Migration, Identity, and Colonial Fantasies in A Fifth-Century Story Collection

Abstract:

The fourth-century migration of northern Chinese was a traumatic event. Fleeing non-Han invaders, the migrants crossed the Yangzi River and settled in the south, where they asserted their sovereignty over local peoples. Using the concept of settler colonialism to redefine the northern émigré elite, this article explores the complex issues of class, ethnicity, and gender in their fraught encounters with the local population. The source is a fifth-century collection of “anomaly accounts,” An Account of the Hidden and Visible Realms (You ming lu). Compiled by Liu Yiqing (403–444), an imperial prince representing the northern émigré elite, this story collection is a record of incidents that took place on the borders of the knowable world and the indigenous spirit realm, embodying the tensions and conflicts in the violent process of migration and colonization.