Imperial China 900-1800

This is a history of China for the 900-year time span of the late imperial period. A senior scholar of this epoch, F. W. Mote highlights the personal characteristics of the rulers and dynasties and probes the cultural theme of Chinese adaptations to recurrent alien rule. No other work provides a similar synthesis: generational events, personalities, and the spirit of the age co...

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This is a history of China for the 900-year time span of the late imperial period. A senior scholar of this epoch, F. W. Mote highlights the personal characteristics of the rulers and dynasties and probes the cultural theme of Chinese adaptations to recurrent alien rule. No other work provides a similar synthesis: generational events, personalities, and the spirit of the age combine to yield a comprehensive history of the civilization, not isolated but shaped by its relation to outsiders.

This vast panorama of the civilization of the largest society in human history reveals much about Chinese high and low culture, and the influential role of Confucian philosophical and social ideals. Throughout the Liao Empire, the world of the Song, the Mongol rule, and the early Qing through the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns, culture, ideas, and personalities are richly woven into the fabric of the political order and institutions. This is a monumental work that will stand among the classic accounts of the nature and vibrancy of Chinese civilization before the modern period.

【Review】

“This massive tome crowns the long, distinguished career of Frederick Mote, an influential scholar of Late Imperial China in the United States… An outstanding feature that distinguishes this book from similar works is the author’s effort to readdress the imbalance in traditional historiography with its lopsided focus on the political and geographic center of the realm. He does a wonderful job of reconstructing the history of such historically neglected regimes as Khitan–Liao, Jurchen–Jin, and Tangut–Western Xia, from the perspective of the Other… What I find most praiseworthy is the lucid, elegant expository style of writing. In spite of the wealth of knowledge the author clearly possesses about traditional China, he chooses to cover in depth a select number of topics―personages, events, institutions, etc.―in a language that is understandable to the average man in the street, without relying on opaque verbosity. Consequently, the book is likely to leave a profound and lasting impact on the reader in areas it focuses on, which will in turn help him or her better understand a given period of Late Imperial China from a long-term perspective.”―Victor Cunrui Xiong, Chinese Historical Review

“A personal meditation on the later imperial history of China by an author who has studied and taught the subject all his life and whose knowledge of it is truly formidable. It is written in a readable, accessible style that attracts the reader’s sustained attention.”―John W. Dardess, University of Kansas

“A major contribution to our present literature on the general historiography of late Imperial China. Not only is it eminently accessible to a wide nonspecialized intellectual public, it also provides a major corrective within the field to some of the tendencies that have dominated the writing of Chinese history. Mote has highly cogent things to say about the nature of what has been called the ‘gentry’ in China and highly relevant questions to raise about the notion of a demographic explosion in eighteenth-century China and examines many of the prevailing abstract conceptions which dominate the field. Yet, he vividly demonstrated how limited our effort has been to explore in depth the vast documentary materials available to us, which are supposed to provide the ‘empirical data’ for our models, paradigms, and structural theories. Mote’s major contribution is his detailed account of the growing complexity of relations between the Chinese state and the surrounding East Asian world during the period 900–1800.”―Benjamin I. Schwartz, Harvard University

List of Charts and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
I. Conquest Dynasties and the Northern Song, 900–1127
1. The Five Dynasties
i. Later Imperial China’s Place in History
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List of Charts and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
I. Conquest Dynasties and the Northern Song, 900–1127
1. The Five Dynasties
i. Later Imperial China’s Place in History
ii. The Course of Five Dynasties History
iii. The Eastward Shift of the Political Center
iv. Simultaneous Developments in the Ten States
v. China and Inner Asia in Geographic and Historical Perspective
2. Abaoji
i. The Khitans and Their Neighbors
ii. Ethnic Diversity and Language Community
iii. The Lessons of History
iv. The New Leader Emerges
v. The Significance of Khitan Acculturation
vi. Abaoji Receives Yao Kun, Envoy of the Later Tang Dynasty
3. Building the Liao Empire
i. Succession Issues after Abaoji
ii. The Meaning of the Early Liao Succession Crises
iii. The Khitans’ Inner Asian Tribal Empire
iv. Liao-Korean Relations
v. Expansion into North China
vi. Liao-Song Relations
4. Liao Civilization
i. Multicultural Adaptations
ii. Khitan Society
iii. Patterns of Acculturation
iv. Buddhism in Khitan Life
v. Interpretations of Liao Success
5. Creating the Song Dynasty
i. The Vigor of the Later Zhou and the Founding of the Song
ii. On Being the Emperor in Tenth-Century China
iii. Governing China
iv. The Military Problem
6. The World of Ideas in Northern Song China
i. The Man of the Age: Ouyang Xiu
ii. The Course of a Song Dynasty Official Career
iii. The Civil Service Examination System
iv. The Social Impact of the Song Examination System
v. Political Reform and Political Thought
vi. Neo-Confucian Philosophical Thought
7. Dimensions of Northern Song Life
i. High Culture
ii. The Example of Su Shi
iii. The New Elite and Song High Culture
iv. Religion in Song Life
v. Song Society
8. Origins of the Xi Xia State
i. The Tangut People: Names and Ethnic Identities
ii. Early History of the Tangut Tribal People
iii. The Tanguts Come into the Song Orbit
iv. Yuanhao Proclaims the Xia Dynasty
v. The Xi Xia as an Imperial Dynasty
II. Conquest Dynasties and the Southern Song, 1127–1279
9. The “Wild Jurchens” Erupt into History
i. Aguda’s Challenge
ii. The End of the Liao Dynasty
iii. The Northern Song Falls to the Jurchens
iv. Who Were These Jurchens?
v. Explaining the Jurchens’ Success
10. The Jurchen State and Its Cultural Policy
i. The Conquerors Turn to Governing
ii. The Period of Dual Institutions, 1115–1135
iii. The Era of Centralization, 1135–1161
iv. The Period of Nativist Reaction, 1161–1208
v. The End of the Jin Dynasty, 1208–1234
11. The Later Xi Xia State
i. Xi Xia in the Era of the Jin Dynasty, 1115–1227
ii. The Crisis of the “Partition of the State”
iii. The Destruction of the Xi Xia State
iv. The Tangut Achievement
v. Xia Buddhism
12. Trends of Change under Jin Alien Rule
i. Divisions: North and South, Chinese and Non-Chinese
ii. Jurchen Dominance
iii. The Impact of the Civil Service Examinations
iv. High Culture during the Jin Dynasty
v. Economic Life under the Jin
13. The Southern Song and Chinese Survival
i. A Fleeing Prince—A New Emperor
ii. War versus Peace
iii. Patterns of High Politics after the Treaty of 1141
14. Chinese Civilization and the Song Achievement
i. New Social Factors
ii. Elite Lives and Song High Culture
iii. Confucian Thinkers
iv. Other Kinds of Elite Lives
v. Some Generalizations about the Song Elite
15. Southern Song Life—A Broader View
i. Calculating Song China’s Population
ii. Governing at the Local Level
iii. Paying for Government
iv. Status in the Chinese Population
v. Urban and Rural
vi. Families, Women, and Children
vii. A Poet’s Observations
16. A Mid-Thirteenth-Century Overview
i. The Heritage of the Liao, Xi Xia, and Jin Periods
ii. The System of Ritualized Interstate Relations
iii. The Growing Scope of International Trade
iv. Cultural Interaction
III. China and the Mongol World
17. The Career of the Great Khan Chinggis
i. Backgrounds of Mongol History
ii. The Ethnic Geography of Inner Asia in the Late Twelfth Century
iii. Mongol Nomadic Economy and Social Life
iv. The Mongols Emerge into History
v. The Youth of Temüjin
vi. Chinggis Khan as Nation Builder
18. Forging the Mongol World Empire, 1206–1260
i. The Nearer Horizons of Empire, 1206–1217
ii. The First Campaign to the West, 1218–1225
iii. Chinggis Khan, the Man
iv. The Second Campaign to the West, 1236–1241
v. Mongol Adaptations to China under Chinggis and Ögödei
vi. Möngke Khan and the Third Campaign to the West
vii. Relations among the Four Khanates
19. Khubilai Khan Becomes Emperor of China
i. The Early Life of Khubilai
ii. Khubilai and His Chinese Advisers before 1260
iii. Möngke’s Field General in China
iv. Maneuvering to Become the Great Khan
v. The Great Khan Khubilai Becomes Emperor of China
vi. The Conquest of the Southern Song, 1267–1279
vii. The War against Khaidu
viii. Khubilai’s Later Years
ix. Khubilai Khan’s Successors, 1294–1370
20. China under Mongol Rule
i. Yuan Government
ii. Managing Society and Staffing the Government
iii. Religions
iv. China’s People under Mongol Rule
v. The Yuan Cultural Achievement
IV. The Restoration of Native Rule under the Ming, 1368–1644
21. From Chaos toward a New Chinese Order
i. Disintegration
ii. Competitors for Power Emerge
iii. Rival Contenders, 1351–1368
iv. Zhu Yuanzhang, Boy to Young Man
22. Zhu Yuanzhang Builds His Ming Dynasty
i. Learning to Be an Emperor
ii. Setting the Pattern of His Dynasty
iii. Constructing a Capital and a Government
iv. The Enigma of Zhu Yuanzhang
23. Civil War and Usurpation, 1399–1402
i. The New Era
ii. The Thought of Fang Xiaoru: What Might Have Been
iii. From Prince to Emperor
24. The “Second Founding” of the Ming Dynasty
i. Ming Chengzu’s Imprint on Ming Governing
ii. The Eunuch Establishment and the Imperial Bodyguard
iii. Defending Throne and State
iv. Securing China’s Place in the Asian World
v. The New Capital
25. Ming China in the Fifteenth Century
i. Successors to the Yongle Emperor
ii. The Mechanics of Government
iii. The Grand Canal in Ming Times
26. The Changing World of the Sixteenth Century
i. Emperor Wuzong, 1505–1521
ii. Emperor Shizong’s Accession
iii. The Rites Controversy
iv. Emperor Shizong and Daoism
v. The Emperor Shizong and His Officials
vi. Wang Yangming and Sixteenth-Century Confucian Thought
27. Ming China’s Borders
i. Border Zones, Zones of Interaction
ii. Tension and Peril on the Northern Borders
iii. Tibet and the Western Borders
iv. The “Soft Border” of the Chinese South
v. The Maritime Borders of Eastern China
28. Late Ming Political Decline, 1567–1627
i. The Brief Reign of Emperor Muzong, 1567–1572
ii. Zhang Juzheng’s Leadership and the Wanli Reign
iii. The Wanli Emperor’s Successors
29. The Lively Society of the Late Ming
i. The Population of Ming China
ii. The Organization of Rural Society
iii. Ming Cities, Towns, and Urban People: The Question of Capitalism
iv. Late Ming Elite Culture
30. The Course of Ming Failure
i. Launching the Chongzhen Reign: Random Inadequacies, Persistent Hopes
ii. The Manchu Invaders
iii. The “Roving Bandits”
iv. Beijing, Spring 1644
V. China and the World in Early Qing Times
31. Alien Rule Returns
i. Beijing: The City Ravaged
ii. The Drama at Shanhai Guan, April–May 1644
iii. Beijing Becomes the New Qing Capital
iv. The Shunzhi Emperor, 1644–1662
v. The Southern Ming Challenge to Qing Hegemony, 1644–1662
vi. The Manchu Offensive
vii. The Longwu Regime: Fuzhou, July 1645–October 1646
viii. Ming Loyalist Activity after 1646
32. The Kangxi Emperor: Coming of Age
i. Difficult Beginnings
ii. Rebellion, 1673–1681
iii. The Conquest of Taiwan
iv. Ming Loyalism and Intellectual Currents in the Early Qing
33. The Kangxi Reign: The Emperor and His Empire
i. Banner Lands and the Manchu Migration into China
ii. Recruitment and the Examination System
iii. The Mongols on the Northern Borders
iv. Manchu/Qing Power and the Problem of Tibet
v. Court Factions
vi. The Succession Crisis
34. The Yongzheng Emperor as Man and Ruler
i. Imperial Style, Political Substance
ii. Changing the Machinery of Government
iii. Other Governing Measures
iv. Military Campaigns and Border Policies
v. Population Growth and Social Conditions
vi. Taxation and the Yongzheng Reforms
35. Splendor and Degeneration, 1736–1799
i. Changing Assessments
ii. Hongli
iii. Political Measures
iv. Cultural Control Measures
v. A Late Flowering of Thought and Learning
vi. The Qianlong Emperor’s Military Campaigns
vii. China in the Eighteenth Century
36. China’s Legacy in a Changing World
i. The Background of China’s International Relations
ii. Mutual Recognition
iii. Economic Interactions
iv. Broadened Horizons of Religion, Philosophy, and Practical Knowledge
v. Diplomatic and Military Threats
vi. An Old Civilization in a New World
Appendix: Conversion Table, Pinyin to Wade-Giles
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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