Leviathan's Offer: State-Building with Elite Compensation in Early Medieval China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joy Chen ◽  
Erik H. Wang ◽  
Xiaoming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
State Building ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Early Medieval China

War Captives, Left-Behind Wives, and Buddhist Nuns: Female Migrants in Early Medieval China (4th–6th Century CE)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Wen-Yi Huang
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Textual Representations ◽  
Medieval China ◽  
Gender And Migration ◽  
Early Medieval China ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Northern Wei ◽  
Distance Travel

Abstract Using received texts and excavated funerary epitaphs, this article examines the intricacies of gender and migration in early medieval China by exploring women's long-distance mobility from the fourth century to the sixth century, when what is now known as China was divided by the Northern Wei and a succession of four southern states—the Eastern Jin, Liu-Song, Southern Qi, and Liang. I focus on three types of migration in which women participated during this period: war-induced migration, family reunification, and religious journeys. Based on this analysis, I propose answers to two important questions: the connection between migration and the state, and textual representations of migrants. Though the texts under consideration are usually written in an anecdotal manner, the references to women, I argue, both reveals nuances in perceptions of womanhood at the time and elucidates the contexts within—and through—which long-distance travel became possible for women.

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