Description
Book SynopsisAnalyzing lecture transcripts, administrative guidelines, didactic tales, and diaries, this title abandons the facile explanation that charity was a response to poverty and social unrest. It examines the social and economic changes that stimulated the fervor for doing good.
Trade Review"[Smith] convincingly proves that charity was a vibrant motivation for many in [the Ming] period." Chinese Cross Currents "Few if any equals in the scholarly studies of the actual working of local politics in late imperial China." -- Joseph McDermott Journal Of Chinese Studies "This is an extraordinary book which, in addition to adding a wealth of detail on life at the local level to the existing literature on the late Ming, also offers sophisticated analysis of the diaries on which it is largely based." -- Andrea Janku Bltn Of Sch Of Oriental & African Stds "This volume raises a great number of relevant questions with regard to China today." -- Andre Laliberte, translated by Jonathan Hall China Perspectives "The book adds... to our understanding of charity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century China, but also to our broader grasp of Ming society." Chinese Historical Review "An extraordinary book." -- Andrea Janku Bltn Of Sch Of Oriental & African Stds "A contribution to the study of premodern China's social elite ... the book deepens our understanding of gentry identity." -- Helen Dunstan American Historical Review "An important, well-researched book that fills a void left by the lack of similar publications on this topic." -- V. J. Symons Choice
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Conventions, Measurements, and Dynasties Introduction Part One: New Routines: Associations for Doing Good 1. Societies for Liberating Animals 2. Early Benevolent Societies and Their Visionary Leaders 3. The Benevolent Society among Its Alternatives 4. Lectures for the Poor-and the Rich 5. A Benevolent Society Viewed from the Margins Part Two: Enacting Charitable Routines during a Crisis 6. Mobilizing Food Relief 7. Aligning with Officials 8. Medical Relief and Other Good Deeds 9. Beliefs in Charity-and the Rhetoric of Beliefs Conclusion: From Moral Transformation toward the Legitimation of Wealth List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Character Glossary Index
