ChinaKnowledge.de -
An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art

Dr. phil. Ulrich Theobald (MBA) 田宇利, Editor

Senior Lecturer, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen, Germany

Academic Career

  • Since 2016 Senior Lecturer, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen
  • 2009 PhD Sinology, Faculty of Humanities, University of Tübingen
  • 2003-2016 Lecturer, Department of Chinese Studies, Tübingen
  • 2005-2016 Teacher, Leibniz College, Tübingen
  • 2002 MBA International Marketing, University of Applied Sciences/ESB, Reutlingen
  • 2000 MA Sinology, Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of Tübingen

Research Focus

Specializing in the economic, military, and administrative history of late imperial China Dr. Theobald's research projects include an analysis of the Second Jinchuan Campaign (1771-1776): Economic, Social and Political Aspects of an Important Qing Period Border War (2013). This book is the most detailed study to date of the financing and supply arrangements of one of the great wars of the Qing dynasty. It was carried out as part of the international research project "Monies, Markets, and Finance in China and East Asia, 1600-1900", funded by the German Research Foundation.

One of his current projects investigates the impact of the sale of offices during the 18th/19th centuries on the employment structure of state examination graduates, with a shift to life-long modes of "on-the-job training". The project "Administrative Military Law in Late Imperial China: Accounting (Junxu zeli 軍需則例) and Production of Weapons and the Managing of Arsenals (Junqi zeli 軍器則例)" is one of just a few studies of zeli regulations for administrative purposes. An analysis and translation of Zheng Qiao's 鄭樵 Tongzhi jiaochou lüe 通志校讐略 (1161) and Zhang Xuecheng's 章學誠 Jiaochou tongyi 校讐通義 (1779) offers a contribution to theoretical approaches in historical Chinese bibliography. At present a project on Jiang Fangzhen's 蔣方震 (Jiang Baili 蔣百里, 1882-1938) book Caibing jihua shu 裁兵計畫書 (1923) is conducted. In this writing, published during the height of the warlord confrontations in northern China, Jiang brought forward suggestions for a regulated mode of demobilization and shortly described a federal system of autonomous "United Provinces" (liansheng zizhi 聯省自治).

Major Publications

Dr. Theobald is editor of the books Money in Asia (1200 -1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts (with Jane K. Leonard; Brill 2015) and Southwest China in Regional and Global Perspectives (c. 1600 - 1911): Metals, Transport, Trade and Society (with CAO Jin; Brill 2018), and author of War Finance and Logistics in Late Imperial China: A Study of the Second Jinchuan Campaign (Brill 2013) and several articles on monetary history, employment of civilians in the military, military pay and corruption, weights and measures, as well as on Chinese empresses, musical theory and the history of energy in traditional China. A book on the history of bibliography in China is in progress.

Other Activities

Ulrich Theobald is the editor of ChinaKnowledge.de, a widely known online encyclopaedia on Chinese history, literature and art, and author of the more than 3,000 articles found in it. Between 2014 and 2016 he was co-editor of the journal East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine. He also developed a curriculum for the documentary Manchu language which he has been teaching since 2008.

Full List of Publications

Books

  • (2018, as editor with CAO Jin) Southwest China in Regional and Global Perspectives (c. 1600 - 1911): Metals, Transport, Trade and Society (Leiden: Brill).
  • (2015, as editor with Jane K. Leonard) Money in Asia (1200 -1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts (Leiden: Brill). (Monies, Markets and Finance in East Asia. 6)
  • (2013) War Finance and Logistics in Late Imperial China: A Study of the Second Jinchuan Campaign (1771-1776) (Brill: Leiden). (Monies, Markets and Finance in East Asia. 5)
  • (2011) The Second Jinchuan Campaign (1771-1776): Economic, Social and Political Aspects of an Important Qing Period Border War. PhD Diss., Tübingen (print on demand).
  • [1999] Das Bild der Kaiserin Lü (r. 187-180 v. Chr.) in Geschichtsschreibung und Literatur (Tübingen, unveröffentlichte Magisterarbeit).

Articles

  • (2020). "Tibetan and Qing Troops in the Gorkha Wars (1788–1792) as Presented in Chinese Sources: A Paradigm Shift in Military Culture", Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines, 53: 114-146.
  • (2018) "Xunzi: An Early Confucian Master on the Nature of Man", in Nuño Alberto Valenzuela Alonso, transl. La naturaleza del hombre es malvada: Por el maestro Xun Kuang, con la traducción del capítulo 23 del Xun Zi, y notas exegéticas.
  • (2017) "Beamtenernennung, Anwartschaft auf ein Amt und Beamte auf Probe im späten Kaiserreich", in Jonas Polfuß und Kerstin Sturm (eds.), Recht und Gerechtigkeit in China: Jahrbuch der Deutschen Vereinigung für Chinastudien, 11 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), pp. 271-292.
  • (2018) "Southwest China: Local Conditions and Economic Trajectories", in Ulrich Theobald und CAO Jin (eds.), Southwest China in Regional and Global Perspectives (c. 1600 - 1911): Metals, Transport, Trade and Society (Leiden: Brill), pp. 3-41.
  • (2018, transl.) YANG Yuda, "The Copper Market of Hankou and the Illegal Trade of Yunnan Copper in the Mid-Qing Period", transl. by Ulrich Theobald, in Ulrich Theobald und CAO Jin (eds.), Southwest China in Regional and Global Perspectives (c. 1600 - 1911): Metals, Transport, Trade and Society (Leiden: Brill), pp. 145-183.
  • (2017) "Beamtenernennung, Anwartschaft auf ein Amt und Beamte auf Probe im späten Kaiserreich", in Jonas Polfuß und Kerstin Sturm (eds.), Recht und Gerechtigkeit in China: Jahrbuch der Deutschen Vereinigung für Chinastudien, 11 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), pp. 271-292.
  • (2017) "Monetary History of East Asia", in David Ludden (ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (New York: Oxford University Press).
  • (2016) "Space and Place in Administrative Military Regulations of Qing China: An Evaluation of the Legal Type of zeli", in Jérôme Bourgon (ed.), Les lieux de la loi en Chine impériale / Legalizing Space in Imperial China (Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 40): 183-206.
  • (2015) "Control the Uncontrollable: The Endless Trouble with Small Cash", in: Jane Kate Leonard / Ulrich Theobald (eds.), Money in Asia (1200 -1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts (Leiden: Brill), 1-40. (Monies, Markets and Finance in East Asia. 6), pp. 1-40.
  • (2015) "Monetary and Non-Monetary Rewards in Eighteenth Century China", in: Jane Kate Leonard / Ulrich Theobald (eds.), Money in Asia (1200 -1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts (Leiden: Brill), 398-419. (Monies, Markets and Finance in East Asia. 6)
  • (2014) "Craftsmen and Specialist Troops in Early Modern Chinese Armies", in: Kai Filipiak (ed.), Civil-Military Relations in Chinese History: From Ancient China to the Communist Takeover (New York: Routledge), 191-209. (Asian States and Empires. 7)
  • (2014) "Disorder in the General Staff: A Corruption Case during the First Jinchuan War (1747–1749)", in: Kaushik Roy and Peter Lorge (eds.), Chinese and Indian Warfare – From the Classical Age to 1870 (New York: Routledge), 234-245. (Asian States and Empires. 8)
  • (2013, with Christine Moll-Murata) "Military Employment in Qing Dynasty China", in: Erik-Jan Zürcher (ed.), Fighting for a Living: Origins, Practices and Consequences of Different Forms of Military Employment in Europe, the Middle East and Asia (1500-2000) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press), 353-392.
  • (2013) "Kaiserinmutter - Mutter Kaiserin: Die schwierige Erfüllung einer politisch-privaten Rolle", in: Heike Moser und Stephan Köhne (eds.), Frauenbilder/Frauenkörper: Inszenierungen des Weiblichen in den Gesellschaften Süd- und Ostasiens (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz), 333-350.
  • (2009) "Selbstinszenierung im Kleinen: In Lack geschnitzter Lobpreis an Ruhm und Größe der Qing-Dynastie", Tribus, 58: 117-124.
  • (2008) "Lamaismus", in: Friedrich Jaeger und Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (eds.), Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, Vols. 7 and 8 (Stuttgart: Metzler).
  • (2008) "Mandschu", in: Friedrich Jaeger und Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (eds.), Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, Vols. 7 and 8 (Stuttgart: Metzler).
  • (2008) "Mongolen", in: Friedrich Jaeger / Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (eds.), Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, Vols. 7 and 8 (Stuttgart: Metzler).

In Print

  • (2019) "Culture of War - High and Popular", in Sascha Möbius, ed. A Cultural History of War - The Age of Enlightenment (London: Bloomsbury).
  • (2019) "Liji – Yueji", in: Hartmut Grimm und Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann (eds.), Lexikon zum musiktheoretischen und musikästhetischen Schrifttum (Kassel: Bärenreiter und Stuttgart: Metzler).
  • (2016, with Clifford Ando). "Forests", in Mischa Meier (ed.), A Cultural History of the Environment, Vol. 1, The Classical Age, 3500 BCE – 400 CE (London: Bloomsbury).
  • (2016, with Winfried Schmitz). "Work, Energy, and Power", in Mischa Meier (ed.), A Cultural History of the Environment, Vol. 1, The Classical Age, 3500 BCE – 400 CE (London: Bloomsbury).

WorldCat-Indexed Online-Publications

  • (2002, with Hans Ulrich Vogel) Chinese, Japanese and Western Research in Chinese Historical Metrology: A Classified Bibliography (1925-2002) [enlarged edition 2012, revised by Cao Jin]
  • (2000 ff.) Chinaknowledge.de – An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art [over 3,000 articles; visitor frequency: ca. 3 million pageviews annually].

Reviews

  • Blind Peer Reviews for Journal of Chinese Military History, Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, Financial History Review und Journal of Ming Studies.
  • (2018) Review of "Leland Ness, with Bin Shih, Kangzhan: Guide to Chinese Ground Forces 1937–1945", in: Journal of Asian History, 52: 176-178.
  • (2018) Review of "Joseph W. Esherick and Matthew T. Combs, eds., 1943: China at the Crossroads", in: Journal of Asian History, 52: 172-175.
  • (2018) Review of "Zhihong SHI, Central Government Silver Treasury: Revenue, Expenditure and Inventory Statistics, ca. 1667-1899", in: Economic History Review, 1007-1008.
  • (2017) Review of "Wing-kin PUK, The Rise and Fall of a Public Debt Market in 16th-Century China: The Story of the Ming Salt Certificate", in: Journal of Chinese Studies, 64: 309-315.
  • (2014) Review of "Stephen Skinner, Guide to the Feng Shui Compass: A Compendium of Classical Feng Shui", in: East Asian Science Technology and Medicine, 37: 111-114.
  • (2012) Review of "R. Kent Guy, Qing Governors and their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796", in: International Journal of Asian Studies, 9/1: 141-143.
  • (2010) Review of "CAO Cong: China's Scientific Elite", in: East Asian Science Technology and Medicine, 31: 109-115.
  • (2003) Review of "ZHANG Junhua and Martin Woesler, China's Digital Dream: the Impact of the Internet on Chinese Society", in: East Asian Science Technology and Medicine, 21: 162-166.