Writing and Law in Late Imperial China: Crime, Conflict, and Judgment

In order to clarify the place of law in the traditional Chinese social imaginary, mostly US scholars of Chinese history and literature examine written law and writing about law in late Ming and Qing China. Among their topics are narratives of spousal violence and the critique of masculinity in 18th-century criminal cases, poverty tales and statutory politics in mid-Qing fraud cases, and Wu Woyao's Strange Case of Nine Murders and its antecedents. The 12 papers are from an October 2003 conference in Saint Louis. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)