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Written with precision and flair by a host of leading academics from Beijing and Hong Kong, this single volume is a welcome addition to the study of world civilizations, a broad yet detailed chronological sweep through time. Every aspect of Chinese civilization is explained, interpreted, contextualized and brought to life with well-balanced commentary and photographic documentation. Published by City University of Hong Kong Press. 香港城市大學出版社出版。
By the end of the nineteenth century, Chinese culture had fallen into a stasis, and intellectuals began to go abroad for new ideas. What emerged was an exciting musical genre that C. C. Liu terms "new music." With no direct ties to traditional Chinese music, "new music" reflects the compositional techniques and musical idioms of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European styles. Liu traces the genesis and development of "new music" throughout the twentieth century, deftly examining the social and political forces that shaped "new music" and its uses by political activists and the government.
This book provides a comprehensive overview and explanation of China’s population, analyzing its special characteristics and patterns of growth over the past 2,000 years. Topics include its composition, distribution, migration, and deep analysis into China’s historical population. The author aims to answer complicated questions such as how China’s population was formed, when China started its earliest population surveys, how China’s population migrated and was distributed historically, and how existing population data should be evaluated and used now? In addition, the author explores the influence of natural and human-caused disasters, censuses, tax policies, and economic development on China’s population changes. The work also offers a span of rich historical detail related to population control. The book will be a great read to students and scholars of population studies, Chinese studies, ethnology, and those who are interested in Chinese history, archaeology, geography, and sociology.
The official history of the Later Han dynasty (AD 25-220) contains eight so-called Treatises, traditionally regarded as accurate descriptions of the dynasty's institutions. Practically all literature dealing with the bureaucratic system, the geography, the religious beliefs or the calendar of the first two centuries AD is based on these Treatises, even though their value as source material has never been critically examined. This study subjects each of the Treatises in turn to a detailed scrutiny. The sources used by the Chinese historian and their adaption to suit his historiographical tastes, the opinions of previous critics and the weight of the available evidence all pass review in order to arrive at a balanced view of the historiographical value of each individual Treatise.
This book is about the tension between de facto political power and the claims to intellectual and moral leadership of the shi (‘gentleman class’) in Early Medieval China. Shelun, or Hypothetical Discourse, is a hitherto neglected Chinese literary genre. The author for the first time places the surviving texts against the political background that accounts for its rise and decline in early medieval China. Comprehensively annotated translations of seven Hypothetical Discourses are placed in the context of their authors' lives and times, with an emphasis on the post-Han examples of the genre. This thorough study gives insight into this subgenre of fu by which the world of the Chinese gentleman class finds an always ambiguous expression in the rhyme-prose texts under review.
This is a study of one of China's most influential regional musical traditions, the Jiangnan sizhu - string and wind music - of Shanghai. The in-depth approach adopted reveals much about Chinese musical culture.
Offers the first overarching history of the humanities from Antiquity to the present.
Compiled by specialists from the University of Durham Department of East Asian Studies, this new reference work contains approximately 1500 entries covering Chinese civilisation from Peking Man to the present day. Subjects include history, politics, art, archaeology, literature, etc. The Dictionary is intended for students, teachers and researchers, and will also be of interest to the general reader. Entries provide factual information and contain suggestions for further reading. Chinese terms are in pinyin romanisation and characters are given for the subject headings. A name index and comprehensive cross-reference system make this an easy to use, multi-purpose guide to the student of Chinese in the broadest sense.