Epistolary Networks in Song China (960-1279)

I am interested in the scholar-official communities that maintained their relationships by epistolary connections in middle period China. In this project I will focus on literati officials who exchanged letters with each other in Song China (960-1279). By examining the relationship of epistolary networks as manifested in digital analyses and the political allegiances of scholar-officials as historians have understood them, I hope to come up with some observations on patterns of elite networks and written communication. This builds on the understanding that I have of Chinese letters from my doctoral research on letter writing practices of the same historical period and geographical region, which is based mostly on non-digital analysis. Using digital methods will hopefully give us insights on the uses and limitations of computational analysis for studying Chinese epistolary sources.