Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China

by Timothy Brook

In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century China, Buddhists and Confucians alike flooded local Buddhist monasteries with donations. As gentry numbers grew faster than the imperial bureaucracy, traditional Confucian careers were closed to many; but visible philanthropy could publicize elite status outside the state realm. Actively sought by fundraising abbots, such patronage affected institutional Buddhism.

After exploring the relation of Buddhism...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674697758
• ISBN13: 9780674697751
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 412 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.3" x 9.3"