Purchase on Power:Imperial Space and Commercial Space in Song-Dynasty Kaifeng, 960-1127

Abstract

In Song-dynasty Kaifeng, empire and emporia existed in a relationship of mutual dependence and mutual competition. Th e imperial government depended on merchants for the shipment of grain and goods to supply its massive armies and to pay the salaries of its officials; the merchants derived their income directly or indirectly from these government expenditures. Th e concentration of wealth and goods in the capital generated in turn a culture of sumptuary competition. Th e contests over space in the streets of the capital, and the competition for the goods that circulated through them, reveal confi gurations of power that rarely fi nd direct expression in writing. À Kaifeng, capitale des Song du Nord, l'empire et les emporia se trouvaient dans une relation de dépendance mais aussi de compétition. En eff et, le gouvernement impérial dépen-dait des marchands pour le transport des grains et des marchandises avec lesquels il approvisionnait ses armées et payait les traitements de ses fonctionnaires. Réciproquement les marchands tiraient la plupart de leurs revenus des dépenses gouvernementales. La concentration des richesses et des biens dans la capitale entraîna en retour une compétition somptuaire. La concurrence pour l'espace dans les rues métropolitaines et les rivalités pour * ) Christian de Pee, Department of History, University of Michigan, USA, cdepee@ umich.edu.I wish to express my gratitude to Jos Gommans for inviting me to participate in the conference on "Empires and Emporia," and to publish the resulting paper. A semester of nurturance leave during the winter of 2008, kindly granted by the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan, aff orded me the time to write the essay. In addition to the participants in the JESHO conference, audience members at the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and participants in a lively session of the Premodern Colloquium at the University of Michigan off ered valuable insights and criticisms. I am grateful to Linda Cooke Johnson, Lara Kusnetzky, Rachel Neis, Michael Nylan, Helmut Puff , Ivo Smits, Angela Zito, and an anonymous reader for JESHO for their comments on the manuscript, and for their encouragement.

Case Records as Medical Stories: Narrating Medicine in Song-Dynasty China: A Song-dynasty Doctor’s Narration of His own Medicine – Xu Shuwei (1080-1154)

“…23,24 The name of the scroll, Qingming on the River , probably refers not to the Qingming festival, but to the month of Qingming or the third month of the year. 25 The scroll depicts the life in the Chinese capital during the early twelfth century, including vibrant everyday life, economy and trade, collective work and play, leisurely activities (such as eating in restaurants), and even the occasional manageable daily-life drama (i.e., an out-of-control boat heading to the bridge). Focusing on the leftmost segment of the painting, we even find a physician’s stall.…”