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Scholars Moving to the Grassroots
Scholars Moving to the Grassroots dives into the untold stories of Song and Yuan dynasty intellectuals, shifting focus from the glory of imperial exam success to the harsh realities of post-exam bureaucratic struggles. In the Southern Song, cutthroat civil service exams and the brutal 'Selection Sea'—a dead-end maze of low-ranking official posts with near-impossible promotion paths—pushed countless scholars to abandon court ambitions for local life. When the Yuan Dynasty suspended civil exams for decades, this trend accelerated: scholars turned to teaching, business, clerking, art, and grassroots community leadership. The book explores how this migration reshaped China’s social fabric, spurring the rise of local gentry, the spread of Jiangnan Confucianism, and the growth of community-focused governance that laid the groundwork for late imperial China’s grassroots society. Through vivid case studies of figures like Yang Wanli, Luo Dajing, and Huang Gongwang, it reveals how these displaced scholars became catalysts for a profound social transition spanning the Song-Yuan era.
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