Yue "Mara" DU 杜樂 | Cornell University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Yue "Mara" DU 杜樂

This article discusses how the legendary general Yue Fei (1103-1142) and his legacy have been per... more This article discusses how the legendary general Yue Fei (1103-1142) and his legacy have been perceived and appropriated in Chinese history. Twentieth-century historians approached Yue's career by highlighting the tension between his dedication to the nation (baoguo) and his personal loyalty (jinzhong) to Emperor Gaozong (1107-1187) of the Song. I argue that for Yue Fei himself and those who wrote about him in late imperial China, Yue's guo, from which he derived his political identity and toward which he devoted his service, meant first and foremost the Song dynastic state. The pushing and pulling of multivalent themes of loyalty and state service in the "historic assessment" of Yue Fei since the turn of the twentieth century speak to the complexities embedded in different Chinese governments' navigation of ethnic and class politics in their pursuit of a new national identity for China.

This essay analyzes ritual and legal texts, case records, and judicial writings and consequently ... more This essay analyzes ritual and legal texts, case records, and judicial writings and consequently challenges the conventional understanding that equates parental authority in late-imperial China with the authority of the father or "head of household" (jia zhang 家長). It traces the gradual development of a child's mourning obligations done equally toward father and mother from the Tang dynasty onward, and it shows how father's and mother's authority was symmetrically upheld in Qing judicial practice regardless of the biological mother's position, or lack thereof, in the child's father's patriline. The logic underlying the late-imperial elevation of the mother's status in both ritual and law was the increasing emphasis on the child's obligation and natural desire to repay the "debt" (en 恩) that he/she naturally owed both parents. While the emotional bond between mother and child was important in social life, the source of legally-buttressed maternal power was state sponsorship of the authority of fathermother (fumu 父母)-a bi-gendered concept lying at the heart of formal ritual-legal establishments of an empire that "ruled through the principle of filial piety."

On July 8, 1890, Xue Fucheng (1838-94), the Qing government's ambassador to Great Britain, France... more On July 8, 1890, Xue Fucheng (1838-94), the Qing government's ambassador to Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Italy, received an inquiry from the Zongli yamen, the Qing central bureau in charge of "affairs of various countries" (geguo shiwu) since the early 1860s. Yamen administrators wondered about the attitude of major European countries toward the new republican government established in Brazil in 1889. Citing official communication from the new Brazilian government regarding the change of the country's form of government and Brazil's continuous observance of international treaties and obligations, the Yamen conceded that replacing a monarchy with a republic was an established practice in the "Western" (taixi) international legal system; however, to regard the change of regime as "final" (dingju) depended upon whether or not the world's major independent countries (zizhu zhi daguo) recognized the new government. The Yamen asked Xue to report on European countries' reactions toward this regime change in Brazil, which would help Beijing decide whether or not to formally receive the new ambassador sent by the Brazilian Republic. Xue had negative opinions on the military coup that led to the establishment of a "democracy" (minzhu zhi guo, a standard translation of "republic" during this period). But Xue's major concern was that only France and the United States had formally recognized the new Brazilian government, while Britain, Russia, Germany, and Italy adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Xue recommended the same for the Qing, requesting the Yamen to suspend recognition

This article examines the intense debates over the New Criminal Code of Great Qing (Da-Qing xin x... more This article examines the intense debates over the New Criminal Code of Great Qing (Da-Qing xin xinglü) in the National Assembly (Zizheng yuan) during the Qing empire's New Policy Reform (1901-11). The focus is on the conflict between those who drafted and supported the new code and those who expressed reservations, especially over reform of the laws on filial piety and fornication. The issue of reconfiguring the family and social order through law was closely related to the overarching agenda of twentieth century legal reform in China-making an empire that "ruled through the principle of filial piety" into a modern nation-state that had direct relationships with its citizens. More importantly, an analysis of the late Qing debate over family law enables this article to problematize such concepts as "Chinese" and "Western" during this crucial moment of China's empire-to-nation transformation. It showcases the paradox of China's modern-era reforms-a contradiction between imposing Western-inspired order with a largely indigenous logic and maintaining existing sociopolitical order in the name of preserving national identity.

Tongyang, rearing daughters-in-law from childhood, was widely practiced as a form of bride price ... more Tongyang, rearing daughters-in-law from childhood, was widely practiced as a form of bride price marriage and transactional family building in late imperial and Republican China. Denounced as feudal and backward in twentieth-century public discourse, this time-honored and once legally-protected form of marriage went through significant law reforms in the Republican era. This article examines how the Nationalist Guomindang (GMD) party-state (1928-1949) re-conceptualized tongyang by introducing foreign-inspired notions of parenthood as duty-bound guardianship, and marriage as a union of free choice between spouses. The reformed law annulled the legal relationship between "parents-in-law" and their adoptive daughters-in-law, which enabled adoptive daughters in law and their natal parents to dissolve previously established tongyang arrangements through litigation. But outside the courtroom, the Nationalist state adopted a non-interventionist approach toward the practice of tongyang, and took no actions to identify people who violated the law. This particular way of reforming social customs through reforming the law limited the effect of the GMD anti-tongyang legislation on a deeply-rooted social practice. The Nationalist reform of the adoptive daughter-in-law provides historians with a useful lens to discuss the dilemma Nationalist lawmakers faced as they treaded between the lines of offending popular customs and enforcing a rigid new social order through law, the balance of which was intimately connected with the regime's legitimacy. Keywords adoptive daughter-in-law (tongyang xi)-transactional family-law in Republican China-judicial intervention-bride price © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 |

Using court cases culled from various national and local archives in China, this article examines... more Using court cases culled from various national and local archives in China, this article examines two strategies widely employed by Qing litigants to manipulate state-sponsored filiality to advance their perceived interests in court: "instrumental filicide to lodge a false accusation" and "false accusation of unfiliality." While Qing subjects were willing and able to exploit the legalized inequality between parent and child for profit-seeking purposes, the Qing imperial state tolerated such maneuvering so as to co-opt local negotiations to reinforce orthodox notions of the parent-child hierarchy in its subjects' everyday lives. Local actors, who appealed to the Qing legal promotion of parental dominance and filial obedience to empower themselves, were recruited into the Qing state's project of moral penetration and social control, with law functioning as a conduit and instrument that gave the design of "ruling the empire through the principle of filial piety" a concrete legal form in imperial governance.

This article explores the significance of the cult of Sun Yat-sen, often referred to as “Father o... more This article explores the significance of the cult of Sun Yat-sen, often referred to as “Father of the [modern Chinese] Nation” 國父 (Guofu), for Nationalist state-building in China. Although Sun Yat-sen’s title of Guofu was formalized only in 1940 as a result of competition over Nationalist Party (Guomindang, GMD) orthodoxy between opposing Nationalist regimes in Chongqing and Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the term reflected the ongoing importance of Sun’s legacy in securing political legitimacy in the Chinese Republic. Overall, the GMD promulgated state-sponsored veneration of the Guofu to justify its political tutelage in the name of parental guardianship over the Chinese people. Yet Sun’s legacy allowed for multiple interpretations, which complicates any effort to lock this legacy to one political purpose. The development of different elements of the Guofu’s legacy by competing wartime regimes shows how it failed to provide a truly unifying tool for political legitimation.

This article explores concubinage, a widespread form of quasi-marriage in Qing China (1644–1911),... more This article explores concubinage, a widespread form of quasi-marriage in Qing China (1644–1911), and its relationship with motherhood and social mobility. By examining legal codes and court records, this research challenges the academic paradigm, mainly based on literati writings, that portrays concubines as reproductive tools for their husband-masters and their husband-masters' wives. It shows that bearing or raising sons or daughters helped concubines achieve upward social mobility recognized and protected by law and that motherhood remained the major source of power and security for concubines in the Qing. After household divisions, concubine-mothers gained lifelong custodial rights of property, which formally consolidated concubine-mothers' upward mobility from daughters or widows in lower-class families to matriarchs in well-to-do households.

This article considers the Qing formal judicial-administrative system in Mongolia and the Manchu-... more This article considers the Qing formal judicial-administrative system in Mongolia and the Manchu-Mongol marriage alliance together in the framework of rulership and law. In studying the Qing court's strategic handling of a 1771 criminal case involving a Mongol imperial son-in-law’s poisoning of his Manchu princess wife, this essay argues that Qing princesses as imperial agents enabled the Qing court to keep a watchful eye on Mongol elites who tended to compromise Qing interests. However, gendered tensions hidden in multi-layered Qing law rendered it difficult for the court to convey the message of justice with existing legal language when conflicts occurred.

Thesis Chapters by Yue "Mara" DU 杜樂

PhD Dissertation, New York University, September 2017.

Book Reviews by Yue "Mara" DU 杜樂

PhD Dissertation, New York University, September 2017.

In Imperial China, the idea of filial piety not only shaped family relations but was also the ide... more In Imperial China, the idea of filial piety not only shaped family relations but was also the ideology by which Qing China was governed. State and Family in China: Filial Piety and Its Modern Reform examines the relationship between politics and intergenerational family relations in China from the Qing period to 1949, focusing on changes in family law, parent-child relationships, and the Chinese state during this period. highlights how the Qing dynasty treated the state-sponsored parent-child hierarchy as the axis around which Chinese family and political power relations were constructed and maintained. It shows how, following the fall of the Qing in 1911, reform of filial piety law in the Republic of China became the basis of state-directed family revolution, playing a vital role in China’s transition from an empire to a nation-state.