Beyond the City Wall

定宜庄Beijing Publishing House2017

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A volume in the Beijing Oral History series, edited and compiled by Ding Yizhuang from her own interviews. The book shifts its gaze from the hutongs and courtyard mansions inside the city wall to the suburban belt around Beijing: the old grain route into the capital, the graves and pine woods around Jiasong and Jinsong, the clear-water river at Landianchang, the villages near the ruins of the Old Summer Palace, the market street of Xiyuan, the "Inner Three Banners" barracks by Tsinghua Garden, and a Hui village north of the city. Ding visits ordinary people whose families have lived in these suburbs for generations—Liu Ziyang, Guan Junmin, Zhang Qiang, He Shuyu, Si Wenqin, Zhao Yi, Hu Fuzhen, Jin Baoqin, Wu Shuhua, Huang Bingcheng, Li Shouxun, and others—and, by setting oral testimony against documentary research, shows how their lives were tied to the city and how suburb and capital shaped each other over the decades. The book covers such concrete aspects of life as grain-route transport, grave-keeping families, the skills of the "diligent trades," descendants of the Jianrui Battalion, and village livelihoods in the aftermath of the Old Summer Palace's destruction. It also includes appendices of folk songs and ballads sung by interviewees, family genealogies, and other materials. For scholars of urban and oral history, it opens up the historical layers of a ring of people and places beyond the wall that are too often overlooked.
ISBN
9787200122886

Tags

History Oral History Historical ReappraisalRuinsSocial ObservationOral History SourcesResearchersPopular NarrativeBeijingFolk BalladsBalladsOrdinary People

Summary

Beyond the City Wall

Editor's review

北京史研究长期聚焦于“城”内，城墙之外的一圈城郊往往被当作过渡地带而略过。定宜庄的这本书恰把镜头掉转过去，去问那些住在粮道边、坟地旁、营房与村落中的人：你们的日子是怎么过的。口述者的语言朴素，却常在不经意间带出旗营制度、陵墓祭祀、漕运粮道、圆明园劫难等大历史的痕迹，比抽象的制度叙述更能让人感到历史如何落在具体生活里。定宜庄是国内口述历史实践的先行者，采访与整理都保持了克制：不替口述者拔高，也不以文献覆盖声音，而是让文献与回忆互相校验。书中附录的家世谱系、民歌民谣和自述手稿，为研究者保留了进一步使用的原始层次。对关心北京城市变迁、旗人社会与底层生活的读者来说，这是一本可以慢慢读、也值得反复查的书。

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Reading tips

  1. 可先读序言，把握“城郊作为城市边缘”的问题意识，再读各篇口述
  2. 每篇口述后可对照书末后记与附录，看文献与回忆如何相互印证
  3. 不熟悉旗营制度者，可先略读附录的世系与营房说明，再回读正文
  4. 把各篇按地理方位在地图上标出，能更直观看到京郊与京城的空间关系

About the publisher

Beijing Publishing House China · Founded in 1956

Beijing Publishing House is a comprehensive Chinese publisher whose history, according to public information, dates back to the 1940s and which has operated under its current name since 1956. Its eight titles in our catalog span social fiction, essays and miscellaneous writings, history, language and self-help for young readers. Representative works include Ye Guangqin's Cain Sangzi and Wang Meng's A Lifetime of Living: Wang Meng's Life Experience, as well as The First Book to Understand China's Structure: From Vassal States to Empire and East-West Dialogue: A Conversation Between Media Tycoons. For young readers, there are Du Xingdong's creativity course and several series of financial wisdom stories and ability-building books. Its authors include Ye Guangqin, Wang Meng, Liu Changle and Murdoch, reflecting a publishing profile that values both literature and intellectual culture. Public information is limited, so further directions are not known.

Contents

  1. Beijing Oral History

FAQ

这本书讲的是北京城里还是城外？ 主要讲城外。全书聚焦北京城郊地带，如进京粮道沿线、架松与劲松、蓝靛厂、圆明园周边、西苑以及京北村落，探讨城郊与京城之间相互依存又彼此边缘的关系。
“北京口述历史”是一套什么样的丛书？ 这是北京出版社陆续推出的一套口述史丛书，由定宜庄主编，收录《八旗子弟的世界》《胡同里的姑奶奶》《府门儿·宅门儿》《城墙之外》《宣武区消失之前》等多种，大多取材于对老北京居民的访谈。
书里的内容都是口述原文吗？ 主体是定宜庄对十余位城郊居民的口述访谈整理，并配有文献考证与注释；部分篇目后附有世系简介、民歌民谣、手稿节选等附录材料，可作参照阅读。
需要先读过这套丛书的其它册吗？ 不需要。各册选题相对独立，本书自成单元，可直接从本书读起；若对城内旗人生活感兴趣，可再延伸阅读同丛书的其他几种。

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About the author

定宜庄 Author

Ding Yizhuang is a writer on Chinese history whose work focuses on the history of women in China. Public information about her is limited, and details of her life, education and professional positions are not widely known. The library holds one work by her, Selected Records of Adornment: Chinese Women in and around the Eighteenth Century (abridged edition), a history title that examines the lives and historical circumstances of Chinese women in and around the eighteenth century, seeking to recover women's actual experiences from historical sources. The choice of subject suggests an author who looks beyond general narrative history to the often overlooked dimension of gender, using a particular period to show where women stood amid social change. Her writing tends to let the sources speak, in plain prose that balances scholarship with readability, and should suit general readers interested in women's history from the Ming and Qing onward. Given the limited verifiable material, a fuller assessment of her work must await more publications.}