Late imperial Chinese piety books

ABSTRACT From the late Ming onwards, the intense production of spirit-written texts, and morality books in particular, resulted in the circulation of a huge amount of religious literature. This led to various processes of canonization. This article examines one of the results of such processes, namely the publication of short compendiums of essential religious knowledge, oriented toward individual practice, that have circulated in Chinese society since the late eighteenth century, and that I call piety books. I first define this genre, introduce several examples published during the early nineteenth century, and then discuss the type of piety that these books recommended and articulated, organized around daily spiritual exercises.