Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire

Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire PDF Author: Liang Cai
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 143844849X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Contests long-standing claims that Confucianism came to prominence under China’s Emperor Wu. When did Confucianism become the reigning political ideology of imperial China? A pervasive narrative holds it was during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty (141–87 BCE). In this book, Liang Cai maintains that such a date would have been too early and provides a new account of this transformation. A hidden narrative in Sima Qian’s The Grand Scribe’s Records (Shi ji) shows that Confucians were a powerless minority in the political realm of this period. Cai argues that the notorious witchcraft scandal of 91–87 BCE reshuffled the power structure of the Western Han bureaucracy and provided Confucians an opportune moment to seize power, evolve into a new elite class, and set the tenor of political discourse for centuries to come.

Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire

Witchcraft and the Rise of the First Confucian Empire PDF Author: Liang Cai
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 143844849X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

Get Book Here

Book Description
Contests long-standing claims that Confucianism came to prominence under China’s Emperor Wu. When did Confucianism become the reigning political ideology of imperial China? A pervasive narrative holds it was during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty (141–87 BCE). In this book, Liang Cai maintains that such a date would have been too early and provides a new account of this transformation. A hidden narrative in Sima Qian’s The Grand Scribe’s Records (Shi ji) shows that Confucians were a powerless minority in the political realm of this period. Cai argues that the notorious witchcraft scandal of 91–87 BCE reshuffled the power structure of the Western Han bureaucracy and provided Confucians an opportune moment to seize power, evolve into a new elite class, and set the tenor of political discourse for centuries to come.

China's Examination Hell

China's Examination Hell PDF Author: Ichisada Miyazaki
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300026399
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Written by one of the foremost historians of Chinese institutions, this book focuses on China's civil service examination system in its final and most elaborate phase during the Ch'ing dynasty. All aspects of this labyrinthine system are explored: the types of questions, the style and form in which they were to be answered, the problem of cheating, and the psychological and financial burdens of the candidates, the rewards of the successful and the plight of those who failed. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including Chinese novels, short stories, and plays, this thought provoking and entertaining book brings to vivid life the testing structure that supplied China's government bureaucracy for almost fourteen hundred years. "Professor Miyazaki's informative work is concerned with a system. . . that was, in effect, . . . the basic institution of Chinese political life, the real pillar which supported the imperial monarchy, the effective vehicle for the aspirations and ambitions of the ruling class. Imperial China without the examination system for the past thousand years and more would have developed in an entirely different way and might not have endured as the continuing form of government over a huge empire."--Pacific Affairs "The most comprehensive narrative treatment in any language of [this] enduring achievement of Chinese civilization."--American Historical Review

Confucianism

Confucianism PDF Author: Daniel K. Gardner
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195398912
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
This volume shows the influence of the Sage's teachings over the course of Chinese history--on state ideology, the civil service examination system, imperial government, the family, and social relations--and the fate of Confucianism in China in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as China developed alongside a modernizing West and Japan. Some Chinese intellectuals attempted to reform the Confucian tradition to address new needs; others argued for jettisoning it altogether in favor of Western ideas and technology; still others condemned it angrily, arguing that Confucius and his legacy were responsible for China's feudal, ''backward'' conditions in the twentieth century and launching campaigns to eradicate its influences. Yet Chinese continue to turn to the teachings of Confucianism for guidance in their daily lives.

The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China

The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China PDF Author: Grant R. Hardy
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 031332588X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Han Dynasty created a Chinese empire that endures to this day.

Empires of Ancient Eurasia

Empires of Ancient Eurasia PDF Author: Craig Benjamin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107114969
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Introduces a crucial period of world history when the vast exchange network of the Silk Roads connected most of Eurasia.

Early China

Early China PDF Author: Li Feng
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521895529
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
A critical new interpretation of the early history of Chinese civilization based on the most recent scholarship and archaeological discoveries.

The Confucian-legalist State

The Confucian-legalist State PDF Author: Dingxin Zhao
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199351732
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 473

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Book Description
The Confucian-Legalist State proposes a new theory of social change and, in doing so, analyzes the patterns of Chinese history, such as the rise and persistence of a unified empire, the continuous domination of Confucianism, and China's inability to develop industrial capitalism without Western imperialism.

Interpreting China's Grand Strategy

Interpreting China's Grand Strategy PDF Author: Michael D. Swaine
Publisher: Rand Corporation
ISBN: 0833048309
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
China's continuing rapid economic growth and expanding involvement in global affairs pose major implications for the power structure of the international system. To more accurately and fully assess the significance of China's emergence for the United States and the global community, it is necessary to gain a more complete understanding of Chinese security thought and behavior. This study addresses such questions as: What are China's most fundamental national security objectives? How has the Chinese state employed force and diplomacy in the pursuit of these objectives over the centuries? What security strategy does China pursue today and how will it evolve in the future? The study asserts that Chinese history, the behavior of earlier rising powers, and the basic structure and logic of international power relations all suggest that, although a strong China will likely become more assertive globally, this possibility is unlikely to emerge before 2015-2020 at the earliest. To handle this situation, the study argues that the United States should adopt a policy of realistic engagement with China that combines efforts to pursue cooperation whenever possible; to prevent, if necessary, the acquisition by China of capabilities that would threaten America's core national security interests; and to remain prepared to cope with the consequences of a more assertive China.

The Early Chinese Empires

The Early Chinese Empires PDF Author: Mark Edward Lewis
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674057341
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
In 221 bc the First Emperor of Qin unified the lands that would become the heart of a Chinese empire. Though forged by conquest, this vast domain depended for its political survival on a fundamental reshaping of Chinese culture. With this informative book, we are present at the creation of an ancient imperial order whose major features would endure for two millennia. The Qin and Han constitute the "classical period" of Chinese history--a role played by the Greeks and Romans in the West. Mark Edward Lewis highlights the key challenges faced by the court officials and scholars who set about governing an empire of such scale and diversity of peoples. He traces the drastic measures taken to transcend, without eliminating, these regional differences: the invention of the emperor as the divine embodiment of the state; the establishment of a common script for communication and a state-sponsored canon for the propagation of Confucian ideals; the flourishing of the great families, whose domination of local society rested on wealth, landholding, and elaborate kinship structures; the demilitarization of the interior; and the impact of non-Chinese warrior-nomads in setting the boundaries of an emerging Chinese identity. The first of a six-volume series on the history of imperial China, The Early Chinese Empires illuminates many formative events in China's long history of imperialism--events whose residual influence can still be discerned today.

Spring and Autumn Annals

Spring and Autumn Annals PDF Author: Confucius,
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
The Spring and Autumn Annals or Chunqiu is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics since ancient times. The Annals is the official chronicle of the State of Lu, and covers a 241-year period from 722 to 481 BC. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged in annals form.