The Art of Doing Good: Charity in Late Ming China / Edition 1

by Joanna Handlin Smith

Overview

An unprecedented passion for saving lives swept through late Ming society, giving rise to charitable institutions that transcended family, class, and religious boundaries. Analyzing lecture transcripts, administrative guidelines, didactic tales, and diaries, Joanna Handlin Smith abandons the facile explanation that charity was a response to poverty and social unrest and examines the social and economic changes that stimulated the fervor for doing good. With an eye for telling details and a finesse in weaving the voices of her subjects into her narrative, Smith brings to life the hard choices that five men faced when deciding whom to help, how to organize charitable distributions, and how to balance their communities' needs against the interests of family and self. She thus shifts attention from tired questions about whether the Chinese had a tradition of charity (they did) to analyzing the nature of charity itself. Skillfully organized and engaging, The Art of Doing Good moves from discussions about moral leadership and beliefs to scrutiny of the daily operation of soup kitchens and medical dispensaries, and from examining local society to generalizing about the just use of resources and the role of social networks in charitable giving. Smith's work will transform our thinking about the boundaries between social classes in late imperial China and about charity in general.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520253636
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/11/2009
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Joanna Handlin Smith is the Editor Emeritus of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and the author of Action in Late Ming Thought: The Reorientation of Lü K'un and Other Scholar-Officials (UC Press).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"[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."—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."—Bltn of Sch of Oriental & African Stds

"This volume raises a great number of relevant questions with regard to China today."—China Perspectives

"A contribution to the study of premodern China's social elite . . . the book deepens our understanding of gentry identity."—American Historical Review

Editorial Reviews

A contribution to the study of premodern China’s social elite . . . the book deepens our understanding of gentry identity.

Helen Dunstann Historical Review

An important, well-researched book that fills a void left by the lack of similar publications on this topic.

Choice - V. J. Symons

Few if any equals in the scholarly studies of the actual working of local politics in late imperial China.

Journal Of Chinese Studies - Joseph McDermott

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.

Bltn Of Sch Of Oriental & African Stds - Andrea Janku

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

[Smith] convincingly proves that charity was a vibrant motivation for many in [the Ming] period.

Chinese Cross Currents

This volume raises a great number of relevant questions with regard to China today.

China Perspectives - Andre Laliberte

“A contribution to the study of premodern China’s social elite . . . the book deepens our understanding of gentry identity.

American Historical Review - Helen Dunstan

"[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."--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."--Bltn of Sch of Oriental & African Stds

"This volume raises a great number of relevant questions with regard to China today."--China Perspectives

"A contribution to the study of premodern China's social elite . . . the book deepens our understanding of gentry identity."--American Historical Review

From the Publisher