The Objectionable Li Zhi

Astute inquiries into the world of China’s most unconventional early modern intellectual

Iconoclastic scholar Li Zhi (1527–1602) was a central figure in the cultural world of the late Ming dynasty. His provocative and controversial words and actions shaped print culture, literary practice, attitudes toward gender, and perspectives on Buddhism and the afterlife. Although banned, his writings were never fully suppressed, because they tapped into issues of vital significance to generations of readers. His incisive remarks, along with the emotional intensity and rhetorical power with which he delivered them, made him an icon of his cultural moment and an emblem of early modern Chinese intellectual dissent.

In this volume, leading China scholars demonstrate the interrelatedness of seemingly discrete aspects of Li Zhi’s thought and emphasize his far-reaching impact on his contemporaries and successors. In doing so, they challenge the myth that there was no tradition of dissidence in premodern China.

The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

Rivi Handler-Spitz is associate professor of Chinese language and literature at Macalester College. Pauline C. Lee is associate professor of Chinese religions and cultures at Saint Louis University. Haun Saussy is professor of comparative literature, social thought, and East Asian languages and civilizations at the University of Chicago. Handler-Spitz, Lee, and Saussy are coeditors and cotranslators of A Book to Burn and a Book to Keep [Hidden]: Selected Writings of Li Zhi. Contributors include Timothy Brook, Kai-wing Chow, Maram Epstein, Robert E. Hegel, Martin Huang, Wai-yee Li, Miaw-fen Lu, Ying Zhang, and Jiang Wu.