A Young Lady’s Passion for Cats: Sun Sunyi and Three Qing Compendia on Cats

In addition to large book projects sponsored by the state, compendia and encyclopedias were also popular individual scholarly endeavors among Ming and Qing intellectuals. This article focuses on one Qing compendium on cats, Xianchan xiaolu 銜蟬小錄, authored by a seventeen-year-old female named Sun Suny...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: He, Jianjun (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2025
In: JAOS
Year: 2025, Volume: 145, Issue: 2, Pages: 309-326
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:In addition to large book projects sponsored by the state, compendia and encyclopedias were also popular individual scholarly endeavors among Ming and Qing intellectuals. This article focuses on one Qing compendium on cats, Xianchan xiaolu 銜蟬小錄, authored by a seventeen-year-old female named Sun Sunyi 孫 蓀意 (1783-1818). Through a detailed examination of Sun Sunyi’s collection and classification of texts concerning cats, as well as a comparison with two other compendia on cats compiled by male scholars, I argue that Xianchan xiaolu, distinctively marked by the editor’s age, gender, and personal interests, presents not only valuable information for the study of the late imperial textual tradition and the role of scholarship in literary writings but also an important and joyful case for increased research on female participation and reception in Qing intellectual trends.
ISSN:2169-2289
Contains:Enthalten in: American Oriental Society, JAOS
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.7817/jaos.145.2.2025.ar013