Knowing and doing emotions in times of crisis and radical change

Dealing with the overall question of how we can best approach emotion-knowledge (emotional knowledge) and emotion-practices (emotional practices) in Chinese history, this paper explores new paths to track. On both emotion-knowledge and emotion-practices in Chinese history, this paper explores new paths to track. Especially, the particular shift towards sensitivity in late 16th century, on the one hand, and on specific modes of suffering which were predominant during the long decades of the dramatic dynastic transition in early 17th century on the other hand. This double-sited approach in conjunction with a focus on notions of bodily gestures, movements and behavior through which emotions were "done", e.g. expressed and lived through is a feasible way to moving at the crossroads of different texts including literary, philosophical and medical sources. With a strong focus on the corporeal sediments of the emotions, I show evidence that people at the time under observation (16th and 17th centuries) in particular were concerned with their bodily fabric, and they refused to be guided by the Neo-Confucian perceptions of emotions.