ABSTRACT
Our aim has not been to give a comprehensive account of charisma in China. It has been simply to give examples of expectations of effective leadership. In these expectations, leadership proves itself by creative public work that inaugurates new elements in a tradition. These examples of charisma add to those that have already modified and reformulated Weber’s concept and demonstrated that his ideal–typical distinction between traditional and charismatic authority is untenable. Here we return to the question of what is modern charisma, and again to learning what we can from our examples.
