Cover image for Imperial China, 1350-1900
Imperial China, 1350-1900
Title:
Imperial China, 1350-1900
Author:
Porter, Jonathan, author.
ISBN:
9781442222915

9781442222922
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, c2016.
Physical Description:
xii, 397 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.
Contents:
Part I. The classical legacy, 1000-1350 -- Song: the great divide -- The barbarian ascendancy -- The imperial myth: the mandate of heaven -- Part II. The imperial way, 1350-1650 -- The rise of the Ming -- Autocrat, bureaucrat, empress, eunuch -- The Ming and the world -- Luan: disintegration of order -- Part III. The high Qing, 1650-1800 -- The Manchu Revolution -- Style and substance: imperial culture -- Imperial absolutism: the monarch and the minister -- Part IV. Ming and Qing foundations, 1368-1900 -- The good earth -- Merchants and markets -- Official life and literati culture -- Images in the heavens, patterns on the earth -- The spiritual world -- The relevance of Confucius -- Part V. When worlds collide, 1500-1870 -- The empire and the garden -- Opium -- The heavenly kingdom -- Part VI. Continuity in change, 1870-1890 -- Self-strengthening and its fate -- Epilogue: the twilight of imperial China.
Abstract:
This clear and engaging book provides a concise overview of the Ming-Qing epoch (1368-1912). China's last imperial age. Beginning with the end of the Mongol domination of China in 1368, this five-century period was remarkable for its continuity and stability until its downfall in the Revolution of 1911. Viewing the Ming and Qing dynasties as a coherent era characterized by the fruition of diverse developments from earliest times, Jonathan Porter traces the growth of imperial autocracy, the role of the educated Confucian elite as custodians of cultural authority, the significance of ritual as the grounding of political and social order, the tension between monarchy and bureaucracy in political discourse, the evolution of Chinese cultural identity, and the perception of the "barbarian" and other views of the world beyond China. -- Back cover.
Bibliographical References:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 365-377) and index.
Field 805:
npmlib 10600517 10605247 (c 2) DS754 P67 ysh
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