Emperor and Ancestor : State and Lineage in South China.

Intro -- Contents -- Maps and Figures -- Acknowledgments -- A Note for the Nonspecialist Reader -- Emperor and Ancestor -- Introduction -- Historical Geography -- Exotic Guangzhou -- Confucian Incursions -- We and They -- The Land -- From Registered Households to Lineages -- Early Ming Society -- The Recession of Labor Service -- The Yao Wars and Ritual Orthodoxy -- Administrative Transition -- Lineages Gentrified -- Lineage Building: The Huo Surname of Foshan -- Magnates on the Sands -- From Ming to Qing -- Gentry Leadership in Local Society -- The End of Empire -- The Proliferation of Lineage Institutions -- The Ordering of Community in Ritual Life -- Incorporation: The Power of an Idea -- A Note on Prosperity -- The Nineteenth-Century Transformation -- The Mulberry Garden Dike -- From Paramilitary to Militia -- Local Power in the Taiping Rebellion -- The Foreign Element in Pearl River Delta Society -- Contradictions of the Nation-State: The Backwardness of Lineages -- Epilogue -- Beyond the Pearl River Delta -- Notes -- References -- Glossary -- Index.

This book brings to life a thousand years of history on the Pearl River delta and provides rich documentation for the author's argument that in China ritual played the role of law in the West, serving as the glue that bound society together.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.