who ofered constructive suggestions for revision and at least tried to steer her onto more solid interpretive ground. She gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright US Scholars Program, and funding in support of the Gerald F. and Marjorie G. Fitzgerald Chair in Economic History at Northwestern University.
Keywords
- disputation
- environment
- history of China
- hydrosphere
- monsoon
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cultural Studies
- History