Susan Naquin

A historian of early modern China concerned particularly with how to use religious institutions and activities to understand the cultural and social organizations that lay outside the state and the family. Millenarian Rebellion in China (1976) and Shantung Rebellion (1981) used Qing dynasty archives to reconstruct sectarian networks, uncover millenarian religious beliefs, and show how these led to violent action in 1813 and 1774.  Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century (1987), a co-written synthetic work, analyzed the differential but shared boom of this prosperous high Qing era. A co- edited volume on Pilgrims and and Sacred Sites (1992) introduced the characteristics of pilgrimage practices in China’s non-monotheistic culture.  Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900 (2000) explored the roles of religious institutions as significant public spaces in the capital city and urban life.  Current work uses the material artifacts of the North China temple to look beyond the conventional parameters of Chinese Art, to illuminate the importance of ordinary craftsmen and materials, and to explore the regional culture of North China.