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" Seeing Red : "
Lacey, Philippa Nina
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1100819
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| Doc. No
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TLets658704
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| Main Entry
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Lacey, Philippa Nina
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| Title & Author
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Seeing Red :\ Lacey, Philippa Nina
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| College
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University of East Anglia
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| Date
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2012
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| student score
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2012
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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This study explores a liminal, brightly coloured substance - red coral -through its trade and its uses in the early to mid-Qing China, 1644-1795.During the seventeenth- and eighteenth-centuries, Mediterranean Coralliumrubrum was employed as an expression of the self-representation, culturalidentity and political organisation of the Qing imperial court. Indeed, redcoral, shanhu, was one of the few European commodities to be welcomed inChina, where it was regarded as a 'national treasure' .This examination focuses on the use of red coral by evoking a Qing 'periodeye', with reference to past Chinese dynasties. It investigates the historicincentives for the appreciation and value of coral and looks at how earlierbeliefs, attitudes and uses of this unusual substance influenced the materialculture of the Qing dynasty.The first part explores the nature of red coral, its trade, processing andcrafting. It follows 'The Coral Network' recreating the journey taken bycoral via the various nodes, from the Mediterranean to Beijing. Coral wascrafted in Italy, Guangzhou and the imperial workshops, zaobanchu.The second section explores the court of the Qing emperors. As 'son ofheaven', they were the centre around which the Chinese empire wasarranged. Here, David Summers' ideas about centrality are employed as ameans to help understand the status of red coral as a mysterious,metamorphic red material, in addition to its significance in combinationwith pearls and with turquoise in imperial regalia. The value and agencyaccrued by red coral is examined through an exploration of coral's colourand materiality, and the uses and layers of associations placed upon these.This study of red coral in Qing China utilises objects, texts and visualrepresentations to suggest new ways of considering shanhu as a distinctivelycoloured prized in both religious and official Chinese material.
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| Added Entry
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University of East Anglia
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