Cover image for New perspectives on China's late imperial period : why China slept
New perspectives on China's late imperial period : why China slept
Title:
New perspectives on China's late imperial period : why China slept
Author:
Leung, Patrick (Lecturer in economics and finance), author.
ISBN:
9781433168468
Physical Description:
xxvi, 426 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Contents:
When did China fall behind? -- Differences between the beliefs and value systems of the West and China -- What closed door policy? -- Almost everybody disliked merchants -- Free markets without capitalism? -- Why is the Chinese population so large? -- Literacy rates of Ming and Ging China -- Why hadn't the Chinese discovered the New World and Australia? -- What happened to Chinese firearms? -- Why China had no scientific and industrial revolution? -- Rule of law, rule of man and rule by law -- Ruling class democracy versus rule by Mandarins -- China's long sleep : imperial overstretch and its consequences -- What if Europeans had not come to China in the early modern period? -- Implications for China's resurgence.
Abstract:
"The Foreword provides an explanation of the rationale for New Perspectives on China's Late Imperial Period: Why China Slept and gives an overview of the book's structure and a brief summary of each chapter. The book finds inspiration from George Orwell's astute observation: 'Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.' Since the West is the victor in the past two centuries, it controls the dominant and mainstream narrative of past history, including the history of China's Ming and Qing era. Why China Slept attempts to perceive China's past from a different perspective, in part by drawing upon the viewpoints of a number of non-conventional scholars from both the West and East, and considers its implications for the future. The book endeavors to re-examine all the conventional reasons given for China's stagnation and decline in the late imperial period in order to come up with a new framework for understanding China's rapid recovery in recent decades"-- Provided by publisher.
Subject Term:
Bibliographical References:
Includes bibliographical references.
Field 805:
npmlib 10903032 DS753 L46 ysh
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