The Mandate of Heaven and The Great Ming Code - Rilegato

Yonglin, Jiang

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0295990651 ISBN 13: 9780295990651

Casa editrice: Univ of Washington Pr, 2011

Riassunto

After overthrowing the Mongol Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), proclaimed that he had obtained the Mandate of Heaven (Tianming), enabling establishment of a spiritual orientation and social agenda for China. Zhu, emperor during the Ming's Hongwu reign period, launched a series of social programs to rebuild the empire and define Chinese cultural identity. To promote its reform programs, the Ming imperial court issued a series of legal documents, culminating in The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lu), which supported China's legal system until the Ming was overthrown and also served as the basis of the legal code of the following dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911).

This companion volume to Jiang Yonglin's translation of The Great Ming Code (2005) analyzes the thought underlying the imperial legal code. Was the concept of the Mandate of Heaven merely a tool manipulated by the ruling elite to justify state power, or was it essential to their belief system and to the intellectual foundation of legal culture? What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs?

Jiang addresses these questions by examining the transformative role of the Code in educating the people about the Mandate of Heaven. The Ming dynasty envisioned the supernatural world as a forceful realm, where Heaven and its subordinate spirits possessed the power to intervene in human affairs. The ruler's mission was to follow the Heavenly Mandate and preserve harmony (both within society and between human beings and supernatural spirits), and to establish laws to fulfill those tasks. The Code thus served as a cosmic instrument and moral textbook to ensure "all under Heaven" were aligned with the cosmic order. By promoting, regulating, and prohibiting categories of ritual behavior, the intent of the Code was to provide spiritual guidance to Chinese subjects, as well as to acquire political legitimacy.

The Code also obligated officials to obey the supreme authority of the emperor, to observe filial behavior toward parents, to care for the welfare of the masses, and to maintain harmonious relationships with deities. This set of regulations made officials the representatives of the Son of Heaven in mediating between the spiritual and mundane worlds and in governing the human realm.

This study challenges the conventional assumption that law in premodern China was used merely as an arm of the state to maintain social control and as a secular tool to exercise naked power. Based on a holistic approach, Jiang argues that the Ming ruling elite envisioned the cosmos as an integrated unit; they saw law, religion, and political power as intertwined, remarkably different from the "modern" compartmentalized worldview. In serving as a cosmic instrument to manifest the Mandate of Heaven, The Great Ming Code represented a powerful religious effort to educate the masses and transform society.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Jiang Yonglin is visiting associate professor of East Asian studies at Bryn Mawr College. He is the translator of The Great Ming Code (Da Ming lu).

Dalla seconda/terza di copertina:

This companion volume to Jiang Yonglin's translation of The Great Ming Code (2005) analyzes the thought underlying the imperial legal code. Was the concept of the Mandate of Heaven merely a tool manipulated by the ruling elite to justify state power, or was it essential to their belief system and to the intellectual foundation of legal culture? What role did law play in the imperial effort to carry out the social reform programs?

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Univ of Washington Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0295990651
• ISBN 13: 9780295990651
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 245