The vernacular culture of etiquette of late imperial China as represented in the Ming-Qing novel

Roland Altenburger, professeur ordinaire d’histoire culturelle de l’Asie orientale à l’Université de Würzburg (Bavière, Allemagne), directeur d'études invité par Rainier Lanselle pour une série de quatre conférences : « The vernacular culture of etiquette of late imperial China as represented in the Ming-Qing novel ».

 

This lecture offers an introduction to the system and practice of social etiquette – addressing, greeting and clothing – of late imperial China as reconstructed on the basis of a range of novels of the Ming and Qing (16th-18th c.). While social etiquette constituted codes of distinct forms and licences of usage, their practice was dynamic and open to negotiation and manipulation. The novelistic representation of characters’ social interaction permits the interpretation of social etiquette in practical context.

 

1. Vendredi 10 mars 2023, 14h-16h, salle 3, 54 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris

Introduction: Status, sources and semiotics
The first session introduces the main parameters of analysis, such as the status system, age, gender, and the pragmatic frame of social interaction. It surveys the range of relevant sources, besides novels also guidebooks, encyclopaedias and brush notes, and outlines a theoretical and methodological framework, in particular a semiotic approach.

 

2. Vendredi 17 mars 2023, 14h-16h, salle 9, Raspail

Verbal code: Terms of address
The second session builds on sociolinguistic insights. Based on a survey of the repertories of terms of address found in our corpus of novels, it outlines the system of rules underlying the usage of these paradigms. It discusses cases in which terms of address are commented on.

 

3. Vendredi 24 mars 2023, 14h-16h, salle 9, Raspail

Performative code: Greeting gestures
The third session is dedicated to greeting gestures and their performative practice. It introduces the main types of gestures and their performance, as exemplified with regard to a range of cases from the novels.

 

4. Vendredi 31 mars 2023, 14h-16h, salle 1, Raspail

Textile code: Clothing and headgear
The fourth session introduces elements of clothing, especially hats, as status markers. Based on the recognition of a certain type of headgear, someone chose a certain way of addressing along with performing a certain kind of greeting gesture. Thus, the consideration of the dress code allows us to merge the three elements of social etiquette into one semiotic system.

 

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Roland Altenburger, né en 1964, est un sinologue suisse. Il est professeur ordinaire d’histoire culturelle de l’Asie orientale à l’Université de Würzburg (Bavière, Allemagne) depuis 2012. Il a reçu son doctorat en 1997 et son habilitation en sinologie en 2001 de l’Université de Zürich (Suisse), où il a enseigné comme maître assistant et professeur associé de 1999 à 2012. Ses recherches l’ont mené aux États-Unis (Harvard, post-doc 1996-1998), à Taipei, Pékin et Chengdu. Ses domaines de recherche principaux sont la littérature narrative des dynasties Ming et Qing, l’histoire culturelle et sociale de la période impériale tardive, le régionalisme et la représentation des lieux et de l’espace dans la littérature, et la géographie littéraire. Ses publications principales sont la monographie The Sword or the Needle: The Female Knight-errant (xia) in Traditional Chinese Narrative (Berne 2009) et le volume co-edité Yangzhou, A Place in Literature: The Local in Chinese Cultural History (Honolulu 2015). Depuis 2019, il est Président de l’Association Allemande d’Études Chinoises (DVCS).