Part 1. Space -- The spatial organization of subcounty administration -- The gazetteer cartography of Ye Chunji -- Part 2. Fields -- Taxing polders on the Yangzi Delta -- Growing rice in North Zhili -- Part 3. Books -- Building school libraries in the mid-Ming -- State censorship and the book trade -- Part 4. Monasteries -- At the margin of public authority: the Ming state and Buddhism -- Buddhism in the Chinese constitution: recording monasteries in North Zhili.

"The Ming dynasty (1368-1644), a period of commercial expansion and cultural innovation, fashioned the relationship between the present-day state and society in China. In this unique collection of reworked and illustrated essays, one of the leading scholars of Chinese history re-examines this relationship and argues that, contrary to previous scholarship, which emphasized the heavy hand of the state, it was radical responses within society to changes in commercial relations and social networks that led to a stable but dynamic "constitution" during the Ming dynasty."--OCLC record.

See Table of Contents.
Local access only [Brook-Ming Chinese State.pdf]

Compiled under imperial order by Zhai Shan 翟善 (Hongwu period) from Taixing 泰興, Jiangxi. "Statutes for the organization of the central government divided into the Six Ministries, the Censorate, the Office of Transmission 通政司, the Grand Court of Revision 大理寺, and the Five Chief Military Commissions 五軍都省府. This work was later superceded by the publication of the Da Ming huidian 大明會典 but it is the principle source for the government structure in the early Ming period after the abolition of the Central Secretariat 中書省 in 1380. Contained in Huang Ming zhishu 皇明制書 ..."
References: Franke, W. An introduction to the sources of Ming history, p. 178 (6.1.1).