Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos
Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos, the first book focusing on premortem shrines in any era of Chinese history, places the institution at the intersection of politics and religion. When a local official left his post, grateful subjects housed an image of him in a temple, requiting his grace: that was the ideal model. By Ming times, the “living shrine” was legal,...
Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos, the first book focusing on premortem shrines in any era of Chinese history, places the institution at the intersection of politics and religion. When a local official left his post, grateful subjects housed an image of him in a temple, requiting his grace: that was the ideal model. By Ming times, the “living shrine” was legal, old, and justified by readings of the classics.
Sarah Schneewind argues that the institution could invite and pressure officials to serve local interests; the policies that had earned a man commemoration were carved into stone beside the shrine. Since everyone recognized that elite men might honor living officials just to further their own careers, premortem shrine rhetoric stressed the role of commoners, who embraced the opportunity by initiating many living shrines. This legitimate, institutionalized political voice for commoners expands a scholarly understanding of “public opinion” in late imperial China, aligning it with the efficacy of deities to create a nascent political conception Schneewind calls the “minor Mandate of Heaven.” Her exploration of premortem shrine theory and practice illuminates Ming thought and politics, including the Donglin Party’s battle with eunuch dictator Wei Zhongxian and Gu Yanwu’s theories.
Sarah Schneewind holds degrees from Cornell University, Yale University, and Columbia University. She has studied the relations between state and society during the Ming era (1368-1644) in three books. Community Schools and the State in Ming China shows change over time in the local implementation of one policy, arguing that the center did not determine the policy’s course. A...
Sarah Schneewind holds degrees from Cornell University, Yale University, and Columbia University. She has studied the relations between state and society during the Ming era (1368-1644) in three books. Community Schools and the State in Ming China shows change over time in the local implementation of one policy, arguing that the center did not determine the policy’s course. A Tale of Two Melons traces the way the first Ming emperor, his advisors, and people at the local level interpreted one lucky omen. Shrines to Living Men in the Ming Political Cosmos argues that shrines to living officials (生祠) constituted, among many other things, a legitimate way for commoners to participate in politics under the autocratic, bureaucratic Ming monarchy. Schneewind has also edited a collection of essays on the image of the Ming founder through today, Long Live the Emperor! She teaches a lower-division survey course on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean history from 1200 BC to AD 1200, and upper division and graduate courses on Chinese history and on pedagogy. Schneewind has been President of the Society for Ming Studies, and runs a website called "The Ming History English Translation Project." She has also developed a digital tool called The Late Imperial Primer Literacy Sieve (http://ctext.org/tools/literacy-sieve).