The scholarly culture of Ming dynasty China (1368-1644) is often seen as
prioritizing philosophy over concrete textual study. Nathan Vedal
uncovers the preoccupation among Ming thinkers with specialized
linguistic learning, a field typically associated with the intellectual
revolution of the eighteenth century. He explores the collaboration of
Confucian classicists and Buddhist monks, opera librettists and
cosmological theorists, who joined forces in the pursuit of a universal
theory of language.
Drawing on a wide range of overlooked scholarly texts, literary
commentaries, and pedagogical materials, Vedal examines how Ming
scholars positioned the study of language within an interconnected nexus
of learning. He argues that for sixteenth- and seventeenth-century
thinkers, the boundaries among the worlds of classicism, literature,
music, cosmology, and religion were far more fluid and porous than they
became later. In the eighteenth century, Qing thinkers pared away these
other fields from linguistic learning, creating a discipline focused on
corroborating the linguistic features of ancient texts.
Documenting a major transformation in knowledge production, this book
provides a framework for rethinking global early modern intellectual
developments. It offers a powerful alternative to the conventional
understanding of late imperial Chinese intellectual history by focusing
on the methods of scholarly practice and the boundaries by which
contemporary thinkers defined their field of study.
