The Manchu Mirrors and the knowledge of plants and animals in High Qing China / He Bian and Mårten Söderblom Saarela

Part I. Lexicography and Encyclopedism at the Kangxi Court -- Flora and Fauna in the Mirror of the Manchu Language -- The Manchu Mirror as Chinese Encyclopedia -- Guang Qunfang pu and the Reform of Literati Botany -- Part II. Plurilingual Nomenclature in Manchuria -- Naming Manchurian Things in Early-Qing Chinese Writings -- Manchurian and Inner Asian Plants in Guang Qunfang pu and Gujin tushu jicheng -- Part III. Neologisms for Plants and Animals at the Qianlong Court -- Ode to Mukden and the Manchu Homeland in Chinese Literary Form -- Qianlong's Manchu Language Reform and Natural-Historical Philology -- Plants and Animals in the Expanded and Emended Mirror of the Manchu Language -- Conclusion: Reception of the Manchu Mirrors in Qing China and Beyond.

"As the territory of Qing China expanded, so evolved the ways in which birds, beasts, fish, trees, and flowers came to be known in the multilingual empire. The Manchu Mirrors and the Knowledge of Plants and Animals in High Qing China is the first systematic study of how the Qing court sought to codify Manchu and Chinese words for animals and plants throughout the eighteenth century, with a particular focus on Manchurian and other Inner Asian species. Calling for renewed attention to Manchu dictionaries as an important source for Qing intellectual and cultural history, Bian and Söderblom Saarela show how Qing lexicographical practices embodied major revisions to the Chinese encyclopedic tradition, realigned the relationship between words and things, and left a lasting impact on natural historical scholarship in the modern era. The updated form of Chinese learning, along with the malleable lexicon of the Manchu language, proved useful for the Manchu elite in displaying the reach and intellectual depth of Qing imperial power. Manchu was transformed from the language of a single people into the lexicographic façade for an imperial order of things."-- Provided by publisher.