Preface to Volume 84

Our first article is Yuanfei Wang’s “What Hangs on a Hairpin: Inalienable Possession and Language Exchange in Two Marriage Romances” which compares Jiang Fang’s (792–835), “Huo Xiaoyu’s Story”, with Tang Xianzu’s (1550–1616) dramatic adaptation, The Purple Hairpins (1595). In particular, Yuanfei Wang focuses on the hairpins and examines how they differ in function, meaning and materiality in these works. Our second article is “Predicament of the Hongwu Emperor and his Defense for the Regime’s Legitimacy” by Yan Xuanjun and Han Xu. Starting from the premise that Zhu Yuanzhang needed to override both loyalty scholars held for the previous Yuan dynasty and a personal disdain because of his humble status, Yan and Han posit that in the first three years the emperor made a concerted effort to establish the legitimacy of his rule through the use of the Mandate of Heaven, an intense courtship of scholars and the offer of positions to these and other scholars in compiling first a history of the Yuan dynasty, and secondly a book on rituals for the Ming dynasty. In this issue, we have included two interviews. The first is Paola Zamperini’s interview of Katherine Carlitz, a scholar whose work on Ming literature, especially the Jinpingmei, and Ming history, and especially the lives of Chinese women during this period, has been very influential in the field. The second interview, conducted by Jo-lan Yi is with Li Lin-yueh, who has made signal contributions to the study of the Ming through its politics, culture, social structure and education. Aaron Molnar contributes a review of John Dardess’ More than the Great Wall: The Northern Frontier and Ming National Security, 1368–1644. We conclude withMing News and an observation. The rise of virtual conferences and particularly virtual events and workshops has brought about some potentially altering changes in the nature of academic contact. It has meant that there is a greater possibility of sharing scholarship (and also teaching) with peers in the near backyard as well as across the globe. No doubt, in-person conferences with their benefits will return, but the advantage of doing a low-key workshop for a couple of conveniently aligned hours has been made clear to any and sundry who participated in any over the past year. Secondly, tracking this intensified networking (for the purpose of keeping abreast of one’s field) illumines the rich and often unheralded breadth of the conversations that are ongoing. The implications are thus rich Ming Studies, 84, 1–2, October 2021