Ying Zhang | Johns Hopkins University (original) (raw)
Published Articles by Ying Zhang
This article examines the circulation of medical recipes through vernacular literature and person... more This article examines the circulation of medical recipes through vernacular literature and personal networks from the late Ming through the Qing. During this period, vernacular texts played a leading role in circulating practical instructions for everyday healing techniques, especially in the form of recipes. Recipes became a versatile textual form for recording and transmitting experience in quotidian practice. They moved among different genres of texts, providing information about healing, offering advice for entertainment, and delivering moral lessons. Literati sociability as well as philanthropic and religious commitments motivated people of varied social means to distribute vernacular texts bearing healing information to a broad audience. Recipes acquired legitimacy and authority by clearly marking their provenance and thus its relationship to particular social networks and, sometimes, a religious purpose as well.
Book Reviews by Ying Zhang
In the last two decades, historians have studied critical social and cultural changes of the late... more In the last two decades, historians have studied critical social and cultural changes of the late Ming, from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, focusing on the flourishing of print culture, the emergence of women writers, and the increasing importance of material culture in defining the lifestyle of literati . Chen Hsiu-fen's book contributes to the field by adding a new dimension: the dramatic changes in the production and circulation of ideas about nourishing life. These changes were especially remarkable in literati writings, commercially printed handbooks, and encyclopedias. "Nourishing life," in Chinese yangsheng, was one of the many terms used by literati and commercial publishers who wrote, compiled, and published on subjects like diet, sex, gymnastics, and other daily practices. Chen uses the term "nourishing life" as an analytic category representing a series of body-centered concerns and practices. She analyzes a wide range of writings with special attention to their underlying concerns about taste, the manner of possessing artifacts, and the commercial values of the knowledge of bodily practices.
Conference Papers by Ying Zhang
Online Publications by Ying Zhang
https://recipes.hypotheses.org/tag/ying-zhang
This article examines the circulation of medical recipes through vernacular literature and person... more This article examines the circulation of medical recipes through vernacular literature and personal networks from the late Ming through the Qing. During this period, vernacular texts played a leading role in circulating practical instructions for everyday healing techniques, especially in the form of recipes. Recipes became a versatile textual form for recording and transmitting experience in quotidian practice. They moved among different genres of texts, providing information about healing, offering advice for entertainment, and delivering moral lessons. Literati sociability as well as philanthropic and religious commitments motivated people of varied social means to distribute vernacular texts bearing healing information to a broad audience. Recipes acquired legitimacy and authority by clearly marking their provenance and thus its relationship to particular social networks and, sometimes, a religious purpose as well.
In the last two decades, historians have studied critical social and cultural changes of the late... more In the last two decades, historians have studied critical social and cultural changes of the late Ming, from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, focusing on the flourishing of print culture, the emergence of women writers, and the increasing importance of material culture in defining the lifestyle of literati . Chen Hsiu-fen's book contributes to the field by adding a new dimension: the dramatic changes in the production and circulation of ideas about nourishing life. These changes were especially remarkable in literati writings, commercially printed handbooks, and encyclopedias. "Nourishing life," in Chinese yangsheng, was one of the many terms used by literati and commercial publishers who wrote, compiled, and published on subjects like diet, sex, gymnastics, and other daily practices. Chen uses the term "nourishing life" as an analytic category representing a series of body-centered concerns and practices. She analyzes a wide range of writings with special attention to their underlying concerns about taste, the manner of possessing artifacts, and the commercial values of the knowledge of bodily practices.