IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB318397692

Walls and Gates, Windows and Mirrors: Urban Defences, Cultural Memory, and Security Theatre in Song Kaifeng (2014)

Ari Daniel Levine (Author)

East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Issue: 39
Pages: 55-118

URI: http://www.jstor.org/stable/eastasiascietech.39.55

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song (960-1127) dynasty, boasted sophisticated siege defence installations, which were ultimately breached by the Jurchen invasion of 1126-1127. According to both the archaeological and textual evidence, its concentric city walls and militarized gates with barbicans and bastions represented a crucial stage in the militarization of urban form in early-modern China, as well as a more open approach to planning. While Kaifeng’s urban defences evoked imperial majesty and personal security for Northern Song residents who described them, diasporic literati of the Southern Song (1127-1279) invoked the violation of this defensive perimeter as a metonym for the invasion of their lost homeland. The concept of security theatre explains how Northern Song Kaifeng’s city walls and gates could simultaneously function as efficacious siege defence installations and be perceived as symbolic defences.

...More

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB318397692/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Qiao, Xunxiang; (2007)
On the Form of Gongxian and Liaoli in Yingzao Fashi (/isis/citation/CBB000933497/)

Article Ma, Liping; (2008)
Position of the Sun in Ancient Chinese Records of Solar Eclipses (/isis/citation/CBB000933512/)

Article Dong, Yuyu; (2008)
A Study on the Performance of the Northern Song Government's Managing Astronomical Activities by Analyzing Fengyuan Li Reform (/isis/citation/CBB000933524/)

Article Zuo, Ya; (2010)
The Production of Written Knowledge Under the Rubric of Jiyi (/isis/citation/CBB001034998/)

Book Jiren Feng; (2012)
Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao Fashi Building Manual (/isis/citation/CBB148044905/)

Article Han, Jishao; (2006)
Alchemy and Copper-Smelting in Song Dynasty (/isis/citation/CBB000630905/)

Article Liu, Shu-fen; (2006)
Between self-cultivation and the monastic code: tea and medicinal soup during the Tang and Song Dynasties (/isis/citation/CBB000701136/)

Chapter Joseph Dennis; (2011)
Early Printing in China Viewed from the Perspective of Local Gazetteers (/isis/citation/CBB969016406/)

Article L. U. Mingxin; (2013)
The Identity of Scholars and Study of Febrile Diseases in Song Dynasty:A Case Study of Guo Yong's Shanghan Buwanglun (/isis/citation/CBB964019120/)

Article Chu, Ping-yi; (2006)
Narrations of histories of medicine from the Song Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Confucian physician (/isis/citation/CBB000701137/)

Article Li, Zhen; (2009)
Study on the Masonry of Traditional Chinese Architecture during and after the Sui and Tang Dynasties (/isis/citation/CBB000933761/)

Article Lamouroux, Christian; (2010)
Le Travail Artisanal En Chine (Xe--XIIe Siècles) (/isis/citation/CBB001252105/)

Chapter Ronald Egan; (2011)
To Count Grains of Sand on the Ocean Floor: Changing Perceptions of Books and Learning in the Song Dynasty (/isis/citation/CBB322905969/)

Article Qiao, Xunxiang; (2006)
The Technology of Orientation and Levelling in Yingzao Fashi (/isis/citation/CBB001020743/)

Article Han, Jishao; (2008)
External Alchemy and the Science of the TCM Formula in the Song Dynasty (/isis/citation/CBB000933534/)

Article Sun, Xiaochun; (2006)
Calendar-Testing in the Song Calendar Reform and Ancient Chinese Planetary Astrology (/isis/citation/CBB001020786/)

Thesis Sun, Xiaochun; (2007)
State and Science: Scientific Innovations in Northern Song China, 960--1127 (/isis/citation/CBB001560524/)

Thesis Simonis, Fabien; (2010)
Mad Acts, Mad Speech, and Mad People in Late Imperial Chinese Law and Medicine (/isis/citation/CBB001561116/)

Article Han, Yi; (2007)
Livestock Epidemic Diseases and Countermeasures by the Song Government (/isis/citation/CBB001090007/)

Article Han, Jishao; (2007)
A New Inquiry into the Taoist Text Thirty-six Methods for Bringing Solids into Aqueous Solution (/isis/citation/CBB000933496/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}