Rumor blame: officials or public?
Who drove Ming-Qing rumor spread more?
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The Ming-Qing Ecosystem
The Ming-Qing Ecosystem delivers a comprehensive, multi-faceted deep dive into the social fabric of late imperial China, spanning official institutions, grassroots communities, cultural trends, and marginalized groups. It unpacks the inner workings and systemic flaws of the imperial inspection system—from official performance evaluations to crackdowns on local villains—while examining how rumors and false narratives spread amid government information gaps and regional gossip cultures. The book also explores the dramatic shift from a Confucian "no-litigation" ideal to a litigious society, the rise of private aides (infamous Shaoxing师爷) and professional escort services, the evolution of guild halls and secret societies like the Heaven and Earth Society, and the precarious lives of private tutors and wealthy families’ hangers-on. Additionally, it reveals the secularization of Buddhist monks and nuns, including the emergence of warrior monks who fought pirates and scandal-ridden "flower monks" who abandoned monastic rules. By weaving these threads together, it uncovers the tensions, transformations, and hidden dynamics that shaped Ming-Qing society, offering invaluable insights into traditional Chinese social structures.
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