On Timothy Brook’s Study Of The Local Social Power Structure In The Ming Dynasty

Timothy Brook is a prominent sinologist who has made a remarkable achievement in hisresearch. In recent years,he has been concerned greatly by the domestic academic. Brook hasa profound study on local society in Ming dynasty.And he has a systematic analysis on thegentry and merchant groups.It has three chapters in this paper to show Brook’s study of thelocal social power structure in the Ming dynasty through reading his works.The first chapter mainly introduce Timothy Brook’s academic experience,then to figureout the relation between Brook and the Harvard School.Show the several paradigms of theHarvard Schools’Ming and Qing studies and the paradigm’s transformation.And this chapteralso indroduce Brook’s research areas and methods.The second chapter mainly introduce the gentry group’s situation in Brook’s study.Hethinks that the gentry group with self defining and exclusivity.But,there are two problems.OnBrook’s study of the gentry group with attributes of autonomy is inappropriate. Meanwhile,when Brook in invokes the concept of the public domain by Habermas,and there is somethingwhich is not avilible.The third chapter mainly introduce the impact of the marchants and wealty on the localcommunity.It shows that the merchants could get across the social boundaries by the wealth.However,Brook seems to have a problem in historical references and interpretation.Lastly,the chapter has a comment on Timothy Brook’s study of the local social powerstructure in the Ming dynasty.I think the gentry group which plays a leading role in the localsocial power structure is not with a tendency of attributes of autonomy actually.This is just thecultural elite’s superiority at work...