Engaging the writing of the fifteenth-century Confucian theorist and chancellor of the Imperial Academy, Qiu Jun, these essays enlarge our grasp of both Confucianism and the Chinese state, exploring what educated Chinese imagined as best practice in meeting the challenges of administering the realm. Rediscovering statecraft in the Ming period allows us to think about the tradition of applied Confucian duty without the moralism dominating conventional Chinese intellectual history, redirecting that history away from purely philosophical terms. As Qiu reminded Emperor Hongzhi, this 'is not empty talk. I humbly hope that your enlightened majesty will give these ideas your careful attention when you have the leisure to reflect. The people of the realm have no greater wish.' Drawing together a team of leading historians, this volume provides a vivid sense of the day-to-day policy calculations of Ming government, and brings Chinese political thought into the mainstream of comparative political theory.

‘These insightful studies introduce Qiu Jun’s Supplement to Explications of the Great Learning from 1487, the most important analytic compendium on statecraft to appear between Ma Duanlin’s Comprehensive Examination of the Record and Debates [over Statecraft] in the Yuan dynasty and Chen Zilong’s Compilation of Texts for Ordering the Age from Our Dynasty at the end of the Ming.’

Peter K. Bol - Harvard University

‘This book offers a study of ‘political theory’ beyond Confucian moral philosophy. Highly recommended for anyone wishing to understand the interdisciplinary intellectual and material contexts in which a real Chinese administrator thought and worked.’

Leigh Jenco - London School of Economics and Political Science