Saving the world : Chen Hongmou and elite consciousness in eighteenth-century China

William T. Rowe. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 457-570) And Index. Chen Hongmou (1696-1771) was arguably the most influential Chinese official of the eighteenth century and unquestionably its most celebrated field administrator. He served as governor-general, governor, or in lesser provincial-level posts in more than a dozen provinces, achieving after his death cult status as a “model official.” In this magisterial study, the author draws on Chen’s life and career to answer a range of questions: What did mid-Qing bureaucrats think they were doing? How did they conceive the universe and their society, what did they see as their potential to “save the world,” and what would the world, properly saved, be like? The answers to these questions are important not only because vast numbers of people were subject to these officials’ governance, but because the verdict of their successors was that they did their jobs remarkably well and should be emulated. Three persistent tensions in elite consciousness focus the author’s investigation. First, the elite adhered to the fundamentalist moral dictates of Song neo-Confucian orthodoxy at the same time that a new valuation of pragmatic, technocratic prowess abhorrent to the moral tradition emerged. Second, two contradictory views on the use of “statecraft” to achieve an ordered world were in play―one that favored the expansive use of the state apparatus, and one that emphasized indigenous local elites and communities. Finally, the subordination of human beings to the service of hierarchical social groupings contended with a growing appreciation of the dignity, moral worth, and productive potential of the individual. The author uses a holistic approach, attempting, for example, to explore how notions regarding gender roles and funerary ritual related to Qing economic thought, how the encounter with other cultures on the expanding frontiers helped form ideas of “civilized” conduct at home, and how an official’s negotiation of the complex Qing bureaucracy affected his approach to social policy. The author also considers how attitudes formed during the prosperous and highly dynamic eighteenth century conditioned China’s responses to the crises it confronted in the centuries to follow. "Chen Hongmou (1696-1771) was arguably the most influential Chinese official of the eighteenth century and unquestionably its most celebrated field administrator. He served as governor-general, governor, or in lesser provincial-level posts in more than a dozen provinces, achieving after his death cult status as a "model official."". "In this magisterial study, the author draws on Chen's life and career to answer a range of questions: What did mid-Qing bureaucrats think they were doing? How did they conceive the universe and their society, what did they see as their potential to "save the world," and what would the world, properly saved, be like? The answers to these questions are important not only because vast numbers of people were subject to these officials' governance, but because the verdict of their successors was that they did their jobs remarkably well and should be emulated."--BOOK JACKET. 掃瞄0001.jpg 1 掃瞄0002.jpg 2 掃瞄0003.jpg 3 掃瞄0007.jpg 4 掃瞄0008.jpg 5 Binder1.pdf 6 掃瞄0001 6 掃瞄0002 7 掃瞄0003 8 掃瞄0001 9 掃瞄0002 10 掃瞄0003 11 掃瞄0004 34 Binder2.pdf 35 掃瞄0001 35 掃瞄0002 50 Binder3.pdf 51 Binder4.pdf 75 Binder5.pdf 126 掃瞄0001 126 掃瞄0002 233 掃瞄0003 280 掃瞄0004 383 掃瞄0005 435 掃瞄0006 436 掃瞄0007 439 Binder6.pdf 443 掃瞄0001 443 掃瞄0002 471 掃瞄0003 514 掃瞄0004 564 Through 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.