E-Book Overview
In Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers, Yonghua Liu presents a detailed study of how a southeastern Chinese community experienced and responded to the process whereby Confucian rituals - previously thought unfit for practice by commoners - were adopted in the Chinese countryside and became an integral part of village culture, from the mid fourteenth to mid twentieth centuries. The book examines the important but understudied ritual specialists, masters of rites (lisheng), and their ritual handbooks while showing their crucial role in the ritual life of Chinese villagers. This discussion of lisheng and their rituals deepens our understanding of the ritual aspect of popular Confucianism and sheds new light on social and cultural transformations in late imperial China.
E-Book Content
Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers Yonghua Liu - 978-90-04-25725-2 Brill.com02/15/2019 01:12:25AM via Xiamen University Religion in Chinese Societies Edited by Kenneth Dean, McGill University Richard Madsen, University of California, San Diego David Palmer, University of Hong Kong VOLUME 6 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/rics Yonghua Liu - 978-90-04-25725-2 Brill.com02/15/2019 01:12:25AM via Xiamen University Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers Ritual Change and Social Transformation in a Southeastern Chinese Community, 1368–1949 By Yonghua Liu LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 Yonghua Liu - 978-90-04-25725-2 Brill.com02/15/2019 01:12:25AM via Xiamen University Cover illustration: Justus Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese (London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, 1868), 196. This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1877-6264 ISBN 978-90-04-25724-5 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25725-2 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Yonghua Liu - 978-90-04-25725-2 Brill.com02/15/2019 01:12:25AM via Xiamen University CONTENTS List of Tables, Figures, Illustrations, and Maps ...................................... Terms for Measures and Money ................................................................. Acknowledgements ......................................................................................... ix xi xiii Part one Introduction 1 Confucian Rituals in Late Imperial Chinese State and Society .... Commoners, Confucian Rituals, and Neo-Confucianism ........ The Appropriation of Confucian Rituals ...................................... A Social History of Rituals in Sibao ................................................ Principal Themes ................................................................................. Sources .................................................................................................... 3 4 8 13 17 20 2 History at the Periphery: Tingzhou and Sibao ........