From imperial city to cosmopolitan metropolis: Culture, politics and state in late Ming Nanjing

This study examines the urban life of Nanjing, the southern capital of Ming (1368-1644) China, in the last decades before the Ming-Qing transition. Through close readings of local gazetteers, official documents, private collections, correspondences of missionaries, popular prints, and other visual materials, my research investigates the characteristics of urban culture and politics of Nanjing against the unique socio-political background of late Ming China.; Although taking urban culture and politics as the point of departure, this study methodologically differs from previous discussions on the subject. Instead of following the traditional approach of interpreting the link between the late Ming market economy and its consequent impact on the mental and cultural world of contemporary Chinese, this research emphasizes factors of administrative function, ceremonial symbolism, and institutional facilities in shaping the urban life and politics. In general, issues under investigation fall under three major questions: What factors promoted the urban development? What was the nature of urban life and administration? And what was the city's function within the regional urban network?; This dissertation demonstrates that, as a major administrative and political center under direct governing of the central government, the city of Nanjing was not a mere administrative tool. Instead, it had a very energetic political culture and played an active role in the state life. Its urban history exposes some basic problems in the relationship between local history and the history of the state. Second, late Ming Nanjing showed strong ability to incorporate new social and political elements of a changing world into its life. To some extent, it was more open to new cultural and political possibilities than were the other provincial and economically-developed towns and cities. Finally, its relationship with the neighbouring cities helped to stabilize the regional urban network. Such a relationship, in turn, ensured the city's position as the cultural and political center despite changes in the socio-political environment. With this case study, I attempt to provide some new perspective to the analysis of urban history appropriate to early modern Chinese cities.