Research Guides: HIST 268: War and Military Culture in China (HC): Primary Sources: Texts and Images

Primary Sources

Primary sources can take many different forms. Letters, accounts and other kinds of documents written at the time of an event or era allow a nuanced and detailed understanding of historical issues. Material below explains ways to locate primary sources in Tripod and Worldcat. To find additional primary sources, historical studies in books and journal articles will often offer the best recommendations. Check footnotes and bibliographies for references to material written in the medieval period.

Primary Source Database

China Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980
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This collection contains a wide range of materials documenting western interaction with China from the first embassy by Lord Macartney to trade negotiations for military aircraft in the 1970s. It includes papers regarding the Macartney and Amherst Embassies, the Opium War, Arrow War, Boxer Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion, the opening of treaty ports, the creation and running of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and the birth of the People's Republic, and strong collections relating to missionaries and their experiences. It contains maps, drawings and photographs, and personal accounts of life and work in China throughout the period.

Finding Printed Copies of Primary Sources

Primary source translations that are in the Tricollege libraries will often be listed in Tripod under subject terms using the word "sources" or "early works." For example, the search (Keyword: (war OR soldier* OR military) AND Subject: (sources OR "early works") AND (Subject: (china OR chinese) produces books including:

Chinese Comfort Women: Testimonies from Imperial Japan's Sex Slaves
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During the Asia-Pacific War, the Japanese military forced hundreds of thousands of women across Asia into "comfort stations" where they were repeatedly raped and tortured. This book presents the oral histories of 12 Chinese women who were forced into "comfort stations".
Also available as an ebook in Tripod.
Diary of a Manchu soldier in seventeenth-century China: My service in the army
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This book provides the first Western translation of the diary of Dzengseo, a young Manchu officer, and recounts the events of the War of the Three Feudatories (1673-1682), fought mostly in southwestern China and widely regarded as the most serious military challenge faced by the Manchus before the Taiping rebellion (1851-1864). The author's participation in the campaign provides the close-up, emotional perspective on what it meant to be in combat, while also providing a rare window into the overall organization of the Qing army, and new data in key areas of military history such as combat, armament, logistics, rank relations and military culture.
Documents on the Rape of Nanking
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The Japanese Army's conduct from December 1937 to February 1938 constitutes one of the most barbarous events not just of the war but of the century. The violence was documented at the time and then redocumented during the war crimes trial in Tokyo after the war. This book brings together materials from both moments to provide the first comprehensive dossier of primary sources on the Rape.
The history and the life of Chinggis Khan: the secret history of the Mongols
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The Tobchi'an (the History ) was written in the Uighuro-Mongol script by Mongol scholars, possibly between 1228 and 1258, and records events during the period from the late 8th to the middle 13th century. It is translated and annotated by Mongolian-born scholar Onon (Cambridge U.).
Manchu-Mongol relations on the eve of the Qing Conquest: a documentary history
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"The original Manchu and Mongol documents selected for this publication, translated and amply annotated, provide fascinating new information about the relations between Manchus and Mongols before the Manchu conquest of China." "They include diplomatic correspondence, military liaisons, legal cases, and records of tribute missions and present a detailed picture of the relative position of the various Mongol tribes vis-a-vis the future emperors of China."--BOOK JACKET.

Manuscript Illustration

Genghis Khan and Chinese envoys (Wikimedia Commons)

Visual Resources

JSTOR Images (formerly Artstor)
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A digital library that provides access to thousands of digital images derived from a variety of museum, library and archival collections. Images support a variety of disciplines including architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design.

Age of the Great Khan: Painting and Calligraphy in the Mongol Yuan Dynasty
The National Palace Museum created this website to accompany an exhibit on Mongol art in China. There are many images which can be browsed or searched. Thematic sections include:
Marco Polo;
Recluse Scholars;
Polyethnic Scholars;
The Imperial Clan
Scrolls of the Mongol Invasion of Japan
Presents 13th century scrolls which were commissioned by a Japanese warrior who had fought against the Mongols.
See also a study of these scrolls by Thomas Conlan along with a facsimile of the images: In Little Need of Divine Intervention.
How to read Chinese paintings
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"The Chinese way of appreciating a painting is often expressed by the words du hua, "to read a painting." How does one do that? Because art is a visual language, words alone cannot adequately convey its expressive dimension. How to Read Chinese Paintings seeks to visually analyze thirty-six paintings and calligraphies from the encyclopedic collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in order to elucidate what makes each a masterpiece."-BOOK JACKET.
Chinese Posters: Propaganda, Politics, History, Art
This is a continuation of the Stefan Landsberger's Chinese Propaganda Poster Pages. The site features over 5,000 posters searchable by keyword.
Maps of the Chinese Civil War
This site from Westpoint provides nine maps for different aspects of the Chinese Civil War.