伦理情境下的博弈、仪式与象征——关于清朝中晚期士绅和庶民生活的个案研究

Games, Rituals, and Symbolic Meanings Governed by the Moral Ethics——A Case Study on the Social Life of the Gentry and Peasants in Mid and Late Manchu Dynasty

This case study was conducted to investigate the social life of the gentry and peasants in mid and late Manchu Dynasty. Social behaviors of both classes were found to be governed to certain extents by the moral ethics in traditional China. In line with the characteristics of the “hierarchical inclusion” in traditional Chinese society, this kind of ethical scrutiny resulted in sharp differentiations of its controlling power across and within the two social strata. As members of “the elite with no governing power,” the scholars in the lower-level gentry were rational beings and often engaged in self-controlled game behaviors so as to maximize benefits for themselves. The peasant class, although under the same ethical governance, lived a daily life that was full of intuitive sensations. Their social behavior of “reasoning by intuition” was expressed through rituals with rich symbolic meanings.