Imperial China: 900–1800
AuthorFrederick W. Mote
Cover artistDetail from The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour scroll
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectChinese history
PublisherHarvard University Press
Publication date
1999
Media typePaperback/Hardcover
Pages1136
ISBN0-674-01212-7
OCLC54436613

Imperial China: 900–1800 is a history book written by Frederick W. Mote, Professor of Chinese History and Civilization, Emeritus, at Princeton University. The book was published in 1999 by Harvard University Press.[1]

Scope

As the title suggests, Imperial China covers the 900-year period from the year 900 to 1800. In terms of Chinese history, it covers the period from the fall of the Tang dynasty to the middle of the Qing dynasty, shortly before the beginning of China's Century of Humiliation at the end of the Qing dynasty. It covers the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Liao dynasty, Song dynasty, Western Xia state, Jin dynasty, Yuan dynasty, Ming dynasty and the first 150 years of the Qing dynasty.

Contents

The nearly 1,000 pages of text are divided into five parts and are further divided into 36 chapters.

Part One

Conquest Dynasties and the Northern Song: 900–1127

Part Two

Conquest Dynasties and the Southern Song: 1127–1279

  • 9. The "Wild Jurchens" Erupt into History
  • 10. The Jurchen State and Its Cultural Policy
  • 11. The Later Xi Xia State
  • 12. Trends of Change under Jin Alien Rule
  • 13. The Southern Song and Chinese Survival
  • 14. Chinese Civilization and the Song Achievement
  • 15. Southern Song Life – A Broader View
  • 16. A Mid-Thirteenth-Century Overview

Part Three

China and the Mongol World

Part Four

The Restoration of Native Rule Under the Ming

  • 21. From Chaos toward a New Chinese Order
  • 22. Zhu Yuanzhang Builds His Ming Dynasty
  • 23. Civil War and Usurpation
  • 24. The "Second Founding" of the Ming Dynasty
  • 25. Ming China in the Fifteenth century
  • 26. The Changing World of the Sixteenth century
  • 27. Ming China's Borders
  • 28. Late Ming Political Decline, 1567–1627
  • 29. The Lively Society of the Late Ming
  • 30. The Course of Ming Failure

Part Five

China and the World in Early Qing Times

  • 31. Alien Rule Returns
  • 32. The Kangxi Emperor: Coming of Age
  • 33. The Kangxi Reign: The Emperor and His Empire
  • 34. The Yongzheng Emperor as Man and Ruler
  • 35. Splendor and Degeneration, 1736–1799
  • 36. China's Legacy in a Changing World

Reception

Reviewers generally considered the book comprehensive. Lucian Pye's review for Foreign Affairs characterized it as "history on a grand scale but with intimate details", lauding it for making "vivid the full dimensions of China's greatest centuries."[2] Denis Sinor, writing for The Historian, felt that that the book's coverage of fine arts was lacking but nevertheless praised the way it used political history as a backdrop for many other subjects, such as economics and religious philosophy, and wrote that Mote "deserves our gratitude for assembling, to our benefit, this vast material."[3]

References

  1. ↑ Mote, Frederick W. (2003) [1999]. Imperial China 900-1800 (HUP paperback ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01212-7.
  2. ↑ Pye, Lucian (2000). "Asia and Pacific". Foreign Affairs. Vol. 79, no. 3. p. 177. JSTOR 20049783.
  3. ↑ Sinor, Denis (Fall 2001). "Book Reviews". The Historian. 64 (1): 165–166. JSTOR 24450746.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.