The Making of a New Rural Order in South China: Volume 1, Village, Land, and Lineage in Huizhou, 900-1600

McDermott, Joseph P.

ISBN 10: 110704622X / ISBN 13: 9781107046221

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2014

About this Item

BRAND NEW hardcover.

Seller Inventory # 123459

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Making of a New Rural Order in South China: Volume 1, Village, Land, and Lineage in Huizhou, 900-1600
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 110704622X
• ISBN 13: 9781107046221
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New
• Book Type: Book

About this title

Synopsis

Among the large caches of private documents discovered and collected in China, few rival the Huizhou sources for the insight they provide into Chinese local society and economy over the past millennium. Having spent decades researching these exceptionally rich sources, Joseph P. McDermott presents in two volumes his findings about the major social and economic changes in this important prefecture of south China from around 900 to 1700. In this first volume, we learn about village settlement, competition among village religious institutions, premodern agricultural production, the management of land and lineage, the rise of the lineage as the dominant institution, and its members' application of commercial practices to local forestry operations. This landmark study of religious life and economic activity, of lineage and land, and of rural residents and urban commercial practices provides a compelling new framework for understanding a distinctive path of economic and social development for premodern China and beyond.

About the Author

Joseph P. McDermott is Reader in Chinese History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College. He has published widely on the pre-modern social and economic history of China.