Dry Spells: State Rainmaking and Local Governance in Late Imperial China

by Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke

Overview

Chinese officials put considerable effort into managing the fiscal and legal affairs of their jurisdictions, but they also devoted significant time and energy to performing religious rituals on behalf of the state. This groundbreaking study explores this underappreciated aspect of Chinese political life by investigating rainmaking activities organized or conducted by local officials in the Qing dynasty. Using a wide variety of primary sources, this study explains how and why state rainmaking became a prominent feature of the late imperial religious landscape. It also vividly describes the esoteric, spectacular, and occasionally grotesque techniques officials used to pray for rain. Charting the ways in which rainmaking performances were contested by local communities, this study argues that state rainmaking provided an important venue where the relationship between officials and their constituents was established and maintained. For this reason, the author concludes that official rainmaking was instrumental in constituting state power at the local level. This monograph addresses issues that are central to the study of late imperial Chinese society and culture, including the religious activities of Chinese officials, the nature of state orthodoxy, and the symbolic dimensions of local governance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674033344
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	03/31/2009
Series:	Harvard East Asian Monographs , #311
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jeffrey Snyder-Reinke is Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at The College of Idaho.

Table of Contents

• Figures

1. Headlines
2. A Tradition of Sorts
3. An Unruly Order
4. No Sacrifices Withheld
5. Master Ji's Rainmaking Method
6. The Importance of Being Earnest
7. Departures

• Appendix A. Dong Zhongshu's Rainmaking Method
  note to Appendixes B and C
• Appendix B. Master Ji Shenzhai's Complete Book of Rainmaking
• Appendix C. Section on Rainmaking from On Officials and Secretaries Being in the Same Boat
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index