Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty PDF Author: Victor Cunrui Xiong
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791482685
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book Here

Book Description
Looking at the life and legacy of Emperor Yang (569–618) of the brief Sui dynasty in a new light, this book presents a compelling case for his importance to Chinese history. Author Victor Cunrui Xiong utilizes traditional scholarship and secondary literature from China, Japan, and the West to go beyond the common perception of Emperor Yang as merely a profligate tyrant. Xiong accepts neither the traditional verdict against Emperor Yang nor the apologist effort to revise it, and instead offers a reassessment of Emperor Yang by exploring the larger political, economic, military, religious, and diplomatic contexts of Sui society. This reconstruction of the life of Emperor Yang reveals an astute visionary with literary, administrative, and reformist accomplishments. While a series of strategic blunders resulting from the darker side of his personality led to the collapse of the socioeconomic order and to his own death, the Sui legacy that Emperor Yang left behind lived on to provide the foundation for the rise of the Tang dynasty, the pinnacle of medieval Chinese civilization.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty PDF Author: Victor Cunrui Xiong
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791482685
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book Here

Book Description
Looking at the life and legacy of Emperor Yang (569–618) of the brief Sui dynasty in a new light, this book presents a compelling case for his importance to Chinese history. Author Victor Cunrui Xiong utilizes traditional scholarship and secondary literature from China, Japan, and the West to go beyond the common perception of Emperor Yang as merely a profligate tyrant. Xiong accepts neither the traditional verdict against Emperor Yang nor the apologist effort to revise it, and instead offers a reassessment of Emperor Yang by exploring the larger political, economic, military, religious, and diplomatic contexts of Sui society. This reconstruction of the life of Emperor Yang reveals an astute visionary with literary, administrative, and reformist accomplishments. While a series of strategic blunders resulting from the darker side of his personality led to the collapse of the socioeconomic order and to his own death, the Sui legacy that Emperor Yang left behind lived on to provide the foundation for the rise of the Tang dynasty, the pinnacle of medieval Chinese civilization.

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism PDF Author: April D. Hughes
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824888707
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Get Book Here

Book Description
Although scholars have long assumed that early Chinese political authority was rooted in Confucianism, rulership in the medieval period was not bound by a single dominant tradition. To acquire power, emperors deployed objects and figures derived from a range of traditions imbued with religious and political significance. Author April D. Hughes demonstrates how dynastic founders like Wu Zhao (Wu Zetian, r. 690–705), the only woman to rule China under her own name, and Yang Jian (Emperor Wen, r. 581–604), the first ruler of the Sui dynasty, closely identified with Buddhist worldly saviors and Wheel-Turning Kings to legitimate their rule. During periods of upheaval caused by the decline of the Dharma, worldly saviors arrived on earth to quell chaos and to rule and liberate their subjects simultaneously. By incorporating these figures into the imperial system, sovereigns were able to depict themselves both as monarchs and as buddhas or bodhisattvas in uncertain times. In this inventive and original work, Hughes traces worldly saviors—in particular Maitreya Buddha and Prince Moonlight—as they appeared in apocalyptic scriptures from Dunhuang, claims to the throne made by various rebel leaders, and textual interpretations and assertions by Yang Jian and Wu Zhao. Yang Jian associated himself with Prince Moonlight and took on the persona of a Wheel-Turning King whose offerings to the Buddha were not flowers and incense but weapons of war to reunite a long-fragmented empire and revitalize the Dharma. Wu Zhao was associated with several different worldly savior figures. In addition, she saw herself as the incarnation of a Wheel-Turning King for whom it was said the Seven Treasures manifested as material representations of his right to rule. Wu Zhao duly had the Seven Treasures created and put on display whenever she held audiences at court. The worldly savior figure allowed rulers to inhabit the highest role in the religious realm along with the supreme role in the political sphere. This incorporation transformed notions of Chinese imperial sovereignty, and associating rulers with a buddha or bodhisattva continued long after the close of the medieval period.

Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History

Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History PDF Author: William Hardy McNeill
Publisher: Berkshire Publishing Group LLC
ISBN: 9780974309101
Category : World history
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History is the first true encyclopedic reference on world history. It is designed to meet the needs of students, teachers, and scholars who seek to explore -- and understand -- the panorama of our shared history of humans. Anyone who loves history -- including those who are making history today -- will find this work an endless source of fascinating, thought-provoking coverage of events, people, patterns, and processes. To assure the highest quality, the encyclopedia was developed by an editorial team of over 30 leading scholars and educators, led by William H. McNeill, Jerry H. Bentley, David Christian, David Levinson, J. R. McNeill, Heidi Roupp, and Judith Zinsser. Its 550 articles were written by a team of 330 historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, geographers and other experts from around the world. Students and teachers at the high school and college levels, as well as scholars and professionals, will turn to this defi

A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail

A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail PDF Author: Kenneth M. Swope
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 080618504X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book Here

Book Description
The invasion of Korea by Japanese troops in May of 1592 was no ordinary military expedition: it was one of the decisive events in Asian history and the most tragic for the Korean peninsula until the mid-twentieth century. Japanese overlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi envisioned conquering Korea, Ming China, and eventually all of Asia; but Korea’s appeal to China’s Emperor Wanli for assistance triggered a six-year war involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers and encompassing the whole region. For Japan, the war was “a dragon’s head followed by a serpent’s tail”: an impressive beginning with no real ending. Kenneth M. Swope has undertaken the first full-length scholarly study in English of this important conflict. Drawing on Korean, Japanese, and especially Chinese sources, he corrects the Japan-centered perspective of previous accounts and depicts Wanli not as the self-indulgent ruler of received interpretations but rather one actively engaged in military affairs—and concerned especially with rescuing China’s client state of Korea. He puts the Ming in a more vigorous light, detailing Chinese siege warfare, the development and deployment of innovative military technologies, and the naval battles that marked the climax of the war. He also explains the war’s repercussions outside the military sphere—particularly the dynamics of intraregional diplomacy within the shadow of the Chinese tributary system. What Swope calls the First Great East Asian War marked both the emergence of Japan’s desire to extend its sphere of influence to the Chinese mainland and a military revival of China’s commitment to defending its interests in Northeast Asia. Swope’s account offers new insight not only into the history of warfare in Asia but also into a conflict that reverberates in international relations to this day.

The Technical History Of China's Grand Canal

The Technical History Of China's Grand Canal PDF Author: Xuming Tan
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1945552050
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on the past 30-years' research on the technical and cultural values of China's Grand Canal, this book, based on interdisciplinary research, studies the natural and social background of the evolution and development of different sections of the Grand Canal in different historical periods, as well as the interrelations between the Grand Canal and the Chinese politics, economics, and culture. It also assesses the effects of the Grand Canal on the progress of the Chinese civilization, engineering technology achievement, the natural environment, and the society, providing the readers with an understanding of China's Grand Canal from the perspectives of hydraulic engineering and history.

In Search of Personal Welfare

In Search of Personal Welfare PDF Author: Mu-chou Poo
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791436295
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first major reassessment of ancient Chinese religion to appear in recent years, this book presents the religious mentality of the period through personal and daily experiences.

To Rebuild the Empire

To Rebuild the Empire PDF Author: Josephine Chiu-Duke
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 0791492869
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
To Rebuild the Empire provides the first complete critical study in any language of Lu Chih (Lu Hsuan-kung, 754-805), one of traditional China's most important prime ministers and a pivitol figure in T'ang dynasty China's struggle for survival toward the end of the eighth century. The work also provides an intellectual history of an era, beginning about the middle of the T'ang Dynasty (618-907), that was influential in the revival and transformation of Confucianism. Josephine Chiu-Duke reconstructs and examines both Lu Chih's intellectual commitments, as shown in his efforts to rebuild the T'ang empire, and his significance for the Confucian tradition. This book is important for its assertion of the need to look at the political dimension of the mid-T'ang Confucian revival; its presentation of a more subtle and nuanced understanding of the reconciliation of Confucian commitments and practical considerations; and its discriminating employment of more accurate concepts that help move the field of T'ang intellectual history beyond the usual moralist/pragmatist dichotomy. The work represents a welcome advance over the existing literature in any language.

Medicine in China

Medicine in China PDF Author: Paul U. Unschuld
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520266137
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the first comprehensive and analytical study of therapeutic concepts and practices in China, Paul Unschuld traced the history of documented health care from its earliest extant records to present developments. This edition is updated with a new preface which details the immense ideological intersections between Chinese and European medicines in the past 25 years.

China's Golden Age

China's Golden Age PDF Author: Charles D. Benn
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195176650
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book Here

Book Description
In this fascinating and detailed profile, Benn paints a vivid picture of life in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), traditionally regarded as the golden age of China. 40 line illustrations.

The Private Life of Chairman Mao

The Private Life of Chairman Mao PDF Author: Li Zhi-Sui
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0307791394
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 734

Get Book Here

Book Description
“The most revealing book ever published on Mao, perhaps on any dictator in history.”—Professor Andrew J. Nathan, Columbia University From 1954 until Mao Zedong's death twenty-two years later, Dr. Li Zhisui was the Chinese ruler's personal physician, which put him in daily—and increasingly intimate—contact with Mao and his inner circle. in The Private Life of Chairman Mao, Dr. Li vividly reconstructs his extraordinary experience at the center of Mao's decadent imperial court. Dr. Li clarifies numerous long-standing puzzles, such as the true nature of Mao's feelings toward the United States and the Soviet Union. He describes Mao's deliberate rudeness toward Khrushchev and reveals the actual catalyst of Nixon's historic visit. Here are also surprising details of Mao's personal depravity (we see him dependent on barbiturates and refusing to wash, dress, or brush his teeth) and the sexual politics of his court. To millions of Chinese, Mao was more god than man, but for Dr. Li, he was all too human. Dr. Li's intimate account of this lecherous, paranoid tyrant, callously indifferent to the suffering of his people, will forever alter our view of Chairman Mao and of China under his rule. Praise for The Private Life of Chairman Mao “From now one no one will be able to pretend to understand Chairman Mao's place in history without reference to this revealing account.”—Professor Lucian Pye, Massachusetts Institute of Technology “Dr. Li does for Mao what the physician Lord Moran's memoir did for Winston Churchill—turns him into a human being. Here is Mao unveiled: eccentric, demanding, suspicious, unregretful, lascivious, and unfailingly fascinating. Our view of Mao will never be the same again.”—Ross Terrill, author of China in Our Time “An extraordinarily intimate portrait of Mao. [Dr. Li] portrays [Mao's imperial court] as a place of boundless decadence, licentiousness, selfishness, relentless toadying and cutthroat political intrigue.”—Richard Bernstein, The New York Times “One of the most provocative books on Mao to appear since the publication of Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China.”—Paul G. Pickowicz, The Wall Street Journal