Abstract

This article examines various positions on whether children should be allowed to play in late imperial China. Demonstrating distinctly different views from Neo-Confucian thinkers, professional genre painters of “Children at Play” ( yingxi tu 嬰戲圖), and the emerging pediatric specialists, the article maintains that clearly multi-vocal forces coexisted during the Song Dynasty, including a persuasive child-favoring stance that remains unique in global humanities on this issue.