Description
Book SynopsisThis pathbreaking work argues that the major intellectual trend in China from the 17th through the early 19th century was Confucian ritualism, as expressed in ethics, classical learning, and discourse on lineage.
Trade Review"Wide-ranging, exhaustively documented, bold in its interpretations, and attuned simultaneously to questions of intellectual and social history—a rarity in sinological studies—this work will cause a sweeping reassessment of the eighteenth century in modern China's 'Confucian' past. The author's exciting new interpretation of textual scholarship and classical studies both challenges existing theories in modern Chinese intellectual history and adds rich support for new studies of social change at the local level in late imperial times."—Susan Mann, University of California, Davis
"Excellent. . . . Much of Chow's book is devoted to delineating the relationship between scholarly debates on ritual and concrete efforts at lineage building. In this endeavor he pulls together several major strands of recent scholarship on the Ch'ing: work on intellectual trends, elite patterns of dominance, lineage development, ritual, and popular culture."—
Journal of Asian Studies"Chow has produced a work of superb scholarship, fluently written and beautifully researched. . . . One of the landmarks of the current reconstruction of the social philosophy of the Qing dynasty. . . . Chow's book is indispensable. It has illuminating analyses of many mainstream writers, institutions, and social categories in eighteenth-century China which have never previously been examined."—
Canadian Journal of HistoryChow's monograph moves ritual to center stage in late imperial social and intellectual history, and the author makes a powerful case for doing so. . . . Because the author understands the intellectual history of late Ming and Qing as the history of a movement, or successive movements, of fundamental social reform, he has also made an important contribution to social and political history as these were related to intellectual history."—
Journal of Chinese Religion"Chow's book is an excellent contribution to recent scholarship on the intellectual history of the Confucian tradition and provides a balance for other studies that have emphasized ideas to the exclusion of symbols."—
The Historian"...rich, meticulously researched, and theoretically informed..."—
Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryTable of ContentsReign periods of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties Introduction 1. The crisis of the confucian order and didactic responses 2. Ritualist ethics and textual purism in the K'ang-hsi reign 3. Lineage discourse: gentry, local society, and the state 4. Ancestral rites and lineage in early Ch'ing scholarship 5. Ritual and the classics in the early Ch'ing 6. Linguistic purism and the hermeneutics of the Han learning movement 7. Ritualist ethics and the Han learning movement 8. Ritualism and gentry culture: women and lineage Conclusion Reference matter Notes Bibliography Character list Index.
