*本文来自“海外中文研究资讯”。
Publication date：
12 - 07 - 2021
【内容简介】
Making the Palace Machine Work: Mobilizing People, Objects, and Nature in the Qing Empire brings the studies of institutions, labour, and material cultures to bear on the history of science and technology by tracing the workings of the Imperial Household Department (Neiwufu) in the Qing court and empire. An enormous apparatus that employed 22,000 men and women at its heyday, the Department operated a "machine" with myriad moving parts. The first part of the book portrays the people who kept it running, from technical experts to menial servants, and scrutinises the paper trails they left behind. Part II uncovers the working principles of the machine by following the production chains of some of its most splendid products: gilded statues, jade, porcelain, and textiles. Part III examines the complex task of managing living organisms and natural environments, including lotus plants grown in imperial ponds in Beijing, fresh medicines sourced from disparate regions, and tribute elephants from Southeast Asia.
藉由追索清朝内务府的工作，《运行宫廷：大清帝国人、物、自然的调度者》（Making the Palace Machine Work: Mobilizing People, Objects, and Nature in the Qing Empire）将制度、劳工与物质文化的研究与科技史相连结。这个巨大的机构在全盛期有多达2万2千名男、女工作者，像一台有无数零件驱动的大型机器。 本书的第一部份描写让内务府运作的人力，从技术专家到仆人，详细查阅他们留下的文件。第二部份循着内务府最光荣的产品：镀金雕像、玉器、瓷器与纺织品的生产程序，揭示内务府的工作原则。第三部分处理最为复杂的工作，管理皇宫中各式生物，包括北京皇家池塘生长的莲花、来自不同地区的新鲜草药，以及东南亚上贡的大象。
【编者简介】
Martina Siebert（马君兰 德国柏林国立图书馆中文典藏专家）
Martina Siebert works as subject librarian at the East Asia department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and as independent scholar. She researches and publishes on the history of Chinese exploration into nature and technology with a focus on the styles and agendas of presenting and organizing that knowledge in writing.
Kai Jun Chen（陈恺俊 布朗大学东亚研究系助理教授）
Kai Jun Chen is Assistant Professor at Brown University. The author of a forthcoming monograph on the technocratic culture in the Qing Imperial Ceramic Industry, he specialises in the history of imperial institutions, handicraft technology, and material culture studies.
Dorothy Ko（高彦颐 哥伦比亚大学巴纳德学院历史系教授）
A native of Hong Kong, Dorothy Ko is Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is a cultural historian of early modern China whose research and publication focus on gender, technology, and material culture.
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