[Open Access] Keeping Record: The Materiality of Rulership and Administration in Early China and Medieval Europe

Editors: Abigail S. Armstrong , Matthias J. Kuhn , Jörg Peltzer and Chun Fung Tong

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Publication year: 2024

Abstract:

The production and retention of written records was a common and important facet of pre-modern rulership and administration. Much of our understanding of governmental practices and expressions of authority come from the contents of such documents, which have been well studied. Less studied, however, are the records themselves as artefacts. This volume is an attempt to redress this balance by taking a more holistic, material approach to a range of written records. Through a series of case studies, this volume explores questions regarding the material characteristics of various records and their use. It demonstrates that the material features of the records, including the size and shape, the hands that wrote them and the material substrate, can shed new light on the functioning of government and the declarations of power these records asserted. The ten contributions of this volume focus on records from a variety of rulers, political systems and administrations. With four case studies from early China and six from medieval Europe, this volume offers transcultural perspectives to demonstrate how different cultures expressed rulership and administration materially through the use of text-bearing artefacts.

Table of Contents:

1. A Material Approach to Written Artefacts of Rulership and Administration: An Introduction
   Abigail S. Armstrong, Matthias J. Kuhn, Jörg Peltzer and Chun Fung Tong

2. The Charter Scribes of King Henry III. A Palaeographical Investigation of English Royal Charter Engrossments and Enrolments, 1259–1265
   Andrew Kourris

3. The Scribe and the Witnesses: The Drafting of Witness Lists in the Charters of the Counts of Flanders (1071–1191)
   Romain Waroquier

4. To Write or to Seal? New Evidence on Literacy Practices in Early Imperial China
   Tsang Wing Ma

5. Handwriting in the Official Documents from Liye and Bureaucratic Politics in the Qin Empire
   Maxim Korolkov

6. Between Slip and Tablet. Rulership and Writing Support in Eastern Han China, 25–220 CE
   Chun Fung Tong

7. Record-Keeping on the Estates of the Earls of Northumberland. Drafts, Templates and Innovation?
   Abigail S. Armstrong

8. Layouting Authority. Graphic Reflections of Power Relationships in Early Chinese Administrative Documents
   Enno Giele

9. Enrolling Lines of Power: Yorkist Pedigree Rolls as Material Evidence of Kingship
   Matthias J. Kuhn

10. The Cartulary as a Visual Representation of Rulership. King Henry IV of England (1399–1413) and the Great Cowcher (London, TNA, DL 42/1−2)
    Jörg Peltzer

11. The Power of Bookkeeping in Late Medieval Friedberg and Gelnhausen
    Hanna Nüllen

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Peoples of Pingcheng (398-494): Cultural Diversity and Interaction

Editors:

Thomas O. Höllmann & Shing Müller

Publisher:
Harrassowitz

Publication year:
2024

Abstract:

Compared to the later capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Luoyang (494–534), Pingcheng on the northern border of the Chinese world has received less scholarly attention despite its far longer capital status (398–494). The main reason is the lack of written sources. In addition, there is the derogatory idea that Pingcheng was a latifundium inhabited by “barbarians,” since the rulers of the Northern Wei were the Tuoba Xianbei from the eastern steppe, who established the first long-term foreign control over northern China. 

Traditionally, Luoyang is the epitome of the sinicized Tuoba Xianbei, while Pingcheng represents the state of the Tuoba Xianbei who were on the way to “becoming Chinese.” Excavations show that Pingcheng, which was built on the ruins of a garrison from the Han-Dynasty, arose from nothing and the inhabitants came from outside. Burial finds indicate a steadily growing population, which is said to have reached one million in its prime. At first, tombs were erected to indicate their steppe origins. New rites and artifacts emerged in spurts. This corresponds to written records, according to which the city was mainly populated by steppe warriors, followed by forcibly relocated peoples from all conquered northern Chinese regions.

The authors focus on the people(s) in Pingcheng. Zhang’s epigraphic study is devoted to a Xianbei family that arose during the Pingcheng period and remained closely intertwined with the imperial court in the following centuries. Using burial finds, Müller explores the diversity and foreignness of funerary customs and artifacts, the ways in which different ethnic groups communicated and interacted, and the emergence of a new collective identity that was anything but Chinese.

Table of Contents:

Preface

Zhang Qingjie 張慶捷

The Brick Inscriptions of Yifu Mogui 乙弗莫瓌 and Yifu Qiangui 乙弗乾歸 of the Northern Wei Dynasty

Shing Müller

The Inhabitants of Pingcheng (398–494): An Archaeological Survey

Writing and Community in 300 BCE China: The Canonical Poems (Shi) at the Chu Capital of Ying

Author: 
Martin Kern

Publisher:
Brill

Publication year:
2026

Abstract:

Writing and Community in 300 BCE China is the first study to examin

e the anthology of the canonical Poems (Shi 詩) within their social and interpretive community at the ancient capital of Chu. Based on archaeological data and the analysis of recently discovered bamboo manuscripts, it identifies the Poems and other literary texts as the teaching tools of a class of low-ranking intellectuals who served the Chu royal court. From the manuscripts’ visual and literary features it reconstructs the procedures of writing, reading, and teaching at a single time and place: the court of Chu around 300 BCE.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

1. The Chronology and Geography of Early Shi-Related Manuscripts

2. The Distribution of Literary and Technical Manuscripts in Warring States Finds

3. Literary Manuscripts and Their Agents

4. Material Format, Visuality, and Use of Shi-Related Manuscripts

5. Writing, Vocalization, and the Procedures of Reading in Comparative Perspective

6. Reading the Poems in Manuscripts: Writing, Orality, and the Question of Stability

7. Defining the Canonical: the Poems as Discourse and Social Practice

8. Writing after Interpretation

Conclusion: The Poems as Discourse in Their Interpretive Community at Ying

Appendix: List of the Poems in Warring States Manuscripts from Chu

Silk Roads, Steppe Roads: History Unearthed from the Tombs of Medieval China

Author: Jonathan Karam Skaff

Publication year: 2026

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Abstract:
Silk Roads, Steppe Roads takes the reader on a journey to three sites in northwestern China and Mongolia to investigate medieval Chinese tombs containing evidence of Eastern Eurasian cultural contacts and exchanges. The construction, artifacts, and texts on paper and stone found at these tombs of the Sui (581–618) and early Tang (618–907) dynasties reveal glimpses of people, rituals, and objects that were in motion on the Silk and Steppe roads until being laid to rest over a millennium ago.

Jonathan Karam Skaff shows how the major transit hubs of the Silk and Steppe roads were particularly active sites of cultural contestation, experimentation, and mutual influence that had an impact on the historical development of China and Inner Asia. Challenging the idealized image of the Silk Road, he also examines travel permits and sales contracts that document the trade of enslaved people over the route.

Innovatively drawing on both textual and archaeological sources, Silk Roads, Steppe Roads shows how Eurasian peoples, despite believing their societies to be unique, spun overlapping and entangled webs of culture.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
A Slave Road? Slaves and Slavers at Turfan
Sogdians or Borderlanders? Part I:
Lives Revealed in Epitaphs
Sogdians or Borderlanders? Part II:
Death Rituals Revealed in Tombs
A Tang Dynasty Ally in Ritual and War:
The Tomb of Pugu Yitu (635–678) in Mongolia
Conclusion

Sekundäre Zentren der Sechs Dynastien: Untersuchungen zu Gräbern am Yangzi-Mittellauf ((Secondary Centres of the Six Dynasties: A Study of Burials in the Yangzi Middle Reaches))

Author: Annette Kieser

Publication year: 2025

Publisher:

Abstract:
Secondary Centres of the Six Dynasties: A Study of Burials in the Yangzi Middle Reaches The Yangzi middle reaches were of central importance for the history of the Six Dynasties (220–589 CE). They formed a densely populated zone of migration and interaction in which social groups other than those in the capital were active. These were contested areas close to the frontiers and, owing to their strategic location along trade and transport routes, of enormous economic, political, and military relevance. Secondary centers emerged here that often competed with the capital Jiankang (today Nanjing). A systematic examination of the material culture of five secondary centres in the Yangzi middle reaches (the present-day cities of Echeng, Wuhan, Xiangyang, Jingzhou, and Changsha) expands and re-evaluates the predominantly text-based picture of this region, long overshadowed by research focused on Jiankang. Based on excavation reports of Six Dynasties burial complexes in these centers, the corpus of finds is analysed and, taking the written sources into account, set in its historical context.

計量的分析を用いた北魏史研究

Author: 大知聖子  (Seiko Ochi)

Publisher: 汲古書院

Publication year: 2025

Abstracct:

本書の特徴は計量的分析を用いて北魏史研究を行う手法にある。計量的分析とは数量を通して現象を捉え、　分析することを意味する。具体的には、定量的分析（量的研究）と定性的分析（質的研究）の両方を用いるが、定性的分析に入る前にまずは定量的分析を行い、史料の特徴を掴むことからはじめている。本書がこのような分析方法を用いる理由は、量的データをエビデンスとして用いない質的研究のみを行った場合、なぜ史料の特定の部分に注目したのか、その妥当性はあるのかという説明が不足している問題があると考えるからである。

本書の第一部では如上の方法で北魏の爵制について分析し、史料に対して定量的分析を加えることの有効性を確認した。しかし、悉皆調査をして量的データを示す場合もそれを視覚化できておらず、特徴量やターゲットの関係性／相関性が分かり難い問題点もあった。そこで第二部では、有用なのにまだ知られていない知見を発見するための情報処理的プロセスである探索的データ分析、その中でもテキスト分析に特化したテキストマイニングを用い、データを数値化・可視化した上で明らかになった特徴語に着目し、質的研究を行った。

Table of Contents:

序文

第一部　北魏の爵制に関する研究

序　章　問題の所在と構成
〔北魏史研究および問題の所在／古代中国における爵制の概要／古代中国における爵制研
究および問題の所在／課題の設定〕

第一章　北魏爵制の概要と民族問題に着目した分析
〔北魏爵制の概要／授爵における有爵者の分析／北魏前期の封土の問題／付表〕

第二章　北魏前期の爵制とその特質――仮爵の検討を手掛かりに――
〔仮爵と正爵の差異／北魏前期爵制の特質／北魏前期の爵位と官品／付表〕

第三章　北魏前期における爵と品の対応の考察――南巡碑を中心に――
〔南巡碑にみられる序列／文成帝期における爵の品と将軍号・官職の官品との関係／北魏
前期における爵の品と将軍号・官職の官品との関係／付表〕

第四章　北魏後期の爵制とその特質――孝文帝の爵制改革を中心に――
〔孝文帝の爵制改革／北魏後期の賜爵の理由および官品との関係／付表〕

第五章　北魏の官と爵の関係
〔北魏の爵と功との関係／北魏の爵と考課制度との関係／北魏の官爵体系／付表〕

第六章　官当制度とその淵源――除名・免官との比較からみた――
〔唐律における除名・免官・官当について／北朝における除名・免官・官当について／魏

晋南朝における除名・免官・官当について／官当制度の本質的淵源／付表〕

終　章　北魏の官爵体系の歴史的位置付けとその展開
〔古代中国における功と爵の関係／古代中国における考課と爵の関係／古代中国における
官と爵の関係〕

補論一　北魏孝文帝の官爵改革およびその後の変質について
〔孝文帝の官爵改革／北魏後期の爵制の変質とその背景〕

補論二　爵保有者の階層にみる両晋・北魏の爵制運用の比較
〔西晋における爵位の傾向／東晋における爵位の傾向／北魏における爵位の傾向／両晋と
北魏の爵保有者の構造および爵制運用の比較／付表〕

第二部　テキストマイニング分析を用いた北魏墓誌に関する研究

第一章　デジタル・ヒューマニティーズと北魏史研究
〔北魏史研究とデジタル・ヒューマニティーズのあゆみ／中国の石刻史料データベース紹介〕

第二章　テキストマイニングによる北魏墓誌の銘辞の分析方法
〔KH Coderを用いた北魏墓誌の銘辞のテキストマイニング分析／中國哲學書電子化計劃の
分析ツールを用いた北魏墓誌研究〕

第三章　新出北魏墓誌目録〔付表〕

第四章　北魏墓誌の銘辞とその撰文――同一銘辞の問題を中心に――
〔北魏墓誌における同一銘辞／同一銘辞を持つ北魏墓誌の真偽について／北魏墓誌の銘辞
および誄の撰文者（書き手）／北魏墓誌の同一銘辞の撰文者について／付表〕

第五章　北魏女性墓誌の特徴語の抽出および語義考証
〔北魏女性墓誌研究と問題点／テキストマイニングを用いた北魏女性墓誌の銘辞の分析方
　法／北魏女性墓誌の銘辞の特徴語／付表〕

第六章　北魏男性墓誌の特徴語の抽出および語義考証
〔テキストマイニングを用いた北魏男性墓誌の銘辞の分析方法／北魏男性墓誌の銘辞の特
徴語／付表〕

おわりに――今後の課題と展望――