What the Emperor Built: Architecture and Empire in the Early Ming

by Aurelia Campbell

Overview

Winner of the 2023 Bei Shan Tang Monograph Prize, sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies

How imperial ideology is given shape in built space

One of the most famous rulers in Chinese history, the Yongle emperor (r. 1402–24) gained renown for constructing Beijing’s magnificent Forbidden City, directing ambitious naval expeditions, and creating the world’s largest encyclopedia. What the Emperor Built is the first book-length study devoted to the architectural projects of a single Chinese emperor.

Focusing on the imperial palaces in Beijing, a Daoist architectural complex on Mount Wudang, and a Buddhist temple on the Sino-Tibetan frontier, Aurelia Campbell demonstrates how the siting, design, and use of Yongle’s palaces and temples helped cement his authority and legitimize his usurpation of power. Campbell offers insight into Yongle’s sense of empire—from the far-flung locations in which he built, to the distant regions from which he extracted construction materials, and to the use of tens of thousands of craftsmen and other laborers. Through his constructions, Yongle connected himself to the divine, interacted with his subjects, and extended imperial influence across space and time.

Spanning issues of architectural design and construction technologies, this deft analysis reveals remarkable advancements in timber-frame construction and implements an art-historical approach to examine patronage, audience, and reception, situating the buildings within their larger historical and religious contexts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295746890
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	79 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Aurelia Campbell is assistant professor of Asian art history at Boston College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

List of Abbreviations xi

Chinese Dynasties (with Ming Reign Periods) xiii

Introduction 3

Chapter 1 Perfecting the Past: The Design and Construction of the Northern Capital 21

Chapter 2 Great Pillars of State: The Rise and Fall of Monumental Nanmu Halls 53

Chapter 3 Becoming Zhenwu: The Imperial Turn at Mount Wudang 89

Chapter 4 From Mandala to Palace: Transforming Space and Site at Gautama Monastery 127

Conclusion Architecture as Empire 167

Chinese Character Glossary 173

Notes 179

Bibliography 199

Index 211

What People are Saying About This

Timothy Brook

"Should be on the reading list of everyone interested in the history of Chinese imperial politics and culture."

Wei-cheng Lin

"By sketching a complete story of each building project, Campbell offers a fresh and critical understanding of Ming imperial architecture."

Tracy Miller

"Reveals how imperial spaces reflected, and potentially helped to define, the connoisseurship and aesthetic sophistication that has long characterized Ming material culture."

Jianfei Zhu

"An indispensable study on one of the most important emperors in Chinese history. This is an essential read for anyone interested in the institution of emperorship in China and the relationship between the politics and architecture of China that remains ever so relevant today."

Craig Clunas

"This thoroughly researched study—engagingly written, effectively illustrated, and cogently argued—is a significant and very welcome contribution to Ming architectural and social history."

Stephen Whiteman

"Makes architectural construction, patronage, and presence integral to our understanding of imperial authority in the early Ming."

Editorial Reviews

"State architecture is a transformative art of power and persuasion. In What the Emperor Built Aurelia Campbell employs this lens of Ming imperial architecture to capture how Yongle (r.1402–1424) mobilized a standardized architectural vision to project legitimacy and counter his problematic rise to power through nepoticide and civil war."

Chinese Historical Review

"[A] detailed study of the architecture created during the early Ming dynasty reign of Yung Lo"

Choice

"The book is remarkable for its successful integration of architectural with political and economic history, disciplines that are usually practiced separately... This is architectural history at its best, and sets a standard for future work in the field."

Journal of the American Oriental Society

"[O]ne of her book’s greatest strengths lies in the clarity of both the argument and the handsomely reproduced illustrations presented in its pages...the story of magnificent buildings and the millions involved in their construction is sure to inspire lively discussions about the profound impact of Yongle’s architectural vision on global architectural history and global history as a whole."

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

"What the Emperor Built will make even those familiar with the city’s ancient buildings feel that while they may have looked, they perhaps did not entirely see."

South China Morning Post