Online Lecture Series: Vernacular Culture of Etiquette of Late Imperial China as Represented in the Ming-Qing Novel

Verbal code: Terms of address

This lecture offers an introduction to the system and practice of social etiquette – addressing, greeting and clothing – of late imperial China as reconstructed on the basis of a range of novels of the Ming and Qing (16th-18th c.). While social etiquette constituted codes of distinct forms and licences of usage, their practice was dynamic and open to negotiation and manipulation. The novelistic representation of characters’ social interaction permits the interpretation of social etiquette in practical context.

The second session builds on sociolinguistic insights. Based on a survey of the repertories of terms of address found in our corpus of novels, it outlines the system of rules underlying the usage of these paradigms. It discusses cases in which terms of address are commented on.

Click here to access the link to the meeting at the École Practique des Hautes Études, where Professor Altenburger is a visiting Professor in the summer semester 2023.