New Book: Teaching and Transformation in Popular Confucian Literature of the Late Qing by Katherine Alexander

Asuka Morley — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 22:21:30 +0000

New Book: Teaching and Transformation in Popular Confucian Literature of the Late Qing by Katherine Alexander Asuka Morley Thu, 03/06/2025 - 15:21

Assistant Professor of Chinese, Katherine Alexander's book titled, Teaching and Transformation in Popular Confucian Literature of the Late Qing, will be published this August 2025. Thanks in part to support from a Kayden Research Grant in 2024, the book will be available open-access as well. Congratulations, Prof. Alexander!

Description
The Taiping Civil War (1851–1864) was one of the most destructive wars in Chinese history, with the death toll estimated between twenty and thirty million. What visions did survivors have for restoring their fractured society once the war ended? Katherine L. Alexander’s Teaching and Transformation approaches these questions through literature by examining the works of evangelical Confucian teacher Yu Zhi (1809-1874), who gave a voice to the zealous side of conservative Confucian reform efforts before, during, and after the Taiping War. His works offer radical visions of a world that could be restored through collective effort and goodness, while also revealing the shifting nature of power and highlighting the cracks in Qing society.

Yu’s works complicate the picture of socio-moral reform, particularly the Confucian mission of jiaohua (teaching and transformation). Though he viewed the disasters of the late Qing as the natural consequence of jiaohua’s failure to compete against socially disruptive media, such as vernacular fiction and theatrical productions, he also wanted reformers to engage closely with these genres. Yu became a vocal advocate of teaching with moral vernacular literature that he believed met commoners at their level. He emphasized the hope that by writing, printing, and performing such texts, every member of his audience could be transformed into teachers themselves, restoring society from the bottom up.

Off

Traditional

White

Graduate Students from Katherine Alexander’s Course Meet Map Librarians

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 21:40:53 +0000

Graduate Students from Katherine Alexander’s Course Meet Map Librarians Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/09/2020 - 14:40

“By closely examining the maps, we get a chance to touch and feel the paper, ink, and other details on the maps that would not be easily accessed anywhere else,” Graduate student Shuran Jiang said.

Graduate students from Assistant Professor of Chinese Katherine Alexander’s course, “Topics in Early Modern Literature: Ming-Qing Contexts” had an opportunity to meet with Map Librarians Ilene Raynes and Naomi Heiser. The full story can be found here: /libraries/2020/01/03/map-librarians-connect-classes-maps.

Off

Traditional

White