ABSTRACT
There was no concept of gender and no concept of religion in Ming China, but men still became anxious when women went to temples. No one objected when women practiced devotions quietly in the domestic sphere, but more public professions of devotion, especially among women of the elite, caused some consternation. 1 Ming people were interested in questions having to do with men and women, and questions having to do with humans and deities, but the conceptual frameworks that they used differ from those we use today. Nonetheless, it is productive to borrow those frameworks to look at the late Ming.
