Powerful Relations: Kinship, Status, and the State in Sung China (960-1279)

by Beverly Bossler

Overview

The realignment of the Chinese social order that took place over the course of the Sung dynasty set the pattern for Chinese society throughout most of the later imperial era. This study examines that realignment from the perspective of specific Sung families, using data on two groups of Sung elites—the grand councilors who led the bureaucracy and locally prominent gentlemen in Wu-chou (in modern Chekiang).

By analyzing kinship relationships, Beverly Bossler demonstrates the importance of family relations to the establishment and perpetuation of social status locally and in the capital. She shows how social position was measured and acted upon, how status shaped personal relationships (and vice versa), and how both status and personal relationships conditioned—and were conditioned by—political success. Finally, in a contribution to the ongoing discussion of localism in the Sung, Bossler details the varied networks that connected the local elite to the capital and elsewhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674695924
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	04/20/1998
Series:	Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series , #43
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Beverly Bossler is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Historical Change and Historiographical Shifts

Eulogy Rhetoric from the T'ang to the Sung

Historiographic Anomalies: The Grand-Councilor Sources

Historiographic Anomalies: The Wu-chou Sources

Precursors of Power: The Origins of Grand Councilors

Ancestral Backgrounds of Grand Councilors

Geographic Attachments and Political Success

Paths to Power

Preservation of Power: The Descendants of Grand Councilors

Factionalism and the Fall of the North

Perpetuating Position

Kinship, Status, and Geography

Partners in Power: Grand-Councilor Marriage

Marriage Practices

Marriage, Status, and Localism

Powerful People: Two Case Studies

The Northern Sung: The Hus of Yung-k'ang

The Southern Sung: The Wangs of Chin-hua

Seeking Status: The Emergence of the Local Elite in Wu-chou

Ancestral Origins

Paths to Power

Geography and Local Status

Sustaining Status: Wu-chou Descendants

Preserving Prosperity

Dodging Disaster

Kinship Organization and the Perpetuation of Status

Sharing Status: Marriage and Affinal Relations in Wu-chou

Marriage Practices

Relations with Affines

Marriage, Status, and Localism

Local Gentlemen in Wu-chou: Two Case Studies

The Northern Sung: The Chengs of Chin-hua

The Southern Sung: The Ch'ens of Yung-k'ang

Conclusion

Appendixes

Survey of T'ang and Sting Funerary Inscriptions by Date of Authorship

Inscription Sources for Kin Groups of Grand Councilors by Generation

Wu-chou Funerary Inscriptions by Date of Authorship

Reference Matter

Notes

Works Cited

Glossary

Index

Editorial Reviews

Documenting the interaction among kinship, social status, and bureaucratic position in both Northern and Southern Sung China, Beverly Bossler’s book, a revision of her 1991 dissertation, makes an important contribution to continuing debate on the nature of the Sung elite. This debate has ramifications well beyond the boundaries of Sung studies since, as Bossler states, the social order established during the Sung ‘set the pattern for Chinese society throughout much of the later imperial period.’ By carefully examining biographical data on two groups—men who held high-ranking offices at the Sung court and men who were locally prominent but had little or no involvement in the bureaucracy—Bossler sets out to test and refine a reigning paradigm of Sung social history...The picture that comes into sharper focus with Bossler’s study is one in which the rise of a family—even within a single generation—could be due to the actions of one or two individuals. In this enterprise especially, she succeeds in conveying the ’very human stories’ she seeks to tell.

Journal of Asian Studies - Linda Walton

Beverly J. Bossler’s study of the marriage and kinship practices of grand councilors and the Wu-chou local elite falls within the scope of the social history of China in the seventh to thirteenth centuries. Largely relying on privately commissioned funerary inscriptions of mostly men and some women, Bossler marshals ample documentary evidence to confirm an important theme in current scholarship: the transformation and expansion of the educated class from aristocratic pedigree to the political elite, whose survival depended on success in the civil service examinations, local economic clout, property base, and marriage alliances...The author’s contribution lies in providing informative marriage data from screening the large number of funerary inscriptions, the data confirms that marriage was ‘an integrating force in society’ and that public office has a close connection to social and financial status.

Jennifer W. Jayn Historical Review

Bossler’s study of Sung social history is based on an analysis of the funerary inscriptions of northern Sung families that produced men who, as grand councilors, reached the pinnacle of political success, and on locally prominent people, mostly southern Sung, from Wu-chou (in modern Chekiang)...Meticulously documented and extensively annotated, this book deeply engages current scholarship and illuminates issues also of significance to students of later periods.

Choice - C. Schirokauer

The title here is telling: ‘relations’ is mostly about relatives—the bonds of kinship and marriage among the upper classes of the Sung dynasty and its implications for our understanding of society and polity. An impressive level of industriousness is reflected in the canvassing of widely scattered and difficult to read primary sources, but the author’s astute analysis of those sources is even more impressive, as she steers her own course through some difficult academic terrain.

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies [UK] - Richard L. Davis

Beverly J. Bossler’s study of the marriage and kinship practices of grand councilors and the Wu-chou local elite falls within the scope of the social history of China in the seventh to thirteenth centuries. Largely relying on privately commissioned funerary inscriptions of mostly men and some women, Bossler marshals ample documentary evidence to confirm an important theme in current scholarship: the transformation and expansion of the educated class from aristocratic pedigree to the political elite, whose survival depended on success in the civil service examinations, local economic clout, property base, and marriage alliances...The author’s contribution lies in providing informative marriage data from screening the large number of funerary inscriptions, the data confirms that marriage was ‘an integrating force in society’ and that public office has a close connection to social and financial status.

American Historical Review - Jennifer W. Jay

The title here is telling: 'relations' is mostly about relatives—the bonds of kinship and marriage among the upper classes of the Sung dynasty and its implications for our understanding of society and polity. An impressive level of industriousness is reflected in the canvassing of widely scattered and difficult to read primary sources, but the author's astute analysis of those sources is even more impressive, as she steers her own course through some difficult academic terrain.
— Richard L. Davis

Bulletin of School of Oriental and African Studies [UK]

Beverly J. Bossler's study of the marriage and kinship practices of grand councilors and the Wu-chou local elite falls within the scope of the social history of China in the seventh to thirteenth centuries. Largely relying on privately commissioned funerary inscriptions of mostly men and some women, Bossler marshals ample documentary evidence to confirm an important theme in current scholarship: the transformation and expansion of the educated class from aristocratic pedigree to the political elite, whose survival depended on success in the civil service examinations, local economic clout, property base, and marriage alliances...The author's contribution lies in providing informative marriage data from screening the large number of funerary inscriptions, the data confirms that marriage was 'an integrating force in society' and that public office has a close connection to social and financial status.
— Jennifer W. Jay

American Historical Review

Documenting the interaction among kinship, social status, and bureaucratic position in both Northern and Southern Sung China, Beverly Bossler's book, a revision of her 1991 dissertation, makes an important contribution to continuing debate on the nature of the Sung elite. This debate has ramifications well beyond the boundaries of Sung studies since, as Bossler states, the social order established during the Sung 'set the pattern for Chinese society throughout much of the later imperial period.' By carefully examining biographical data on two groups—men who held high-ranking offices at the Sung court and men who were locally prominent but had little or no involvement in the bureaucracy—Bossler sets out to test and refine a reigning paradigm of Sung social history...The picture that comes into sharper focus with Bossler's study is one in which the rise of a family—even within a single generation—could be due to the actions of one or two individuals. In this enterprise especially, she succeeds in conveying the 'very human stories' she seeks to tell.
— Linda Walton

Journal of Asian Studies

Bossler's study of Sung social history is based on an analysis of the funerary inscriptions of northern Sung families that produced men who, as grand councilors, reached the pinnacle of political success, and on locally prominent people, mostly southern Sung, from Wu-chou (in modern Chekiang)...Meticulously documented and extensively annotated, this book deeply engages current scholarship and illuminates issues also of significance to students of later periods.
— C. Schirokauer

Choice

The title here is telling: 'relations' is mostly about relatives--the bonds of kinship and marriage among the upper classes of the Sung dynasty and its implications for our understanding of society and polity. An impressive level of industriousness is reflected in the canvassing of widely scattered and difficult to read primary sources, but the author's astute analysis of those sources is even more impressive, as she steers her own course through some difficult academic terrain.

Bulletin of School of Oriental and African Studies [UK] - Richard L. Davis