The dragon's veins: Public fengshui in late imperial Wuyuan County.
详细信息
文摘
Previous studies of fengshui, the long-lived Chinese tradition for connecting luck and the natural environment, have mainly focused on its divinatory aspect, that is, its use in the selection of auspicious sites for graves and homes. The historical role that fengshui had played in public life as a form of shared knowledge of the natural environment or of larger spaces has been largely ignored. As a result, the complexity of this cultural phenomenon and the ways in which it was enmeshed in late imperial culture and society has been underestimated. In this dissertation Chinese peoples changing relationship to the environment during late imperial period has been examined by studying the changing power of fengshui discourse in the local history of Wuyuan, one of the six counties of Huizhou, a prefecture which made vast contributions to the development of Chinese culture and economy and was famous for deeply entrenched beliefs in fengshui. Combining socio-economic, intellectual and environmental history approaches, this dissertation explores three interconnected themes: the intellectual links between fengshui ideas and Zhu Xis Neo-Confucianism, the important role local elites played in controlling fengshui discourse and dealing with local environmental issues, and fengshuis connection to the development of local culture and political economy. A key analytical concept advanced in the dissertation is that of public fengshui, which demanded a shared knowledge of the local environment and fengshui resources, and called for more collective and altruistic efforts on the part of local residents for environmental preservation or projects. The dissertation demonstrates that while the basic principles of public fengshui were agreed upon, their application could be highly contested. These features of public fengshui are evidenced through the detailed study of two major conflicts: First, a long-running dispute between limestone quarrymen and local elites, centered in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, over the destruction of Wuyuans dragon veins； second, an eighteenth-century clash between competing groups of elites over whether a dam should be rebuilt to correct local fengshui. These cases suggest the important role played by public fengshui or environmental issues in the development of civil society in late imperial China.