“Few themes in premodern China’s social and intellectual life have had greater significance than ming. The Magnitude of Ming is the most wide-ranging, provocative and generally valuable interdisciplinary discussion in any language of this critical concept. Christopher Lupke is to be commended for this highly stimulating volume, which, despite the wide range of its subject matter, its broad disciplinary representation, and its chronological sweep, has a remarkable thematic coherence. This well-edited work will generate much discussion and fruitful debate among scholars of Chinese history, philosophy, religion, language and literature, as well as comparativists in these disciplines and will also serve as a valuable, indeed, indispensable, reference work. A first-rate production.” —Richard J. Smith, Rice University

“The rich content of this volume substantiates its presiding thesis: ‘ming [command/mandate/fate/life] is a ubiquitous term in Chinese thought, history, and literature.’ By examining the topic in a wide variety of writings—from paleographic inscriptions and classical texts, through medieval ritual scriptures and traditional fiction and drama, to modern and contemporary literatures—the contributors reveal concretely the term’s pliant polysemy further shaped by shifting linguistic and social contexts. The book will serve as a needed reference and stimulus for future inquiry.” —Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago

Few ideas in Chinese discourse are as ubiquitous as ming, variously understood as “command,” “allotted lifespan,” “fate,” or “life.” In the earliest days of Chinese writing, ming was already present, invoked in divinations and etched into ancient bronzes; it has continued to inscribe itself down to the twenty-first century in literature and film. This volume assembles twelve essays by some of the most eminent scholars currently working in Chinese studies to produce the first comprehensive study in English of ming’s broad web of meanings. The essays span the history of Chinese civilization and represent disciplines as varied as religion, philosophy, anthropology, literary studies, history, and sociology. Cross-cultural comparisons between ancient Chinese views of ming and Western conceptions of moira and fatum are discussed, providing a specific point of departure for contrasting the structure of attitudes between the two civilizations.

Ming is central to debates on the legitimacy of rulership and is the crucial variable in Daoist manuals for prolonging one’s life. It has preoccupied the philosopher and the poet and weighed on the minds of commoners throughout imperial China. Ming was the subject of the great critic Jin Shengtan’s last major literary work and drove the narrative of such classic novels as The Investiture of the Gods and The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Confucius, Mencius, and most other great thinkers of the classical age, as well as those in ages to come, had much to say on the subject. It has only been eschewed in contemporary Chinese philosophy, but even its effacement there has ironically turned it into a sort of absent cause.

Contributors: Stephen Bokenkamp, Zong-qi Cai, Robert Campany, Woei Lien Chong, Deirdre Sabina Knight, Christopher Lupke, Mu-chou Poo, Michael Puett, Lisa Raphals, P. Steven Sangren, David Schaberg, Patricia Sieber.

Christopher Lupke is assistant professor of Chinese language and culture at Washington State University and associate editor of the Journal of Modern Literature in Chinese.

Read the table of contents and/or the introduction (PDF).