Papers by Sebastian Eicher
Jetzt wird gefeiert: Speis und Trank im Alten China, 2024
The Baopuzi is an important text for the philosophy of Early Medieval China. The section of outer... more The Baopuzi is an important text for the philosophy of Early Medieval China. The section of outer chapters deals with specific government measures and the position of the ruler. Interestingly, one of the lesser-noticed chapters is devoted to wine and its dangers. Where Chinese literature and poetry of the early Middle Ages otherwise celebrates wine and its effects, the Baopuzi urgently warns against its consumption. It not only speaks of restricting consumption, but instead argues for a complete ban. Considering the other literati's hymns of praise to wine, this seems unusual at first, and indeed this has already been pointed out several times. However, if the chapter is viewed against the background of the wine bans in the Cao Wei and Jin dynasties, it becomes clear that Ge Hong was not concerned with abstinence, but with defending a political instrument in times of crisis. This short essay focus on the chapter on wine prohibition from an intertextual perspective.
Renditions, 2022
Translation of the work "Biographies of Two Distinguished Foreigners" by the Treaty Port Intellec... more Translation of the work "Biographies of Two Distinguished Foreigners" by the Treaty Port Intellectual Jiang Dunfu (1808–1867). The work consists of two biographies of Julius Caesar and George Washington in written in classical literary Chinese.
Monumenta Serica, 2022
Before the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin the Chinese operations of the London Mission- ary Society’s Pro... more Before the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin the Chinese operations of the London Mission- ary Society’s Protestant missionaries were legally limited to five treaty ports. Yet Shanghai reports attest that the missionaries based there had already consider- ably expanded their influence over Jiangsu and Zhejiang by the mid 1850s. According to their own reports, they broke the rules established by the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, and routinely traveled beyond the confines of Shanghai to spread the gospel and distribute bibles. They also opened outstations and staffed them with locals. The diaries of Wang Tao (1828–1897), who was an assistant during these years, provide many additional details on these undertak- ings, in particular with regard to the Chinese assistants. This paper consolidates the information available on the LMS missionaries’ itinerations beyond Shanghai before the Treaty of Tianjin and analyses how Wang Tao described his own involvement.
Modern Asian History, 2025
With the establishment of the treaty ports in 1842, contact between China and the Western world i... more With the establishment of the treaty ports in 1842, contact between China and the Western world intensified. In Shanghai, the most extensive exchange of knowledge and ideas took place between the missionaries of the London Missionary Society and their Chinese assistants. By working and translating for the missionaries, these traditionally educated men gained intimate insights into the West and Western learning and established close personal relationships with the missionaries. But in the process, they also became outcasts, as working for Westerners was viewed critically by their contemporaries. This article sets out to analyse the way in which Jiang Dunfu 蔣敦復 (1808–1867) and Wang Tao 王韜 (1828–1897) processed and accommodated these cosmopolitan experiences in Shanghai in their prose autobiographies.
Journal of Chinese History, 2018
Tales of filial piety became a standard element of the annals-biography style of historiography e... more Tales of filial piety became a standard element of the annals-biography style of historiography early on. Starting from theSong shu宋書, almost every dynastic history contains a chapter that is devoted to filial men. An early—but often neglected—precursor is Chapter 39 of Fan Ye's 范曄 (398–446)Hou Han shu後漢書. Inspired by his predecessor Hua Qiao 華嶠 (?–293), Fan inserted a chapter on filial men. The chapter was therefore compiled in times when the recommendation system of the Han and especially the recommendation as “filial and incorruptible” (xiaolian孝廉) had lost influence. This paper tries to shed some light on its origins, form, and content, and attempts to distinguish the most common motives that were used to describe filial (xiao孝) behavior in this early stage of its historiographical representation.
58 | 2022
In the mid‑nineteenth century, the missionaries of the London Missionary Society founded the jour... more In the mid‑nineteenth century, the missionaries of the London Missionary Society founded the journal Liuhe congtan 六合叢談. Its varied contents included a recurring column titled “Western Literature” in English and Xixue shuo 西學說 (Explanations on Western learning) in Chinese. The section’s editor, Joseph Edkins, used it to inform Chinese readers about Greco‑Roman antiquity and its most important thinkers and writers. The role of literature in the spread of Western learning to China has not yet received much attention. This paper will analyse Edkins’ columns, his motives for writing them, and the topics he considered worthy of publication. This will give us insight into the cultural strategies the missionaries adopted in the era between the Opium Wars and also shed some light on the development of terms like Western Learning, philosophy and literature.
Monumenta Serica , 2019
The Gengshi emperor’s two-year-long reign (23–25) has posed a problem to historians of the Later ... more The Gengshi emperor’s two-year-long reign (23–25) has posed a problem to historians of the Later Han dynasty (25–220). As the member of the Liu family who defeated Wang Mang (r. 9–23) became emperor and was, for some time, the superior of the later dynastic founder Guangwu (r. 25–57), Gengshi and his role in the transferal of the Mandate of Heaven needed to be explained. The official history of the Later Han, the Dongguan Hanji, painted a picture of an illegitimate puppet emperor who never possessed the Mandate of Heaven. However, the establishment of a state-sanctioned narrative did not completely stop the controversy surrounding Gengshi’s legitimacy. Our sources indicate that the discussion was not settled until the Tang dynasty and that the controversy only vanished with the rise to prominence of Fan Ye’s Hou Hanshu, which closely followed the Dongguan Hanji version and portrayed Gengshi as an illegitimate ruler and a puppet of his generals. This article is an attempt to retrace the reception of the Gengshi emperor and to analyse Fan Ye’s narrative.
T'oung Pao , 2018
The early depictions of the transition from the Han 漢 (25-220) to the Wei dynasty 魏 (220-265) are... more The early depictions of the transition from the Han 漢 (25-220) to the Wei dynasty 魏 (220-265) are surprisingly diverse. Within a span of less than two hundred years, several historians arrived at different views on the event’s legitimacy and as a result described it in widely varying tones. This is still visible in the dynastic histories: while Chen Shou’s 陳壽 (233-297) Sanguo zhi 三國志 paints the picture of the establishment of a legitimate dynasty, Fan Ye 范曄 (398-446) in his Hou Han shu 後漢書 describes a ruthless overthrow of the Han court by Cao Cao 曹操 (155-220) and his son Cao Pi 曹丕 (187-226).
Early Medieval China 22, 2016
In the centuries after Fan Ye's death many literati praised his Hou Han shu, but at the same time... more In the centuries after Fan Ye's death many literati praised his Hou Han shu, but at the same time a surprising number of them also criticized the historian's character. This paper argues that Fan Ye's biography in the Song shu, which depicts the historian as a weak and despicable man, was the primary source for many of the accusations made by his critics. The biography's influence can be explained by its careful narrative modeling. The Song shu authors highlighted certain aspects of the life of Fan Ye, while simultaneously obscuring others, with the goal of depicting him as an unfilial and despicable rebel. This paper is an attempt to retrace their steps in order to offer an alternative way of reading the otherwise strangely neglected text.
Books by Sebastian Eicher
In der Zeit nach dem Fall der Späteren Han-Dynastie 後漢 (25–220) begannen zahlreiche Geschichtssch... more In der Zeit nach dem Fall der Späteren Han-Dynastie 後漢 (25–220) begannen zahlreiche Geschichtsschreiber, das auf kaiserlichen Auftrag hin kompilierte offizielle Geschichtswerk der Dynastie, das Dongguan Han ji 東觀漢記, zu überarbeiten und zu kürzen. Innerhalb von ca. 200 Jahren entstand auf diese Weise ein rundes Dutzend Werke, die allesamt aus denselben Quellen schöpften, die Geschichte jedoch jeweils ein wenig anders erzählten. Bis heute überdauert haben davon nur zwei, Fan Yes 范曄 (398–446) Hou Han shu 後漢書und Yuan Hongs 袁宏 (330–378) Hou Han ji 後漢紀. Diese sind jedoch weit davon entfernt, gleichberechtigt nebeneinanderzustehen. Während das Hou Han shu in den Kreis der 24 Dynastiegeschichten aufgenommen wurde und seit langem die wichtigste Quelle für die Spätere Han-Dynastie darstellt, verschwand das Hou Han ji nahezu vollkommen in seinem Schatten und wurde häufig als eine Art Kurzversion des eigentlichen Geschichtswerks abgetan.
Sebastian Eicher zeigt in seiner Studie auf der Grundlage von Vergleichen der Darstellung wichtiger Ereignisse und Figuren in den beiden Werken und in den fragmentarisch erhaltenen Vorgängerversionen, dass in vielen Fällen eine alternative Darstellung und Interpretation der Ereignisse unberücksichtigt blieb und dass die Lektüre des Hou Han ji wertvolle Einblicke in die Arbeitsweise mittelalterlicher chinesischer Geschichtsschreiber liefern kann. Denn auch wenn beide Autoren aus derselben Materialbasis schöpften, so stellten sie doch nicht immer dieselben Fragen an die Geschichte und wählten nach anderen Kriterien aus: Das Ergebnis sind zwei durchaus unterschiedliche Darstellungen der Späteren Han-Dynastie.
Book Reviews by Sebastian Eicher
Journal of Asian History , 2020
Uploads
Papers by Sebastian Eicher
Books by Sebastian Eicher
Sebastian Eicher zeigt in seiner Studie auf der Grundlage von Vergleichen der Darstellung wichtiger Ereignisse und Figuren in den beiden Werken und in den fragmentarisch erhaltenen Vorgängerversionen, dass in vielen Fällen eine alternative Darstellung und Interpretation der Ereignisse unberücksichtigt blieb und dass die Lektüre des Hou Han ji wertvolle Einblicke in die Arbeitsweise mittelalterlicher chinesischer Geschichtsschreiber liefern kann. Denn auch wenn beide Autoren aus derselben Materialbasis schöpften, so stellten sie doch nicht immer dieselben Fragen an die Geschichte und wählten nach anderen Kriterien aus: Das Ergebnis sind zwei durchaus unterschiedliche Darstellungen der Späteren Han-Dynastie.
Book Reviews by Sebastian Eicher
Sebastian Eicher zeigt in seiner Studie auf der Grundlage von Vergleichen der Darstellung wichtiger Ereignisse und Figuren in den beiden Werken und in den fragmentarisch erhaltenen Vorgängerversionen, dass in vielen Fällen eine alternative Darstellung und Interpretation der Ereignisse unberücksichtigt blieb und dass die Lektüre des Hou Han ji wertvolle Einblicke in die Arbeitsweise mittelalterlicher chinesischer Geschichtsschreiber liefern kann. Denn auch wenn beide Autoren aus derselben Materialbasis schöpften, so stellten sie doch nicht immer dieselben Fragen an die Geschichte und wählten nach anderen Kriterien aus: Das Ergebnis sind zwei durchaus unterschiedliche Darstellungen der Späteren Han-Dynastie.