Statesmen and Gentlemen: The Elite of Fu-Chou Chiang-Hsi, in Northern and Southern Sung (Cambridge Studies in Chinese History, Literature and Institutions)

Statesmen and Gentlemen is an important study of the way in which, during the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries, China's ruling meritocracy was transformed into a locally rooted elite whose principal aim was the consolidation of their power, wealth and influence on a local as opposed to a national and dynastic basis. Professor Hymes offers a remarkable picture of the institutional and social changes this process entailed, but he also examines in detail the subtle ways in which the elite's perception of itself and its social role changed and it came to offer powerful support to local self-defence, social welfare, religious cults and temple-building. Professor Hymes' important study, examines the locally rooted elite in twelfth- and thirteenth-century China and the elite's perception of itself and its social role when it came to offering powerful support to local self-defence, social welfare, religious cults and temple-building. Robert P. Hymes. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 354-367.