Ting Zhang's formidable study of the “production, circulation, and reception of legal knowledge in Qing China” (p. 6) constitutes a valuable contribution to the burgeoning field of Chinese legal history. It is based mainly on official and commercial editions of the Qing Code, litigation handbooks, community lecture manuals, and other publications that informed readers about the law. Zhang's empirical research is impeccable and on its own would make this an important book; her interpretive claims are interesting and provocative, even when they are not entirely persuasive.
The first two chapters review the publishing history of the Qing Code. Zhang shows that official publication was inadequate to meet demand, even within the bureaucracy: far too few copies were printed, and production was so slow that official editions were obsolete by the time they appeared in print. Hence the opportunity—indeed, the necessity—for commercial publishers to step in; without them, magistrates charged with...
