Cities of jiangnan in Late Imperial China (review)

450 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996© 1996 by University ofHawai'i Press wishes Lien had taken as his subject matter the liturgical texts of a Taoist whose rituals he had actually observed (not to mention discarding Saso's distinction between "orthodox" and "heterodox" Taoists), his results indicate the potential breakthrough that may be achieved through cooperative efforts between linguists, historians, and anthropologists. Taken as a whole, the papers in this volume represent a significant addition to our understanding of Chinese popular religion. The authors successfully grapple with many of the key issues confronting the field, such as the impact of elite representations on popular ones, the transmission of sacred texts throughout Chinese society, the degree of overlap between performative and literary versions of texts, and the interaction between Taoism and local cults. While the authors might have made a greater effort to address the ongoing scholarship on ritual and textuality in other disciplines, this lack in no way detracts from the book's value as a whole. Paul Katz National Central University Paul Katz is an assistant professor ofhistory specializing in late imperial social history. Linda Cooke Johnson, editor. Cities ofjiangnan in Late Imperial China. SUNY Series in Chinese Local Studies. Albany: State University ofNew York Press, 1993. xiii, 310 pp. Hardcover $64.50, isbn 0-7914-1423-x. Paperback $19.95, isbn 0-7914-1424-8. This extremely useful symposium on Jiangnan urban history will be a godsend for scholars and graduate students needing a firm basis ofknowledge about the major cities of the Yangzi Delta. The five papers comprising the greater part of the text are unusually densely packed with information. They provide not only rich descriptive accounts of Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, and Shanghai in the Ming and Qing periods, but also background surveys of the cities' pre-Ming history. The editorial preface is supplemented by an analytical overview of the five papers by William T. Rowe, while the needs of the non-specialist are most thoughtfully served by an appendix introducing G. William Skinner's seminal application of central-place theory to Chinese historical geography. Two papers deal with Suzhou. Michael Marine's history of the city from 1127 till 1550 examines Suzhou's development within its rural hinterland, considering Reviews 451 the respective roles ofgovernmental actions and policies on one hand, and economic changes such as the expansion ofthe silk industry and the growth ofcotton cultivation on the other. His attempts to link famous governmental measures ofthe early Ming with Suzhou's prosperity are original and ingenious. He suggests that the diaspora ofSuzhou people resulting from Zhu Yuanzhang's deportation of "elite and artisan families" gave those who remained an empire-wide guanxi (connections) network; that the moving of the capital to Beijing afforded Suzhou economic opportunities comparable to those it had enjoyed in Yuan times, while enabling it to emerge from under Nanjing's shadow; and that not only has the unfairness of the tax burden which Zhu Yuanzhang imposed on Suzhou been exaggerated, but the prefecture's tax history reflects its early "economic maturity" and a degree ofcommercialization which was probably enhanced by tax reform during the fifteenth century (pp. 25-26, 28-30, and 32-33). While Marine's paper is refreshing because ofsuch analysis, the great strength of Paolo Santangelo's study ofSuzhou society in late Ming and Qing times is the detail with which a broad canvas is covered. Santangelo's paper, ably translated from the Italian by Adam Victor, addresses such subjects as the Suzhou textile industry (including the influence of the Imperial Factories and their superintendents), the city's guilds, crime and violence (including massacre), urban protest, and the special experience of Suzhou's calenderers. Linda Johnson's study ofpre-Opium War Shanghai is equally informative and comparably broad-ranging. Especially rich is her section on the guilds ofShanghai, with its analysis ofthe spatial distribution of guild premises ("common-trade organizations" inside the city wall and generally rather close to the major official buildings; "native-place associations" generally in the suburbs). Her concluding examination ofShanghai's changing fortunes and the role offoreign trade therein is also intelligent and neatly done. The contribution on Hangzhou will...