What's the Matter with "China"? A Critique of Teleological History

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3636745
AutoresHugh R Clark (0000-0001-8282-748X, Clark Art Institute, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen77
Número2
Páginas295-314
Fecha de publicación2018-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0021-9118 • E-ISSN: 1752-0401
EditorialDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s0021911817001358
OpenAlexW2791547490
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas49

This article argues that the study of China's history has long been caught in a teleological trap that presumes that history could have had only one evolutionary track. The author explains how he came to recognize the problems inherent in the teleological trap and to reconceptualize his approach. The article contrasts the history of the North China Plain, culturally rooted in dry-land grain agriculture and from time immemorial deeply intertwined with that of the adjacent grasslands, with that of the south, a culturally and linguistically diverse land of river valleys and riziculture. It concludes that the holistic empire we know today was not an inevitable outcome of these contrasting trajectories and that alternative paths are plausible, and asserts that scholars must recognize that until history is accomplished it does not follow a teleological trajectory

Archaeology · Biology · China · Economic history · Environmental ethics · Environmental history · Epistemology · Geography · Sociology · Teleology · Trap (plumbing) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Chinese history and philosophy · Ecology · History · Philosophy