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(Ann)
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suitable for (Han) Chinese capitals as far back in antiquity as Yao and
Shun.^40 Hereqi’s permutations provide the narrative of a dissident Han-
space history.
Wang explores this narrative in traumatic detail as he conventionally
locates a watershed in the late Tang when“after several centuries, the
land’s virtue decayed and gradually became saline.” Exhaustion was
considered inevitable and was integral to geomantic understandings of
qimechanics that limit the geographical tenure of a dynastic capital as it
draws on“royalqi”(wang qi). In this instance, however,qidepletion
resulted in something“beyond calculation”as“the Jurchen [Jin] and
Tartars [Mongols] received the mandate”to take up imperial residence
in north China.^41 This is Wang’s unnatural disaster for a narrow, mono-
cultural Hanspace, which Zhao Yi divined as a naturally progressive
development for a wider, multicultural Hanspace.
Such conflicting identities, formed in a common Hanspace tradition,
were Han embodiments of the new environmental relations engendered
by the establishment of the Qing dynasty in 1644. Whether viewed as
natural law or crime against nature, the fact of the Qing conquest
imposed itself on Hanspace, which was itself so imposing that the
Manchu conquerors were forced into their own accommodations and
oppositions to control Han ethnic identity formation.
The Qing Throne’s Struggle for Hanspace of Its Own
The Qing literary inquisitions conducted from the Shunzhi into the
Qianlong reigns are extended testimonies to the Qing state’s concern over
Han elite identity formation.^42 The role of Hanspace in this concern is
exemplified by the 1729 Zeng Jing case, which was personally and
publicly supervised by the Yongzheng emperor.^43 The case was a unique
instance of“debate”between Han and Manchu over conflicting versions
of Hanspace. The emperor was moved to publish his official version as
the Dayi juemi lu (Record of the Great Counsel to Enlighten the
Deluded).
The accused Zeng Jing was an unsuccessful degree candidate from
Hunan working as a teacher, who decided to overthrow the Qing in
1728 after reading some of Lü Liuliang’s writings that were subtly critical
of Manchu rule. Zeng felt a particular urgency due in part to a series of
natural disasters, which he interpreted as the traditional celestial oppos-
ition to an illegitimate dynasty, that struck Hunan and nearby provinces
in that same year. Zeng had actually gone so far as to send a letter to the
36 Across Forest, Steppe, and Mountain
