Saving the World
Subtitle: Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: March 28, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 616
ISBN-13: 9780804737357
Subjects: Asian / Middle Eastern history: c 1500 to c 1900; Biography: general; POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; c 1700 to c 1800; China - History; History; History - General History; History: World; Asia - China; Modern - 18th Century; Political History; History / China; 1696-1771; 18th century; Chen, Hongmou,; China; Politics and government
Description: "Chen Hongmou (1696-1771) was arguably the most influential Chinese official of the eighteenth century and unquestionably its most celebrated field administrator. He served as governor-general, governor, or in lesser provincial-level posts in more than a dozen provinces, achieving after his death cult status as a "model official."".

"In this magisterial study, the author draws on Chen's life and career to answer a range of questions: What did mid-Qing bureaucrats think they were doing? How did they conceive the universe and their society, what did they see as their potential to "save the world," and what would the world, properly saved, be like?

The answers to these questions are important not only because vast numbers of people were subject to these officials' governance, but because the verdict of their successors was that they did their jobs remarkably well and should be emulated."--BOOK JACKET.