"Elegant Debts uses an unprecedented quantity of primary sources for the writer and painter Wen Zhengming's life and work. It looks at the ways in which social obligation and gift exchange were central to personal and individual identity in the Ming period. It also examines Wen's family relationships, his friends, mentors, and pupils, his sense of a distinct local identity, and the interplay of national and regional politics with the achievements of his long life. It uses the insights of a range of scholarship - art history, social and literary history, and anthropology - to show how "self" was constructed in Ming China. In so doing, it makes a major contribution towards a more diverse art history that is less dependent on European conceptions of artists and their work."--BOOK JACKET.