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Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000-1700
The most striking feature of Wutong, the preeminent God of Wealth in late imperial China, was the deity’s diabolical character. Wutong was perceived not as a heroic figure or paragon but rather as an embodiment of greed and lust, a maleficent demon who preyed on the weak and vulnerable. In The Sinister Way, Richard von Glahn examines the emergence and evolution of the Wutong cult within the larger framework of the historical development of Chinese popular or vernacular religion—as opposed to institutional religions such as Buddhism or Daoism. Von Glahn’s study, spanning three millennia, gives due recognition to the morally ambivalent and demonic aspects of divine power within the common Chinese religious culture.
Surveying Chinese religion from 1000 BCE to the beginning of the twentieth century, The Sinister Way views the Wutong cult as by no means an aberration. In Von Glahn’s work we see how, from earliest times, the Chinese imagined an enchanted world populated by fiendish fairies and goblins, ancient stones and trees that spring suddenly to life, ghosts of the unshriven dead, and the blood-eating spirits of the mountains and forests. From earliest times, too, we find in Chinese religious culture an abiding tension between two fundamental orientations: on one hand, belief in the power of sacrifice and exorcism to win blessings and avert calamity through direct appeal to a multitude of gods; on the other, faith in an all-encompassing moral equilibrium inhering in the cosmos.
Surveying Chinese religion from 1000 BCE to the beginning of the twentieth century, The Sinister Way views the Wutong cult as by no means an aberration. In Von Glahn’s work we see how, from earliest times, the Chinese imagined an enchanted world populated by fiendish fairies and goblins, ancient stones and trees that spring suddenly to life, ghosts of the unshriven dead, and the blood-eating spirits of the mountains and forests. From earliest times, too, we find in Chinese religious culture an abiding tension between two fundamental orientations: on one hand, belief in the power of sacrifice and exorcism to win blessings and avert calamity through direct appeal to a multitude of gods; on the other, faith in an all-encompassing moral equilibrium inhering in the cosmos.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published November 27, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 7, 2012
Words evades me in expressing my total admiration of this book. Its analysis is both extensive and thorough. Its research methodology is ingenious: one cannot talk about money without talking about how people think of them (both policy-makers and commoners). It is at the same time a world-history approach to study Chinese history: one cannot talk about money-system without talking about international trade. And yet Von Glahn is also careful NOT to overemphasize the intergratedness of 'world' economy: many local economies functioned more or less autonomously despite the presence/prevalence of trading.
This is a book I'll constantly come back to for anything related to Chinese economy, trade, and economic thought.
This is a book I'll constantly come back to for anything related to Chinese economy, trade, and economic thought.
October 10, 2021
Von Glahn treats the history of money -- both copper, paper, and silver -- in China from 1000-1700. The Tang and Song depended on copper coins, that same Chinese coins that were used in Japan and Southeast Asia (Java). Copper coins were good for small exchanges.
The discovery of Silver at Iwami Ginzan in Japan as well as Potosi in Bolivia (through Spain) increased the circulation of silver as the main means of exchange in Ming China, particuarly from 1550-1640.
The use of paper money was also precocious in the Song and early Ming, but because of the inability to rein in the exchange value, was quickly discontinued.
Von Glanh marshalls a large amount of Chinese and Japanese scholarship on the question of money in late imperial China and he casts doubt on the parallel development of capitalism in Europe and China.
The discovery of Silver at Iwami Ginzan in Japan as well as Potosi in Bolivia (through Spain) increased the circulation of silver as the main means of exchange in Ming China, particuarly from 1550-1640.
The use of paper money was also precocious in the Song and early Ming, but because of the inability to rein in the exchange value, was quickly discontinued.
Von Glanh marshalls a large amount of Chinese and Japanese scholarship on the question of money in late imperial China and he casts doubt on the parallel development of capitalism in Europe and China.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews