Description
Book SynopsisThrough the case of a single well-placed official, Chen Hongmou (1696-1771), this book studies the consciousness and the governing project of the 18th-century Chinese official-elite.
Trade Review"Rowe's new work can be said to be a model of painstaking and exhaustive research. It is also quite possibly the best single study ever written anywhere of the life, thought and career of a pre-1800 Chinese scholar-official . . . .This is a brilliant picture of the world of a major Chinese thinker and bureaucrat in the 1700s . . . .[It is] must reading for anyone interested in the thought and practices of Chinese politics after 1700." --
Pacific Affairs"Whatever doubts may remain regarding the phrase "early modernity" or how well Chen Hongmou represented the mainstream of eighteenth-century bureaucratic thinking, historians of China owe a debt to Rowe for sharing his stunning research talents with us in this impressive piece of scholarship." --
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies"This is a large, important, and most welcome book." --
American Historical Review"In this blockbuster book, William T. Rowe uses Chen's life to examine the culture of the 18th-century bureaucracy, encompassing nearly all the classic problems of Chinese society, past and present." --
China Quarterly"It is an essential and thought-provoking work that contributes greatly to the study of Qing history." --
China Review International"It is the merit of Rowe's fine analysis that it opens a world of discourse to future students of China's Eighteenth Century..." --
Etudes ChinoisesTable of ContentsIllustrations Preface Introduction 1. Being a Man: 1. Home 2. Politics 3. First things 4. Study Part II. Creating Prosperity: 5. Food 6. Economics 7. Production 8. Accumulation Part III. Ordering the World: 9. People 10. Governance 11. Community 12. Civilization Conclusion Notes References Character List Index.
