Description
Why did modern capitalism not arise in late imperial China? One famous answer comes from Max Weber, whose The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism gave a canonical analysis of religious and cultural factors in early modern European economic development. In The Religions of China, Weber contended that China lacked the crucial religious impetus to capitalist growth that Protestantism gave Europe.
The preeminent historian Ying-shih Yu offers a magisterial examination of religious and cultural influences in the development of China's early modern economy, both complement and counterpoint to Weber's inquiry. The Religious Ethic and Mercantile Spirit in Early Modern China investigates how evolving forms of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism created and promulgated their own concepts of the work ethic from the late seventh century into the Qing dynasty. The book traces how religious leaders developed the spiritual significance of labor and how merchants adopted this religious work ethic, raising their status in Chinese society. However, Yu argues, China's early modern mercantile spirit was restricted by the imperial bureaucratic priority on social order. He challenges Marxists who championed China's "sprouts of capitalism" during the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries as well as other modern scholars who credit Confucianism with producing dramatic economic growth in East Asian countries. Yu rejects the premise that China needed an early capitalist stage of development; moreover, the East Asian capitalism that flourished in the later half of the twentieth century was essentially part of the spread of global capitalism.
Now available in English translation, this landmark work has been greatly influential among scholars in East Asia since its publication in Chinese in 1987.
About the Author
Ying-shih Yu is Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies Emeritus at Princeton University. Awarded the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity and the inaugural Tang Prize International Award in Sinology, he has published almost sixty books. His works in English include the two-volume Chinese History and Culture (Columbia, 2016).
Hoyt Cleveland Tillman is professor emeritus of Chinese history at Arizona State University and the Zhu Zhang Visiting Professor at Hunan University's Yuelu Academy.
Reviews
Yu's book is a tour de force of interpretive and analytical scholarship using Western theory to illuminate the Chinese past. -- Gilbert Z. Chen * China Review International *
[I] recommend the book for an upper-division undergraduate course in disciplines such as sociology and the history of religion, Chinese history, Asian studies, and comparative religion . . . There are clearly directions of research that scholars may pursue along the path paved by Yu. -- Bin Song * H-Buddhism *
An undertaking only a scholar of the tallest order could have accomplished because the work is not one of "deliberate research," but one that is built on the knowledge of a lifetime of reading, browsing, and thinking. The weight of this book and the sway of its argument lie heavily on the formidable scholarship of Ying-shih Yu. -- Jonathan Spence, author of The Search for Modern China
This English translation makes available a seminal text about the norms that sustained the rise of indigenous capitalism in late imperial China. Deeply grounded, compellingly argued, deftly framed in Weberian terms, and expertly edited, this work is a must-read for all who seek orientation in a big-picture understanding of Chinese capitalism over the past five centuries. -- Wen-hsin Yeh, author of Shanghai Splendor: Economic Ethics in the Making of Modern China
A welcome translation of Yu's masterly analysis of early modern economic/commercial principles and practice in light of the reorientation of Chinese thought inward. This is intellectual history deeply grounded in real life through primary sources that at once engages Weberian concepts while elucidating the very different context of early modern Chinese society. -- Joanna Waley-Cohen, author of The Culture of War in China: Empire and the Military Under the Qing Dynasty
Yu's book is the most original Chinese challenge to Max Weber's theory of the roots of modern capitalism in the Protestant ethic. This English translation will stimulate discussion that is often hampered by either a lack of understanding of what Weber actually said or insufficient knowledge of Chinese inner-worldly asceticism. -- Hans van Ess, president, Max Weber Foundation
Even though this book was written over thirty years ago, the questions it raises and the sources and arguments it provides are still quite relevant today, in fact even more so. Yu's book was a classic when it appeared, and in translation, it will become a very timely intervention. -- Peter Perdue, author of China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia
The English translation of Yu Ying-shih's book, which is a welcome contribution to Western Chinese studies, should be a stimulation for intensifying investigation into the relationship between Chinese religiosity with its inner-worldly asceticism and mercantile spirit (or generally speaking economy) in China not only for Sinologists but also for researchers in religious studies, economic history and social sciences. -- Zbigniew Wesolowski * Monumenta Serica *
This volume will prove invaluable to all those interested in Chinese religion as well as the theory of religion. Indeed, with the death of Yu just last year on the 1st of August, this volume is a fitting homage to his legacy. * Religious Studies Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9780231200431
Author Ying-shih Yu
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
The preeminent historian Ying-shih Yu offers a magisterial examination of religious and cultural influences in the development of China's early modern economy, both complement and counterpoint to Weber's inquiry. The Religious Ethic and Mercantile Spirit in Early Modern China investigates how evolving forms of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism created and promulgated their own concepts of the work ethic from the late seventh century into the Qing dynasty. The book traces how religious leaders developed the spiritual significance of labor and how merchants adopted this religious work ethic, raising their status in Chinese society. However, Yu argues, China's early modern mercantile spirit was restricted by the imperial bureaucratic priority on social order. He challenges Marxists who championed China's "sprouts of capitalism" during the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries as well as other modern scholars who credit Confucianism with producing dramatic economic growth in East Asian countries. Yu rejects the premise that China needed an early capitalist stage of development; moreover, the East Asian capitalism that flourished in the later half of the twentieth century was essentially part of the spread of global capitalism.
Now available in English translation, this landmark work has been greatly influential among scholars in East Asia since its publication in Chinese in 1987.
About the Author
Ying-shih Yu is Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies Emeritus at Princeton University. Awarded the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity and the inaugural Tang Prize International Award in Sinology, he has published almost sixty books. His works in English include the two-volume Chinese History and Culture (Columbia, 2016).
Hoyt Cleveland Tillman is professor emeritus of Chinese history at Arizona State University and the Zhu Zhang Visiting Professor at Hunan University's Yuelu Academy.
Reviews
Yu's book is a tour de force of interpretive and analytical scholarship using Western theory to illuminate the Chinese past. -- Gilbert Z. Chen * China Review International *
[I] recommend the book for an upper-division undergraduate course in disciplines such as sociology and the history of religion, Chinese history, Asian studies, and comparative religion . . . There are clearly directions of research that scholars may pursue along the path paved by Yu. -- Bin Song * H-Buddhism *
An undertaking only a scholar of the tallest order could have accomplished because the work is not one of "deliberate research," but one that is built on the knowledge of a lifetime of reading, browsing, and thinking. The weight of this book and the sway of its argument lie heavily on the formidable scholarship of Ying-shih Yu. -- Jonathan Spence, author of The Search for Modern China
This English translation makes available a seminal text about the norms that sustained the rise of indigenous capitalism in late imperial China. Deeply grounded, compellingly argued, deftly framed in Weberian terms, and expertly edited, this work is a must-read for all who seek orientation in a big-picture understanding of Chinese capitalism over the past five centuries. -- Wen-hsin Yeh, author of Shanghai Splendor: Economic Ethics in the Making of Modern China
A welcome translation of Yu's masterly analysis of early modern economic/commercial principles and practice in light of the reorientation of Chinese thought inward. This is intellectual history deeply grounded in real life through primary sources that at once engages Weberian concepts while elucidating the very different context of early modern Chinese society. -- Joanna Waley-Cohen, author of The Culture of War in China: Empire and the Military Under the Qing Dynasty
Yu's book is the most original Chinese challenge to Max Weber's theory of the roots of modern capitalism in the Protestant ethic. This English translation will stimulate discussion that is often hampered by either a lack of understanding of what Weber actually said or insufficient knowledge of Chinese inner-worldly asceticism. -- Hans van Ess, president, Max Weber Foundation
Even though this book was written over thirty years ago, the questions it raises and the sources and arguments it provides are still quite relevant today, in fact even more so. Yu's book was a classic when it appeared, and in translation, it will become a very timely intervention. -- Peter Perdue, author of China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia
The English translation of Yu Ying-shih's book, which is a welcome contribution to Western Chinese studies, should be a stimulation for intensifying investigation into the relationship between Chinese religiosity with its inner-worldly asceticism and mercantile spirit (or generally speaking economy) in China not only for Sinologists but also for researchers in religious studies, economic history and social sciences. -- Zbigniew Wesolowski * Monumenta Serica *
This volume will prove invaluable to all those interested in Chinese religion as well as the theory of religion. Indeed, with the death of Yu just last year on the 1st of August, this volume is a fitting homage to his legacy. * Religious Studies Review *
Book Information
ISBN 9780231200431
Author Ying-shih Yu
Format Paperback
Page Count 328
Imprint Columbia University Press
Publisher Columbia University Press
