Confucian Image Politics: Masculine Morality in Seventeenth-Century China

by Ying Zhang

Overview

During the Ming-Qing transition (roughly from the 1570s to the 1680s), literati-officials in China employed public forms of writing, art, and social spectacle to present positive moral images of themselves and negative images of their rivals. The rise of print culture, the dynastic change, and the proliferating approaches to Confucian moral cultivation together gave shape to this new political culture. Confucian Image Politics considers the moral images of officials—as fathers, sons, husbands, and friends—circulated in a variety of media inside and outside the court. It shows how power negotiations took place through participants’ invocations of Confucian ethical ideals in political attacks, self-expression, self-defense, discussion of politically sensitive issues, and literati community rebuilding after the dynastic change. This first book-length study of early modern Chinese politics from the perspective of critical men’s history shows how images—the Donglin official, the Fushe scholar, the turncoat figure—were created, circulated, and contested to serve political purposes.

The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295806723
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	706,817
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ying Zhang is associate professor of premodern Chinese history at Ohio State University.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Ming-Qing Reign Periods

Introduction

Part One | The Late Ming

1. Lists, Literature, and the Imagined Community of Factionalists: The Donglin

2. Displaying Sincerity: The Fushe

3. A Zhongxiao Celebrity: Huang Daozhou (1585–1646)

Interlude: A Moral Tale of Two Cities, 1644–1645: Beijing and Nanjing

Part Two | The Early Qing

4. Moralizing, the Qing Way

5. Conquest, Continuity, and the Loyal Turncoat

Conclusion

Glossary

List of Abbreviations

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

John Dardess

"A vast and erudite work. It encompasses a century in time and a cast of some hundreds of different scholar-officials. . . . The author makes a significant contribution to the study of Chinese history."

R. Kent Guy

"The research behind this book is absolutely first rate. . . . Most often this story [of dynastic transition] is told from the point of view of the government, . . . [but here] we come to see late Ming and early Qing literati through their own eyes, and in their own words and metaphors."

From the Publisher

"The research behind this book is absolutely first rate. . . . Most often this story [of dynastic transition] is told from the point of view of the government, . . . [but here] we come to see late Ming and early Qing literati through their own eyes, and in their own words and metaphors."—R. Kent Guy, author of Qing Governors and Their Provinces: The Evolution of Territorial Administration in China, 1644-1796

"A vast and erudite work. It encompasses a century in time and a cast of some hundreds of different scholar-officials. . . . The author makes a significant contribution to the study of Chinese history."—John Dardess, author of Ming China: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire

"Confucian Image Politics takes on one of the most complicated and controversial political conflicts in Chinese history: the factional struggles that rent the early modern imperial court. Zhang provides a finely nuanced and thoroughly researched analysis of the 'image politics'—a politics of Confucian moralism—that propelled the conflicts, providing both a persuasive revisionist history of a crucial moment in seventeenth-century history and a useful tool for the understanding of political conflict in China today."—Cynthia Brokaw, author of Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods

Cynthia Brokaw

"Confucian Image Politics takes on one of the most complicated and controversial political conflicts in Chinese history: the factional struggles that rent the early modern imperial court. Zhang provides a finely nuanced and thoroughly researched analysis of the 'image politics'—a politics of Confucian moralism—that propelled the conflicts, providing both a persuasive revisionist history of a crucial moment in seventeenth-century history and a useful tool for the understanding of political conflict in China today."

Interviews

The Power of Moral Perfection examines seventeenth-century Chinese "image politics." It provides students of the history of Confucianism, politics, print culture, and gender in pre-modern China with an innovative analysis of the critical roles played by Confucian ethics as a language of political communication. During the Ming-Qing transition (roughly 1570s-1680s), literati-officials employed public forms such as fictional and non-fictional writing, art, and social spectacles to present positive moral images of themselves and negative images of their rivals. These images delivered and repelled attacks, expressed opinions and emotions, negotiated trust and favor, and rallied support. The rise of print culture, the dynastic change, and the multiplying approaches to Confucian moral cultivation together gave shape to this new political culture.The Power of Moral Perfection is the first book-length study of early modern Chinese politics from the perspective of critical men’s history. By studying how some dominant images—such as those of the Donglin official, the Fushe scholar, and the turncoat figure—were created, circulated, and contested, it demonstrates that officials’ images as sons, husbands, fathers, and friends were creative responses to the evolving political conditions. Such image-making efforts not only relied on the flexibility of Confucian moralism and gender ideology but also greatly enriched them. This book is also the first in English to examine factionalism across the Ming-Qing dynastic divide. Its interdisciplinary approach treats factionalism as, simultaneously, a political, literary, cultural, and social phenomenon with trans-generational and trans-dynastic dimensions. By integrating micro-historical investigation of everyday life with a macro-historical study of social, cultural, and political changes, the book shows how, in the seventeenth century, image politics reshaped the reality that the personal was political.

Editorial Reviews

"Masterfully demonstrates the unprecedented importance assumed by print culture in the image politics of the late Ming. This reviewer. . . is deeply impressed by the richness of this study and its analytical rigor and nuances, a result of the author’s masterful command of primary sources (many of which have been rarely explored by previous scholars) and her ability to weave a fascinating and compelling historical narrative about this important period. She has done a marvelous job in defamiliarizing several familiar issues in late imperial Chinese history, such as those of literati factionalism during the late Ming and early Qing imperial politics and the relationship between the Ming loyalists and so-called turncoats in the post-Manchu conquest era, by reexamining and reframing them from new angles and thus offering so many refreshing insights. Students and scholars of Chinese history, culture, and literature, as well as comparative historians, will benefit so much from the insights and information abundant in this study, not only because it is a well-researched scholarly monograph, but also because the author has so many fascinating stories to tell about this tumultuous period in Chinese history."

Ming Studies - Martin W. Huang

"With its insightful observations and unique viewpoint, Confucian Image Politics is a major addition to the field of late imperial Chinese history. This book is essential to scholars interested in the study of gender history and political culture in the Ming and the Qing periods."

New Books Asia - Haihong Yang

"This persuasive book will change the way seasoned scholars think about Ming-to-Qing factionalism. [This] very strong first book by an emerging leader in late-imperial Chinese history leads me to expect even greater contributions from her in the future."

Journal of Chinese History - Lynn Struve

"Zhang’s great strength is in finding new angles from which to tell the story of the late Ming . . . as well as strategic uses of the vernacular never before explored in a systematic way."

Journal of Asian Studies - Katherine Carlitz

"A powerful, highly original analysis of political discourse and factional struggle from the late Ming dynasty through the early Qing. This is outstanding scholarship, demonstrating an encyclopedic knowledge of primary sources from the seventeenth century. Professor Zhang combines sophisticated discourse analysis (refreshingly free of theoretical cant), with a close reading of high literati culture (calligraphy, poetry, memoirs), to provide an utterly fresh perspective on the politics of the crucial seventeenth century in Chinese history."

China Review International - Matthew H. Sommer

"A masterful analysis of how the long-established practices of moralistic discourse and political conflict were intensified through the two actions of Yangming-inspired individual agency and the market imperatives of commercial publishing."

Kenneth J. Hammondn Historical Review

"Professor Zhang’s fine-grained study of how the many competing factions that rose and fell during the tumultuous years of the late Ming and early Qing deployed Confucian image politics complicates and defamiliarizes a political and cultural landscape that is central to understanding the late imperial period. Confucian Image Politics stands out for its first-rate close readings of a wide range of primary documents, methodological insights, and skillful storytelling that teach us how to read sources from this crucial period of fierce factional battles and whipsaw reputational changes."

Nan Nu: Men, Women and Gender in China - Maram Epstein

A masterful analysis of how the long-established practices of moralistic discourse and political conflict were intensified through the two actions of Yangming-inspired individual agency and the market imperatives of commercial publishing.

American Historical Review - Kenneth J. Hammond