Customer Reviews

The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China (History of Imperial China)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very nice overview of the Song dynasty. It's comprehensive yet concise. The book begins with a historical overview and then proceeds thematically. The chapters are:

1. A Time of Turmoil
2. Model Rulers
3. Reforming into Collapse
4. The Song in the South
5. Three Doctrines
6. Education and Examination
7. Life Cycle Rituals
8. Exploring the World Within and Without
9. Transforming the Capitals
10. A Changing World of Production
11. Money and Taxes
12. Private Lives in the Public Sphere
Conclusion

Chapter 7 has an interesting discussion of the education of women and women's property rights. Chapter 8 has a nice overview of Song dynasty literature, scroll paintings and scientific developments. The book has black and white photos of scroll paintings, diagrams of Buddhist temples, and makes good use of maps. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly.

The author provides an useful summary of the thrust of this book:

"Previous dynasties had relied on the great families, aristocratic officials, scholars, and military men. It was only during the Song empire that thinking and writing, government and administrative action, were brought down to a common denominator, one which Peter K. Bol encapsulated in his translation of Confucius's term siwen as "this culture of ours." During the Song dynasty, a new self-consciousness and self-esteem took shape among the people who identified themselves as descendants of the Han Chinese. The social system they invented during the Song empire became the paradigm for what Chinese and Westerners of the twentieth century would refer to as "traditional China.""

This historic reality means that most readers in the West know more about the era than they realize; somehow "traditional China" seems to have lasted much longer in our collective cultural understanding.

Power resided in a class of scholarly officials (chosen by a civil service type examination) who adapted Confucianism to China's culture and government. The officials improved the economy, reduced taxes, and introduced paper money. Their "rationalist approach" created inventions in printing, shipbuilding, weaving, ceramics manufacture, mining, and agriculture.

As the previous five star review here on Amazon indicates, this is a very rewarding introduction to the era.

"A scholar should congratulate himself that he has been born in such a time" (Zhao Ruyu, 1194). A general reader like myself should congratulate himself for being able to read such an excellent survey of an important era in Chinese history.

Robert C. Ross 2010

This fourth volume of HUP's History of Imperial China focuses on the Song Dynasty between the 10th and the 13th century, a period during which Confucianism (re-)gained its role as a government doctrine in China. Contrasting its European contemporary societies, this also implied government by officials, who were primarily chosen because of (certain) merits, versus feudal governments chosing their officials through parentage.
The book outlines the many technological and commercial developments in China during this period, as money paper (including inflation) was introduced, trade was boosted and the infrastructure was improved. On the other hand, the Song Dynasty was constantly fighting against its Northern neighbours, the Khitan Liao and the Jurchen Jin dynasties, while the latter even pushed the Song out of their Chinese heartland and established a border along the Huai River in 1126. Nevertheless, until the Mongol invasion in 1279 the Southern Song recovered and established a different China, focussing much more on the South and its traditions.
In his set up of the book, the author Dieter Kuhn follows the example of the previous three volumes, written by Mark E. Lewis, starting with a rather short summary (90 pages) of the political history, followed by chapters on religion and philosophy, the system of recruiting officials, arts and science, the capitals, and economy and government finances.
The main text of roughly 280 pages is accompanied by maps (there could be more) and explanatory images, and followed by dynastic tables of the Song and their counter-dynasties in the North, as well as a 30 pages bibiography.
Again this volume is written well and gives an interesting overview of the period. Recommendable for all interested in Chinese history.

Another nice entry in the Belknap series on Imperial China. Kuhn opens with a set of chapters that lay out the basic narrative. This covers the origins of the Song state in the politically fragmented milieu that followed the demise of the Tang state, the emergence of competing states founded by Inner Asian and Manchurian groups in northern China, the withdrawal of the Song to southern China, and the eventual conquest by the Mongols. He stresses the innovative features of the Song state, particularly the development of the Confucian bureaucracy. The chaos that followed the end of the Tang apparently resulted also in the extipation of the aristocratic, essentially feudal families that dominated much of China. In their absence, the founding Song Emperors were able to greatly expand the examination system and make Confucian bureaucrats the center of the state. This appears to have also expanded Imperial authority. A very useful aspect of Kuhn's narrative and subsequent analyses is that he provides information not only about the Song but also about the competing non-Chinese states of northern China during this period. Kuhn stresses also the diplomacy of the Song, a largely succcessful effort to accomodate the reality of powerful states to the north of the Song.

Kuhn follows the narrative chapters with a series of informative chapters that cover social, intellectual, and economic history. At its apogee, the Song state was the most highly developed society of its time, and arguably had some features, that would not be duplicated by western cultures until well into the 19th century. The Song society depicted by Kuhn had a relatively large population and tax base, and despite its relatively small bureaucracy, relatively efficient tax collection allowing Song governments to support relatively large infrastructure projects. It was also a relatively urbanized and economically dynamic society, with a high degree of trade, monetization, technological innovation, and credit markets, very much a laissez faire state. Much of this seems to have been promoted by a rationalistic version of Confucianism, which Kuhn describes as an original reformulation of Confucian doctrines. Kuhn is very good on popular religion, the roles of women, and how artistic trends mimic larger social trends. There is a nice bibliography.