bidden in state shrines. Chapter 6 details a surge in the publication of gazetteers and the local literature, works that celebrated Suzhou’s history and customs. Chapter 7 examines literati attempts to legitimize the rule of Zhang Shicheng, a contender to power in the late Yuan who established his capital in Suzhou. Together, these chapters show that nineteenth century elites took advantage of a less interventionist state to reassert the value of local culture. Han also suggests, with somewhat less evidence, that the rise of local culture practices was tied to the state’s economic dependance on the elite, a situation that made the state reluctant to intervene in their cultural practices, even those that undermined a central cultural order. While each chapter in the book is structured around the transition from the eighteenth to nineteenth centuries, there are undeveloped hints of other temporalities at play. For instance, we learn that waterworks projects in Suzhou boomed not in the early nineteenth century, but in the 1820s and 1830s, before dropping off in the 1840s (62–74). The reasons for this pattern are unclear. Were there ecological or demographic factors? Did the drop in the 1840s have something to do with the Opium War? Was the boom tied to the transition from the Jiaqing to Daoguang reigns or a generational shift among officials or elites? By the same token, Han provides little explanation for other striking developments in the Daoguang reign: the doubling of annual enshrinements in the Shrine of Local Worthies (120), the building of the Shrine of Former Worthies in 1828 (123); or the extension of honorary official titles to commoners in 1827 (38). Perhaps more importantly for a book on local elites, Han spends little time describing the nature of Suzhou’s elite or how different strata of the elite responded to political changes in the early nineteenth century. Most elites mentioned in the book are scholar-officials—men with examination degrees, a history or expectation of official service, and close cultural affinities with local officials. The tensions between the state and local elites may have been more apparent with other strata of the elite, such as merchants or bankers. Han leaves the activities and interests of these other elites unexplored. These questions aside, Han’s book is a pioneering work that enriches our understanding of local elite responses in a period of political change. His study, attentive to changes beyond Suzhou, also provides a framework for measuring changes elsewhere in the empire.

中文翻译：

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天师：早期道教社区的历史与仪式

供奉在州神社。第 6 章详述了地名录和地方文学以及颂扬苏州历史和风俗的作品的出版激增。第七章考察了文人试图使张士诚的统治合法化，张士诚是元末在苏州建立首都的权力竞争者。这些章节共同表明，19 世纪的精英们利用干预较少的国家来重申当地文化的价值。韩还以较少的证据表明，地方文化习俗的兴起与国家对精英的经济依赖有关，这种情况使国家不愿干预他们的文化习俗，即使是那些破坏中央文化秩序的文化习俗。虽然本书的每一章都是围绕 18 世纪到 19 世纪的过渡而构建的，但仍有其他时间在起作用的未开发暗示。例如，我们了解到苏州的水利工程不是在 19 世纪初期蓬勃发展，而是在 1820 和 1830 年代蓬勃发展，然后在 1840 年代（62-74 年）下降。这种模式的原因尚不清楚。是否存在生态或人口因素？1840 年代的下降是否与鸦片战争有关？繁荣与嘉庆到道光的过渡或官员或精英之间的代际转移有关吗？同样的道理，汉代对道光年间的其他显着发展也几乎没有提供任何解释：地方贤祠每年供奉的人数翻了一番（120），1828 年 (123) 建造前贤祠；或在 1827 年将荣誉官方头衔扩展到平民 (38)。对于一本关于地方精英的书来说，或许更重要的是，韩文很少花时间描述苏州精英的本质，或者不同阶层的精英如何应对 19 世纪初的政治变化。书中提到的大多数精英都是士大夫——具有考试学位、有为官服务的历史或期望，与地方官员有着密切的文化渊源的人。国家和地方精英之间的紧张关系可能在其他精英阶层中更为明显，例如商人或银行家。汉对这些其他精英的活动和兴趣没有进行探索。抛开这些问题，韩的书是一项开创性的工作，丰富了我们对政治变革时期地方精英反应的理解。他的研究关注苏州以外的变化，也为衡量帝国其他地方的变化提供了一个框架。