Past Awards

The Book of Swindles, compiled by an obscure writer from southern China, presents a fascinating tableau of criminal ingenuity. The flourishing economy of the late Ming period created overnight fortunes for merchants—and gave rise to a host of smooth operators, charlatans, forgers, and imposters seeking to siphon off some of the new wealth. Each story comes with commentary by the author, who expounds a moral lesson while also speaking as a connoisseur of the swindle. This volume provides a wealth of detail on social life during the late Ming.

The Ming Studies Research Series, published by the Society for Ming Studies and distributed by the Center for Early Modern History, began in 1984 with the publication of Keith Hazelton’s Synchronic Chinese-Western Calendar. Since then, the series has published both reference works and scholarship that have become essential resources for the Ming studies scholar. A translation of A Short History of the Ming Dynasty by Li Guangbi was published as Volume 7 of its Ming Studies Research Series.

Huang Xiangjian, a mid-seventeenth-century member of the Suzhou local elite, journeyed on foot to southwest China and recorded its sublime scenery in site-specific paintings.  Kindall’s innovative analysis of the visual experiences and social functions Huang conveyed through his oeuvre reveals an unrecognized tradition of site paintings, here labeled geo-narratives, that recount specific journeys and create meaning in the paintings. Ultimately these works were intended to create personas and fulfill specific social purposes among the educated class during the Ming-Qing transition.

Written around 1660, this unique Chinese short story collection uses the seemingly innocuous setting of neighbors swapping yarns on hot summer days under a shady arbor to create a series of stories that embody deep disillusionment with traditional values. The tales, ostensibly told by different narrators, parody heroic legends and explore issues that contributed to the fall of the Ming dynasty a couple of decades before this collection was written. These stories speak to all troubled times, confronting the pretense that may lurk behind moralistic stances.

Monks in Glaze is a complete reassessment of the famous group of large glazed ceramic sculptures known as the Yixian Luohans. Drawing upon hitherto-unknown epigraphic documents, Hsu proposes a new date for the group’s production and identifies the kiln center near Beijing as its birthplace. Delving into the social and economic issues of religious patronage, imperial workshop practice, and nuanced style of post-Yuan Buddhist art, Hsu convincingly shows that such a large group of masterworks were products of the commercial economy of the Ming dynasty. 

Symptoms of an Unruly Age compares the writings of Li Zhi and his late-Ming compatriots to texts composed by European contemporaries, including Montaigne, Shakespeare, and Cervantes. Emphasizing aesthetic patterns that transcend national boundaries, Handler-Spitz explores these works as culturally distinct responses to similar social and economic tensions affecting early modern cultures on both ends of Eurasia. The book shows us that these texts each constitute cultural manifestations of early modernity.

How did ordinary people in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) deal with the demands of the state? This book explores the ways that families fulfilled their obligations to provide a soldier to the army. The complex strategies they developed suggest a new interpretation of an important period in China’s history as well as a broader theory of politics. Combining traditional scholarship with innovative fieldwork where descendants of Ming subjects still live, it illustrates the ways that arrangements between communities and the state hundreds of years ago have consequences and relevance for how we look at diverse cultures and societies, even today.

Li Zhi’s iconoclastic interpretations of history, religion, literature, and social relations have fascinated Chinese intellectuals for centuries. His approach synthesized Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist ethics and incorporated the Neo-Confucian idealism. The result was a series of heretical writings that caught fire among Li Zhi’s contemporaries, despite an imperial ban on their publication, and intrigued Chinese audiences long after his death. This is the first English translation of this heterodox intellectual’s vital contribution to Chinese thought and culture.