Acknowledgement

I knew nothing about late-Ming casebooks when I first studied the legal history of the Ming in the late 1990s. For over five years, I investigated early Ming legislation in the history department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong under the inspiring supervision of Professor Hung-lam Chu, before his move to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as the Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Culture and Art and Dean of Faculty of Humanities. It was because of his strict two-dissertation policy, however, that Professor Chu suggested to me that I should broaden my intellectual horizons by further study abroad. When I was so confused about my future and thought that I might give up on an academic career altogether, in a casual afternoon meeting at his office, Professor Chu again shed new light on me by giving me a copy of Yan Junyan’s Mengshui zhai cundu. I always recall his kind advice and encouragement at the moment of handing me this extremely difficult book, which has indeed been a key to unlock many interesting issues of Ming legal history.

I am also deeply indebted to Dr. Laura Newby who supervised my study at the University of Oxford. As an expert on the Manchus of the Qing period, she could easily refuse taking a Ming student such as me as her apprentice. Yet, she was daring enough to explore the casebooks and prefectural judges of the Ming together with me. She also prompted me to reconsider the Qing counterparts of my Ming topics; I should certainly continue my exploration to the legal and social history of Qing China, to honor her inspirations to a “Ming Loyalist” such as me.

My study at Oxford would never have been possible without generous financial support from the Swire Educational Trust. Thanks to their far-sighted commitment to my non-commercial research, I was awarded the Swire-Cathay Pacific Scholarship which fully supported my doctorate at St. Antony’s College. I also appreciate their generosity to support many research trips to different academic institutions all over the world. Moreover, I was further supported by the Davis Fund of the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford for my research trip to Japan. Without their marvelous provision, I could not have met so many authorities on late Imperial China in different countries, not to mention discovering a great deal of meaningful rare materials which appear in this work.

I am thankful to an array of international scholars who advised me with many insightful comments at various stages of my doctoral research: the late Professor Hok-lam Chan of the University of Washington, Professor David McMullen and Dr. Joseph McDermott of the University of Cambridge, Professor Harriet Zurndorfer and Professor Hilde de Weerdt of the University of Leiden, Professor Kishimoto Mio of the University of Ochanomizu, Dr. Kentaro Matsubara of the University of Tokyo, Dr. Anne Gerritsen of the University of Warrick, Professor Susan Naquin of Princeton University, Professor Dongmei Zhao of Peking University, Professor Jiang Yonglin of Bryn Mawr College, and Dr. Claude Chevaleyre of ENS de Lyon. But among all the scholars and friends who helped modify my arguments and cured my blindness to some important issues in my thesis, I must single out the internal examiner of my thesis, Professor Timothy Brook, then Shaw Professor of Chinese at Oxford, and my external examiner Professor Pierre-Etienne Will of the Collège de France. They not only gave me a great deal of constructive feedback to improve my work, but also encouraged me to revise the thesis into book form.

It has been such a soul-searching experience during the revision, however, that it took me almost ten years for my thesis to be transformed into the current book. Thanks to many faithful reviewers who critically commented on my work, I have realized, bit by bit, the difference between a doctoral thesis based on scrutinized textual investigation and a scholarly book for the learned community. I thoroughly revised every part of my original work including the conclusion. I should especially like to thank two scholars who significantly contributed to the realization of this book project: the first is Professor Kee-long Billy So, one of my most influential teachers in the study of history, who recommended me to Dr. Qin Higley, Senior Acquisitions Editor of Asian Studies at Brill. The other is Professor Philip Huang, the Series Editor of The Social Sciences of Practice in which this work is published. Professor Huang not only reviewed my manuscript with extra patience, but also challenged my original negative impression of the Qing legal system, and pushed me to revisit my conclusions on the legal development of different periods of late imperial China.

I would like to thank Dr. Mark Strange, my dear classmate at Oxford, who struggled with my rather rugged first draft to help convey my points to be much better understood in English. I also would like to thank my professional editors, namely: Mr. Tony Edwards, Mr. Eric Mok, and Ms. Wendy Smyer Yu, who have all advised on and copy-edited my work. And I must thank my dear editor Ms. Elizabeth You for all the kind support and timely help in the reviewing and production process of this book. I cannot expect more from a busy editor!

I am solely responsible for whatever errors and defects that my humble work might have, but if any merits can be claimed for this little book, they ought to be shared with the abovementioned scholars and friends.

Incidentally, some parts of the current work are evolved from journal articles I published in the past decade. A large portion of Chapter 3 is revised from “Favourable Institutional Circumstances for the publication of Judicial Works in late Ming China,” published in Études chinoises XXVIII « dossier droit » / special issue on Chinese Law, pp. 51–71 (2009), and the first four sections of Chapter 4 are based on the original findings of “Daizui Guang li: Yan Junyan shengping ji Mengshui zhai cundu chengshu de jiumiu yu xinzheng,” which originally appeared in Chinese Studies 29.4 (2011.12), pp. 201–219. I should take this chance to thank the above journals for allowing me to regenerate these published materials into the current book form.

In the due course of the revision, my two sons Leung Chi and Zen Chi were born. I have experienced perhaps the greatest joy of this world by witnessing their growth. But my wife Vicky must get the last word. I owe her a debt of gratitude that I would never know how to repay. Without her company and good humor in the turbulent years of a junior academic in turbulent Hong Kong, the completion of this book would never have been possible.