Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers

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 centuri...

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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.

Part One: Introduction
Chapter 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
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Part One: Introduction
Chapter 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
Chapter 2: History at the Periphery: Tingzhou and Sibao
Tingzhou: Banditry, Ethnicity, and the State
Sibao: Making a Center out of a Periphery
Part Two: Lisheng as Cultural Mediations
Chapter 3: Who Are Lisheng?
Lisheng: An Overview
Lisheng and Sibao Society
Chapter 4: Lisheng and Their Rituals
Lisheng and Sibao Rituals
Manuals of Sacrificial Texts
Part Three: Lineage, Ritual, and Corporate Estates
Chapter 5: The Creation of a Lineage Society
Lineage Building
Ancestors, Genealogy, and Lineage Building
Chapter 6: Rites, Land, and Lineages
Ancestral Rites
Land, Lineage, and Local Elite
The Limits of Lineage Building
Part Four: A Strange Community Compact?
Chapter 7: Community Compacts, Village Rituals, and Local Society
Community Compacts in Late Imperial Sibao
Villages and Descent Groups around Shangbao
The Making of a Community Compact
Shangbao Compact and Local Society
Part Five: The Worship of Gods
Chapter 8: Gods, Ancestors and Demons
Zougong: A God Becoming an Ancestor
The Transformation of She and Li
Chapter 9: Temples, Markets, and Village Identity
Temple Building and Village Identity
Temples and Commerce
Chapter 10: Locating Rituals in Time and Space
The Genealogy of a Grand Narrative
Cultural Hybridization as a Historical Process
Appendices
1. Jinshi (Metropolitan Graduates) in Late Imperial Tingzhou
2. Lisheng and the Rituals Performed by Them in Tingzhou
3. Fifty Sibao Jiwenben (I): Basic Facts
4. Fifty Sibao Jiwenben (II): Breakdown of Contents
5. Five Prohibitions of the Shangbao Compact
6. Villages and Surnames in Sibao
7. Temples and Gods in the Sibao Basin
8. Gods and Texts Dedicated to Them in Three Sibao Jiwenben
Bibliography
Index
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