Study On The Academic Activities Of The Yang Family Of Lingshi County In The Late Qing Dynasty

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties,there were many famous families in Lingshi County,such as the He Family of Liangdu,the Wang Family of Jingsheng,and the Liang Family of Xiamen.Among them,the Yang family flourished in the late Qing Dynasty and belonged to the bright younger generation.The most prominent of the younger sons of Yang family,described in “Lingshi County”,are Yang Shangwen,who is “a person has a high reputation in capital”and Yang Fang,who is “Have a thorough knowledge of both Western and traditional Chinese Medicine”.There are very few studies on the Yang family domestic and abroad.Only a few studies on Yang Shangwen and Yang Fang's activities are achieved,and it is even more difficult to talk about systematic special research.In fact,although the Yang family is a local family in Shanxi,it has achieved great success in the academic field of Beijing as well as the business circles and even in the political field in the late Qing Dynasty.Not only is it famous in the domestic academic community,but also there were many records in the Foreigners in China community at the time.The series of Lian Yun Yi published by Yang Shangwen was evaluated by Zhang Zhidong as “contain many ancient books,connected with practical studies,serious proofreading and inscription”.Until today,it still has great literature value and historical significance for studying the academic trend of the Dao Guang and Xian Feng period.Yang Fang was engaged in Western photography and folk medical activities and he was one of the pioneers in the dissemination of Western photochemical knowledge and medical chemistry in the late Qing Dynast.Therefore,the study of the Yang family's academic thoughts and academic activities is of great significance for understanding the history of the academic changes and the transformation of modern Chinese knowledge in the late Qing Dynasty.The changes and transformation of the academic context of the two generations of the Yang family in the late Qing Dynasty were closely related to Yang's own family inheritance on the one hand.On the other hand,this is also the microscopic picture of academic changes in the background of the late Qing Dynasty.Especially after the Opium War,Western scientific and technological knowledge began a large-scale spread in the oriental countries.The transformation of knowledge and the advancement of technology have triggered new ideas and concepts that constantly challenge the basic tenets of traditional society and constitute an important factor in the transformation of modernization in China.As a traditional gentry family in China,Yang's internal logic of the evolution of academic orientation directly reflects the specific process of the knowledge transformation of the gentry group in the late Qing Dynasty.The systematic study of the Yang family can provide a concrete and micro perspective for the peeping of the gentry's knowledge transformation in the late Qing Dynasty.This thesis takes the traditional gentry family Yang in the late Qing Dynasty as the research object,and investigates the academic activities of Yang's members Yang Shangwen and Yang Fang under the historical context of the late Qing Dynasty to comprehensively outline their main trajectories,interpersonal relationships,conceptual changes,academic choices,etc..The thesis integrates core historical materials such as the Yang family tree book,manuscripts,epitaphs,Chronicles,letters and books.On the basis of combing the historical facts,the thesis analyzes the original literature in depth,and incorporates the relevant people into the investigation,and deeply analyzes the specific changes in the knowledge concepts,knowledge structures and research methods exhibited in different historical stages,from case combing to universal research.To explore the changes in academic activities and intellectual concepts after the traditional gentry of the feudal society experienced the great changes in political order,economic system,ideological orientation and knowledge structure,aiming at restoring the historical process of cognitive transformation of the general gentry group beneath the background of western learning to the east,and further reveal the regulation and adaptation process of the gentry in the collision process of modern Chinese and western culture.Then look at the knowledge transformation research of the late Qing Dynasty from the academic research of the Yang family,and further explore the modernization of the traditional gentry's knowledge concept of the late Qing society after experiencing tremendous changes in political order,economic system,and cultural orientation.This thesis focuses on the macro and start with the micro.On the basis of sufficient and in-depth analysis of historical documents,we combing the meso-themed issues with general significance from case studies,and strive to achieve the combination of depth and height of this studies.This study closely combines the changes of the two generations of the Yang family with the changes of the late Qing Dynasty.Firstly,the academic activities of Yang Shangwen and Yang Fang are placed in the context of their era and their own family traditions.Then,the paper examines the publications of “the Series of Lian Yun Yi”,Yang Fang's western photographic techniques and the medical practice of Jian Shan Tang.These arguments highlight the “transformation” and “change” of Chinese academics,especially in mathematics,geography,optics,chemistry and medicine in the 1840 s and 1890 s.Finally,the Yang family and the late Qing Dynasty gentry's knowledge transformation are combined to further explore the interaction between the Yang family and the whole society,and strive to achieve the observation and contact with the general research.The full text is divided into seven parts.The opening introduction explains the origin and significance of the research,analyzes the related concepts.On the basis of combing the achievements of predecessors,the research contents and methods are determined,and the innovation and shortcomings of this paper are put forward.Although this paper is a systematic study of the gentry family Yang,it also provides a good micro perspective for explaining the knowledge transformation of the gentry in the late Qing Dynasty.The second part focuses on the background of the Late Qing Dynasty and Yang's family tradition.In order to avoid the broad dimension and vision,it mainly expounds Yang's academic environment.It uses the “Yang Family Tree Books” as the core material to verify his family origin and social relationship,and lays a foundation for exploring his academic activities.The third part is mainly about Yang Shangwen and his activities of publishing the series of Lian Yun Yi.Yang Shangwen,as a famous scholar in Beijing,exerted an important influence on the academic development at that time.The publishing process,content,characteristics and historical value of the series of Lian Yun Yi are closely related to the internal transformation of traditional academia during the Daoxian period.The publication of the series of Lian Yun Yi illustrates the specific process of knowledge transformation of the participating group in the 1840 s and 1850 s,which corresponds to the overall changes of the times.The fourth part mainly explains the changes in the knowledge structure of the 1860 s and 1880 s through the fact of Photography Practice of Yang Fang,the son of Yang Shangwen.After the introduction of Western photography into China,it attracted the attention of gentry who have economic foundation and intellectual foundation.Yang Fang is one of them.Yang's photography practice was concentrated in the 1860 s and 1880 s,and specific methods of operation were recorded,including a large amount of photographic optics and chemistry expertise.Yang Fang,who had the basis of traditional optics,turned to practicing Western photography,which showed the historical process of the transformation from traditional knowledge to modern western scientific knowledge during the Westernization Movement.The fifth part,taking the folk medical institution “Jian Shan Tang” opened by Yang Fang in the 1880 s as the carrier,discusses the intrinsic change of medical thought further and then reflects the uniqueness of the medical knowledge system in the late Qing Dynasty.To a certain extent,Yang Fang represents the gentry's attitude towards Chinese and Western medical knowledge,which further reflects the conceptual limitations of knowledge of the traditional gentry in the late Qing Dynasty,and also shows the historical process of the mutual influence between Chinese and Western medicine knowledge.The sixth part,through the in-depth analysis and systematic arrangement of Yang's academic activities,summarizes the interaction between “old learning” and “new knowledge” in the academic activities of the two generations of Yang's family in the late Qing Dynasty,and seeks for the social roots from the development of the times,and peeps into the Macro-problems of the transformation of gentry's knowledge in the late Qing Dynasty from the changing process of Yang's academic activities.The conclusion part includes a general summary of the whole paper,pointing out that in the middle and late 19 th century when traditional knowledge coexisted with Western knowledge,the intellectuals represented by the Yang family,under the influence of “Westernized Chinese style”,on the one hand,they maintained “respect” for traditional knowledge,on the other hand,“preference” for Western practical knowledge,and constantly groped in the dark.Modern Chinese knowledge system was built in the 20 th century.From the perspective of knowledge transformation and knowledge consciousness,the modernization transformation of traditional gentry had already been rooted in the late Qing society in the 19 th century.The main innovations of this paper are:1.Research material innovation: Through the survey,this thesis clear finds a lot of first-hand literature and compiles manuscripts,engravings,genealogy,epitaphs,diaries,letters and other historical materials directly related to Yang family,and makes effort to study systematic and comprehensive.The Yang family genealogy,Yang Fang's epitaph,medicine catalogue of Jian Shan Tang and related foreign language records are first quoted in China.The existing physical data and the interviews of Yang's descendants are combined to enhance the richness and objectivity of Yang's research.2.Research perspective innovation: Combine the academic research of the Yang family with the research on gentry's knowledge transformation,focus on the micro perspective,and also discuss the general problems of history.On the basis of historical documents analysis,the thesis strives to combine depth and height.At the same time,this study focuses on the 19 th century before the change of political system in the late Qing Dynasty,and based on the weakness of the previous gentry studies.Through the specific research of the Yang family,it shows how the western scientific and technological knowledge in the late Qing Dynasty conflicted and compromised with the traditional knowledge.This study demonstrates how the gentry in the late Qing Dynasty,a complex social group,began to modernize gradually through knowledge as a medium.3.Research content innovation: The analysis of the relevant records of physical optics,chemistry and applied science in Yang's manuscript “Lang Shan Za Ji” and the historical analysis of the medical theory and medical philosophy in “Jian Shan Tang Pharmaceutical Catalogue” break through the simple description of previous research and rich research content,making this research deeper and more solid.