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Author: Frederick P. Brandauer Publisher: University of Washington Press ISBN: 0295801522 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 330
Book Description
This volume examines the role of dynastic rulers, the imperial system, and the ruling literati in the promotion and shaping of Chinese thought and culture. It includes ten papers chosen for publication from a conference held in Taiwan in September 1992: “Determining Orthodoxy: Imperial Roles” by Jack L. Dull; “Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Portrayal of the First Ch’in Emperor” by Stephan Durrant; “The Literary Emperor: The Case of Han Wu-ti” by David R. Knechtges; “Empress Wu and Feminist Sentiments in T’ang China” by Chen Jo-shui; “Academies: Official Sponsorship and Suppression” by Thomas H. C. Lee; “Imperial Power and The Reestablishment of Monastic Order in the Northern Sung” by Huang Chi-chiang; “Imperial Rulership in Cultural History: Chu Hsi’s Interpretation” by Huang Chun-chieh; “The Emperor and the Star Spirits: A Mythological Reading of the Shui-hu chuan” by Frederick P. Brandeur; “Ku Yen-wu’s Image and Ideal of the Emperor: A Cultural Giant and Political Dwarf” by Ku Wei-ying; and “Imperial Power and the Appointment of Provincial Governors in Ch’ing China” by R. Kent Guy. It will be of interest to students of Chinese culture including literature, art, religion, philosophy, and politics.
Author: Frederick P. Brandauer Publisher: University of Washington Press ISBN: 0295801522 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 330
Book Description
This volume examines the role of dynastic rulers, the imperial system, and the ruling literati in the promotion and shaping of Chinese thought and culture. It includes ten papers chosen for publication from a conference held in Taiwan in September 1992: “Determining Orthodoxy: Imperial Roles” by Jack L. Dull; “Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Portrayal of the First Ch’in Emperor” by Stephan Durrant; “The Literary Emperor: The Case of Han Wu-ti” by David R. Knechtges; “Empress Wu and Feminist Sentiments in T’ang China” by Chen Jo-shui; “Academies: Official Sponsorship and Suppression” by Thomas H. C. Lee; “Imperial Power and The Reestablishment of Monastic Order in the Northern Sung” by Huang Chi-chiang; “Imperial Rulership in Cultural History: Chu Hsi’s Interpretation” by Huang Chun-chieh; “The Emperor and the Star Spirits: A Mythological Reading of the Shui-hu chuan” by Frederick P. Brandeur; “Ku Yen-wu’s Image and Ideal of the Emperor: A Cultural Giant and Political Dwarf” by Ku Wei-ying; and “Imperial Power and the Appointment of Provincial Governors in Ch’ing China” by R. Kent Guy. It will be of interest to students of Chinese culture including literature, art, religion, philosophy, and politics.
Author: Dieter Kuhn Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674244346 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
Just over a thousand years ago, the Song dynasty emerged as the most advanced civilization on earth. Within two centuries, China was home to nearly half of all humankind. In this concise history, we learn why the inventiveness of this era has been favorably compared with the European Renaissance, which in many ways the Song transformation surpassed. With the chaotic dissolution of the Tang dynasty, the old aristocratic families vanished. A new class of scholar-officials—products of a meritocratic examination system—took up the task of reshaping Chinese tradition by adapting the precepts of Confucianism to a rapidly changing world. Through fiscal reforms, these elites liberalized the economy, eased the tax burden, and put paper money into circulation. Their redesigned capitals buzzed with traders, while the education system offered advancement to talented men of modest means. Their rationalist approach led to inventions in printing, shipbuilding, weaving, ceramics manufacture, mining, and agriculture. With a realist’s eye, they studied the natural world and applied their observations in art and science. And with the souls of diplomats, they chose peace over war with the aggressors on their borders. Yet persistent military threats from these nomadic tribes—which the Chinese scorned as their cultural inferiors—redefined China’s understanding of its place in the world and solidified a sense of what it meant to be Chinese. The Age of Confucian Rule is an essential introduction to this transformative era. “A scholar should congratulate himself that he has been born in such a time” (Zhao Ruyu, 1194).
Author: Theodore Huters Publisher: ISBN: 9780804765060 Category : HISTORY Languages : en Pages : 516
Book Description
Many observers of late imperial China have noted the relatively small size of the state in comparison to the geographic size and large population of China and have advanced various theories to account for the ability of the state to maintain itself in power. One of the more enduring explanations has been that the Chinese state, despite its limited material capacities, possessed strong ideological powers and was able to influence cultural norms in ways that elicited allegiance and responded to the desire for order. The fourteen papers in this volume re-examine the assumptions of how state power functioned, particularly the assumption of a sharp divide between state and society. The general conclusion is that the state was only one actor--albeit a powerful one--in a culture that elites and commoners could shape, either in cooperation with the state or in competition with it. The temporal range of the papers extends from the twelfth to the twentieth century, though most of the papers deal with the Ming and Qing dynasties. The book is in four parts. Part I deals with philosophical, historiographical, and literary debates and their relation to the late imperial state; Part II with the multiple roles of officials, elites, specialists, and commoners in constructing norms of religious beliefs and practices. Part III presents criticisms by late imperial intellectuals of both state policies and social conventions, and examines official efforts to incorporate and utilize elite commitments to Confucian views of political and cultural order. Part IV discusses ways in which the twentieth-century Chinese political order emerged from a trajectory defined in part by the intersection of late imperial practices with Western categories of knowledge.
Author: Rubie S. Watson Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 9780520071247 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
Until now our understanding of marriage in China has been based primarily on observations made during the twentieth century. The research of ten eminent scholars presented here provides a new vision of marriage in Chinese history, exploring the complex interplay between marriage and the social, political, economic, and gender inequalities that have so characterized Chinese society.
Author: Dieter Kuhn Publisher: Belknap Press ISBN: 9780674031463 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Just over a thousand years ago, the Song dynasty emerged as the most advanced civilization on earth. Within two centuries, China was home to nearly half of all humankind. In this concise history, we learn why the inventiveness of this era has been favorably compared with the European Renaissance, which in many ways the Song transformation surpassed. With the chaotic dissolution of the Tang dynasty, the old aristocratic families vanished. A new class of scholar-officials—products of a meritocratic examination system—took up the task of reshaping Chinese tradition by adapting the precepts of Confucianism to a rapidly changing world. Through fiscal reforms, these elites liberalized the economy, eased the tax burden, and put paper money into circulation. Their redesigned capitals buzzed with traders, while the education system offered advancement to talented men of modest means. Their rationalist approach led to inventions in printing, shipbuilding, weaving, ceramics manufacture, mining, and agriculture. With a realist’s eye, they studied the natural world and applied their observations in art and science. And with the souls of diplomats, they chose peace over war with the aggressors on their borders. Yet persistent military threats from these nomadic tribes—which the Chinese scorned as their cultural inferiors—redefined China’s understanding of its place in the world and solidified a sense of what it meant to be Chinese. The Age of Confucian Rule is an essential introduction to this transformative era. “A scholar should congratulate himself that he has been born in such a time” (Zhao Ruyu, 1194).
Author: N. Harry Rothschild Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 0231539185 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 382
Book Description
Wu Zhao (624–705), better known as Wu Zetian or Empress Wu, is the only woman to have ruled China as emperor over the course of its 5,000-year history. How did she—in a predominantly patriarchal and androcentric society—ascend the dragon throne? Exploring a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries, this multifaceted history suggests that China's rich pantheon of female divinities and eminent women played an integral part in the construction of Wu Zhao's sovereignty. Wu Zhao deftly deployed language, symbol, and ideology to harness the cultural resonance, maternal force, divine energy, and historical weight of Buddhist devis, Confucian exemplars, Daoist immortals, and mythic goddesses, establishing legitimacy within and beyond the confines of Confucian ideology. Tapping into powerful subterranean reservoirs of female power, Wu Zhao built a pantheon of female divinities carefully calibrated to meet her needs at court. Her pageant was promoted in scripted rhetoric, reinforced through poetry, celebrated in theatrical productions, and inscribed on steles. Rendered with deft political acumen and aesthetic flair, these affiliations significantly enhanced Wu Zhao's authority and cast her as the human vessel through which the pantheon's divine energy flowed. Her strategy is a model of political brilliance and proof that medieval Chinese women enjoyed a more complex social status than previously known.
Author: Kenneth J. Hammond Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers ISBN: 1461665507 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
The Human Tradition in Premodern China is a collection of biographical essays revealing the variety and complexity of human experience in China from the earliest historical times to the dawn of the modern age. China is a vast country with a long history, and one which is by itself as complex as the history of Europe. This broad expanse of time and space in Chinese history has largely been approached in terms of narrative political and cultural history in most books. The reigns of emperors and the thoughts of the great masters such as Confucius or Laozi have been the principal focus. Yet the history of the Chinese, as with any great people, is built up from the lives of individuals, families, groups, and movements. By presenting life stories of individuals ranging from ancient court diviners to late imperial merchants to women in various periods, this engaging anthology highlights aspects of Chinese social, political and intellectual history not usually addressed. Additionally, The Human Tradition in Premodern China broadens the common image and understanding of society based on the dominant elite male discourse. Rich in new perspective and new scholarship, The Human Tradition in Premodern China is an ideal introduction to Chinese history, East Asian history, and world history.