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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 (Paperback)
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Saving the World - Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China (Paperback)
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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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