A reassessment of source citation issues in The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China by Mark Elvin

Abstract

Abstract Mark Elvin’s The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China is one of the best comprehensive works on the environmental history of China both at home and abroad, and has deservedly garnered much praise. However, the rationality of the sources it cites and the suitability of their application is quite controversial, chiefly centering on how sources in the category of poetry and literature, which are newly drawing attention, can more effectively play a role in the field of environmental history. One of Elvin’s objectives was to outline the true history of environmental development, drawing upon traditional sources from the classical Chinese canons as well as previous Chinese findings, and with respect to the interpretation of specific environmental issues, he essentially realized this vision. However, that he relied solely on interpretations of poetic and literary sources in elevating microcosmic events to macroscopic constructs seems like a stretch, and errors and misinterpretations arising from substituting psychological facts for historical facts are present as well; the addition of “overreaching” value judgments causes him to unwittingly succumb to the pitfall of the theory of linear aggravation of environmental decline. He is not the sole example of such tendencies, which are also clearly reflected in environmental histories of China written by Western scholars, as represented by Robert B. Marks, Elizabeth C. Economy, and so on, and which are in urgent need of correction. Appropriate sources are the basis for an accurate understanding of environmental issues, and objective interpretation is the premise for obtaining rational solutions. Avoiding existing malpractices, transforming the historical sources in various disciplines, and clarifying the place of the “environment” in the past, present and future are still focal points in current research on the environmental history of China.