The most striking feature of Wutong, the preeminent God of Wealth in late imperial China, was the deity's diabolical character. Wutong was perceived not as a heroic figure or paragon of noble qualities but rather as an embodiment of humanity's basest vices, greed and lust, a maleficent demon who preyed on the weak and vulnerable. In "The Sinister Way", Richard von Glahn examines the emergence and evolution of the Wutong cult within the larger framework of the historical development of Chinese popular or vernacular religion - as opposed to institutional religions such as Buddhism or Daoism. Von Glahn's study, spanning three millennia, gives due recognition to the morally ambivalent and demonic aspects of divine power within the common Chinese religious culture.

【作者簡介】

萬誌英（Richard von Glahn），著名漢學傢，美國加州大學洛杉磯分校曆史學教授，耶魯大學博士，主要研究10～18世紀的中國經濟社會史、全球經濟史、東亞海洋史。編有《中國史上的宋元明過渡》（The Song-Yuan-Ming Transition in Chinese History），著有《財源:1000~1700年的中國貨幣與貨幣政策》（Fountain of Fortune: Money and Monetary Policy in China, 1000-1700）、《從古代到十九世紀的中國經濟史》（The Economic History of China from Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century）等。

【譯者簡介】

廖涵繽，北京外國語大學英語語言與文學專業文學學士，牛津大學社會人類學哲學碩士。