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Centered on two anthologies of statecraft essays compiled between the late Qianlong reign and the early Daoguang reign, this book examines how a statecraft learning—one with concerns with practical questions in governance—emerged as an alternative to the evidential scholarship, which had been the mainstream since the Qian-Jia period. Qiewenzhai Wenchao inherited the worldly engagement of Neo-Confucianism and applied statecraft knowledge to specific issues such as local administration, moral transformation of customs, taxation and public finance, and famine relief, thereby constituting a more localized regime of statecraft knowledge in the Qianlong period. Huangchao Jingshi Wenbian, by contrast, further advanced the spirit of “integrating the inner heart and mind and the outer social world,” combining moral self-cultivation with institutional practice and extending statecraft into a body of knowledge on national governance, including principles of government as well as the administrative affairs of the Six Boards. Together, the two anthologies show that Qing Confucianism did not lose touch with reality despite the dominance of evidential learning. Instead, the principles of “pursuit of learning through inquiry” and “statecraft for practical use” supported each other in the ecosystem of knowledge. Departing from the internal intellectual context of Qing Confucianism, the book reveals both continuity and change among Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, Qing scholarship, and modern reform thought. It also provides important clues for understanding the intellectual resources through which late nineteenth-century scholar-officials responded to internal and external crises.

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