| FA-233327-16 | Research Programs: Fellowships for University Teachers | Andrew Barclay Chittick | The Jiankang Empire in Chinese and World History, 200-600 CE | 7/1/2017 - 6/30/2018 | $50,400.00 | Andrew | Barclay | Chittick | | | | Eckerd College | St. Petersburg | FL | 33711-4744 | USA | 2015 | East Asian History | Fellowships for University Teachers | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 | The writing of a book-length history of the Jiankiang Empire in China, 200-600 CE.
This project studies the evolution of the ethnic identity of the Han Chinese by focusing on a vitally important period in its development, the early medieval era (200-600 CE) which followed the fall of the Han Empire. Using insights from critical Han studies as well as GIS-based spatial analysis, I will analyze the environmental, cultural, military, and political genesis of the Jiankang Empire, a southern successor to the Han Empire which was one of the great Asian empires of its time. Its history has been submerged by traditional historiography’s focus on the political and military history of northern China, and the emphasis on cultural and ethnic unity. The resulting book will demonstrate the contingency of the evolution of a Han Chinese ethnicity and polity, the very real prospect of alternative ethnogenesis in East Asia, and the significance of this development for Chinese, East Asian, and world history. |