The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China

by Cynthia J. Brokaw

Book Overview

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. By examining the uses of the ledgers during the late Ming and early...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691637180
• ISBN13: 9780691637181
• Release Date: April 2016
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"