Animals, Ledgers of Merit and Demerit, and Karma: Religious Ecological Mechanisms in Chinese Morality Books of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Religions February 24, 2026 Junhui Chen, Xinfeng Kong
The article examines the religio-ecological framework articulated in Ming–Qing morality books 勸善書, focusing on how animals, Ledgers of merit 功過格, and karmic 業報 are integrated into a system of moral causality. Within this framework, actions such as killing or saving animals are directly linked to karmic reward and punishment, generating a dual mechanism that combines moral technology with an...