In 1915, stalagmites in a cave in Hubei, China, were mistaken for dinosaur and dragon fossils. Soon, news spread throughout the Western world, attracting attention from Western scientists. As the Chinese warlord Yuan Shikai learned of the incident through translations and photographs in journal articles, he saw the timely appearance of the “relic” as an auspicious sign for him to step up as an emperor. Involved in this incident as geological investigator, Zhang Hongzhao became inspired to write the book The Interpretation of Three Spirits (三靈解) (1919), where he reconstructed the zoological characteristics of the mythological dragon, phoenix, and the Qilin through their etymologies and references in Chinese classics. My dissertation argues that the three forms of proof in the case—etymologies of the dragon in Three Spirits, the photographs of the “fossil” in the Scientific American and Zhang’s publications, and the rubbings of the yellow dragon from the Han Dynasty cliff engraving Wu Rui Tu (五瑞圖/Five Auspicious Signs)—are erroneously used, forming a circle of mediated evidence to infer the existence of the dragon. Engaging geology and intellectual history, my dissertation elaborates on how “modern” Western science was appropriated by Chinese politicians and reinterpreted by Chinese scholars for their political and racial motives.
The rich material on mining and mineralogy at the Clark Library is instrumental to Chapters 1 and 2 of my dissertation. As Zhang Hongzhao was one of the first in China to become acquainted with Western geology, I plan to trace the early modern origins of the Western mineralogical sources that he uses in both Shiya and Three Spirits. In particular, I also plan on studying early modern writings and representations of stalactites/stalagmites. Before the early nineteenth century when fossils were discovered, all rocks were called fossils. I will study the relationship between the stalactite and the “fossil” in different classificatory tracts, as the stalactite is a sedimentary mineral that blurs the boundaries between the animate and the inanimate. Finally, I will focus on elaborating on language as fossil through examining literature on Chinese antiquity, with a particular focus on John Webb’s The Antiquity of China (1678), which argues that the Chinese language existed before Babylonian languages. Juxtaposing Webb’s work against Zhang’s will shed light on the political conditions of their times that compelled them to draw racial and genealogical conclusions through language.
Time Spent at the Clark Library:
Before my tenure as a dissertation fellow at the Clark, I came here for a seminar with Professor Bronwen Wilson, where I learned about the intricacies of interpreting rare books through interpreting their materiality. Inspired by the way she conducted the class, I took my students to the Clark Library for one session in my seminar, where they interpreted supernatural phenomena recorded in books in the early modern period. This was their favorite session for many of my students, who gained firsthand experience in working with archival material! Since then, Clark has always been a special place for me. Beyond class, I would sometimes come and visit the archive with my cohort. My friends and I would have lunch sitting under or leaning against the massive roots of the fig tree – they were so tall that they came up to my waist. At the archive, I also took some seeds from the seed bank, which I planted at home!
I was overjoyed when I received the Clark Dissertation Fellowship. In my office at the Clark, I got an immense amount of writing done because of the tranquil and peaceful environment. Apart from working in my office and the archive, I enjoyed laying on the grass under the shade of the massive fig tree reading books, talking to William the security guard every time I arrived, hanging out with cats on the grounds, and going to symposiums at the Clark. I also enjoyed walks in the neighborhood in the afternoons, with streets lined with loquat trees, going to the corner store at Cimarron for a soda, visiting the Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) on Cimarron and Jefferson. Not only did I fall in love with the Clark, I also fell in love with the West Adams neighborhood!
– Tsz Ching Joy Zhu, Clark Dissertation Fellow