China Between Empires

China Between Empires PDF Author: Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674060350
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
After the collapse of the Han dynasty in the third century CE, China divided along a north-south line. Mark Lewis traces the changes that both underlay and resulted from this split in a period that saw the geographic redefinition of China, more engagement with the outside world, significant changes to family life, developments in the literary and social arenas, and the introduction of new religions. The Yangzi River valley arose as the rice-producing center of the country. Literature moved beyond the court and capital to depict local culture, and newly emerging social spaces included the garden, temple, salon, and country villa. The growth of self-defined genteel families expanded the notion of the elite, moving it away from the traditional great Han families identified mostly by material wealth. Trailing the rebel movements that toppled the Han, the new faiths of Daoism and Buddhism altered every aspect of life, including the state, kinship structures, and the economy. By the time China was reunited by the Sui dynasty in 589 ce, the elite had been drawn into the state order, and imperial power had assumed a more transcendent nature. The Chinese were incorporated into a new world system in which they exchanged goods and ideas with states that shared a common Buddhist religion. The centuries between the Han and the Tang thus had a profound and permanent impact on the Chinese world.

China Between Empires

China Between Empires PDF Author: Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674060350
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

Get Book Here

Book Description
After the collapse of the Han dynasty in the third century CE, China divided along a north-south line. Mark Lewis traces the changes that both underlay and resulted from this split in a period that saw the geographic redefinition of China, more engagement with the outside world, significant changes to family life, developments in the literary and social arenas, and the introduction of new religions. The Yangzi River valley arose as the rice-producing center of the country. Literature moved beyond the court and capital to depict local culture, and newly emerging social spaces included the garden, temple, salon, and country villa. The growth of self-defined genteel families expanded the notion of the elite, moving it away from the traditional great Han families identified mostly by material wealth. Trailing the rebel movements that toppled the Han, the new faiths of Daoism and Buddhism altered every aspect of life, including the state, kinship structures, and the economy. By the time China was reunited by the Sui dynasty in 589 ce, the elite had been drawn into the state order, and imperial power had assumed a more transcendent nature. The Chinese were incorporated into a new world system in which they exchanged goods and ideas with states that shared a common Buddhist religion. The centuries between the Han and the Tang thus had a profound and permanent impact on the Chinese world.

The Age of Confucian Rule

The Age of Confucian Rule PDF Author: Dieter Kuhn
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674244346
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Just over a thousand years ago, the Song dynasty emerged as the most advanced civilization on earth. Within two centuries, China was home to nearly half of all humankind. In this concise history, we learn why the inventiveness of this era has been favorably compared with the European Renaissance, which in many ways the Song transformation surpassed. With the chaotic dissolution of the Tang dynasty, the old aristocratic families vanished. A new class of scholar-officials—products of a meritocratic examination system—took up the task of reshaping Chinese tradition by adapting the precepts of Confucianism to a rapidly changing world. Through fiscal reforms, these elites liberalized the economy, eased the tax burden, and put paper money into circulation. Their redesigned capitals buzzed with traders, while the education system offered advancement to talented men of modest means. Their rationalist approach led to inventions in printing, shipbuilding, weaving, ceramics manufacture, mining, and agriculture. With a realist’s eye, they studied the natural world and applied their observations in art and science. And with the souls of diplomats, they chose peace over war with the aggressors on their borders. Yet persistent military threats from these nomadic tribes—which the Chinese scorned as their cultural inferiors—redefined China’s understanding of its place in the world and solidified a sense of what it meant to be Chinese. The Age of Confucian Rule is an essential introduction to this transformative era. “A scholar should congratulate himself that he has been born in such a time” (Zhao Ruyu, 1194).

Book of (Old and New) Tang Dynasty

Book of (Old and New) Tang Dynasty PDF Author: Li Shi
Publisher: DeepLogic
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1035

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Book Description
The Twenty-Four Histories (Chinese: 二十四史) are the Chinese official historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century. The Han dynasty official Sima Qian established many of the conventions of the genre. Starting with the Tang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records. As fixed and edited in the Qing dynasty, the whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture. The title "Twenty-Four Histories" dates from 1775 which was the 40th year in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. This was when the last volume, the History of Min gwas reworked and a complete set of the histories produced. The Twenty Four Histories include: •Early Four Historiographies (前四史) •Records of the Grand Historian (史記, Shǐ Jì), compiled by Sima Qian 司馬遷 in 91 BC •Book of Han (漢書, Hàn Shū), compiled by Ban Gu 班固 in 82 •Records of the Three Kingdoms (三國志, Sānguó Zhì), compiled by Chen Shou 陳壽 in 289 •Book of Later Han (後漢書, Hòuhàn Shū), compiled by Fan Ye 范曄 in 445[2] •Book of Song (simplified Chinese: 宋书; traditional Chinese: 宋書; pinyin: Sòng Shū)—Southern Dynasties, compiled by Shen Yue 沈約 in 488 •Book of Qi (simplified Chinese: 齐书; traditional Chinese: 齊書; pinyin: Qí Shū)—Southern Dynasties, compiled by Xiao Zixian 蕭子顯 in 537 •Book of Wei (simplified Chinese: 魏书; traditional Chinese: 魏書; pinyin: Wèi Shū)—Northern Dynasties, compiled by Wei Shou 魏收 in 554 •Eight Historiographies complied in Tang Dynasty (唐初八史) •Book of Liang (梁書, Liáng Shū)—Southern Dynasties, compiled by Yao Silian 姚思廉 in 636 •Book of Chen (陳書, Chén Shū)—Southern Dynasties, compiled by Yao Silian in 636 •Book of Northern Qi (北齊書, Běi Qí Shū)—Northern Dynasties, compiled by Li Baiyao 李百藥 in 636 •Book of Zhou (周書, Zhōu Shū)—Northern Dynasties, compiled under Linghu Defen 令狐德棻 in 636 •Book of Sui (隋書, Suí Shū), compiled under Wei Zheng 魏徵 in 636 •Book of Jin (晉書, Jìn Shū), compiled under Fang Xuanling 房玄齡 in 648 •History of the Southern Dynasties (南史, Nán Shǐ), compiled by Li Yanshou 李延壽 in 659 •History of the Northern Dynasties (北史, Běi Shǐ), compiled by Li Yanshou in 659 •Old Book of Tang (唐書, Táng Shū), compiled under Liu Xu 劉昫 in 945 •Old History of the Five Dynasties (五代史, Wǔdài Shǐ), compiled under Xue Juzheng 薛居正 in 974 •New History of the Five Dynasties (新五代史, Xīn Wǔdài Shǐ), compiled under Ouyang Xiu 歐陽脩 in 1053 •New Book of Tang (新唐書, Xīn Táng Shū), compiled under Ouyang Xiu in 1060 •Three Historiographies compiled in Yuan Dynasty (元末三史) •History of Liao (遼史, Liáo Shǐ), compiled under Toqto'a 脫脫 in 1343[3] •History of Jin (金史, Jīn Shǐ), compiled under Toqto'a in 1345 •History of Song (宋史, Sòng Shǐ), compiled under Toqto'a in 1345 •History of Yuan (元史, Yuán Shǐ), compiled under Song Lian 宋濂 in 1370 •History of Ming (明史, Míng Shǐ), compiled under Zhang Tingyu 張廷玉 in 1739

China's Last Empire

China's Last Empire PDF Author: William T. Rowe
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674054555
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
In a brisk revisionist history, William Rowe challenges the standard narrative of Qing China as a decadent, inward-looking state that failed to keep pace with the modern West. This original, thought-provoking history of China's last empire is a must-read for understanding the challenges facing China today.

Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China

Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China PDF Author: Cynthia J. Brokaw
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520927796
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 559

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Book Description
Despite the importance of books and the written word in Chinese society, the history of the book in China is a topic that has been little explored. This pioneering volume of essays, written by historians, art historians, and literary scholars, introduces the major issues in the social and cultural history of the book in late imperial China. Informed by many insights from the rich literature on the history of the Western book, these essays investigate the relationship between the manuscript and print culture; the emergence of urban and rural publishing centers; the expanding audience for books; the development of niche markets and specialized publishing of fiction, drama, non-Han texts, and genealogies; and more.

The Shi King, the Old "Poetry Classic" of the Chinese

The Shi King, the Old Author: William Jennings
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chinese poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description


China’s Cosmopolitan Empire

China’s Cosmopolitan Empire PDF Author: Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067403306X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
The Tang dynasty is often called China’s “golden age,” a period of commercial, religious, and cultural connections from Korea and Japan to the Persian Gulf, and a time of unsurpassed literary creativity. Mark Lewis captures a dynamic era in which the empire reached its greatest geographical extent under Chinese rule, painting and ceramic arts flourished, women played a major role both as rulers and in the economy, and China produced its finest lyric poets in Wang Wei, Li Bo, and Du Fu. The Chinese engaged in extensive trade on sea and land. Merchants from Inner Asia settled in the capital, while Chinese entrepreneurs set off for the wider world, the beginning of a global diaspora. The emergence of an economically and culturally dominant south that was controlled from a northern capital set a pattern for the rest of Chinese imperial history. Poems celebrated the glories of the capital, meditated on individual loneliness in its midst, and described heroic young men and beautiful women who filled city streets and bars. Despite the romantic aura attached to the Tang, it was not a time of unending peace. In 756, General An Lushan led a revolt that shook the country to its core, weakening the government to such a degree that by the early tenth century, regional warlordism gripped many areas, heralding the decline of the Great Tang.

Compact Anthology of World Literature

Compact Anthology of World Literature PDF Author: Laura Getty
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781940771229
Category : LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description
"The introductions in this anthology are meant to be just that: a basic overview of what students need to know before they begin reading, with topics that students can research further. An open access literature textbook cannot be a history book at the same time, but history is the great companion of literature: The more history students know, the easier it is for them to interpret literature. In an electronic age, with this text available to anyone with computer access around the world, it has never been more necessary to recognize and understand differences among nationalities and cultures. The literature in this anthology is foundational, in the sense that these works influenced the authors who followed them. A word to the instructor: The texts have been chosen with the idea that they can be compared and contrasted, using common themes. Rather than numerous (and therefore often random) choices of texts from various periods, these selected works are meant to make both teaching and learning easier. While cultural expectations are not universal, many of the themes found in these works are."--Open Textbook Library.

Journey to the West (2018 Edition - PDF)

Journey to the West (2018 Edition - PDF) PDF Author: Wu Cheng'en
Publisher: Asiapac Books Pte Ltd
ISBN: 9812298894
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
The bestselling Journey to the West comic book by artist Chang Boon Kiat is now back in a brand new fully coloured edition. Journey to the West is one of the greatest classics in Chinese literature. It tells the epic tale of the monk Xuanzang who journeys to the West in search of the Buddhist sutras with his disciples, Sun Wukong, Sandy and Pigsy. Along the way, Xuanzang's life was threatened by the diabolical White Bone Spirit, the menacing Red Child and his fearsome parents and, a host of evil spirits who sought to devour Xuanzang's flesh to attain immortality. Bear witness to the formidable Sun Wukong's (Monkey God) prowess as he takes them on, using his Fiery Eyes, Golden Cudgel, Somersault Cloud, and quick wits! Be prepared for a galloping read that will leave you breathless!

Imperial China, 900–1800

Imperial China, 900–1800 PDF Author: F. W. Mote
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674012127
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1132

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Book Description
In this history of China for the 900-year span of the late imperial period, Mote highlights the personal characteristics of the rulers and dynasties and probes the cultural theme of Chinese adaptations to recurrent alien rule. Generational events, personalities, and the spirit of the age combine to yield a comprehensive history of the civilization.