Sponsored by the James P. Geiss Foundation and Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University

By

Scarlett Jang

Williams College

In the midst of heat waves and thunderstorms, a group of China scholars gathered in Jones Hall at Princeton University for the Ming Court Culture Conference.  The conference was held on June 12 and 13 under the auspices of Princeton University and the Geiss Foundation.

Thanks to the conference organizer, David Robinson's wisdom and organizational skills, the conference was a success.  The audience was kept to a minimum, and all the participants were required to read the papers before the conference.  The two-day intense, intimate, and in-depth discussion was rather productive. 

There were eleven papers and five discussants. The two-day program, including the paper titles, the names of the paper presenters and discussants, and other related activities is listed below.   Chu-hung Lam could not make it because of safety concerns due to SARS.   Willard Peterson was asked by Chu-hung to speak on his behalf.   The conference was also graced by the presence of Margaret , Martin Heijdra, Wen Fong, Jerome Silbergeld, H.T Tang, Jan Stewart, Marsha Weidner, Carry Liu, and Andrew Plaks, among others.

Day One (June 12)
Morning session:

1. Rearing the Imperial Family
-Julia Murray:  Didactic Picturebooks at the Wanli Court 
-Ellen Soulliere:  How to be a Woman: Imperially sponsored Chinese texts of the14th to 16th centuries
-Discussant:  Evelyn Rawski

2. Court Images 
-Scarlett Jang:  The Ming Silijian and the Inner Court Publishing Enterprise
-Dora Ching:  Tibetan Buddhism and the Creation of the Ming Imperial Image
-Discussant:  Susan Naquin

Afternoon session:
1. Music, Dance, and Ritual (1:15-3:00)
-Joseph Lam: Ming Emperors as Music Leaders and Followers
-Nicholas Standaert: Ritual Dances and Their Visual Representations in Ming and Qing
-Discussant: Evelyn Rawski

2. Sampling the Rare Book Collection of the Gest Library: Martin Heijdra 

Evening:  Geiss Foundation Reception hosted by Margaret

Day Two (June 13)
Morning session:
1. Intellectual Patronage and Relations with High Officials 
-Chu-hung Lam: The Jiajing Emperor's Interactions with his Lecturers
-Peter Dimansen: Shifting Moral Politics at the Hongwu Court (1368-98)
-Discussant: Benjamin Elman

2. Military and International Dimensions 
-David Robinson: The Ming Imperial Family and the Yuan Legacy
-Kenneth Swope: Bestowing the Double-Edged Sword: Wanli as Supreme Military Commander
-John Wills: Foreign Tributaries at the Ming Court
-Discussant: Thomas Nimick

Afternoon session:  Synthesis

Evening:  Geiss Foundation Dinner hosted by Margaret

In addition to specific questions and suggestions regarding each individual paper, day one's discussion was dominated by a series of questions concerning definitions of some critical terms.  These questions included, for instance,  1) What exactly does the term "court culture" mean?   2) What exactly does the term "Ming court" mean?   Does it imply a collection of people and who were they? To what extent did they participate in or contribute to the formation of the so-called "court culture"?   3) Does the term "Ming court" imply also the physical locations of the "imperial city (Huangcheng)" and the "Forbidden City (Zijincheng)"   4) Should the term "Ming court" also include the culture of the court in Nanjing?   5) What is "inner court" and what is "outer court"?   6) Were there coherent clusters of overlapping subcultures in the "Ming court culture"?   7) How was the culture expressed?   8) How was the culture extended beyond the court?   9) How did the court culture change?   10) Should the term "court culture" be defined by excluding those things that do not happen in the imperial city Beijing?   Or does it refer to only those things that happened in the Forbidden City?

Day two was largely devoted to synthesis, further inquiries, and strategies of getting the papers published together as a book.   While a clear-cut definition of the term "Ming court culture" was not being established, many important observations emerged out of the two-day in-depth discussion.   First, when considered as a whole, the papers clearly indicate that Ming court culture is expressed through the matrix of interactions among many different groups of people, the emperor and those in his orbit, including his family members, palace women, eunuchs, and court officials, etc.   It was also expressed through their activities, customs, and attitudes, objects made by and for their consumption, and so forth.   Second, some papers also indicate that the Ming court was not an isolated entity.   The Ming tributary system and military campaigns, and its patronage of Tibetan Buddhism, for instance, indicate two-way interactions between the court and the world outside.   Third, the participants all agreed that it was useful to bring in people knowledgeable in Qing studies to the conference and that the role the Yuan legacy played in Ming court culture and Ming court culture's impact on the Qing could not be under-estimated.   While in many ways, the Qing took the Ming as its model, the issue should also be seen in light of what the Qing did not inherit from the Ming.   Finally, the participants also agreed that many issues which should be, but were not included in the papers deserve close attention, such as:

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