The Board of Directors of the James P. Geiss & Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation is delighted to announce nine awards made during the spring application cycle:
SUBVENTIONS
Observing the Unseen: Curiosity and Common Knowledge in Early Modern China by Andrew Schonebaum I University of Washington Press, forthcoming December 2025
Observing the Unseen explores perspectives in early-modern China around such questions as, how did people understand invisible or puzzling aspects of their natural world? How were things investigated and envisioned when they lacked visual context, either because they were everywhere (water, wind, life) or nowhere (dragons, the future)? Schonebaum pursues these topics by examining “practical” literature; local and court histories, gazetteers, and newspapers; and “entertainment” literature. The result is an enlightening sweep through early-modern imaginings and beliefs.
Up the River of Time: The Chinese Painting Tradition of Qingming Shanghe by Cheng-hua Wang I Harvard University Asia Center, Publications Program, forthcoming December 2025
This book is the first study in any language that treats the entire cultural constellation of the more than 100 surviving handscroll paintings with the title Qingming shanghe (Up the River during Qingming), which span six hundred years, from the early twelfth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. The book not only examines the production contexts of different versions in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties, but also explores the cultural imaginings that the name Qingming shanghe could evoke. Furthermore, it takes a deeper dive into the artistic, political, and sociocultural realms that these paintings helped shape.
PROJECTS
Book Prizes for Ming Studies I Thomas Kelly and Guojun Wang, Society for Ming Studies
An award from the Geiss Hsu Foundation will allow the Society for Ming Studies to continue awarding book prizes in Ming Studies to increase the visibility of pathbreaking work on Ming China within the broader field of Asian Studies and related disciplines. A committee of senior Ming scholars will review nominated publications, and prizes will be awarded at the Society for Ming Studies’ annual meeting-in-conjunction, held at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference.
International Conference: Poetics and Politics of the Human Body in Premodern China I Guojun Wang, McGill University, and Paola Zamperini, Northwestern University
In recent decades, there has been a marked increase in scholarly focus on the human body across various disciplines. In Chinese studies, scholars have examined the human body in contexts including medical, political, military, religious, and legal frameworks. While studies of Chinese literature have traditionally approached themes of death, ghosts, spirits, and resurrected skeletons, recent scholarship has directly investigated the “literary body” in fiction and poetry. Building on this momentum, this two-day conference at McGill University will explore embodied themes within the context of premodern Chinese literature and culture.
The Journal of the Society for Ming Studies Editorship I Thomas Kelly and Guojun Wang, Society for Ming Studies
An award from the Geiss Hsu Foundation will support efforts to maintain, expand and promote the impact of the Journal of the Society for Ming Studies (Ming Studies) by funding a stiped for the editor of the Journal, who acts as both the academic editor and managing editor. This support will enable the editor to creatively develop the Journal’s digital presence through website design and to explore new publishing opportunities for the currently inactive Ming Studies monograph series as Ming Studies enters its fifth decade.
Manuscript Review Workshop for Relieving the People: Epidemic Management and Confucian Statecraft in Post-Imjin War Korea, 1592-1720 I Baihui Duan, Lancaster University
Relieving the People examines the environmental, medical, and political aftermath of the Imjin War (1592-1598), which was waged between Japan, Korea, and China. Central to the book is the concept of “relieving the people”, derived from Confucian texts on benevolence and medical manuals. The book details how this principle shaped official and local responses to outbreaks, particularly efforts to aid potential virus carriers such as soldiers, displaced people, the sick poor, and prisoners. Senior scholars in the fields of early modern Chinese medicine, Korean medicine, and environmental history will participate in the manuscript review workshop.
Ming History English Translation Project I Yiming Ha, Pomona College and Hong Kong University
The Ming History English Translation Project (MHETP) is a collaborative project that makes available translations from Chinese to English of portions of the 明史 Mingshi, or the Official History of the Ming Dynasty. Compiled from materials collected over the course of the Ming period (1368-1644) and thereafter, it contains valuable information on Ming government, society, and prominent individuals and is one of the most important sources for the study of Ming history. GHF funding will support website hosting and other technology fees.
Planning Meeting on the Historical Ecology of Villages in Wuyuan County I Ian Miller, St. John’s University; Xin Yu, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; Ye Hua, Hong Kong University; Yiyang Jiang, University of Michigan
A group of established and emerging scholars specializing in environmental history, genealogy, geomantic knowledge, and the spatial arrangement of folk religions will meet to plan the next stage of an intensive fieldwork project on fengshui landscapes in Wuyuan County. Research goals include developing a more nuanced understanding of China’s historical ecology, especially of how it changed in the Ming and early Qing; developing new methodologies for historical ecology; and providing historical baselines and models for contemporary efforts to stabilize the climate and protect local and regional ecologies.
UTMOST: Uncovering Traces of Ming Occupations through Sociological Theory I Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick; Sarah Schneewind, UC San Diego; and Ying Zhang, Leiden University
This multi-year project aims to broaden knowledge of Ming society by examining non-gentry workers. The research will explore the potential of using Chicago-school occupational sociology to study work in the Ming through the analysis of a wide variety of primary sources. Organizers will make studies available to researchers and teachers; introduce the framework to historians both inside and outside the Ming field; test and refine the framework for Ming and for the past more broadly; and offer contributions to sociologists of knowledge and others who wish to go beyond Euro-centrism. The project includes a workshop, conference, and publication.