Before Archaeology
Antiquarianism, Collecting, and ‘Evidential Scholarship’ in Late Imperial China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23728231 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Phillip Grimberg (0000-0002-1127-8716, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 51-64 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-22 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | The Oxford Handbook of the History and Practice of Chinese Archaeology (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197800324.013.0001 |
| OpenAlex | W7170039352 |
| ISBN | 9780197800324 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 4 |
While modern field archaeology in China looks back at a history of just over a hundred years, the systematic study of objects as material remains and empirical evidence of the past dates back to at least the Song dynasty. Archaeology itself did not develop independently of foreign influences but was introduced as an import from the West via Japan at the end of the 19th century, mediated through various sources and propped up by a growing sense of nationalism. Further influences came from European scholars who conducted excavations in China in the early 20th century. The earliest scientific excavations by Chinese archaeologists only began in the late 1920s. Before that, archaeological discoveries in China had mostly been chance discoveries. Nonetheless, the indigenous tradition of antiquarianism along with textual criticism and epigraphic studies played an essential role in fostering archaeological, or rather protoarchaeological interests since the Northern Song and during much of the Qing dynasty, ultimately allowing archaeology to take hold as a scholarly discipline in the wake of Chinese modernism. Antiquarian scholarship and textual criticism thus paved the way for the development of modern archaeological research and collecting practices in China. In addition to tracing the conceptual development of the discipline, this chapter provides an overview of the historical evolution of antiquarianism and early forms of archaeology in China from the Northern Song period to the beginning of the 20th century. As a case study, the example of the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723–1735) and his private art collection is presented in the context of evidential scholarship (考證) in the 18th century.
China · Context (archaeology) · Criticism · Emperor · Excavation · Post-medieval archaeology · Prehistoric archaeology · Scholarship · Chinese history and philosophy · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · Eurasian Exchange Networks
| Highly cited | No |
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