Author: Richard G. Wang
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2022. 400 pp. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674270961
Lineages Embedded in Temple Networks explores the key role played by elite Daoists in social and cultural life in Ming China, notably by mediating between local networks—biological lineages, territorial communities, temples, and festivals—and the state. They did this through their organization in clerical lineages—their own empire-wide networks for channeling knowledge, patronage, and resources—and by controlling central temples that were nodes of local social structures.