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The book is the volume of “The Military History in Qin and Han Dynasty” among a series of books of “Deep into China Histories”. The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC) and the Bamboo Annals (296 BC) describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC) before the Shang, but no writing is known from the period The Shang ruled in the Yellow River valley, which is commonly held to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, Neolithic civilizations originated at various cultural centers along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River. These Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations arose millennia before the...
Scholarship on Xiao Tong in both China and the West has paid little attention to his own writings beyond the influential anthology compiled by the Liang Crown Prince. Adopting a philological approach, this book thorougly examines a multitude of texts written by Xiao Tong and his entourage, many of whom were powerful writers in their own right. In addition to drawing a picture of important aspects of Liang court culture such as education, literary composition, personal relations, and ideological and religious trends, this study also redresses a long-standing bias against court poetry. It will enhance our understanding not only of the early sixth-century but also, indirectly, of a significant portion of pre-modern Chinese literature in general.
Uncover the social fabric of ancient China through its language. Titles and Designations in a Study of the Qin and Han Dynasties offers a systematic exploration of appellations, revealing insights into the social identity and relationships of the time. By combining archaeological data with historical documents, this study analyzes the generation, use, and social significance of various terms related to hierarchical order, professional identity, family structure, administrative control, and social fashion. Delve into the Qin and Han Dynasties and discover: The evolution of social structures and hierarchies The impact of language on social and political life The cultural and historical features of ancient China Perfect for historians, sinologists, and anyone fascinated by ancient Chinese history, this volume provides a unique perspective on a transformative era.
The Twenty-Four Histories (Chinese: 二十四史) are the Chinese official historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century. The Han dynasty official Sima Qian established many of the conventions of the genre. Starting with the Tang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records. As fixed and edited in the Qing dynasty, the whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture. The title "Twenty-Four Histories" dates from 1775 which was the 40th year in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. This ...
This innovative sourcebook builds a dynamic understanding of China's early medieval period (220–589) through an original selection and arrangement of literary, historical, religious, and critical texts. A tumultuous and formative era, these centuries saw the longest stretch of political fragmentation in China's imperial history, resulting in new ethnic configurations, the rise of powerful clans, and a pervasive divide between north and south. Deploying thematic categories, the editors sketch the period in a novel way for students and, by featuring many texts translated into English for the first time, recast the era for specialists. Thematic topics include regional definitions and tensions, governing mechanisms and social reality, ideas of self and other, relations with the unseen world, everyday life, and cultural concepts. Within each section, the editors and translators introduce the selected texts and provide critical commentary on their historical significance, along with suggestions for further reading and research.
From ancient times, China's remote and exotic South—a shifting and expanding region beyond the Yangtze River—has been an enduring theme in Chinese literature. For poets and scholar-officials in medieval China, the South was a barbaric frontier region of alienation and disease. But it was also a place of richness and fascination, and for some a site of cultural triumph over exile. The eight essays in this collection explore how tensions between pride in southern culture and anxiety over the alien qualities of the southern frontier were behind many of the distinctive features of medieval Chinese literature. They examine how prominent writers from this period depicted themselves and the Sou...
This publication is the long-awaited complement to Michael Loewe's acclaimed Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (2000). With more than 8,000 entries, based upon historical records and surviving inscriptions, the comprehensive Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD) now provides information on men and women of the Chinese world who lived at the time of Later (or Eastern) Han, from Liu Xiu, founding Emperor Guangwu (reg. 24-57), to the celebrated warlord Cao Cao (155-220) at the end of the dynasty. The entries, including surnames, personal names, styles and dates, are accompanied by maps, genealogical tables and indexes, with lists of books and special accounts of women. These features, together with the convenient surveys of the history and the administrative structure of the dynasty, will make Rafe de Crespigny's work an indispensable tool for any further serious study of a significant but comparatively neglected period of imperial China.
This volume develops new strategies for reading, contextualizing, and interpreting the long Chinese tradition of women's biography. Drawing upon a vast array of sources, from formal biography to poetry, letters, and oral interviews, the authors examine how women's biography served particular cultural, political, and world-making projects, and how it illuminates these projects in new ways by highlighting tensions within and between them. --Book Jacket.