Cultural Centrality And Political Change In Chinese History

Author : Roger V. Des Forges
Publisher : Stanford University Press
Page : 460 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : History
ISBN : 0804740445

Get Book

Cultural Centrality and Political Change in Chinese History by Roger V. Des Forges Pdf

The Ming period of Chinese history is often depicted as one of cultural aridity, political despotism, and social stasis. Recent studies have shown that the arts continued to flourish, government remained effective, people enjoyed considerable mobility, and China served as a center of the global economy. This study goes further to argue that China’s perennial quest for cultural centrality resulted in periodic political changes that permitted the Chinese people to retain control over social and economic developments. The study focuses on two and a half million people in three prefectures of northeast Henan, the central province in the heart of the "central plain”--a common synecdoche for China. The author argues that this population may have been more representative of the Chinese people at large than were the residents of more prosperous regions. Many diverse individuals in northeast Henan invoked historical models to deal with the present and shape the future. Though they differed in the lessons they drew, they shared the view that the Han dynasty was particularly relevant to their own time. Han and Ming politics were integral parts of a pattern of Chinese historical development that has lasted to the present.

Author : Jana S. Rošker,Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2014-09-26
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781443867726

Get Book

Modernisation of Chinese Culture by Jana S. Rošker,Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik Pdf

The editors are grateful to the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for its generous support of their research work which enabled them to publish the present book. The present book carefully maps the Chinese modernisation discourse, highlighting its relationship to other, similar discourses, and situating it within historical and theoretical contexts. In contrast to the majority of recent discussions of a “Chinese development model” that tend to focus more on institutional then cultural factors, and are more narrowly concerned with economic matters than overall social development, the book offers several important focal points for many presently overlooked issues and dilemmas. The multifaceted perspectives contained in this anthology are not limited to economic, social, and ecological issues, but also include political and social functions of ideologies and cultural conditioned values, representing the axial epistemological grounds of modern Chinese society. 2011 was the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. The centennial is relevant not only in terms of state ideology, but also plays a significant role within academic research into Chinese society and culture. This historic turning point likewise represents the symbolic and concrete linkages and tensions between tradition and modernity, progress and conservatism, traditional values and the demands for adjustment to contemporary societies. The book shows that Chinese transition from tradition to modernity cannot be understood in a framework of a unified general model of society, but rather through a more complex insight into the interrelations among elements of physical environment, social structure, philosophy, history, and culture.

Author : Cho-yun Hsu
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 633 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2012-06-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9780231528184

Get Book

China by Cho-yun Hsu Pdf

An internationally recognized authority on Chinese history and a leading innovator in its telling, Cho-yun Hsu constructs an original portrait of Chinese culture. Unlike most historians, Hsu resists centering his narrative on China's political evolution, focusing instead on the country's cultural sphere and its encounters with successive waves of globalization. Beginning long before China's written history and extending through the twentieth century, Hsu follows the content and expansion of Chinese culture, describing the daily lives of commoners, their spiritual beliefs and practices, the changing character of their social and popular thought, and their advances in material culture and technology. In addition to listing the achievements of emperors, generals, ministers, and sages, Hsu builds detailed accounts of these events and their everyday implications. Dynastic change, the rise and fall of national ambitions, and the growth and decline of institutional systems take on new significance through Hsu's careful research, which captures the multiple strands that gave rise to China's pluralistic society. Paying particular attention to influential relationships occurring outside of Chinese cultural boundaries, he demonstrates the impact of foreign influences on Chinese culture and identity and identifies similarities between China's cultural developments and those of other nations.

Author : Wei-Bin Zhang
Publisher : Nova Science Pub Incorporated
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2013-01-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 1626181586

Get Book

The Rise and Fall of China's Last Dynasty by Wei-Bin Zhang Pdf

This book elucidates the Qing history from perspectives of Confucianism as well as modern sciences. It emphasises the Chinese spirits in explicating the socio-economic changes of the dynasty. Historians produce increasingly detailed information about structures and functioning of the Qing system from different perspectives. Nevertheless, there are only a few comprehensive and systematical studies of the Qing history from the Chinese cultural perspective. As many new materials about the Qing dynasty have been accumulated and some new theories about socio-economic evolution have been developed in the last few decades, there is a need for re-examining the rise and fall of Chinas last dynasty.

Author : Chun-shu Chang,Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : History
ISBN : UCSC:32106010744164

Get Book

Crisis and Transformation in Seventeenth-century China by Chun-shu Chang,Shelley Hsueh-lun Chang Pdf

Describes the social and cultural transformation of seventeenth-century China through the life and work of Li Yu

Author : James B. Lewis
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 419 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2014-12-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317662747

Get Book

The East Asian War, 1592-1598 by James B. Lewis Pdf

As East Asia regains its historical position as a world centre, information on the history of regional relations becomes ever more critical. Astonishingly, Northeast Asia enjoyed five centuries of international peace from 1400 to 1894, broken only by one major international war – the invasion of Korea in the 1590s by Japan’s ruler Hideyoshi. This war involved Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Southeast Asians, and Europeans; it saw the largest overseas landing in world history up to that time and devastated Korea. It also highlighted the nature of the strategic balance in the region, presenting China’s Ming dynasty with a serious threat that perhaps foreshadowed the dynasty’s subsequent overthrow by the Manchus, played a major part in the establishment of the Tokugawa regime with its policy of peace and controlled access to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Japan, and demonstrated the importance for regional stability of the subtle relationship of Korea to both China and Japan. This book presents a comprehensive analysis of the war and its aftermath in all its aspects – military, political, social, economic, and cultural. As such it deepens understanding of East Asian international relations and provides important insights into the strategic concerns that continue to operate in the region at present.

Author : Victor Cunrui Xiong,Kenneth J. Hammond
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2018-09-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317538226

Get Book

Routledge Handbook of Imperial Chinese History by Victor Cunrui Xiong,Kenneth J. Hammond Pdf

The resurgence of modern China has generated much interest, not only in the country’s present day activities, but also in its long history. As the only uninterrupted ancient civilization still alive today, the study of China’s past promises to offer invaluable insights into understanding contemporary China. Providing coverage of the entire Imperial Era (221 BCE–1912 CE), this handbook takes a chronological approach. It includes comprehensive analysis of all major periods, from the powerful Han empire which rivalled Rome, and the crucial transformative period of the Five Dynasties, to the prosperous Ming era and the later dominance of the non-Han peoples. With contributions from a team of international authors, key themes include: Political events and leadership Religion and philosophy Cultural and literary achievements Legal, economic, and military institutions This book transcends the traditional boundaries of historiography, giving special attention to the role of archaeology. As such, the Routledge Handbook of Imperial Chinese History is an indispensable reference work for students and scholars of Chinese, Asian, and World History.

Author : Lynn A. Struve
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2005-01-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9780824873905

Get Book

Time, Temporality, and Imperial Transition by Lynn A. Struve Pdf

Time is basic to human consciousness and action, yet paradoxically historians rarely ask how it is understood, manipulated, recorded, or lived. Cataclysmic events in particular disrupt and realign the dynamics of temporality among people. For historians, the temporal effects of such events on large polities such as empires—the power projections of which always involve the dictation of time—are especially significant. This important and intriguing volume is an investigation of precisely such temporal effects, focusing on the northern and eastern regions of the Asian subcontinent in the seventeenth century, when the polity at the core of East Asian civilization, Ming dynasty China, collapsed and was replaced by the Manchu-ruled Qing dynasty. Contributors: Mark C. Elliott, Roger Des Forges, JaHyun Kim Haboush, Johan Elverskog, Eugenio Menegon, Zhao Shiyu.

Author : Q. Edward Wang,Franz L. Fillafer,Georg G. Iggers
Publisher : Berghahn Books
Page : 502 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : History
ISBN : 1845452704

Get Book

The Many Faces of Clio by Q. Edward Wang,Franz L. Fillafer,Georg G. Iggers Pdf

Born in Germany, Georg Iggers escaped from Nazism to the United States in his adolescence where he became one of the most distinguished scholars of European intellectual history and the history of historiography. In his lectures, delivered all over the world, and in his numerous books, translated into many languages, Georg Iggers has reshaped historiography and indefatigably promoted cross-cultural dialogue. This volume reflects the profound impact of his oeuvre. Among the contributors are leading intellectual historians but also younger scholars who explore the various cultural contexts of modern historiography, focusing on changes of European and American scholarship as well as non-Western historical writing in relation to developments in the West. Addressing these changes from a transnational perspective, this well-rounded volume offers an excellent introduction to the field, which will be of interest to both established historians and graduate students.

Author : Stuart R. Schram
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1973-09-27
Category : History
ISBN : 0521202965

Get Book

Authority Participation and Cultural Change in China by Stuart R. Schram Pdf

This 1973 volume is a fascinating collection of original studies on the immediate consequences and the likely long-term effects of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the enormous social and political upheaval initiated by Mao Tse-Tung in 1966. The authors discuss a series of connected problems, all intimately related to the central theme of leadership and participation in the Chinese pattern of economic development and social change. The collection is edited by Stuart Schram, who also provides a long introduction; he puts the Cultural Revolution in the broad historical perspective of the Chinese revolution as it has taken shape since the end of the nineteenth century.

Author : Karla W. Simon
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 560 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2013-04-26
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780190297640

Get Book

Civil Society in China by Karla W. Simon Pdf

This is the definitive book on the legal and fiscal framework for civil society organizations (CSOs) in China from earliest times to the present day. Civil Society in China traces the ways in which laws and regulations have shaped civil society over the 5,000 years of China's history and looks at ways in which social and economic history have affected the legal changes that have occurred over the millennia. This book provides an historical and current analysis of the legal framework for civil society and citizen participation in China, focusing not merely on legal analysis, but also on the ways in which the legal framework influenced and was influenced in turn by social and economic developments. The principal emphasis is on ways in which the Chinese people - as opposed to high-ranking officials or cadres -- have been able to play a part in the social and economic development of China through the associations in which they participate. Civil Society in China sums up this rather complex journey through Chinese legal, social, and political history by assessing the ways in which social, economic, and legal system reforms in today's China are bound to have an impact on civil society. The changes that have occurred in China's civil society since the late 1980's and, most especially, since the late 1990's, are nothing short of remarkable. This volume is an essential guide for lawyers and scholars seeking an in depth understanding of social life in China written by one of its leading experts.

Author : Roger Des Forges,Minglu Gao,Chiao-mei Liu,Haun Saussy
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 505 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2010-03-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9781942242444

Get Book

Chinese Walls in Time and Space by Roger Des Forges,Minglu Gao,Chiao-mei Liu,Haun Saussy Pdf

Author : Wicky W. K. Tse
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 183 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2018-06-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781315532318

Get Book

The Collapse of China's Later Han Dynasty, 25-220 CE by Wicky W. K. Tse Pdf

In the Later Han period the region covering the modern provinces of Gansu, southern Ningxia, eastern Qinghai, northern Sichuan, and western Shaanxi, was a porous frontier zone between the Chinese regimes and their Central Asian neighbours, not fully incorporated into the Chinese realm until the first century BCE. Not surprisingly the region had a large concentration of men of martial background, from which a regional culture characterized by warrior spirit and skills prevailed. This military elite was generally honoured by the imperial centre, but during the Later Han period the ascendancy of eastern-based scholar-officials and the consequent increased emphasis on civil values and de-militarization fundamentally transformed the attitude of the imperial state towards the northwestern frontiersmen, leaving them struggling to achieve high political and social status. From the ensuing tensions and resentment followed the capture of the imperial capital by a northwestern military force, the deposing of the emperor and the installation of a new one, which triggered the disintegration of the empire. Based on extensive original research, and combining cultural, military and political history, this book examines fully the forging of military regional identity in the northwest borderlands and the consequences of this for the early Chinese empires.

Author : David M. Robinson
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 475 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2020-03-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9781684174744

Get Book

Culture, Courtiers, and Competition by David M. Robinson Pdf

"This collection of essays reveals the Ming court as an arena of competition and negotiation, where a large cast of actors pursued individual and corporate ends, personal agency shaped protocol and style, and diverse people, goods, and tastes converged. Rather than observing an immutable set of traditions, court culture underwent frequent reinterpretation and rearticulation, processes driven by immediate personal imperatives, mediated through social, political, and cultural interaction.The essays address several common themes. First, they rethink previous notions of imperial isolation, instead stressing the court’s myriad ties both to local Beijing society and to the empire as a whole. Second, the court was far from monolithic or static. Palace women, monks, craftsmen, educators, moralists, warriors, eunuchs, foreign envoys, and others strove to advance their interests and forge advantageous relations with the emperor and one another. Finally, these case studies illustrate the importance of individual agency. The founder’s legacy may have formed the warp of court practices and tastes, but the weft varied considerably. Reflecting the complexity of the court, the essays represent a variety of perspectives and disciplines—from intellectual, cultural, military, and political to art history and musicology."

Author : Ying Zhang
Publisher : University of Washington Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2016-11-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780295806723

Get Book

Confucian Image Politics by Ying Zhang Pdf

During the Ming-Qing transition (roughly from the 1570s to the 1680s), literati-officials in China employed public forms of writing, art, and social spectacle to present positive moral images of themselves and negative images of their rivals. The rise of print culture, the dynastic change, and the proliferating approaches to Confucian moral cultivation together gave shape to this new political culture. Confucian Image Politics considers the moral images of officials—as fathers, sons, husbands, and friends—circulated in a variety of media inside and outside the court. It shows how power negotiations took place through participants’ invocations of Confucian ethical ideals in political attacks, self-expression, self-defense, discussion of politically sensitive issues, and literati community rebuilding after the dynastic change. This first book-length study of early modern Chinese politics from the perspective of critical men’s history shows how images—the Donglin official, the Fushe scholar, the turncoat figure—were created, circulated, and contested to serve political purposes.