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Chinese Martial Arts
In the global world of the twenty-first century, martial arts are practised for self-defense and sporting purposes only. However, for thousands of years, they were a central feature of military practice in China and essential for the smooth functioning of society. This book, which opens with an intriguing account of the very first female martial artist, charts the history of combat and fighting techniques in China from the Bronze Age to the present. This broad panorama affords fascinating glimpses into the transformation of martial skills, techniques and weaponry against the background of Chinese history, the rise and fall of empires, their governments and their armies. Quotations from literature and poetry, and the stories of individual warriors, infuse the narrative, offering personal reflections on prowess in the battlefield and techniques of engagement. This is an engaging and readable introduction to the authentic history of Chinese martial arts.
War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900–1795
The first book in English to study this period of Chinese history, this comprehensive survey sets out the major military events in chapters and argues that war was the most important tool used by the Chinese in building and maintaining their empire.
The Reunification of China
A groundbreaking work examining the military and political events that shaped the Song dynasty (960-1279) in China. Peter Lorge examines the centrality of warfare and politics in the struggle for internal and external power, as well as the influence of individuals and their relationships in political processes.
Debating War in Chinese History
Chinese rulers and statesmen were naturally concerned about the issue of war, when to wage it, when it was justified, and when to avoid it. Although much has been asserted about how these issues were understood in Chinese culture, this work is the first study actually to focus on the debates themselves. These debates at court proceeded from specific understandings of what constituted evidence, and involved the practical concerns of policy as well as more general cultural values. The result is a decidedly messy portrait of Chinese decision making over two millenia that is neither distinctly Chinese nor entirely generic. Contributors are Parks Coble, Garret Olberding, David Pong, Kenneth Swope, Paul Van Els, David Wright, and Shu-Hui Wu.
War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900-1795
"Using a chronological narrative, War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900-1795 breaks free of the dynastic boundaries that shape much scholarship in this area, focusing instead on the growing power of local elites. This power eventually led to a system of loose central control - to the sacrifice of real, centralized power over local affairs. Ideal for students of military and Asian studies, War, Politics and Society in Early Modern China, 900-1795 is essential reading for anyone interested in the military history of China."--BOOK JACKET.
Warfare in China to 1600
Chinese military history has emerged as one of the most promising and radical fields of Chinese studies. China's rapidly increasing military power make understanding the place of war in Chinese culture, as well as the role of the military, and Chinese strategic thought, vital to dealing with this possible threat. The recent flourishing of scholarship in this area has begun to allow an equivalent comparison with western and world military history, leading to a new understanding of war as a historical and cultural phenomenon, as well as revising earlier analyses of the significance of war in Chinese history. Assembled in this volume is a selection of articles that present earlier approaches to Chinese military history as well as the most recent trends in research. The introductory essay provides an overview of the field of Chinese military history and its significance in the study of China, as well as pointing out encouraging new developments in recent scholarship.
Sun Tzu in the West
A major new revisionist history of the reception of the most important Chinese work on strategy, The Art of War, in the West. Peter Lorge contends that the Western interpretation of Sun Tzu's ideas was not based upon Chinese understandings of the text, but upon twentieth-century Western strategic ideas.
Chinese and Indian Warfare - From the Classical Age to 1870
This book examines the differences and similarities between warfare in China and India before 1870, both conceptually and on the battlefield. By focusing on Chinese and Indian warfare, the book breaks the intellectual paradigm requiring non-Western histories and cultures to be compared to the West, and allows scholarship on two of the oldest civilizations to be brought together. An international group of scholars compare and contrast the modes and conceptions of warfare in China and India, providing important original contributions to the growing study of Asian military history.
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
The period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-960) has long been treated as an anomaly in the history of China, an age of great disunity between the empires of the Tang and the Song dynasties. Breaking with previous scholarship on China's middle period, this edited volume presents individual studies that focus on the art, culture, and politics of the interregnum, challenging underlying assumptions about the unitary nature of dynastic culture and its value as a category of historical analysis. It understands these decades as a time of important transition in which the incipient cultural shifts of the mature Tang dynasty turned into the foundations of Song society. Consequently it highlights the complex narrative processes that gave birth to Song culture.
