Ming Qing Studies - Monographs

Monograph No. 2

Martyrdom and Frontier Banishment in the official and Devotional Narratives of anti-Qing Uprising: The Case of Jahri Sufi Women in 18-20th Century Gansu

by Tommaso Previato

WriteUp, July 2020, ISBN 978-88-85629-84-4

Martyrdom and Frontier Banishment in the Official and Devotional Narratives of anti-Qing Uprisings: The Case of Jahri Sufi Women in 18-20th Century Gansu touches upon the intricacies of religious martyrdom in late imperial and early republican China. By gendering the narratives of antidynastic and sectarian dissent, this short monograph offers new interpretations of the role of female martyrs in the history of heterodox rebellions, with special attention paid to the Sufi communities of the northwestern province of Gansu. Based on an in-depth re-exploration of administrative materials on the rebellions of Qianlong (r. 1735-96) and Tongzhi (1861-75) eras, as well as on previously overlooked hagiographic literature on a few influential Sufi patriarchs of the Naqshbandi-Jahriyya order, it presents some salient cases that illustrate the patterns of Muslim women exile, self-sacrifice and redemption across time, space and saintly lineages. In so doing, the work brings forth general considerations on the modalities of Qing’s repression of militant sectarianism and women’s participation in devotional movements.

Monograph No. 1

Revisiting Liaozhai zhiyi

by Paolo Santangelo

WriteUp, July 2019, ISBN 978–88–85629–53-0

Revisiting Liaozhai zhiyi is a reflection on the main motifs of Pu Songling’s collection – a boundless psychic landscape of lost dreams and astonishing visions, masterly told with great humanity and irony. Its inspiration originates from the author’s frustrated career and literary ambitions, his dreams of worldly success and temptations of retreating to Dao-Buddhist asceticism. The perspective from which the stories are told is that of a poor male student who is obsessed with passing civil examinations, suffers an inferiority complex about career and marriage, and begrudges the concubines that only lucky scions of wealthy families can afford. The tales explore human passions, in their most dark, sublime and miraculous sides. They test the experience of moral and physical evils, the sense of human responsibility, the loss of consciousness, relations between normal and abnormal, the belief in retribution, as well as the consolatory illusion of fulfilling one’s desires.

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