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The Cambridge History of China: pt. 1. The Sung Dynasty and its precursors, 907-1279
This first of two volumes on the Sung Dynasty (960-1279) and its Five Dynasties and Southern Kingdoms precursors presents the political history of China from the fall of the T'ang Dynasty in 907 to the Mongol conquest of the Southern Sung in 1279. Its twelve chapters survey the personalities and events that marked the rise, consolidation, and demise of the Sung polity during an era of profound social, economic, and intellectual ferment. The authors place particular emphasis on the emergence of a politically conscious literati class during the Sung, characterized by the increasing importance of the examination system early in the dynasty and on the rise of the tao-hsueh (Neo-Confucian) movement toward the end. In addition, they highlight the destabilizing influence of factionalism and ministerial despotism on Sung political culture and the impact of the powerful steppe empires of the Khitan Liao, Tangut Hsi Hsia, Jurchen Chin, and Mongol Yüan on the shape and tempo of Sung dynastic events
China Turning Inward
During the traumatic opening decades of the Southern Sung, Emperor Kao-tsung's unspoken determination to win imperial safety at any cost shaped not only court policy but Confucian intellectual developments. Liu explores how Kao-tsung used ideological window-dressing to consolidate extraordinary state power in the emperor's hands.
The Politics of Higher Education
The Politics of Higher Education: The Imperial University in Northern Song China uses the history of the Imperial University of the Northern Song to show the limits of the Song emperors’ powers. At the time, the university played an increasingly dominant role in selecting government officials. This role somehow curtailed the authority of the Song emperors, who did not possess absolute power and, more often than not, found their actions to be constrained by the institution. The nomination mechanism left room for political maneuvering and stakeholders—from emperors to scholar-officials—tried to influence the process. Hence, power struggles among successive emperors trying to assert their...
A History of Chinese Civilization
When published in 1982, this translation of Professor Jacques Gernet's masterly survey of the history and culture of China was immediately welcomed by critics and readers. This revised and updated edition makes it more useful for students and for the general reader concerned with the broad sweep of China's past.
China and Great Britain
Describes the expansion and transformation of China's economic relations with Great Britain, when China was forced to agree to a treaty settlement to open a larger number of ports to foreign trade.
Historical Records of the Five Dynasties
Written by Ouyang Xiu (1007-1072), an intellectual giant of the Song dynasty, Historical Records of the Five Dynasties offers a compelling interpretation of the Five Dynasties period (907-979). In overhauling the existing official history, Ouyang Xiu made several notable decisions. He recast the entire narrative in the popular "ancient" style to make for a rare fluency. He adopted rigorous moral categories to evaluate historical figures, reflecting the new regimen of his day. He also annotated portions of the text to establish a methodology for future writers. The Historical Records thereby became the official version-the last of China's dynastic histories to be written by an individual in a private capacity. In addition to its provocative commentary and lucid presentation, Historical Records is an eloquent statement on the art and craft of historical writing in the eleventh century.
The Road to East Slope
Su Shi (1037-1101) is the greatest poet of the Song Dynasty, a man whose writings and image defined some of the enduring central themes of the Chinese cultural tradition. Su Shi was not only the best poet of his time, he was also a government official, a major prose stylist, a noted calligrapher, an avid herbalist, a dabbler in alchemy, and a broadly learned scholar. The author shows how this complex personality was embodied in Su Shi's work and traces the evolution of his poems from juvenilia to the poems written in exile in Huangzhou, where Su settled on a farm at East Slope.
China’s Imperial Past
A panoramic survey of the course of Chinese civilization from prehistory to 1850, when the old China began to give way
Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276
Describes the occupations, pleasures, clothes, food, art, and social and civic life of the people in the city of Hangchow.
Divided by a Common Language
Between 1044 and 1104, ideological disputes divided China’s sociopolitical elite, who organized into factions battling for control of the imperial government. Advocates and adversaries of state reform forged bureaucratic coalitions to implement their policy agendas and to promote like-minded colleagues. During this period, three emperors and two regents in turn patronized a new bureaucratic coalition that overturned the preceding ministerial regime and its policies. This ideological and political conflict escalated with every monarchical transition in a widening circle of retribution that began with limited purges and ended with extensive blacklists of the opposition. Divided by a Common L...
