The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High Qing China

He Bian, Mårten Söderblom Saarela

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English

Harvard University Press
12 August 2025

Lexicography; Asian history; Taxonomy & systematics; Botany & plant sciences; Zoology & animal sciences

Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series

As the territory of Qing China expanded, so evolved the ways in which birds, beasts, fish, trees, and flowers came to be known in the multilingual empire. The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High Qing China is the first systematic study of how the Qing court sought to codify Manchu and Chinese words for animals and plants throughout the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on Manchurian and other Inner Asian species. Calling for renewed attention to Manchu dictionaries as an important source for Qing intellectual and cultural history, Bian and Söderblom Saarela show how Qing lexicographical practices embodied major revisions to the Chinese encyclopedic tradition, realigned the relationship between words and things, and left a lasting impact on natural historical scholarship in the modern era. The updated form of Chinese learning, along with the malleable lexicon of the Manchu language, proved useful for the Manchu elite in displaying the reach and intellectual depth of Qing imperial power. Manchu was transformed from the language of a single people into the lexicographic façade for an imperial order of things.

By: He Bian, Mårten Söderblom Saarela
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Country of Publication: United States [Currently unable to ship to USA: see Shipping Info]
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9780674297517
ISBN 10: 0674297512
Series: Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series
Pages: 406
Publication Date: 12 August 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

He Bian is an Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies at Princeton University. Mårten Söderblom Saarela is Special Collections Librarian at the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History, Boston College.