Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China

Reviewed by Roger V. Des Forges

Pacific Affairs

Vol.67 No.4

1994.Winter

Pp.603-604

Copyright by University of British Columbia (Canada)

            The notable revival of Chinese Buddhism in the late Ming and early 
            Qing (circa 1550-1700 C.E.) can be explained by the idea that 
            Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism were one, but Timothy Brook, in 
            this carefully researched and engagingly written book, argues that 
            it was primarily a result of the growth in population and trade in 
            the late Ming. These forces produced a larger and wealthier gentry 
            class, and, as the number of civil service degrees and official 
            posts remained constant, even good scholars were increasingly unable 
            to distinguish themselves through public service. The upper gentry, 
            therefore, turned to patronizing Buddhist monasteries to 
            differentiate themselves from a burgeoning lower gentry as well as 
            from wealthy merchants and commoners. In the course of presenting 
            this thesis, the author delves into many aspects of Ming-Qing social 
            history. He begins by providing some historiography, rightly 
            emphasizing the gentry as a "concrete historical formation." He 
            discusses the concept of the "public sphere" and convincingly 
            identifies its "core dynamic" in China. He surveys Buddhist 
            monasteries in social context, recognizing them as "part of the 
            realm of si (private/self) that the gentry was seeking to enlarge, 
            rather than of the realm of gong (public/official) from which they 
            were excluded" (pp. 33-34). We are introduced to Zhang Dai, a 
            typical seventeenth-century dilettante who held a theatrical party 
            in a monastery but denied being a lay devotee. We see how Buddhism 
            revived in complex interaction with Neo-Confucianism and how even 
            the "radical" Li Zhi used Buddhism merely to challenge Confucianism 
            not to replace it. We are shown how Buddhism supported gentry 
            culture in "the definition of elite status" and in "the search for 
            local autonomy from the late-imperial state" (p. 125). The author 
            describes Dinghu Mountain, a monastery in Guangdong which, very 
            untypically, refused any support from land rent. He shows how the 
            gentry patronized monasteries with money, land, guanxi, and 
            literature, all of which peaked in the late Ming. He analyzes 
            appeals based on gender, kinship, religion, social welfare, and 
            culture, all of which contrasted with pitches made to merchants. A 
            section on "Patronage in Context" features three case studies of 
            poor Zhucheng county in Shandong, wealthy Yin county in Zhejiang, 
            and "late-developing" Dangyang county in Hubei. The author collates 
            name lists in gazetters to reveal that it was upper-gentry lineages 
            that provided the most consistent support for key monasteries, even 
            though there was also significant court and official patronage (and 
            even some commoner patronage in Dangyang). The author compares 
            conditions in the Southern Song, late Ming, and late Qing. He finds 
            cycles of Buddhist resurgence and gentry dominance combined with a 
            secular trend toward "the separation of state and society" that led 
            to the end of the empire in 1911. He concludes that "history was 
            ultimately unkind to the Chinese gentry," if only because "the 
            infant nation-state had no place for an elite that had learned to 
            enlarge its power at the state's expense while simultaneously 
            expecting other actors to be permanently excluded from the political 
            realm" (p. 330). While shedding much light on many topics, this 
            study also raises questions that deserve further attention. Were 
            Ming scholar-officials so beholden to the state that only Buddhism 
            could provide a basis for their autonomy? Did late-Ming gentry 
            patronize monasteries only to represent their private interests as 
            the public good or also to reassert the ideal of the virtuous 
            gentleman (junzi) in an ever-widening world? Should Western terms 
            such as "empire" and "church" - or even "state" and "gentry" - be 
            applied to China without definition or qualification? If 
            modernization theory is indeed unacceptably teleological, is the 
            notion of "late imperial China" any more helpful in understanding 
            the longterm process of continuity and change in Chinese history? 
            Can one accurately analyze the relationship between the Ming-Qing 
            period and the present without referring to early Chinese experience 
            before the Qin? Finally, is the "history of gentry society" really 
            "over," or are there still elites (in China as elsewhere) intent on 
            creating public spheres that serve their private interests at the 
            expense of the majority? This fine book implicitly raises such 
            questions; it will also undoubtedly inspire further research to 
            answer them. ROGER V. DES FORGES State University of New York at 
            Buffalo