Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph) Review

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Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph) ReviewThis is not a book for those new to Chinese studies. While Brook's Confusions of Pleasure and Quelling the People are both written to be easily understandable, this book grew out of his Harvard dissertation and, though fascinating, is not readily accessible to everyone. Those familiar with Ming or ancient world history will know of the monetization of the world economy in the 1500's due to massive amounts of precious metals coming from the Spanish New World.
Much of this money flowed into China, 'freeing' wealth from land ownership and allowing merchants to become truly powerful in China for the first time. The gentry, the level of Chinese society that controlled land and society through the law, symbolic support of cultural keystones and government service, were suddenly in competition with merchants' sons for these bureaucratic posts that defined a large portion of their self-image. Brook's book looks at the mid- to late-Ming defense of status undertaken by the gentry through support of the Sangha, or Buddhist church.
Their monopoly on education, government service and wealth undermined, the gentry connected themselves to 'the people' through the support of the Sangha and to each other through cultivation of artistic tastes. While Craig Clunas is the expert on the latter phenomenon, Brook explains the former in this book. Exploring the gentry culture, dispelling ideas of conflicts between Confucianism and Buddhism and summarizing huge socioeconomic shifts in China, Brook has written an important book. Any reader who has read through the long sentences and generalizations in this review can make it through Brook's work, which is no more unclear and is far more interesting than my review. All those versed in basic history and interested in social shifts should read this work, but those trying to begin a study of China or of the Ming should not begin with this complicated work.Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph) Overview

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