Dry spells: Rainmaking, power, and the state in Late Imperial China

This dissertation is an investigation of rainmaking activities that were organized or conducted by local officials in late imperial China. This dissertation has two main objectives. First, it seeks to provide a wealth of new data about rainmaking activities that were carried out by Chinese officials. Second, it suggests that this data modifies our understanding of several key issues in the study of Chinese history and religion, such as the content of state orthodoxy, the nature of official religion, and the character of state-society relations. Chapter 1 opens the investigation by providing a brief review of the relevant literature and describing the organization of the study. Chapter 2 gives an overview of official rainmaking by presenting various newspaper accounts of rainmaking activities that took place during three droughts in the Lower Yangzi region in the late nineteenth century. Chapter 3 traces the origins of official rainmaking practices to several rainmaking exemplars in early Chinese history and describes how these exemplars provided the inspiration for an eclectic rainmaking tradition that persisted into the late imperial period. Chapter 4 examines how official rainmaking was treated in the Qing ritual order. It argues that efforts by various actors to systematize rainmaking during this time failed, which led to a general incoherence in the state rainmaking regime. Chapter 5 contends that this incoherence allowed for a wide range of official rainmaking practices to be carried out, practices that this chapter describes in detail. Chapter 6 provides depth to this discussion by describing a rainmaking method that was developed by a Qing magistrate named Ji Dakui and enjoyed immense popularity among officials in the nineteenth century. Chapter 7 explores how official rainmaking was received by local communities. It argues that elites and commoners could shape official rainmaking by persuading or pressuring officials to pray in a way that the community desired. Chapter 8 concludes by exploring the implications of this dissertation for the study of Chinese history and religion more broadly.