Table Of ContentA Ming Confucian’s World
A Ming Confucian’s World
Selections from
Miscellaneous Records from the Bean Garden
Lu Rong (1436–1494)
Translated and introduced by
Mark Halperin
University of Washington Press
Seattle
The open-access edition of A Ming Confucian’s World was made
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Names: Lu, Rong, 1436–1494, author. | Halperin, Mark, 1958– translator.
Title: A Ming Confucian’s world : selections from Miscellaneous records from the Bean Garden /
Lu Rong (1436–1494) ; translated and introduced by Mark Halperin.
Other titles: Shu yuan za ji. Selections. English
Description: Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021033662 (print) | LCCN 2021033663 (ebook) | ISBN 9780295749921 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780295749938 (paperback) | ISBN 9780295749945 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: China—History—Ming dynasty, 1368–1644—Anecdotes. | China—History—
Ming dynasty, 1368–1644—Humor.
Classification: LCC DS753 .L7713 2022 (print) | LCC DS753 (ebook) |
DDC 951/.026—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033662
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021033663
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Translator’s Introduction ix
Chronology of Dynasties and Historical Periods xxxii
Ming Reign Periods xxxiii
Selections from Miscellaneous Records from the Bean Garden
Chapter One
Social Life 1
Chapter Two
Family and Gender 24
Chapter Three
Politics and Government 39
Chapter Four
Deities, Spirits, and Clergy 67
Chapter Five
Knowledge, Technology, and the Natural World 90
Chinese Character Glossary 113
Notes 121
Bibliography 135
Index 141
Acknowledgments
I thank those who encouraged and helped me on this project, namely, Cynthia
Brokaw, Anne Gerritsen, Zoe Lin, Joseph McDermott, David Robinson, Sarah
Schneewind, Rick Todhunter, Richard von Glahn, and Michelle Yeh. I am also
grateful to Beverly Bossler, Paul Smith, and three anonymous readers for their
critical readings. In addition, the library of the University of California, Davis,
especially Dan Goldstein, Jason Newborn, and Karin Chacon, whose unflag-
ging efforts at procuring materials made an enormous difference. Part of this
research was funded by a Small Grant in Aid of Research from the University of
California, Davis. Valuable suggestions from Lorri Hagman at the University
of Washington Press greatly improved the manuscript. Many thanks go to
Jason Alley and Joeth Zucco at the University of Washington Press for their
assistance in production and to Ben Pease for supplying, in a pinch, a fine pair
of maps. I thank as well Elissa Greisz for proofreading and Devon Thomas for
the index. I am also obliged to the University of California Press for permission
to use an excerpt from Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume 8, Clothes, Utensils, Worms,
Insects, Amphibians, Animals with Scales, Animals with Shells by Li Shizhen,
translated by Paul U. Unschuld. I am grateful as well to the Nelson-Atkins
Museum for permission to use the Shen Zhou painting, Gardeners, for the
cover. For all remaining errors, I am solely to blame.
vii
Translator’s Introduction
Some places and periods are special. The names Renaissance Italy,
Elizabethan England, Genroku Japan, and Weimar Berlin, for example, call to
mind vital chapters in the history of civilization. Ming China (1368–1644)
surely belongs on the list. The world’s largest, most populous empire of its time,
the Ming offers a range of superlatives. Its emperors ranked among China’s
most ambitious, despotic, and dissolute. Its unmatched economy turned its
cities and country markets into thriving commercial centers, sent porcelain
and silk around the world, and drew in the lion’s share of the precious metals
taken from the mines of the New World. Age-old Confucian mores and hier-
archies underwent criticism to a degree that would never again be seen until
the twentieth century. Its book industry, based on cheap woodblock printing
and offering texts on all manner of subjects, constituted the globe’s biggest
information sector. The arts thrived, be it painting, vernacular literature, or
theater, as social groups rarely discussed before now captured the attentions
of polite society. Everyone, even historians, likes excitement, and the Ming
was exciting.
Excitement, however, is only part of life, and the above portrait, save for the
ambitious, despotic monarchs, fits mostly the dynasty’s final century or so,
starting with the reign of the Jiajing emperor (r. 1522–1566). This epoch, usu-
ally called “the late Ming,” has attracted most scholarly attention. Good reasons
abound, such as accelerated pace of change, the heady transgression of social
and cultural boundaries, and the wealth of historical sources. Put simply, the
empire underwent major shifts, leading some historians to label the period as
“early modern China.” These changes, though, need qualification. First, these
trends affected some regions far more than others. Second, after the Manchu
Qing dynasty (1644–1911) took control, China sobered up in many ways and
recovered quickly from its “seventeenth-century crisis.” This success derived
from political and social structures, economic practices, and cultural attitudes
that were present before the late Ming and persisted centuries later.
For a vivid look at basic features of late imperial China, this book turns
to Miscellaneous Records from the Bean Garden (Shuyuan zaji) by the official
Lu Rong (1436–1494). If Lu did not live in the best of times, neither did he
ix
