More Swindles from the Late Ming is the companion piece to the Book of Swindles, a translation of a Late Ming text by Zhang Yingyu (fl. 1612–1617) which details various types of scams and swindles and how to guard against them. More Swindles from the Late Ming "presents sensational stories of scams that range from the ingenious to the absurd to the lurid, many featuring sorcery, sex, and extreme violence. Together, the two volumes represent the first complete translation into any language of a landmark Chinese anthology, making an essential contribution to the global literature of trickery and fraud." Bruce Rusk and Christopher Rea, the translators, joins us to talk about these two books and their experience with the translatino.

More information on More Swindles from the Late Ming available on the publisher's website here.

Contributors:

Bruce Rusk

Bruce Rusk is an Associate Professor of Pre-modern and Early Modern China in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. His main areas of research and teaching are the cultural history of China, especially the Ming (1368–1644) through mid-Qing (1644–1911) periods. Additionally, he also works on the history of textual studies, literary culture, writing systems, and connoisseurship. He has published widely and was the past present of the Society for Ming Studies.

Christopher Rea

Christopher Rea is a Professor of Modern Chinese Literature in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on the modern Chinese-speaking world and his recent publications concern research methodology, cinema, comedy, celebrities, swindlers, cultural entrepreneurs, and the scholar-writers Qian Zhongshu and Yang Jiang. He has published several books and numerous articles, and also hosts a free online course on Chinese novels.

Yiming Ha

Yiming Ha is the Rand Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian Studies at Pomona College. His current research is on military mobilization and state-building in China between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on how military institutions changed over time, how the state responded to these changes, the disconnect between the center and localities, and the broader implications that the military had on the state. His project highlights in particular the role of the Mongol Yuan in introducing an alternative form of military mobilization that radically transformed the Chinese state. He is also interested in military history, nomadic history, comparative Eurasian state-building, and the history of maritime interactions in early modern East Asia. He received his BA from UCLA, his MPhil from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and his PhD from UCLA. He is also the book review editor for Ming Studies.

Credits:

Episode no. 21

Release date: March 1, 2025

Recording date: January 9, 2025

Recording location: Vancouver, Canada/Los Angeles, CA

The Northern Wei was a nomadic conquest dynasty that existed in north China between 386 and 535 CE. It was founded by the Tuoba (Tabgach) clan of the Xianbei (Särpi) peoples, a nomadic-pastoralist people originating from the Mongolian steppes. The Northern Wei is particularly noted for unifying northern China in the first half of the fifth century, bringing an end to the chaotic Sixteen Kingdoms period that plagued China for almost a century. In addition to bringing relative peace to north China, the Northern Wei also saw the firm establishment of Buddhism. The culture, institutions, and practices of the Northern Wei would have a tremendous impact on China, for it was the precursor to two great Chinese dynasties - the Sui and the Tang. Professor Scott Pearce, an expert on the Northern Wei, joins us to talk about about this nomadic regime.

Contributors

Scott Pearce

Scott Pearce is a Professor of History at Western Washington University, specializing in the intersection of Chinese and Inner Asian histories in the medieval period with a particular focus on dynasties of Inner Asian origin that ruled northern China during the 4th through the 6th centuries CE. He recently completed a volume on the Northern Wei, a nomadic regime founded by Xianbei peoples, which ruled northern China from 386 to 535 CE.

Yiming Ha

Yiming Ha is the Rand Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian Studies at Pomona College. His current research is on military mobilization and state-building in China between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, focusing on how military institutions changed over time, how the state responded to these changes, the disconnect between the center and localities, and the broader implications that the military had on the state. His project highlights in particular the role of the Mongol Yuan in introducing an alternative form of military mobilization that radically transformed the Chinese state. He is also interested in military history, nomadic history, comparative Eurasian state-building, and the history of maritime interactions in early modern East Asia. He received his BA from UCLA, his MPhil from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and his PhD from UCLA. He is also the book review editor for Ming Studies.

Credits:

Episode no. 20

Release date: January 25, 2025

Recording date: December 10, 2024

Recording location: Bellingham, WA/Los Angeles, CA

Images

Terracotta soldiers in Northern Wei uniform, from the tomb of Sima Jinglong (Image Source)

The Northern Wei, c. 500 CE (Image Source)

Another map of the Northern Wei, with major settlements marked (Image Source)

Figurines of Northern Wei court ladies (Image Source)

Buddhist sculptures and murals from the Mogao caves, dated to the Northern Wei (Image Source)

Select References:

Beckwith, Christopher I. “On the Chinese Names for Tibet, Tabghatch and the Turks.” Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi 14 (2005): 7–22.

Chen, Sanping. Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.

Pearce, Scott. Northern Wei (386-534): A New Form of Empire in East Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.

Shimunek, Andrew. Languages of Ancient Southern Mongolia and North China: A HistoricalComparative Study of the Serbi or Xianbei Branch of the Serbi-Mongolic Language Family. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017.

Zhang, Fan. “Cultural Encounters: Ethnic Complexity and Material Expression in Fifthcentury Pingcheng, China.” PhD diss., New York University, 2018.