Literati Identity and Its Fictional Representations in Late Imperial China (review)

230 China Review International: Vol. 6, No. ?, Spring 1999 Shaoxing has produced a disproportionate number ofscholars and intellectuals, particularly since the Southern Sung period in the twelfth century. More than six decades have passed since the appearance of the last difang zhi in China in the late 1930s. The publication of the ShaoxingAnnals is indeed a monumental cultural event. Only this time it is not only historians who will benefit from it but also all scholars who are interested in socioeconomic development in contemporary China; they will find a treasure trove ofinformation here, albeit at a reduced scale. Sen-dou Chang Sen-dou Chang is a professor ofgeography at the University ofHawai'i atMänoa specializing in economic development issues in China. Stephen J. Roddy. Literati Identity and Its Fictional Representations in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. xii, 315 pp. Hardcover $49.40, isbn 0-8047-3131-4. In the academic study oflate imperial China, fictional and philosophical sources are usually tapped by different scholars, so much so that fiction and philosophy seem to reflect two separate and unrelated worlds. In some ways these two types of sources did come from different worlds, as Chinese fiction ranked near the bottom, and Chinese philosophy ranked near the top, ofthe prestige scale ofintellectual endeavors in the Qing period. Stephen Roddy has performed a valuable service by bringing these seemingly disparate worlds together and examining three novels in relation to the dominant intellectual trends ofthe late imperial period. Specifically, he reads and interprets Rulin waishi (Unofficial history of the literati), Yesou puyan (Humble words of a rustic elder), and Jinghua yuan (Flowers in the mirror) as explorations ofliterati self-identity that address explicitly the same issues and concerns as Qing philosophers and philologists. The Qing period was an unsettling time for many Chinese literati. On the one hand, they were ruled by activist Manchu emperors inclined to see the literati as no more than servants and tools ofthe throne. The rapid expansion ofpopulay ' tion and literacy greatly intensified the competition for success in the provincial and metropolitan examinations. The sharing ofhigh bureaucratic posts between Manchus and Chinese and the stable and relatively small size ofthe state apparatus throughout this period ofrapid population and economic growth all conspired to ofHawai'i Press Reviews 231 make the traditional basis ofliterati prestige and power (examination success and bureaucratic service to the state) ever more precarious. At the same time, a growing commercial economy gave rise to new social groups that blurred status distinctions and further undermined the traditional literati dominance of society.1 Roddy's chiefconcern is the threat to literati identity that resulted from the intellectual endeavors of the literati themselves. "It is the contention of this book that by undermining Neo-Confucian orthodoxy, Qing writers implicitly altered the tasks and interests by which the literati had identified themselves for at least five centuries" (p. 6). Building on the studies ofKai-wing Chow, Benjamin Elman, John Henderson, Yu Yingshi, and others, he examines, in part 1, "the image ofthe literati in Qing discourse."2 Careful to define the literati loosely as referring to "a nexus of cultural, ideological, and socio-political values and relationships," rather than "an empirically verifiable social group" (p. 9), he concentrates on developments in Qing philosophy and philology, and notes the variety ofways that the intellectual world of the literati was being reshaped and redefined in the Qing period. As Song orthodoxy reigned supreme in the examination system, it was being systematically undermined by developments in Qing philology. Ethical and religious questions were avoided and replaced by the study of the form and concrete detail of texts. As more and more literati found it impossible to work in government, and many were hired as clerks, informal advisers, and specialists in textual research, they increasinglybecame "a deracinated elite with little access to the privileges that orthodoxy promised them" (p. 17). The increasing specialization and professionalization ofthe elite, the steady undermining of Song orthodoxy, and the lack ofa strong consensus on any one viable substitute created "a profound sense ofepistemologica! uncertainty" in the eighteenth century (p. 20). In chapter 2, "Discourses ofthe Literati and the Literati in Discourse," Roddy broadens...