This companion to Jiang Yonglin's translation of <i>The Great Ming Code</i> analyzes the code's underlying thought in terms of the spiritual and social agenda articulated by the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), Zhu Yuanzhang. Jiang challenges the conventional assumption that law in premodern China was used merely to exercise naked state power and argues that <i>The Great Ming Code</i> represented a powerful religious effort for social transformation.<p><b>Jiang Yonglin</b> is associate professor of East Asian studies at Bryn Mawr College.<p>"A necessary correction to the conventional views." <b>--Ziaoqun Xu</b>, author of <i>Frontier of History in China</i><p>"Arguing against a scholarly tradition that sees Chinese law as a purely secular instrument of despotic power, Jiang Yonglin seeks to place that tradition in the context of a China-centered Chinese history. . . . A learned and thoughtful work." --Michael Marme, <i>Journal of Asian Studies</i>