Ming society from the late sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century was a society in the grips of profound economic, social and political changes. It is always easy to look back on a period, view the big picture and label it as a period of upheaval. But records left show that even contemporaries recognised the ferment they were living through. With such all-encompassing and intense changes, it was perhaps inevitable that the tradition of morals, virtues and religious belief, passed down from the time of the Divine Sages, would itself be forced to undergo changes in order to maintain a relevant role in a new China.
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