The ledgers of merit and demerit were a type of morality book that achieved sudden and widespread popularity in China during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Consisting of lists of good and bad deeds, each assigned a certain number of merit or demerit points, the ledgers offered the hope of divine reward to users “good” enough to accumulate a substantial sum of merits. ...(展开全部)

作者简介： 包筠雅（Cynthia Joanne Brokaw），美国哈佛大学博士，现任布朗大学历史系教授、系主任。主要从事中国古代社会文化史、书籍史研究。所著《功过格：明清社会的道德秩序》《文化贸易：清代至民国时期四堡的书籍交易》在学术界产生广泛反响，先后被译介到国内 。 译者简介： 杜正贞，浙江大学人文学院历史学系教授。专业方向社会史、法律史，研究兴趣涉及基层社会组织、乡村生活和民间信仰等。已出版著作《村社传统与明清士绅：山西泽州乡土社会的制度变迁》《近代山区的习惯、契约与权力：龙泉司法档案的社会史研究》等。 张林，北京师范大学历史学硕士，现为北京师范大学继续教育与教师培训学院党总支副书记。

Among the environmental challenges facing us is alleviating the damage to marine ecosystems caused by pollution and overfishing. Coming to grips with contemporary problems, this book argues, depends on understanding how people have historically generated, perceived, and responded to environmental change. This work explores interactions between society and environment in China’s...(展开全部)

From Philosophy to Philology is an indispensable work on the intellectual life of China’s literati in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. While there was not a scientific revolution in China, there was an intellectual one. The shock of the Manchu conquest and the collapse of the Ming dynasty in 1644 led to a rejection of the moral self-cultivation that dominated intellect...(展开全部)

Asserting that litigation in late imperial China was a form of documentary warfare, this book offers a social analysis of the men who composed legal documents for commoners and elites alike. Litigation masters—a broad category of legal facilitators ranging from professional plaintmasters to simple but literate men to whom people turned for assistance—emerge in this study as cen...(展开全部)

黄宗智，普林斯顿大学学士，华盛顿大学博士。加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶校区历史系教授，1991年晋升“超级教授”，2004年荣休。中国研究中心创办主任（1986-1995年）。《近代中国》季刊（Modern China）创办编辑（1975年至今）。中国人民大学长江学者讲座教授。主要学术兴趣为明清以来社会史、经济史和法律史。主要著作有：《法律、习俗、与司法实践：清代与民国的比较》、《清代的法律、社会、与文化：民法的表达与实践》、《中国研究的规范认识危机》、《长江三角洲的小农家庭与乡村发展》、《华北的小农经济与社会变迁》等。

黄宗智，普林斯顿大学学士，华盛顿大学博士。加利福尼亚大学洛杉矶校区历史系教授，1991年晋升“超级教授”，2004年荣休。中国研究中心创办主任（1986-1995年）。《近代中国》季刊（Modern China）创办编辑（1975年至今）。中国人民大学长江学者讲座教授。主要学术兴趣为明清以来社会史、经济史和法律史。主要著作有：《法律、习俗、与司法实践：清代与民国的比较》、《清代的法律、社会、与文化：民法的表达与实践》、《中国研究的规范认识危机》、《长江三角洲的小农家庭与乡村发展》、《华北的小农经济与社会变迁》等。

During the late imperial era (1500-1911), China, though divided by ethnic, linguistic, and regional differences at least as great as those prevailing in Europe, enjoyed a remarkable solidarity. What held Chinese society together for so many centuries? Some scholars have pointed to the institutional control over the written word as instrumental in promoting cultural homogenizati...(展开全部)