Papers by Garret Pagenstecher Olberding
Monumenta Serica, 2016
Though there have been repeated assertions of the general metric accuracy of early Chinese maps, ... more Though there have been repeated assertions of the general metric accuracy of early Chinese maps, from definitions and explications in various texts it seems they were distilled more from a composite of individual sojourns than from careful survey reports. In this essay, I investigate the etymology of the Chinese term, tu 圖, commonly translated as “map,” and canvass early textual descriptions of geographic space, descriptions impacted or defined by strategic considerations. Such descriptions suggest that map sketches graphically simplified and reduced everyday behavior, rendering the journeys of those who reported on the areas in an abstract form. Early sketches joined, collated, and combined multiple travel reports, the resulting product effectively a ghostly assembly of collected footsteps, delivering to the map user the essentials of what, in a given land space, would hinder or assist movement. If what early Chinese maps primarily record are their informers’ traversing through and inhabiting of space, we must carefully rethink how the markings of lived experience pervade and distort the static representations of the sketch or map.
The Exercise of the Spatial Imagination in Pre-Modern China
The transgressive potential of the diplomat At base, diplomacy is driven by the aim for a non-mil... more The transgressive potential of the diplomat At base, diplomacy is driven by the aim for a non-militaristic negotiation of frequently competing interests, a negotiation that ideally should reinforce the definition of each party's sovereign realm and palliate any conflict between them. But this negotiation is also, by the very act of transacting across political and cultural boundaries, a kind of transgression, and thus a danger to the integrity of the state polity, for in diplomacy, the interests of the state can not only be unsuccessfully negotiated but intentionally undermined, just as, in military campaigns, the interests of the state can be subverted, and betrayed, by false, or careless, action, or even intentional inaction, as is so often depicted in the early Chinese narrative histories. 1 Indeed, the very reason for Sima Qian's brutal castration is his support of a general, Li Ling, who "treasonously" capitulated to the Xiongnu after a failed engagement. 2 As von Clausewitz's by now clichéed equation so aptly insinuates, military and diplomatic engagement are aspirationally congruent: War is the continuation of politics "by other means." 3 Open Access.
Rulers and Ruled in Ancient Greece, Rome, and China, 2021
The primary stimulus to this essay is the widely referenced narrative in Sima Qian’s *Records of ... more The primary stimulus to this essay is the widely referenced narrative in Sima Qian’s *Records of the Grand Historian* (*Shiji* 史記) about the assassination attempt against the king of Qin by Jing Ke, a tale repeatedly examined in later historical records. In the later records, the Jing Ke narrative is most often cited as a cautionary tale, as a heroic albeit clumsily executed attempt to end a tyrant’s rule. Yet what is actually most striking about the tale is not any supposed courage or heroism but how inept and ill-conceived the whole escapade is. Using parallels with Roman assassination narratives, I argue that a careful parsing of early assassination attempts reveals their frequent anti-heroic and clownish portrayal. I conclude that the *Records* account is thus less a condemnation of tyranny than a sardonic critique on the self-aggrandizement of both the monarch and his aspiring deposers. What it is not is a cautionary lesson about the wages of tyrannical rule.
Books by Garret Pagenstecher Olberding
DeGruyter, 2022
Throughout the early imperial era, evolving understanding of the source of the Yellow River took ... more Throughout the early imperial era, evolving understanding of the source of the Yellow River took on forms that fluctuated between the mythic and empirical states of geographical knowledge, and also shifted with the territory boundaries of the Chinese empire itself as well as with the ethnicity of China's ruling house. While the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River preoccupied the state because of the water's ability to build (and destroy) agriculture and livelihoods, offer transport, and otherwise delineate administrative boundaries, the river's ultimate source-a spatial genealogy-represented a realm that straddled the known and the unknown, the cultural imagination and geographical knowledge, and which differed from the pragmatic concerns of control and management of its waters. Part of a larger project, this paper aims to understand these evolving spatial conceptions from Tang written sources, from the "verbal maps" presented in geographical writings (such as Yuanhe junxian zhi 元和郡縣志) and through chapters in the Tang Histories concerning forays to the Tibetan kingdom (吐蕃) by officials such as Hou Junji 侯君集 (d. 643) and Liu Yuanding 劉元鼎 (fl. 820s). It seeks to examine the interplay and evolution of several models that accounted for the river's source: the proto-legendary Mount Kunlun 崑崙, a less mythical Mount Jishi 積石, the role of geographical surveys to areas beyond the accessible lands of central China, as well as the emerging descriptions of a set of lakes at the source known as the "Constellation Sea" (星宿海) which first appeared on a map of the Ten Circuits (唐十道圖), the earliest appearance of which survives in a Song-era historical atlas, Lidai dili zhizhang tu 歷代地理指掌圖. The "Constellation Sea" as a place name would eventually expand into more complex and poly-local depictions of the river's source on pictorial maps in the late-imperial era.
Cambridge University Press, 2021
This monograph questions the assumption of militaristic edifices and representations serving as t... more This monograph questions the assumption of militaristic edifices and representations serving as the definitive markers of the edges of sovereignty. It commences with a probing of the functioning of early abstract visual conceptualizations, of maps, suggesting that the delineations and descriptions they appear to provide are not, contrary to what some currently insist, emphasizing precise representation. Indeed, the most concrete instantiation of a militaristic line, the wall, may act more fundamentally as an elevated platform to offer clearer visuals and signal communications, or an elevated road for the transport of materials or people, than a defensive border of a sovereign area. The area of sovereignty bleeds beyond any secular mapped or walled line.
What were the intentions of early China’s historians? Modern readers must contend with the tensio... more What were the intentions of early China’s historians? Modern readers must contend with the tension between the narrators’ moralizing commentary and their description of events. Although these historians had notions of evidence, it is not clear to what extent they valued what contemporary scholars would deem “hard” facts. Offering an innovative approach to premodern historical documents, Garret P. S. Olberding argues that the speeches of court advisors reveal subtle strategies of information management in the early monarchic context. Olberding focuses on those addresses concerning military campaigns where evidence would be important in guiding immediate social and political policy. His analysis reveals the sophisticated conventions that governed the imperial advisor’s logic and suasion in critical state discussions, which were specifically intended to counter anticipated doubts. Dubious Facts illuminates both the decision-making processes that informed early Chinese military campaigns and the historical records that represent them.
In the popular consciousness, manipulative speech pervades politicized discourse, and the eloquen... more In the popular consciousness, manipulative speech pervades politicized discourse, and the eloquence of politicians is seen as invariably rooted in cunning and prevarication. Rhetorical flourishes are thus judged corruptive of the substance of political discourse because they lead to distortion and confusion. Yet the papers in *Facing the Monarch* suggest that separating style from content is practically impossible. Focused on the era between the Spring and Autumn period and the later Han dynasty, this volume examines the dynamic between early Chinese ministers and monarchs at a time when ministers employed manifold innovative rhetorical tactics. The contributors analyze discrete excerpts from classical Chinese works and explore topics of censorship, irony, and dissidence highly relevant for a climate in which ruse and misinformation were the norm. What emerges are original and illuminating perspectives on how the early Chinese political circumstance shaped and phrased—and prohibited—modes of expression.
Drafts by Garret Pagenstecher Olberding
In any governmental administration, one of the most basic, and systemically crucial, functions of... more In any governmental administration, one of the most basic, and systemically crucial, functions of ministers is the arrangement and processing of collected information. Such a task, however dreary and routine, has magnificent potential either to sustain, even improve, the proper functioning of government, or to undermine it. Ministers who were honest and careful were, at least theoretically, prized, while those who misled were punished. The concern was broadly recognized, for it is repeatedly emphasized in every tradition of early Chinese political theory. But in spite of the relative paucity of documentation about ministerial corruption and their abuse of information in received materials, there is now evidence in various excavated texts that rulers and senior officials were quite aware of, and assiduously worked to control, the abuses of information. In this paper, I outline the early Chinese acknowledgement and responses to ministerial corruption of documents and, if there is time, offer a plausible explanation for their general absence in the received historiographical texts.
Uploads
Papers by Garret Pagenstecher Olberding
Books by Garret Pagenstecher Olberding
Drafts by Garret Pagenstecher Olberding