The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty

Download The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 9780791426876
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (268 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty by : Shih-shan Henry Tsai

Download or read book The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty written by Shih-shan Henry Tsai and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1996-01-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first on Chinese eunuchs in English and presents a comprehensive picture of the role that they played in the Ming dynasty, 1368-1644. Extracted from a wide range of primary and secondary source material, the author provides significant and interesting information about court politics, espionage and internal security, military and foreign affairs, tax and tribute collection, the operation of imperial monopolies, judiciary review, the layout of the palace complex, the Grand Canal, and much more. The eunuchs are shown to be not just a minor adjunct to a government of civil servants and military officers, but a fully developed third branch of the Ming administration that participated in all of the most essential matters of the dynasty. The veil of condemnation and jealousy imposed on eunuchs by the compilers of official history is pulled away to reveal a richly textured tapestry. Eunuchs are portrayed in a balanced manner that gives due consideration to able and faithful service along with the inept, the lurid, and the iniquitous.

Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule

Download Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520969847
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule by : Norman A. Kutcher

Download or read book Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule written by Norman A. Kutcher and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eunuch and Emperor in the Great Age of Qing Rule offers a new interpretation of eunuchs and their connection to imperial rule in the first century and a half of the Qing dynasty (1644–1800). This period encompassed the reigns of three of China’s most important emperors, men who were deeply affected by the great eunuch corruption of the fallen Ming dynasty. In this groundbreaking and deeply researched book, the author explores how Qing emperors sought to prevent a return of the harmful excesses of eunuchs and how eunuchs flourished in the face of the restrictions imposed upon them. We meet powerful eunuchs who faithfully served, and in some cases ultimately betrayed, their emperors. We also meet ordinary eunuchs whose lives, punctuated by dramas large and small, provide a fascinating perspective on the Qing palace world.

Inside the World of the Eunuch

Download Inside the World of the Eunuch PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hong Kong University Press
ISBN 13 : 9888455753
Total Pages : 236 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (884 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Inside the World of the Eunuch by : Melissa S. Dale

Download or read book Inside the World of the Eunuch written by Melissa S. Dale and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2018-11-01 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of Qing palace eunuchs is defined by a tension between the role eunuchs were meant to play and the life they intended to live. This study tells the story of how a complicated and much-maligned group of people struggled to insert a degree of agency into their lives. Rulers of the Qing dynasty were determined to ensure the eunuchs’ subservience and to limit their influence by imposing a management style based upon strict rules, corporal punishment, and collective responsibility. Few eunuchs wielded significant political power or lived in a lavish style during the Qing dynasty. Emasculation and employment in the palace placed eunuchs at the center of the empire, yet also subjected them to servile status and marginalization by society. Seeking more control over their lives, eunuchs serving the Qing repeatedly tested the boundaries of subservience to the emperor and the imperial court. This portrait of eunuch society reveals that Qing palace eunuchs operated within two parallel realms, one revolving around the emperor and the court by day and another among the eunuchs themselves by night where they recreated the social bonds—through drinking, gambling, and opium smoking—denied them by their palace service. Far from being the ideal servants, eunuchs proved to be a constant source of anxiety and labor challenges for the Qing court. For a long time eunuchs have simply been cast as villains in Chinese history. Inside the World of the Eunuch goes beyond this misleadingly one-dimensional depiction to show how eunuchs actually lived during the Qing dynasty. “This book is a thorough and responsible account of eunuch life during the Qing dynasty, which takes us deep inside the Forbidden City and introduces the often underclass families who provided servants to the Qing monarchs.” —R. Kent Guy, University of Washington “This is a unique study of Chinese eunuchs, in which Melissa Dale proves that they were a necessary and vital presence in the palace of the last dynasty in China. She explores all aspects of their life to the end of their existence, while avoiding the temptation to sensationalize them.” —Keith McMahon, University of Kansas

Chinese Eunuchs

Download Chinese Eunuchs PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 184 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (321 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Chinese Eunuchs by : Taisuke Mitamura

Download or read book Chinese Eunuchs written by Taisuke Mitamura and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1992 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the history of eunuchism from its very early days until November 5, 1924, when the system was finally banned and hundreds of eunuchs, "crying pitifully in high-pitched, feminine voices," were expelled from Tzu Chin Palace, thus ending a system that had endured over 2, 000 years and through 25 dynasties.

Hidden Power

Download Hidden Power PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Hidden Power by : Mary M. Anderson

Download or read book Hidden Power written by Mary M. Anderson and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A little-known yet significant role in Chinese history was played by the palace eunuchs--castrated men who developed a concealed subcaste that manipulated monarchs and caused the downfall of immense dynasties. This book vividly chronicles the history of the imperial eunuchs: from the murky origins of the practice to the Ming dynasty when 100,000 eunuchs were employed as agents of the Dragon Throne, to the 1912 uprising that swept away the monarchy and the age-old eunuch system forever.

Ming China, 1368-1644

Download Ming China, 1368-1644 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442204907
Total Pages : 173 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Ming China, 1368-1644 by : John W. Dardess

Download or read book Ming China, 1368-1644 written by John W. Dardess and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging, deeply informed book provides the first concise history of one of China's most important eras. Leading scholar John W. Dardess offers a thematically organized political, social, and economic exploration of China from 1368 to 1644. He examines how the Ming dynasty was able to endure for 276 years, illuminating Ming foreign relations and border control, the lives and careers of its sixteen emperors, its system of governance and the kinds of people who served it, its great class of literati, and finally the mass outlawry that, in unhappy conjunction with the Manchu invasions from outside, ended the once-mighty dynasty in the mid-seventeenth century. The Ming witnessed the beginning of China's contact with the West, and its story will fascinate all readers interested in global as well as Asian history.

Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven

Download Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 082486154X
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (248 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven by : David M. Robinson

Download or read book Bandits, Eunuchs, and the Son of Heaven written by David M. Robinson and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2001-10-31 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a spring afternoon in 1509 a local bandit found himself in the emperor's private quarters deep within the Forbidden City and in the presence of the Son of Heaven himself. This bizarre meeting was the doing of the eunuch Zhang Zhong, the emperor's personal servant and companion. In time court intrigue between competing palace eunuchs would lead to the death of this bandit-turned-rebel, setting off a massive uprising that resulted in China's largest rebellion of the sixteenth century. To understand how this extraordinary meeting came about requires a consideration of the economy of violence during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Here, for the first time in any language, is a detailed look at the role of illicit violence during the Ming. Drawing on court annals, imperial law codes, administrative regulations, private writings, and local gazetteers, David Robinson recreates in vivid detail a world where heavily armed highwaymen and bandits raided the boulevards in and around the Ming capital, Beijing. He then convincingly traces the roots of this systemic mayhem to economic, ethnic, social, and institutional factors at work in local society.

Perpetual Happiness

Download Perpetual Happiness PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Washington Press
ISBN 13 : 0295800224
Total Pages : 295 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (958 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Perpetual Happiness by : Shih-shan Henry Tsai

Download or read book Perpetual Happiness written by Shih-shan Henry Tsai and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reign of Emperor Yongle, or “Perpetual Happiness,” was one of the most dramatic and significant in Chinese history. It began with civil war and a bloody coup, saw the construction of the Forbidden City, the completion of the Grand Canal, consolidation of the imperial bureaucracy, and expansion of China’s territory into Mongolia, Manchuria, and Vietnam. Beginning with an hour-by-hour account of one day in Yongle’s court, Shih-shan Henry Tsai presents the multiple dimensions of the life of Yongle (Zhu Di, 1360-1424) in fascinating detail. Tsai examines the role of birth, education, and tradition in molding the emperor’s personality and values, and paints a rich portrait of a man characterized by stark contrasts. Synthesizing primary and secondary source materials, he has crafted a colorful biography of the most renowned of the Ming emperors.

Culture, Courtiers, and Competition

Download Culture, Courtiers, and Competition PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 1684174740
Total Pages : 475 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (841 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Culture, Courtiers, and Competition by : David M. Robinson

Download or read book Culture, Courtiers, and Competition written by David M. Robinson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-03-23 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This collection of essays reveals the Ming court as an arena of competition and negotiation, where a large cast of actors pursued individual and corporate ends, personal agency shaped protocol and style, and diverse people, goods, and tastes converged. Rather than observing an immutable set of traditions, court culture underwent frequent reinterpretation and rearticulation, processes driven by immediate personal imperatives, mediated through social, political, and cultural interaction.The essays address several common themes. First, they rethink previous notions of imperial isolation, instead stressing the court’s myriad ties both to local Beijing society and to the empire as a whole. Second, the court was far from monolithic or static. Palace women, monks, craftsmen, educators, moralists, warriors, eunuchs, foreign envoys, and others strove to advance their interests and forge advantageous relations with the emperor and one another. Finally, these case studies illustrate the importance of individual agency. The founder’s legacy may have formed the warp of court practices and tastes, but the weft varied considerably. Reflecting the complexity of the court, the essays represent a variety of perspectives and disciplines—from intellectual, cultural, military, and political to art history and musicology."

Women Shall Not Rule

Download Women Shall Not Rule PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1442222905
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Women Shall Not Rule by : Keith McMahon

Download or read book Women Shall Not Rule written by Keith McMahon and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2013-06-06 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinese emperors guaranteed male successors by taking multiple wives, in some cases hundreds and even thousands. Women Shall Not Rule offers a fascinating history of imperial wives and concubines, especially in light of the greatest challenges to polygamous harmony—rivalry between women and their attempts to engage in politics. Besides ambitious empresses and concubines, these vivid stories of the imperial polygamous family are also populated with prolific emperors, wanton women, libertine men, cunning eunuchs, and bizarre cases of intrigue and scandal among rival wives. Keith McMahon, a leading expert on the history of gender in China, draws upon decades of research to describe the values and ideals of imperial polygamy and the ways in which it worked and did not work in real life. His rich sources are both historical and fictional, including poetic accounts and sensational stories told in pornographic detail. Displaying rare historical breadth, his lively and fascinating study will be invaluable as a comprehensive and authoritative resource for all readers interested in the domestic life of royal palaces across the world.

Chinese Eunuchs

Download Chinese Eunuchs PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9780804806534
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (65 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Chinese Eunuchs by :

Download or read book Chinese Eunuchs written by and published by Tuttle Publishing. This book was released on 1970 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

When China Ruled the Seas

Download When China Ruled the Seas PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Open Road Media
ISBN 13 : 1504007360
Total Pages : 235 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (4 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis When China Ruled the Seas by : Louise Levathes

Download or read book When China Ruled the Seas written by Louise Levathes and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One hundred years before Columbus and his fellow Europeans began their voyages of discovery, fleets of giant junks commanded by the eunuch admiral Zheng He and filled with the empire’s finest porcelains, lacquerware, and silk ventured to the world’s “four corners.” Seven epic expeditions brought China’s treasure ships across the China Seas and Indian Ocean, from Japan to the spice island of Indonesia and the Malabar Coast of India, on to the rich ports of the Persian Gulf and down the East African coast, to China’s “El Dorado,” and perhaps even to Australia, three hundred years before Captain Cook’s landing. It was a time of exploration and expansion, but it ended in a retrenchment so complete that less than a century later, it was a crime to go to sea in a multimasted ship. In When China Ruled the Seas, Louise Levathes takes a fascinating and unprecedented look at this dynamic period in China’s enigmatic history, focusing on the country’s rise as a naval power that briefly brought half the world under its nominal authority. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, official Ming histories, and African, Arab, and Indian sources, many translated for the first time, Levathes brings readers inside China’s most illustrious scientific and technological era. She sheds new light on the historical and cultural context in which this great civilization thrived, as well as the perception of China by other contemporary cultures. Beautifully illustrated and engagingly written, When China Ruled the Seas is the fullest picture yet of the early Ming dynasty—the last flowering of Chinese culture before the Manchu invasion.

Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm

Download Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300075533
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (755 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm by : Lynn A. Struve

Download or read book Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm written by Lynn A. Struve and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating book presents eyewitness accounts of a turbulent period in Chinese history: the fall of the Ming dynasty and the conquest of China by the Manchus in the mid-seventeenth century. Lynn A. Struve has translated, introduced, and annotated absorbing testimonies from a wide range of individuals in different social stations--Chinese and Europeans, missionaries and viceroys, artists and merchants, Ming loyalists and Qing collaborators, maidservants and eunuchs--all telling stories of hardship and challenge in the midst of cataclysmic change. "It is a book that brings history graphically to life."--Keith Pratt, Asian Affairs "A fascinating view of the dynamics of dynastic change in China."--Jonathan Porter, History "The book combines skillful translation of a rich variety of primary sources with authoritative commentary and meticulously researched annotation."--Helen Dunstan, Historian "One of the most engaging works of scholarship to appear in the field for a long time. . . . An extraordinarily good book destined to be read and enjoyed by a very wide audience beyond the professional one."--Craig Clunas, Bulletin of SOAS "Struve is] the most knowledgeable American scholar of the history of the 'Southern Ming.' . . . This fascinating volume . . . can be readily used in any college course on late imperial Chinese history for wonderful examples of the personal experiences of the Chinese people living through the fall of the Ming dynasty to their Manchu conquerors."--Benjamin A. Elman, China Review International "The scholarship behind this work is impeccable. . . . The translations are an important contribution to the field."--Jerry Dennerline, International History Review "Throughout the volume, Struve's translations capture the different voices of the cataclysm. Students of Chinese history will find a wealth of information here."--Choice

Communication and Cooperation in Early Imperial China

Download Communication and Cooperation in Early Imperial China PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 1438450370
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Communication and Cooperation in Early Imperial China by : Charles Sanft

Download or read book Communication and Cooperation in Early Imperial China written by Charles Sanft and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2014-02-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenges traditional views of the Qin dynasty as an oppressive regime by revealing cooperative aspects of its governance. This revealing book challenges longstanding notions of the Qin dynasty, China’s first imperial dynasty (221–206 BCE). The received history of the Qin dynasty and its founder is one of cruel tyranny with rule through fear and coercion. Using a wealth of new information afforded by the expansion of Chinese archaeology in recent decades as well as traditional historical sources, Charles Sanft concentrates on cooperative aspects of early imperial government, especially on the communication necessary for government. Sanft suggests that the Qin authorities sought cooperation from the populace with a publicity campaign in a wide variety of media—from bronze and stone inscriptions to roads to the bureaucracy. The book integrates theory from anthropology and economics with early Chinese philosophy and argues that modern social science and ancient thought agree that cooperation is necessary for all human societies.

1587, a Year of No Significance

Download 1587, a Year of No Significance PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300028843
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (288 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis 1587, a Year of No Significance by : Ray Huang

Download or read book 1587, a Year of No Significance written by Ray Huang and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1981-01-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creates a portrait of the world and culture of late imperial China by examining the lives of seven prominent officials and members of the Ming ruling class

The Historian's Castrated Slave

Download The Historian's Castrated Slave PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 940 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Historian's Castrated Slave by : Matthew Fryslie

Download or read book The Historian's Castrated Slave written by Matthew Fryslie and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 940 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

China's Second Capital - Nanjing under the Ming, 1368-1644

Download China's Second Capital - Nanjing under the Ming, 1368-1644 PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135008450
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis China's Second Capital - Nanjing under the Ming, 1368-1644 by : Jun Fang

Download or read book China's Second Capital - Nanjing under the Ming, 1368-1644 written by Jun Fang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-05-23 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a study of the dual capital system of Ming dynasty China (1368-1644), with a focus on the administrative functions of the auxiliary Southern Capital, Nanjing. It argues that the immense geographical expanse of the Chinese empire and the poor communication infrastructure of pre-modern times necessitated the establishment of an additional capital administration for effective control of the Ming realm. The existence of the Southern Capital, which has been dismissed by scholars as redundant and insignificant, was, the author argues, justified by its ability to assist the primary Northern Capital better control the southern part of the imperial land. The practice of maintaining auxiliary capitals, where the bureaucratic structures of the primary capital were replicated in varying degrees, was a unique and valuable approach to effecting bureaucratic control over vast territory in pre-modern conditions. Nanjing translates into English as "Southern Capital" and Beijing as "Northern Capital".