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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history
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Saving the World - Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China (Hardcover)
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Saving the World - Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China (Hardcover)
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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.
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