WILLIAM ROWE

Politics in Saving the World

Politics in Saving the World

Section (A) précis

Chen Hongmou (1696-1771) was arguably the most influential Chinese official of the eighteenth century and unquestionably its most celebrated area administrator. He served as governor-general, administrator, or in lesser provincial-level posts in more than the dozen provinces, achieving after his death cult status as the “model official.”

In this magisterial study, the author draws on Chen's life and career to answer the range of questions: What did mid-Qing bureaucrats believe 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, correctly saved, be like? The answers to these questions are important not only because vast numbers of persons were subject to these officials' governance, but because the decision of their successors was that they did their jobs remarkably well and should be emulated.

Three persistent tensions in elite consciousness focus the author's investigation. First, the elite adhered to the fundamentalist moral dictates of Song neo-Confucian orthodoxy at the same time that the new valuation of pragmatic, technocratic prowess abhorrent to the moral tradition emerged. Second, two contradictory views on the use of “statecraft” to achieve an organised world were in play—one that favored the expansive use of the state apparatus, and one that emphasized indigenous local elites and communities. Finally, the subordination of human beings to the service of hierarchical social groupings argued with the increasing appreciation of the dignity, moral worth, and creative potential of the individual.

The author uses the holistic approach, attempting, for example, to discover how notions regarding gender roles and funerary ritual related to Qing financial considered, how the meet with other cultures on the expanding frontiers assisted pattern ideas of “civilized” perform at dwelling, and how an official's negotiation of the convoluted Qing bureaucracy affected his approach to social policy. The author also considers how attitudes formed throughout the prosperous and highly dynamic eighteenth 100 years trained China's responses to the crises it battled in the centuries to follow.

 

Section (B) Critique of the Article

Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China by William T. Rowe is the magnificently detailed exploration of one of the High Qing's most skilled and inventive regional administrators. Beginning his official career as one of the Yongzheng emperor's "new men" and extending to serve as the provincial troubleshooter in the Qianlong reign, Chen's leadership in these crucial years assisted crystallize new ideas and approaches to Qing governance and elite worldview in the time span of sweeping social and financial change, generated by the commercial transformation and the new style of imperial administrative leadership that characterized Manchu rule. Rowe shows that by dint of sheer power and administrative creativity, Chen discovered new ways to put natural (dili) and human (minli) resources to work to enrich the people's livelihood--the essential first step in creating social stability and the more flawless moral order. It would appear that Chen's administrative career was directed by what Chang Hao has ...