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Prosopography and its potential for Middle Period research
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Gerritsen, Anne (2008) Prosopography and its potential for Middle Period research. Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, Vol.38 . pp. 161-201. ISSN 1059-3152.
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Official URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sys/summary/v038/38.g...
Abstract
Those of us whose research touches in some way on the period between the Five Dynasties and the late Ming dynasty have now for a long time heard about the existence of a database, compiled by Robert Hartwell (1932–1996), said to include the biographical data of thousands of Middle Period China civil servants. After Hartwell's death, his estate passed into the care of the Harvard Yenching Institute, where Professor Peter Bol initially took on the challenge provided by the geographical data in the estate. Hartwell's geographical data inspired the development of the China Historical GIS. 1 In contrast, the biographical data in the estate, designed by Hartwell to be used in conjunction with the geographical information, initially received less attention. Questions posed at the annual meetings of the Song and Conquest Dynasties Group only seemed to confirm that this database would not be ready for use soon. Behind the scenes, however, Professor Michael Fuller worked tirelessly at developing the biographical data included in what became known as the China Biographical Database (CBDB).
When Hartwell began to compile biographical data—initially including only officials serving in the financial administration of the Song dynasty, but later including other Middle Period civil servants as well as their associates—he designed his own database program, over time repeatedly migrating the data to new generations of programs. Fuller's tasks included structuring this highly complex data and making it available for users first in FoxPro and then in MS Access. More crucially, however, Fuller sought to redesign the tables in the database so as to ensure their usefulness for Middle Period.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DS Asia | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Prosopography -- China -- Congresses, China -- History -- Song dynasty, 960-1279 -- Congresses, Hartwell, Robert M., 1932- | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Song-Yuan Studies | ||||
Publisher: | The Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasty Studies | ||||
ISSN: | 1059-3152 | ||||
Official Date: | 2008 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Vol.38 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 161-201 | ||||
Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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