How Zhang Juzheng Dominated China, 1572‒82
Ideas, Determination, Power: How Zhang Juzheng Dominated China, 1572–82 Handwritten pencil manuscript on scrap paper, left unfinished by John W. Dardess. Transcribed by Bruce M. Tindall Edited (lightly) by Sarah Schneewind and Bruce M. Tindall © The Estate of John W. Dardess, 2021 The ms. and notes have been deposited with the library of the University of Kansas. The ms. contains many long paraphrases and quotations, the two not always clearly distinguished. Generally, unless we are sure that the passage is a direct quotation, we have marked it as “in paraphrase.” Researchers wishing to quote should consult the original passages. Numbers in curly brackets { } show where a new page of the handwritten ms. begins, but many complications (backs of pages, interpolated additions, etc.) are not noted. We have reorganized silently where needed, and added section headings. We have silently corrected where it leaves the sense unchanged; other additions, as well as question marks showing that we cannot quite read a word, are in square brackets [ ]. Square brackets also mark words we could not read at all. In the notes, we silently filled in information where certain of the reference. Abstract: Zhang Juzheng (1525-1582) was psychologically the most complex of Ming China’s chief grand secretaries. His rise owed something to an appealing combination of brilliance with diffidence and humility. He was learned, and mastered the literary arts of memorization, comprehension, and interpretation, and the articulation of these things in a clear and creative way in writing. But learning, for Zhang, was never enough. One’s learning, if thoroughly and conscientiously come by, must somehow find its appropriate impact and end in the rectified governance of a realm that after functioning in a faltering way for two centuries had developed some very serious problems.
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