Social Order Through Contracts: A Study of the Qingshui River Manuscripts

Acknowledgments
About This Book
Dates and Currency
	The Qing Reign Periods
	Dates and Dating Protocol
	Currency Equivalents
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
List of Tables
Manuscripts Cited and Translated
1 Introduction
	1 The Story of the Wealthiest Man
	2 A Contract Society? Research Question and State of the Field
		2.1 Economic Success, Social Order, and Contracts
		2.2 A General Puzzle of How and Why the Contract Worked
	3 Sources: The Qingshui River Region and Beyond
		3.1 A Brief Introduction to the Qingshui River Manuscripts and Their Studies
		3.2 Sources in and Beyond the Region
	4 Analytical Framework and Synopsis
	References
2 Rediscovering Contracts in the Qingshui River Region
	1 Introduction: Standard and Borderline Contracts
		1.1 A General and Complex Term
		1.2 The Chinese Terminology of Contracts
		1.3 “Standard Cases” and “Borderline Cases”
	2 Contracts: Legal Definitions and Chinese Practice
		2.1 Contracts in Contract Laws
		2.2 Categorization of Contracts in Everyday Life
	3 Contents of a Contract: Beyond Agreement
		3.1 The Tense of a Contract: Future or Past?
		3.2 The Performance of Contracts
		3.3 Championing the Past in the Future
		3.4 Transcending as an Agreement
	4 Identifying Contracts by Form: The Internal and External
		4.1 The Textual Form
		4.2 The Ritual Form
		4.3 The Formulaic Beginning of a Contract: Indicating and Integrating
	5 Paper Matters: The Materiality of Contracts
		5.1 The Burning of Contracts
		5.2 The Non-conceptual Contract: The Contract and Its Material Carriers
		5.3 The Validity of the Material: Oral and Non-original
	6 The Tripartite Structure of Contracts: A Theory
		6.1 Three Stages and the Sequence of Examination
		6.2 Application and Verification
	7 Conclusion
	References
3 Middlemen
	1 Introduction: Understanding Middlemen Within a Contract
	2 The Primary and the Secondary: Formation and Restoration
		2.1 Four Roles
		2.2 Two Levels
	3 The Primary Level: Introducers, Witnesses, and Guarantors
		3.1 Introduction
		3.2 Witnessing
		3.3 Guarantee
	4 The Secondary Level: Arbitrators and Peacemakers
		4.1 The “Original Middleman”
		4.2 Arbitration
		4.3 Mediation
	5 The Middleman as the Third Party and the Third Party as the Middleman
		5.1 The Involvement of the Middleman in a Contract
		5.2 Incorporating Various Third Parties as Middlemen
		5.3 A Partly Open System of Middlemen
	6 Conclusion
	References
4 Scribes
	1 Introduction: Taking Scribes Seriously
		1.1 Scribes and the Writing of Contracts
		1.2 Contractual Scribes, Official Scribes, and Litigation Lawyers
		1.3 The Institution of Scribes and Its Operation
	2 The Demand for Scribes
		2.1 The Typology of Contract Writers
		2.2 The Number of Scribes
		2.3 The Proportion of Holographic Contracts and the Extent of Scribal Demand
		2.4 The Demand for Scribes in Different Kinds of Contracts
	3 Drafting of a Contract by a Scribe
		3.1 Appointing the Scribe
		3.2 Sources for Writing Contract Content: Words and Drafts
		3.3 Communicating Knowledge of Contract Forms
		3.4 Postscripts and Signatures
	4 The Scribe’s Fee
		4.1 To Pay or not to Pay?
		4.2 How Much?
		4.3 Which Is Higher? Comparison of the Scribe’s and the Middleman’s Fees
		4.4 Who Pays?
		4.5 How and When to Pay?
	5 Conclusion
	References
5 The Functioning Mechanism of Contracts in the Society
	1 Introduction: Contracts in Their Context
		1.1 Revisiting the Contract within the Society
		1.2 The Functioning Mechanism of Contracts
	2 The Question of Honoring Contracts: Departing from the myth of Enforcement
		2.1 Contractual Order as an Empirical Fact
		2.2 Generic and Sui Generis: The Logic of Enforcement
		2.3 A Weaker “Gunman” and a Better “Bad Man”? Shifting to “The Internal Point of View”
	3 Recognition and the Rightfulness of the Contract
		3.1 Contract Text as Justification
		3.2 Behind the Text: Willingness and Estoppel
		3.3 Recognition and Property Order
	4 Making Recognition Provable: The Publicity and Perpetuity of Contracts
		4.1 Indispensable Proofs: Ping in the Contract Text
		4.2 Middlemen and the Publicity of Contracts
		4.3 Scribes and the Perpetuity of Contracts
		4.4 Provable Recognition
	5 In Contract we Trust? A Blockchain-Like Trust Network
		5.1 Blockchain, Non-centrality, and Trust Network
		5.2 Broadcasting the Contract: Distributed Ledger in the Village Society
		5.3 Chaining the Contract: The Contextualization of a Contract
		5.4 Literacy as a Technical Barrier
		5.5 Authenticity and the Cconstruction of Trust Network
	6 Restoration of Order: Challenges from Breaches and Forgeries
		6.1 Disputes and Excuses for Breach
		6.2 Forgeries: Legitimization within the Context
		6.3 Restoring Order Through Contracts
	7 Private Contracts and Public Order: Public Issues and Limitations
		7.1 Applying Contracts in Public Issues
		7.2 Facing the Super-Large-Scale Stranger Society
	8 Conclusion
	References
6 Conclusion
Appendix A List of the Qingshui River Manuscripts
Archives Consulted and Manuscripts Collected Through Fieldwork
Publications (142 Volumes)
-4pt-  Glossary