Tang Chang'an and Song Kaifeng

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 124 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (34 download)

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Book Synopsis Tang Chang'an and Song Kaifeng by : Eric Adams Samuels

Download or read book Tang Chang'an and Song Kaifeng written by Eric Adams Samuels and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Rise and Fall of Imperial China

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691215162
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise and Fall of Imperial China by : Yuhua Wang

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Imperial China written by Yuhua Wang and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How social networks shaped the imperial Chinese state China was the world’s leading superpower for almost two millennia, falling behind only in the last two centuries and now rising to dominance again. What factors led to imperial China’s decline? The Rise and Fall of Imperial China offers a systematic look at the Chinese state from the seventh century through to the twentieth. Focusing on how short-lived emperors often ruled a strong state while long-lasting emperors governed a weak one, Yuhua Wang shows why lessons from China’s history can help us better understand state building. Wang argues that Chinese rulers faced a fundamental trade-off that he calls the sovereign’s dilemma: a coherent elite that could collectively strengthen the state could also overthrow the ruler. This dilemma emerged because strengthening state capacity and keeping rulers in power for longer required different social networks in which central elites were embedded. Wang examines how these social networks shaped the Chinese state, and vice versa, and he looks at how the ruler’s pursuit of power by fragmenting the elites became the final culprit for China’s fall. Drawing on more than a thousand years of Chinese history, The Rise and Fall of Imperial China highlights the role of elite social relations in influencing the trajectories of state development.

Earthopolis

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108645380
Total Pages : 825 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (86 download)

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Book Synopsis Earthopolis by : Carl H. Nightingale

Download or read book Earthopolis written by Carl H. Nightingale and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-06-09 with total page 825 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a biography of Earthopolis, the only Urban Planet we know of. It is a history of how cities gave humans immense power over Earth, for good and for ill. Carl Nightingale takes readers on a sweeping six-continent, six-millennia tour of the world's cities, culminating in the last 250 years, when we vastly accelerated our planetary realms of action, habitat, and impact, courting dangerous new consequences and opening prospects for new hope. In Earthopolis we peek into our cities' homes, neighborhoods, streets, shops, eating houses, squares, marketplaces, religious sites, schools, universities, offices, monuments, docklands, and airports to discover connections between small spaces and the largest things we have built. The book exposes the Urban Planet's deep inequalities of power, wealth, access to knowledge, class, race, gender, sexuality, religion and nation. It asks us to draw on the most just and democratic moments of Earthopolis's past to rescue its future.

Chinese City And Urbanism: Evolution And Development

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Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9814465771
Total Pages : 355 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (144 download)

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Book Synopsis Chinese City And Urbanism: Evolution And Development by : Victor F S Sit

Download or read book Chinese City And Urbanism: Evolution And Development written by Victor F S Sit and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2010-02-08 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this volume is to treat the progress of history, civilization and urban development of China together in order to demonstrate the unique qualities of Chinese civilization. The author uses historical dynasties as the vertical dimension, starting from the pre-urban origin of round-moat village settlements of the Yangshao Period, until the most recent transitional city under the present “socialist market system”. There are a total of 13 chapters, covering a time-span of roughly 6,000 years.The book also discusses the theoretical context of the uniqueness of Chinese urban evolution and compares it with experiences in the West. It comprehensively treats major events, economic developments, territorial changes, and developments in technology, art and culture, military as well as administrative systems in the dynasties as urban change dynamics. The material therefore succinctly covers 6,000 years of Chinese cultural history.Besides using a large amount of Chinese literature — including materials on recent archeological finds — the volume explores substantial Western literature on relevant issues with the purpose of putting the Chinese experience in a global context.The author has included in the volume over 100 maps and line drawings selected from his collection accumulated over 30 years as a university lecturer and researcher of urban geography and the Chinese city. They provide vivid and readily apprehensible illustrations for illuminating key points on the structure of the Chinese city and the geopolitical situation of China in major historical periods. They also add exquisite detail through graphic techniques to the textual treatment of the subject matters, and are in themselves visually appealing, adding unique dimension to the volume.The volume targets a wide spectrum of readers, and will appeal to anyone interested in the culture and civilization, cities, urban planning and economic, philosophical, political and historical developments of China.

Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing

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Publisher : UBC Press
ISBN 13 : 0774842032
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (748 download)

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Book Synopsis Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing by : Liangyong Wu

Download or read book Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing written by Liangyong Wu and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seventy years of revolution and turmoil have had a severe impact on the miraculous ancient urban form of Beijing, but economic growth since the early 1990s has threatened to deal the coup de grace. In Rehabilitating the Old City of Beijing, Wu Liangyong presents an impassioned plea to turn the tide of demolition and offers a new direction for the planning and development of China's capital. His project for the renewal of the Ju'er Hutong (Chrysanthemum Lane) neighbourhood in the heart of Beijing's Old City takes pride of place in this book. A thoughtful analysis of those aspects of the ancient capital's features, which the project aims to respect and conserve, is followed by a detailed account of the design and development process of the project itself.

The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng

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Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1498550274
Total Pages : 291 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng by : Anson H. Laytner

Download or read book The Chinese Jews of Kaifeng written by Anson H. Laytner and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-07-21 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scholarly collection examines the origins, history, and contemporary nature of Chinese Judaism in the community of Kaifeng. These essays, written by a diverse, international team of contributors, explore the culture and history of this thousand-year-old Jewish community, whose synthesis of Chinese and Jewish cultures helped guarantee its survival. Part I of this study analyzes the origin and historical development of the Kaifeng community, as well as the unique cultural synthesis it engendered. Part II explores the contemporary nature of this Chinese Jewish community, particularly examining the community’s relationship to Jewish organizations outside of China, the impact of Western Jewish contact, and the tenuous nature of Jewish identity in Kaifeng.

The Chinese Sky during the Han

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004488758
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (44 download)

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Book Synopsis The Chinese Sky during the Han by : Xiaochun Sun

Download or read book The Chinese Sky during the Han written by Xiaochun Sun and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-09-13 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reconstruction of the Chinese sky of two thousand years ago, based on analysis of the first star catalogue in China and other sources. Presented in six well-sized star maps for 100 BC, it is especially important for the history of astronomy. The Han sky, with five times more constellations than Ptolemy knew, reflects diverse human activities. The way in which constellations were grouped discloses a systematic cosmology, uniting universe and the state. The work of the three Han schools is comparable to Ptolemy's Almagest. With three detailed Appendices on the constellations of the three schools, well illustrated to demonstrate the relation between sky and human society, this book is valuable not only for astronomy historians and sinologists, but in general for scholars interested in the ancient cultures of Asia.

City of Marvel and Transformation

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Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 0824856872
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

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Book Synopsis City of Marvel and Transformation by : Linda Rui Feng

Download or read book City of Marvel and Transformation written by Linda Rui Feng and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2015-07-31 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Tang dynasty, the imperial capital of Chang’an (present-day Xi’an) was unrivaled in its monumental scale, with about one million inhabitants dwelling within its walls. It was there that one of the most enduring cultural and political institutions of the empire—the civil service examinations—took shape, bringing an unprecedented influx of literati men to the city seeking recognition and official status by demonstrating their literary talent. To these examination candidates, Chang’an was a megalopolis, career launch pad, and most importantly, cultural paradigm. As a multifaceted lived space, it captured the imaginations of Tang writers, shaped their future aspirations, and left discernible traces in the writings of this period. City of Marvel and Transformation brings this cityscape to life together with the mindscape of its sojourner-writers. By analyzing narratives of experience with a distinctive metropolitan consciousness, it retrieves lost connections between senses of the self and a sense of place. Each chapter takes up one of the powerful shaping forces of Chang’an: its siren call as a destination; the unforeseen nooks and crannies of its urban space; its potential as a “media machine” to broadcast images and reputations; its demimonde—a city within a city where both literary culture and commerce took center stage. Without being limited to any single genre, specific movement, or individual author, the texts examined in this book highlight aspects of Chang’an as a shared and contested space in the collective imagination. They bring to our attention a newly emerged interval of social, existential, and geographical mobility in the lives of educated men, who as aspirants and routine capital-bound travelers learned to negotiate urban space. Both literary study and cultural history, City of Marvel and Transformation goes beyond close readings of text; it also draws productively from research in urban history, anthropology, and studies of space and place, building upon the theoretical frameworks of scholars such as Michel de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, and Victor Turner. It is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship in Chinese studies on the importance of cities and city life. Students and scholars of premodern China will find new ways to understand the collective concerns of the lettered class, as well as new ways to understand literary phenomena that would eventually influence vernacular tales and the Chinese novel. By asking larger questions about how urban sojourns shape subjectivity and perceptions, this book will also attract a wide range of readers interested in studies of personhood, spatial practice, and cities as living cultural systems in flux, both ancient and modern.

The Military History in Song, Liao, Jin and Xixia Dynasty

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Author :
Publisher : DeepLogic
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Military History in Song, Liao, Jin and Xixia Dynasty by : Li Shi

Download or read book The Military History in Song, Liao, Jin and Xixia Dynasty written by Li Shi and published by DeepLogic. This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is the volume of “The Military History in Song, Liao, Jin and Xixia Dynasty” among a series of books of “Deep into China Histories”. The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) and the Bamboo Annals (296 BC) describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC) before the Shang, but no writing is known from the period The Shang ruled in the Yellow River valley, which is commonly held to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, Neolithic civilizations originated at various cultural centers along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River. These Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations arose millennia before the Shang. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations, and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization.The Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC) supplanted the Shang and introduced the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify their rule. The central Zhou government began to weaken due to external and internal pressures in the 8th century BC, and the country eventually splintered into smaller states during the Spring and Autumn period. These states became independent and warred with one another in the following Warring States period. Much of traditional Chinese culture, literature and philosophy first developed during those troubled times.In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang conquered the various warring states and created for himself the title of Huangdi or "emperor" of the Qin, marking the beginning of imperial China. However, the oppressive government fell soon after his death, and was supplanted by the longer-lived Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly. In the 21 centuries from 206 BC until AD 1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite of scholar-officials. Young men, well-versed in calligraphy, history, literature, and philosophy, were carefully selected through difficult government examinations. China's last dynasty was the Qing (1644–1912), which was replaced by the Republic of China in 1912, and in the mainland by the People's Republic of China in 1949.Chinese history has alternated between periods of political unity and peace, and periods of war and failed statehood – the most recent being the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949). China was occasionally dominated by steppe peoples, most of whom were eventually assimilated into the Han Chinese culture and population. Between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China; in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. Traditional culture, and influences from other parts of Asia and the Western world (carried by waves of immigration, cultural assimilation, expansion, and foreign contact), form the basis of the modern culture of China.

Wall and Market

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Wall and Market by :

Download or read book Wall and Market written by and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Cities of Aristocrats and Bureaucrats

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Publisher : NUS Press
ISBN 13 : 9789971692230
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (922 download)

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Book Synopsis Cities of Aristocrats and Bureaucrats by : Chye Kiang Heng

Download or read book Cities of Aristocrats and Bureaucrats written by Chye Kiang Heng and published by NUS Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The emergence of the open city during the 11th century is one of the most dramatic and important changes in Chinese urban history. While the Sui and the early Tang city was controlled and highly disciplined with restricted commercial activity, the late Northern Song city filled with pluralistic streets active round the clock became a new urban paradigm. These cities reflect the respective societies that gave rise to them - one rooted in a strong aristocratic power with a highly hierarchical social structure, and the other shaped by a pluralistic, mercantile society managed by pragmatic professional bureaucrats. This book provides an in-depth account of the process of transformation from the curfewed city of the Tang period to the open city of the Song. It analyses the multidimensional factors that gradually led to the development of an urban culture which in turn helped cement the trend towards the open city with its irregular layout and distinct urban tissue and silhouette.

The Technical History Of China's Grand Canal

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Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 1945552050
Total Pages : 324 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (455 download)

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Book Synopsis The Technical History Of China's Grand Canal by : Tan Xuming

Download or read book The Technical History Of China's Grand Canal written by Tan Xuming and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road

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Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004231277
Total Pages : 678 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (42 download)

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Book Synopsis Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road by : Adam T. Kessler

Download or read book Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road written by Adam T. Kessler and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-07-25 with total page 678 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western scholars of ancient Chinese ceramics have long thought blue and white porcelain manufactured before the Ming (1368-1644 A.D.), dates to the Yuan (1279-1368 A.D.). Even in China today these porcelains are still termed “Yuan Blue and White.” Based upon first-hand surveys of sites in Inner Mongolia, Adam T. Kessler’s Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road demonstrates that blue and white was made during the Song (960-1279 A.D.) ended up in the hands of the Xi Xia (1038-1226 A.D.) and the Jin (1115-1234 A.D.). Blue and white found today in hoards was buried prior to Mongol invasions of China in the 1200s. Sites from the Philippines to Egypt have yielded Song blue and white. Also reviewed is the cobalt-bearing ore used by Song China to create blue and white.

Being Chinese

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Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 9780816523023
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Being Chinese by : Wei Djao

Download or read book Being Chinese written by Wei Djao and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2003-09 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese have traveled the globe for centuries, and today people of Chinese ancestry live all over the world. They are the Huayi or "Chinese overseas" and can be found not only in the thriving Chinese communities of the United States, Canada, and Southeast, but also in enclaves as far-reaching as Cuba, Zimbabwe, and Peru. In this book, twenty-two Chinese living and working outside of ChinaÑordinary people from all walks of lifeÑtell us something about their lives and about what it means to be Chinese in non-Chinese societies. In these pages we meet a surgeon raised in Singapore but westernized in London who still believes in the value of Chinese medicine, which "revitalizes you in ways that Western medicine cannot understand." A member of the Chinese Canadian community who bridles at the insistence that you can't be Chinese unless you speak a Chinese dialect, because "Even though I do not have the Chinese language, I think my ability to manifest many things in Chinese culture to others in English is still very important." Individuals all loyal to their countries of citizenship who continue to observe the customs of their ancestral home to varying degrees, whether performing rites in memory of ancestors, practicing fengshui, wearing jade for good luck, or giving out red packets of lucky money for New Year. What emerges from many of these accounts is a selective adherence to Chinese values. One person cites a high regard for elders, for high achievement, and for the sense of togetherness fostered by his culture. Another, the bride in an arranged marriage to a transplanted Chinese man, speaks highly of her relationship: "It's the Chinese way to put in the effort and persevere." Several of the stories consider the difference between how Chinese women overseas actually live and the stereotypes of how they ought to live. One writes: "Coming from a traditional Chinese family, which placed value on sons and not on daughters, it was necessary for me to assert my own direction in life rather than to follow in the traditional paths of obedience." Bracketing the testimonies are an overview of the history of emigration from China and an assessment of the extent to which the Chinese overseas retain elements of Chinese culture in their lives. In compiling these personal accounts, Wei Djao, who was born in China and now lives near Seattle, undertook a quest that took her not only to many countries but also to the inner landscapes of the heart. Being Chinese is a highly personal book that bares the aspirations, despairs, and triumphs of real people as it makes an insightful and lasting contribution to Chinese diasporic studies.

Israel and China: From the Tang Dynasty to Silicon Wadi

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Author :
Publisher : 三聯書店(香港)有限公司
ISBN 13 : 9620442970
Total Pages : 405 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (24 download)

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Book Synopsis Israel and China: From the Tang Dynasty to Silicon Wadi by : Mark O'Neill

Download or read book Israel and China: From the Tang Dynasty to Silicon Wadi written by Mark O'Neill and published by 三聯書店(香港)有限公司. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jews first arrived in China during the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) and settled as businessmen, civil servants and professionals. They assimilated into Chinese society and lost their Jewish character. The next wave came in the mid-19th century with the opening of the treaty ports and settled in Shanghai. They went into trading, especially opium, and diversified into property, manufacturing, finance, public transport and retail. Another Jewish community settled in Harbin after the opening of the China Eastern Railway in 1903. They also prospered in trading and business. Both communities built synagogues, schools, social clubs and welfare institutions. During World War Two, 25,000 Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe took refuge in Shanghai, one of the few cities in the world open to them. Many received visas from Asian diplomats who defied their governments to issue them. The Japanese military refused the Nazi demand to carry out ‘the final solution’ of the Jews in Shanghai. After 1945, inflation, civil war and Communist rule made most Jews leave China for new homes in Israel, North America, Australia and elsewhere. The new state of Israel worked hard to establish diplomatic ties with the People’s Republic; it became an important supplier of weapons in the 1980s. But it took 42 years for the two countries to sign the ties, in 1992. Since then, relations have blossomed and China has become one of Israel’s biggest foreign investors. In the reform and open-door era, Jewish people have returned to China and form important communities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities. Part of this narrative are remarkable individuals who have left a deep imprint on China – Karl Marx, Sir Victor Sassoon, Silas Hardoon, the Kadoorie family, Henry Kissinger and Sigmund Freud. To tell this extraordinary story, Mark O’Neill conducted many interviews with rabbis, businessmen, entrepreneurs, professors and journalists in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Israel. It is, largely, a joyful page in Jewish history.

From Warhorses to Ploughshares

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Publisher : Hong Kong University Press
ISBN 13 : 9888208101
Total Pages : 237 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (882 download)

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Book Synopsis From Warhorses to Ploughshares by : Davis, Richard L.

Download or read book From Warhorses to Ploughshares written by Davis, Richard L. and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-01 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mingzong (r. 926–33) was the most illustrious emperor of the Five Dynasties, and one of the most admired of China’s middle period, the Tang to Song. A warrior of Shatuo-Turk ancestry, he ascended the throne of the Later Tang on the heels of a mutiny against his adopted brother, thus sparing his dynasty an early death. Mingzong’s brief reign came to be heralded by historians as the “Small Repose”—a happy convergence of peace and prosperity. He marshaled a cluster of eminently able courtiers, men who balanced Confucian charity against the military discipline demanded in a time of transition. These years were marked by trade with bordering states, frenzied diplomatic activity, and a succession of defections from states to the north. Mingzong wisely eschewed military conflict, except as a last resort. Conservative in moral and legal matters, he introduced radical economic reforms that included deregulation of traditional monopolies and timely changes to the tributary system. Drawing extensively on primary sources, including Mingzong’s spirited correspondence with his officials, this political and cultural biography brings to life a charismatic emperor who was held up as a model ruler by succeeding generations. “In this evocative and fascinating study of the Later Tang emperor Mingzong, Richard Davis has brilliantly illuminated a little known and even less understood period of Chinese history, the interval between the unified Tang empire and the Song dynasty when native Chinese and Shatuo Turkish peoples worked together to transform the politics and culture of North China. It is a delight to read a historian who is a master of his sources and at the top of his craft.” —Robin D. S. Yates, McGill University “The political history of the early tenth century is not for the faint of heart. Shatuo Turks, Kitans, and Han Chinese, from aspirants to the throne, to surrogate sons, generals, mutineers, and courtiers were all maneuvering for advantage as circumstances constantly shifted. Richard Davis, by focusing on one of the Shatuo rulers, helps us understand the many challenges facing would-be reunifiers of China.” —Patricia Ebrey, University of Washington “This is a fascinating portrait of a man who contrived in his way to be a good ruler and was to die of natural causes in an age when life was for most in China nasty, brutish and all too short, and who, moreover, by instituting the preservation of the Chinese heritage through printing transformed the Chinese world for ever after.” —T. H. Barrett, SOAS, University of London

The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China

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Author :
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804780995
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (89 download)

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Book Synopsis The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China by : Philip Huang

Download or read book The Peasant Economy and Social Change in North China written by Philip Huang and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1985-06-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author presents a convincing new interpretation of the origins and nature of the agrarian crisis that gripped the North China Plain in the two centuries before the Revolution. His extensive research included eighteenth-century homicide case records, a nineteenth-century country government archive, large quantities of 1930's Japanese ethnographic materials, and his own field studies in 1980. Through a comparison of the histories of small family farms and larger scale managerial farms, the author documents and illustrates the long-term trends of agricultural commercialization, social stratification, and mounting population pressure in the peasant economy. He shows how those changes, in the absence of dynamic economic growth, combined over the course of several centuries to produce a majority, not simply of land-short peasants or of exploited tenants and agricultural laborers, but of poor peasants who required both family farming and agricultural wage income to survive. This interlocking of family farming with wage labor furnished a large supply of cheap labor, which in turn acted as a powerful brake of capital accumulation in the economy. The formation of such a poor peasantry ultimately altered both the nature of village communities and their relations with the elites and the state, creating tensions that led in the end to revolution.