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Oriens Extremus 61 opens with a thought-provoking roundtable discussion on the conceptual history of modern China, with comments by Thomas Fröhlich, Han Cheng-hua, Chen Chien-shou, and Kai Vogelsang. It is followed by a special section titled Knowing China in a Modern World, guest-edited by Bruce Rusk and featuring articles by Leigh Jenco, Jérôme Bourgon, Gregory Blue, and Haun Saussy. In the general section, Luke Waring writes about commerce and classical learning in Wang Chong's work; Zhang Zhongmin presents his research on the politics of hygiene in the Revolutionary Base Areas before 1949; Gao Ziwen digs into the conceptual history of huaju (spoken drama); and Bernd Spyra investigates a collection of "modern traditional prints" in a transnational ethnographic collection.
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Welcome to the new Oriens Extremus website.
Founded in 1954, Oriens Extremus has continuously been devoted to outstanding research dealing with East Asian cultural and intellectual history. In 2013, it launched a new series with a sharpened profile, designed to open up new prospects in East Asian studies and to promote the exchange with scholars from neighboring disciplines. More…
Wei Yuan 魏源 (1794–1857) is commonly regarded as a pivotal thinker of an early "Enlightenment" at the threshold of Chinese modernity. Yet, the precise definition and parameters of his "modernity" remain elusive. This is due in no small part to the fact that one of his most vital texts, titled Mogu 默觚, has never been thoroughly analysed. With Stille Notizen, Stefan Christ presents the first complete translation of this important source. Simultaneously, he critically interrogates the nature of Wei Yuan's modernity and the potential for enlightenment in early 19th-century China. He constructs a compelling portrait of a figure suspended between eras: Wei Yuan acutely perceives the fractures in the old order while simultaneously seeking refuge within it. He observes a changing and complex world that can no longer be traced back to a single unifying principle, yet turns to Confucian tradition to safeguard the state's central authority. He rigorously analyses the internal logic of politics and economics, but stops short of forging an entirely new conceptual vocabulary.
