Book Reviews

Review of Liangtou she: Ming mo Qing chu de diyi dai Tianzhujiaotu(Two-Headed Snakes: The First Generation of Chinese Catholics inthe Late Ming and Early Qing), by Huang Yinong. Xinzhu, Taiwan:
Guoli Qinghua Daxue Chubanshe, 2005.［黃一農著．兩頭蛇：明末淸初的第一代天主敎徒．新竹市：國立淸華大學出版社，民國 94，2005．
台湾通貨 750 元，557 頁］

According to an ancient Chinese belief, a two-headed snake portends
death. The belief derives from the idea that the two heads, not being able todecide whether to proceed or retreat, will fight each other. The snake issymbolic of Chinese Catholics at the end of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
and beginning of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) who vacillated between
adhering to Catholicism or Confucianism before abandoning one or the other.
This profound ethical conflict that arose among Chinese scholar-officials whoconverted to Catholicism is discussed by Huang Yinong. The work reflects the
trajectory of the author’s own academic pilgrimage, from radio astronomy tothe history of astronomy, to the history of science, and finally to aspects ofthe cultural rivalry between China and the West. This impressive work,
replete with literary interest, is certain to become a milestone in historicalresearch.
Liangtou she is based on the author’s study of anthologies, records —even in Europe, and local annals. This thorough empirical historical study,
including fieldwork in Xinjiang County (formerly called Shanxi Jiangzhou),also draws on a vast body of historical research material that has been electronically digitized in recent years. The author’s use of both fieldwork andelectronic access to historical materials signals a new stage in the development of historiography. Huang Yinong quotes from texts available through the
Fu Ssu-nien Library, Taipei. Use of Fu Ssu-nien historiography, as the author
refers to it, has begun to yield the kind of outstanding research evident in
Huang’s book. Detailed descriptions of people living during a time of cataclysmic change in the late Ming and early Qing periods, as well as theauthor’s postscript and appendices with graphs, leave a particularly deep
impression. Through his emphasis on the value of human integrity, the author

72

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol.1 2010

underscores a human universal, not only within the wider Chinese-speaking
world, and through his cross-strait research effort, he shows the value ofcooperation between academic communities on both sides of the Taiwan
Strait.
One area that the author analyzes as being a particular source of contention between Confucians and Catholics is the Ten Commandments.
Injunctions against adultery and killing, including suicide, were difficult toreconcile with scholar-officials’ practice of concubinage and of suicide as an
expression of fealty to the Ming dynasty when it collapsed. The final sectionof the third chapter, which is said to have written after completing all thirteen
chapters of the book, describes the emotions of a Catholic scholar-official
who lived at the end of the Ming dynasty, Guo Zizhang (1543–1618). His
sincerity and expression of grief recorded in the epitaph on his wife’s grave
marker confers an emotional mood that pervades the entire book. And it
directly links, I think, to Cai Yuanpei (1868–1940)’s “marital criteria 5 items”
in 1900 (in Memorial Residence on Huashan Road, Shanghai), that is the firstrecommendation of gender equality in modern China.
The fifth chapter concerns the great scholar Wei Xuelian (1608–1644).
He was a pupil of Liu Zhongzhou (1578–1645), the esteemed member of the
Donglin Academy and Fu She Society. Wei Xuelian has been the subject ofheated controversy. Some writers claim that after the collapse of the Ming
government, he served the Ming rebel and usurper Li Zicheng (1606–1645)
and then accepted a position in the Qing court. Other writers claim that hecommitted suicide on the day that Li Zicheng ascended the throne. Huang
Yinong ascertains that this debate derives from party rivalry at the end of the
Ming dynasty, and surmises that Wei’s final actions were those of a conflicted
Catholic, for whom suicide would have been prohibited.
The seventh chapter includes an elucidation of the Duoshu 鐸書 (The Bookof the Warning Bell, ca. 1640), which was compiled according to the Shengyu
liuyan 聖諭六言 (six maxims of the Secret Edict) of Ming Taizu (1328–1644),
the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. Huang’s analysis, which explainsvillage law drawn up on Catholic principles, is of great interest.
The concept of li (ritual, propriety) pervades Chinese history and culture– so we heard in school days. The concepts of li, tian (heaven), Shangdi (Jade
Emperor of Heaven), and ancestor worship were established through codification of the events of history. Once Liang Qichao stated that China did nothave religion in the Western sense. Tachibana Shiraki (1885–1945) emphasized Taoism as the belief of Chinese common people. Ojima Sukema (1881–1966) wrote China’s ancient faith didn’t take the form of religion but has
been left all in the political inclusion with Liyue 礼樂 centered. The use of theChinese words Tianzhu and Shangdi to signify God became part of theBook Reviews

73

Chinese Rites Controversy (the Catholic controversy over whether adapting toChinese religious and cultural practices constituted idolatry). Huang discusses
in his book how Chinese people behaved in the Controversy, that have everbeen mentioned little.
How such concepts relate to the political power are issues that remain.
This problem is reminiscent of issues pertaining to Catholic converts among
Confucian scholars (seonbi class) of Namin party during the Joseon dynasty(1392–1910) in Korea, and issues pertaining to the resistance movement
among Koreans who refused to worship at Shinto shrines during the Japanesecolonial era (1910–1945). In Japan we are still confronted with the legacy ofstate Shinto, which officially came to an end in 1945 but still affects Japanese
legal system and historiography even to this day. In Liangtou she Huang
Yinong describes aspects of the rivalry between Eastern and Western cultures
while attempting to define the essence of his own culture.
INTŌ Kazuhiro
KANSAI University











Mandara toshi: Hindū toshi no kūkan ri’nen to sono hen’yō (Mandala
Cities: The Hindu Concept of Urban Spaces and Its Transforma­tions), by Funo Shūji. Kyoto: Kyoto Daigaku Gakujutsu
Shuppankai, 2006.［曼荼羅都市 : ヒンドゥー都市の空間理念とその変

容／布野修司 著．京都：京都大学学術出版会，2006．￥ 5,250，444 頁］

Funo Shūji has produced a work that elucidates the Hindu concept ofurban space and its transformation, as based on Hindu cosmology. To illustrate the relationship between the mandala (a Hindu graphic symbol of theuniverse) and spatial organization, he cites the examples of three cities:
Madurai, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu; Jaipur, in the northern
Indian state of Rajasthan; and Cakranegara, on Lombok Island, Indonesia. On
the basis of field research, Funo analyzes the actual structural organization of
the cities, evaluates their transformation processes, and considers theirprimary driving factors. He describes characteristics of the configurations ofeach of the three cities, focusing not on religious institutions or palaces, but
on residences and neighborhoods, which constitute the preponderance of74

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol.1 2010urban areas. His analysis is intriguing in that it enables him to analyze thelivability of the cities on a human scale, reflecting their actual urban layouts
and the lifestyles of people who inhabit them, while also providing a broad
overview.
In the first chapter, Funo uses an ancient classical Indian treatise onbuilding codes and urban planning, the Mānasāra, belongs to the Śilpaśāstra
(the book of art and craft) genre, as well as previous research, to recreate theconfiguration of the ideal Hindu city, based on Hindu cosmology. Funo
studies the Mānasāra to see how it guided the development of the threecities.
Madurai, in southern India, is renowned for its temples, while theRajasthan city of Jaipur, popularly called “the pink city” for its pink buildings, is also famous. Madurai and Jaipur are unusual examples of cities that
attempt to conform to the mandala philosophy of concentric rectangles ofdivergent manifestations. If one focuses on the principles of the Hindu city,
the two cities’ spatial organizations would appear to consist of concentric
rectangles. There are, however, few actual examples of this type of urban
configuration. A divergence between ideals and reality arises through human
responses to topography and historical changes.
Cakranegara, in contrast, is a less well known city. The city’s name consistsof two Sanskrit words: cakra (Wheel of Law), and negara (state), indicating
a city created by Chakravartin (literally, one whose wheels are moving), who
subjugates the entire world. Cakranegara, the very name of which implies
intentional planning along Hindu principles of spatial organization based on agrid pattern, draws attention because of its city demarcations. Funo Shūjistates that it was his personal discovery of this aspect of the city that firstdrew him to the subject.
The second chapter analyzes the history and spatial organization of theancient Indian city of Madurai, its current state, and its living spaces. Funo’s
historical analysis of the city’s configuration is interesting, of course, but what
strikes the reader as unusual is his discussion of planar residential configurations and his perception of the mandala ideal in the pilgrimage routes for the
Ratha Yatra festival held annually in June despite divergences from the ideal
spatial organization of concentric rectangles. Also noteworthy is his analysisof the tradition and transformation of residences with central courtyards,
which helps the reader to envision a living mandala city.
The third chapter discusses the city of Jaipur, planned by the eighteenthcentury maharajah Jai Singh II. The city is centered around the Govind Devji
Temple in the City Palace complex, as well as around the Jantar Mantar
Observatory. Jai Singh II sought to design an ideal Hindu city on a wellordered grid pattern. The city appears to have a 9-square 3-by-3 pattern. It has

Book Reviews

75

been suggested that this pattern derives from the prastara (literally, squares),one of the configurations indicated in the Mānasāra for villages and cities, but
Jaipur does not consistently follow the prastara principles. Residences inJaipur for the most part are built around inner courtyard gardens, but theydiffer from those in Madurai. In Jaipur, the neighborhood framework consistsof haveli (mansions). In recent years, however, the rapid influx of people into
the area and the appearance of tall buildings have drastically changed thisunique traditional panorama.
The fourth chapter discusses Cakranegara on the island of Lombok inIndonesia, the city that originally prompted the author to write Mandala
Cities. The Karangasem regency of eastern Bali constructed Cakranegara as acolonial city in the eighteenth century, during nearly the same time that Jaipur
was being founded in India. The colonizers situated Cakranegara on the
periphery of the Hindu world and sought a more ideal city design. The
temple Pura Meru is located in the heart of the city, the word “meru” referring to a sacred mountain in Hindu cosmology, as well as to the center of theworld. The city’s blocks and neighborhoods are extremely regular, giving
Cakranegara an impression of orderliness. The history of Lombok Island isreflected in its cities, as is the fortunes and decline of the cultures of the
Sasak tribe, of Balinese Hinduism, and of Islam. Cakranegara is a mandalacity strongly influenced by the principles of spatial organization characteristicof Bali. Consequently, it does not manifest the same concentric rectangles orthe city walls so conspicuous in India. In Bali, residences are enclosed withinneighborhoods, which in turn are enclosed within cities. Cakranegara thus has
characteristics that set it apart from the other two cities discussed in thisbook, Madurai and Jaipur.
Besides Mandala Cities, Funo has been engaged in other studies thatelucidate aspects of other Asian cities, including “the great Yuan urban
districts” based on traditional Chinese cities and the Muslim characteristics ofthe Mughal cities of India. In 2008 Funo published Mugaru toshi, Isuramu
toshi no kūkan hen’yō (Spatial Transformations in Mughal and Islamic Cities).
Since cities reflect myriad historical and regional influences on culture, theauthor should be able to find rich sources of research material for some time
to come.
HASHITERA Tomoko
KANSAI University

76

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol.1 2010

Review of Yomigaeru kaijō no michi: Nihon to Ryūkyū (Revisiting the
Sea Routes from Japan to the Ryukyu Archipelago), by Tanigawa
Ken’ichi, 246 pages. Tokyo: Bungei Shunjū, 2007.［甦る海上の道・
日本と琉球／谷川健一 著．東京：文芸春秋，2007．￥ 787，246 頁］

This work by Tanigawa Ken’ichi is a new compilation of the author’s
ethnological research on the sea routes linking Japan and the Ryukyu archipelago. As a book for the layman, this new work does not always take thespecialist into consideration. Nevertheless, Tanigawa’s review titled “ ‘Ryūkyū
kokuō no shutsuji’ o megutte” (On “The Lineage of the King of the Ryukyu
Islands”), included in volume 6 of Tanigawa Ken’ichi Zenshū (The Collected
Works of Tanigawa Ken’ichi), appears nearly intact in this new book in chapters 2, 5, and 7, and thus this volume preserves the high quality of Tanigawa’s
scholarship. By focusing on the theme of sea routes, the book extracts theessence of the author’s research and rearranges it in a new format. Hence, thebook is well worth reading, even by specialists in the subject.
In his depiction of the sea routes between Japan and the Ryukyu archipelago, Tanigawa’s work is replete with first-rate, multifaceted studies andrichly sourced inquiries, resulting in a book that treats a diverse range ofsubject matter. The table of contents, listed below, is evidence of this diversity.
Introduction: East China Sea: Prehistoric Routes
Chapter 1: Kuroshio Currents: Flora and Fauna Routes
Chapter 2: The Entry of Minamoto no Tametomo and the Southern Flightof the Heike: Route of the Defeated Heike
Chapter 3: Kyushu, Amami, and the Ryukyu Archipelago: Routes ofMedieval Merchants
Chapter 4: Excursions of Sea Nomads (Ebune): Routes of the Nomadic
Fishermen
Chapter 5: Sagara clan and Nawa clan: Routes of Remnants of theSouthern Court
Chapter 6: Japan, Korea, and the Ryukyu Archipelago: Trilateral Trade
Routes
Chapter 7: The Southern Expansion of Iron Culture: Routes of theBlacksmiths
Chapter 8: Sailing Ships and Dugout Canoes: Transport and Fishing
RoutesConcluding chapter: Mediating between Japan and the Ryukyu Kingdom:“Emotional” and “Physical” Routes
Tanigawa brings a unique ethnological knowledge to the narratives ofeach chapter, which he interlaces with his erudition in history, archaeology,

Book Reviews

77

natural science, and literature. His knowledge of the sea routes from the
Nansei Islands to Kyushu and from the Ryukyu kingdom to Japan, combinedwith his familiarity with the Tsushima Straits and the East China Sea, resultin a multifaceted portrayal. Many researchers are quoted in conjunction withhis broad treatment of the subject. Unfortunately, in most cases bibliographical information on the papers and books to which he refers is omitted. Evenif a laymen’s edition dictates against copious citation of academic works, it isimperative that a book in this format have at least a list of references at theend of the volume.
Two scholars preceded Tanigawa in this field of research: Yanagita Kunio
and Orikuchi Shinobu. The assertion made by Yanagita that rice cultivation
was transmitted to Japan from the southern trade routes, and the claim madeby Orikuchi that the lineage of the Ryukyu kings originated with the Heike,were identified as problematic in subsequent research and were later discredited. Nevertheless, Tanigawa examines in detail each point in dispute, andwhile he corrects the ideas of Yanagita and Orikuchi that do not correspondwith the facts, he also retains respect for their motifs and images of the sea
routes, preserving their themes as much as possible in his own work.
Japan and the Ryukyu archipelago have been linked by sea routes sinceancient times, and migrations of people from Japan promoted formation of the
kingdom of Ryukyu. Tanigawa’s main assertions underlying the book arebased on these two suppositions. The points that he derives from these
suppositions can be summarized as follows:• The legend of Minamoto no Tametomo and the defeated members of thehouse of Heike who fled to the Ryukyu archipelago and the link to Nawa clan
and the first Sho dynasty as argued by Orikuchi probably reflect a degree of
historical truth about the migration of people from Japan.
• One historical period in the Ryukyu archipelago (around the eleventh
century) is marked by the transmission to the archipelago of stone pots
produced in Nagasaki and by Ryukyuan production of imitation clay pottery.
Perhaps the Ebune sea nomads are intimately linked with this movement.
• Iron introduced from Japan was highly prized in the Ryukyu archipelago.
As is evident in many place names and folklore, the introduction of iron had
an effect on Ryukyuan society.
• Ryukyuan history and society were no doubt influenced by constant intercourse via the sea route that Yanagita argues for. Tanigawa adds that this sea
route was probably traveled by the Ebune and Tokara Islands peoples, and byfishermen from Itoman and Kudaka.
• In recent years the history of the Ryukyu archipelago has been written with
an emphasis on the Ryukyu kingdom’s having its own unique history. But
since Japan and the Ryukyu archipelago strongly influenced each other’s

78

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol.1 2010

history through the sea trade, it is inappropriate to treat the two countries
independently.
Scholars of the Ryukyu kingdom widely acknowledge the relationshipbetween formation of the Ryukyu kingdom and migration of people fromJapan. Yet some of Tanigawa’s bolder theories linking place names and folklore with previous research, such as the intervention in the Japan-Ryukyu
trade by the Ebune, requires more circumspect scrutiny, his compelling narrative notwithstanding. Of course, this is a topic for future research imposed on
subsequent scholars including myself.
Lastly, I would like to comment on an issue discussed repeatedly in thisbook: whether the Ryukyu kingdom developed independently or under the
influence of Japan. If we interpret this issue from the point of view ofcultural interaction, independent development and development under the
influence of Japan are not necessarily exclusive. From the start, the Ryukyu
kingdom interacted in a multifaceted context that included Okinawa, theAmami Islands, and Japan, with each acting on the others and being acted
upon in turn. It is entirely possible that common elements were autonomously
contextualized. Autonomous contextualizations and common elements, as wellas the existence of the separate contexts that influence them, need to betreated as independent issues.
OKAMOTO Hiromichi
KANSAI University











Review of Ajia no jidai no chirigaku: Dentō to henkaku (The Geographyof the Asian Era: Tradition and Innovation), edited by SENDA
Minoru. Tokyo: Kokon Shoin, 2008.［アジアの時代の地理学：伝統と変革／千田稔 編．東京：古今書院，2008．￥ 5,880，260 頁］

This book, edited by SENDA Minoru, consists of three parts, the first ofwhich is titled “Heritage of Traditional Geography” (all titles are translated)and consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, WATANABE Yoshio
discusses the etymology of the term “chiri” (topography), which derives froma belief in Chinese geomancy (fengshui 風水), and how the East Asian studyof geography is positioned vis-à-vis the Western study of geography. In

Book Reviews

79

chapter 2, TAKAHASHI Seiichi examines the distribution of ishigantō 石敢
当, a type of stone talisman used in Shuri, the old capital of the Ryukyu
Islands, as an indication of the diffusion of Chinese geomancy. Chapter 3, by
MINAMIDE Shinsuke, analyzes spatial structure and territory in Malacca, aport city and state on the Malayan Peninsula. In chapter 4, AKIYAMA
Motohide, focusing on the enclosed spaces of Chinese courtyards (siheyuan
四合院, traditional Chinese walled housing compounds), discusses the traditional use of spatial structures and their underlying philosophy. Chapter 5, thelast chapter of part 1, by NARUMI Kunitada, describes the development ofcompasses and other surveying equipment for making maps in the Edo period(1603–1867).
Part 2, titled “Geography in the Early Modern Era,” also consists of fivechapters. In chapter 6, the lead chapter, SENDA Minoru, through the maps
and globes used at the emperor’s enthronement and during lectures in theimperial presence, infers that the Meiji emperor was cognizant of world geography. In chapter 7, “The Religion of Geography: Notes on Chijinron [TheEarth and Man],” DOI Hiroshi discusses Chijinron, a book published by
UCHIMURA Kanzō in 1894. In Chijinron, UCHIMURA, a convert toChristianity, developed a syncretic cultural worldview informed by Christiansensibilities and awareness of Europeans and Americans. In chapter 8,
KOJIMA Yasuo analyzes the reception and development of early modern
geography in the twentieth century. In chapter 9, KIM Doo-Chul explains
how the Korean Confucian scholar JANG Ji-yeon (1864–1921) adapted traditional and early modern geography as a means to stimulate patriotic enlightenment. In chapter 10, the final chapter in part 2, KOBAYASHI Shigeru and
WATANABE Rie discuss the transfer of plane-table survey and triangulationfrom Europe and America to Meiji Japan, and from there to China andTaiwan.
Part 3, titled “The Colonial Era and Beyond,” consists of four chapters.
In the first two chapters of this part, TSUTSUI Yukino and FUJIMAKI
Masami discuss the role of geography in Vietnam and Malaysia during thepolitical and social changes that occurred in those countries after independence in 1945 and 1957, respectively. In chapter 13, NOMA Haruo discusses
tropical geography in various European nations, a discipline that developed asa result of those countries’ maintaining colonies in the tropics. In his analysis
NOMA also covers comparative research on Asian rice culture by Pierre
GOUROU (1900–1999). In chapter 14, SHIBUYA Shizuaki writes about the
research of ASAKA Yukio (1910–1994), a Japanese geographer of colonial
Korea.
As an anecdotal matter, I found, while doing fieldwork in Vietnam, that
few Vietnamese passers-by could accurately give directions using a map. On

80

Journal of Cultural Interaction in East Asia Vol.1 2010

the other hand, most Vietnamese were very conversant with the generalgeographical shape of their country. Readers with experience abroad may
agree that this is true in many Asian countries. This situation arises fromearly-modern maps based on triangulation and other geographical information. Just how well were such maps understood, and how were they used?
Few people, it seems, knew their living spaces based on early-modern maps.
Even today, most people’s knowledge is informed by other, more traditional
or individual spatial concepts and perceptions of geography.
This book, in my view, should be read in the light of research on culturalinteraction, bearing two particular points in mind. The first concerns theEastern shift of Western learning. Early-modern geography and early-modern
scholarship that began in the West encountered, confronted, and merged withtraditional East Asian knowledge and scholarship. As in many disciplines in
the humanities, traditional concepts of geography and methods of understanding space changed through encounters with early-modern Western scholarship on geography, fused with early-modern geography in each country, or
were segregated. The second point concerns the fate of geography as a fundamental tool for analyzing space and place in cultural interaction. An awareness of geography influences the worldviews that individuals form.
Two areas should be explored in future cross-cultural research. First, maps
and geography can be developed as tools for demarcating, asserting, andexpanding control over territory and nations. Chapter 6, by SENDA Minoru,
and chapter 9, by KIM Doo-Chul, discuss this aspect of geography.
Thongchai WINICHAKUL’s seminal work Siam Mapped (1994) elucidates
how awareness of Thailand as a nation-state, country, territory, and cultural
entity evolved from a cognizance of geography. Second, there are times when
objective geographical perceptions provide a foundation for transcending
spatial boundaries. As DOI in chapter 7 and NOMA in chapter 13 indicate,
UCHIMURA Kanzō and Pierre GOUROU sublimated geography so that it
transcends territorial nations and specific geographical boundaries, and is freefrom thinking constricted by a focus on confined spaces. More scholarship isneeded in these two areas.
Sometimes a priori spatial frameworks (i.e. center and periphery) for understanding the phenomena of geography, culture, and history are set in modern
national territories. When we discuss cultural interaction, we should endeavor
to question unconditionally our underlying assumptions concerning geography.
Thongchai Winichakul 1994 Siam mapped. University of Hawai’i Press.
NISHIMURA Masanari
KANSAI University