Confucian Image Politics: Masculine Morality in Seventeenth-Century China.

• Author: Wu, Yulian

Confucian Image Politics: Masculine Morality in Seventeenth-Century China. By YING ZHANG. Seattle: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON PRESS, 2016. Pp. xvi + 306. $50.

Chinese ruling elites, including both officials and the imperial household, had long adopted Confucian ethics as an effective tool for governance and the negotiation of power. This discourse on Confucian morality was particularly salient during the seventeenth century, when officials' political loyalties were constantly contested during the transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty, and with the profusion of moral (or immoral) images in print and theater. Based on a critical reading of officials' morality tales popularized during this time, Confucian Image Politics provides a detailed and inspiring analysis of how Confucian moral images were constructed, circulated, and negotiated in the context of intensified factionalism, flourishing print culture, and disruptive dynastic change. This thorough research elucidates how Confucian moralism played out and evolved in political negotiations in the chaotic seventeenth century, while incorporating the officials' lived experiences into the often politicized Confucian moral discourse, thereby offering a nuanced and comprehensive picture of political negotiations and the transformation of political space.

Chapter 1 focuses on officials identified with the Donglin faction, "the centerpiece of the late-Ming factional saga," and examines the construction and evolution of these elites' competing images (p. 27). Delving into extensive sources centering on specific cases, Zhang carefully analyzes the changing and even contrasting images of Donglin-identified officials in the context of a flourishing print culture. For instance, tales about Zheng Zhenxian (1572-1628) and his son Zheng Man (1594-1639) appeared in a variety of literary texts, including novels, biographies, and anecdotes. Their political rivals used the genre of family romance to create stories highlighting Zheng's corrupt performance, either as unfilial son or an official with illicit sexual behavior, in order to attack Donglin officials. In response, Zheng Man himself used various genres, including pamphlets and autobiographies, to defend the moral reputation of himself and his family. As the Zheng family was associated with the Donglin faction, Donglin-identified officials needed to either defend or condemn Zheng's public image to authenticate "their collective claim to moral...