In 1817 a Cantonese scholar was mocked in Beijing as surprisingly learned for someone from the boondocks; in 1855 another Cantonese scholar boasted of the flourishing of literati culture in his home region. Not without reason, the second man pointed to the Xuehaitang (Sea of Learning Hall) as the main factor in the upsurge of learning in the Guangzhou area. Founded in the 1820s by the eminent scholar-official Ruan Yuan, the Xuehaitang was indeed one of the premier academies of the nineteenth century.

The celebratory discourse that portrayed the Xuehaitang as having radically altered literati culture in Guangzhou also legitimated the academy's place in Guangzhou and Guangzhou's place as a cultural center in the Qing empire. This study asks: Who constructed this discourse and why? And why did some Cantonese elites find this discourse compelling while others did not? To answer these questions, Steven Miles looks beyond intellectual history to local social and cultural history. Arguing that the academy did not exist in a scholarly vacuum, Miles contends that its location in the city of Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta embedded it in social settings and networks that determined who utilized its resources and who celebrated its successes and values.

About the Author
Steven B. Miles is Professor of History and of International and Area Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

Reviews
Miles has written a history of intellectuals rather than an intellectual history; specifically, those supporting the 1817-1903 Xuehaitang (Sea of Learning Hall). Xuehaitang intellectuals transferred Jiangnan formulas of Han evidential learning to South China to challenge the dominant Song dynastic Cheng-Zhu Confucian school. Miles presents a fine analysis of these schools' competing views and also the acceptance by some of Han-Song syncretism. -- V. J. Symons * Choice *


Awards
Nominated for John K. Fairbank Prize in East Asian History 2007.



Book Information
ISBN 9780674021341
Author Steven B. Miles
Format Hardback
Page Count 450
Imprint Harvard University, Asia Center
Publisher Harvard University, Asia Center