Customer Reviews

China: A Macro History (An East Gate Book)

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Ray Huang's "China: A Macro History" kept me up for a few nights in a row. Dr. Huang posed an extremely ambitious goal to explain fundamental differences of Western and Chinese civilizations, and to explore trends of Chinese government, military, cultural and religious institutions as they develop from legendary to modern times. The book is organized in chapters, each covering roughly a time span of the major dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. Concentration is more on trends (thus the title word "macro") then on events, more on developments of concepts rather then careers. People and events are represented inasmuch as they represent the underlining trend. As such every dynasty rise and eventual fall is represented, with credits due to each for the developments of Chinese nation. The institution of monarchy is a fascinating blend of ritual, unreal and fantastic, and idealistic, with an impressive organizational achievement in management of the country with the base of millions of agrarian households.

The only grievance I have with the book is that understandably enough Dr. Huang had to skip over a lot of material (or he would risk leaving us with yet another "The Decline and fall of the Roman Empire"); however in doing so he is rarely consistent, e.g. not explaining the elemental precepts of Confucianism, organization of Chinese army and bureaucracy; and fundamental principles behind state examinations. All those, however, can be gotten from other sources, and as such will tempt the reader to explore more.

This is an ambitious effort to provide an overview of Chinese history. Huang divides Chinese history into 7 periods. The first is the period of state formation. The second is what Huang terms the First Empire, essentially the Qin and Han empires. This is followed by a chaotic interregnum, the Second Empire of the Sui, Tang, and Song, the Mongolian interlude, and the Third Empire of the Ming and the Qing. The final period is the one we're presently in, the destruction of traditional China and its replacement by a modern state. Huang covers the major dynastic changes, expansion of Chinese culture into the South of what is now modern China, and major intellectual trends. A good deal of the narrative, drawn from traditional chronicles, is 'top down' histories of the Imperial Courts. This is all solid.

Huang's efforts to provide an overview of the major structural features of Chinese history is surprisingly traditional. Huang presents the early formation of centralized Chinese states as driven to a large extent by geographic factors,including the very long border with the nomadic peoples of central Asia. Huang then presents the Chinese state as having most of the same structural features from its Qin foundation to the end of the Qing. This is very much a traditional description of a centralized bureacracy resting on a mass of peasants and supported by an ideology stressing social stability and resistant to intellectual innovation. Huang doesn't quite project the Marxist cliche of the 'Asiatic mode of production' or other cliches of 'oriental despotism' but his analysis isn't far away from such approaches. At the same time, Huang shows that the Chinese state never developed the efficient bureaucracy and systems of taxation needed to run such a huge state, often the seed of dynastic failure. Huang presents also a rather traditional analysis of China's failure to break out of the mold of its traditional society. This is presented as a failure to develop the type of bourgeois institutions that emerged in early modern Europe. This is again a traditional, semi-Marxist analysis. In this context, Huang sees the enormous upheavals of the last 2 centuries as needed to destroy traditional society and reconstruct it on a modern basis.

This type of traditional analysis has been attacked in recent years. Some economic historians, like Kenneth Pomeranz in his book The Great Divergence, present 18th century Qing China as much more similar to Europe than previously thought. Some of Huang's language, notably his consistent use of the idea of the rationality of history, has a teleological flavor.

Late Professor Huang's review of Chinese history offers the most inspiring reading experience I have ever had. Although there are a few points which may appear a bit difficult to grasp, his unmatched depth in understanding and vision of China provides the reader with a refreshing perspective of interpreting Chinese history. This is especially true to Chinese readers who have been exposed to more or less the same interpretation of history for hundreds of years. His analysis of the so-called "blunders" and humiliation derived from Ming and Qing dynasties into early 20th century, was particularly interesting.

As a Hong Kong Chinese, I find this book unputdownable. Except for the fact that the Taiwanese-style spelling of the names of Chinese historcal figures a bit hard to grasp (to me), it does not in anyway discount the readability because Ray Huang did not let any contemporary political situation/ideology to hinder his anaylsis of Chinese History on a Geo-political, fiscal policy and monetory policy grounds. Indeed, KMT or not, Communist or not, the Ruling class's primary concern is on how to achieve en effective governance over the vast number of ruled. The central theme of the book is powerful, well presented, and logical. Interestingly, Milton Friedman , in his book "Money Mischief", has discussed the monetory policy (Gold standard ) in the Western world from 1830 - 1930 which has impacted on China directly and significantly, which echoes Ray's finding.
Indeed as advocated by Ray Huang in this book, time for the Chinese to depart form the traditional chinese views on our history (moral vs immoral; rural vs urban; poor vs rich). We should analyse our hisotry based on issue of effective governance (e.g. what is it? To promote well-being of people or of hardliners with iron-fist and tanks?)
Alas, Ray has passed away in 2000. I would like to convery my thankfullness for what he left to us.

This is one of the most enlightening books I've read. Maybe only a person with Ray Huang's life experience, his mastery of both the eastern and western languages and culture can write a book so refreshing and so uncolored by party politics or ideological beliefs. Growing up in China, Huang spent 12 years serving in Chiang Kai-Shek's army; then trading guns for books, he earned his PhD in history in the US at the mature age of 46. He lived the rest of his life in the US, marrying a stunning Caucasian woman and teaching history in a university. His fame came when he was 61 with the publication of "1587, a year of no significance", whose Chinese edition later became a best seller in China.

Compared to "1587", this book is more ambitious but equally scholarly and insightful. This is not your typical history book. Instead of focusing on who what and when, it asks and answers the question of why. Huang found intrinsic laws in the seemingly random events of Chinese dynastic and modern history. Suddenly, all the things that happened become inevitable, history progresses in its own trajectory regardless of any individual's wishes. He convincingly explored the reasons why Confucius and Mencious philosophy dominated the Chinese society for two thousand years, the impetus to the rise and fall of the three Chinese empires and why capitalism never developed in China till the late 20's century. He urged us not to judge an event or figure by rigid moral standards, but by their effect on the overall (macro) progress of history. For example, instead of tossing labels of "good", "bad", "tyrannical" or "corrupt", he maintained Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong both re-shaped the structure of Chinese society and laid foundation for the amazing transition of China from a three-thousand-year-old agrarian society to a "numerically manageable" modern society in the last 20 years. Huang's book also makes me seriously consider for the first time the possibility that democracy is not a system that works anywhere and anytime. You don't have to agree with everything Huang wrote, but he definitely makes you think.

On a side note, you will get the most out of this book if you already have a good knowledge of Chinese history, and have a chronological table of all the Chinese dynasties and emperors handy.

This is a good book for starters and experts alike. It offers many well-reasoned opinions that are both unique and persuasive. The author avoids getting too carried away by trivial and confusing details, and focuses on various major trends and forces that have come to shape China.

Whoever wrote this book must not only have substantial academic background for one; really experienced the hardship of Chinese life both mentally and physically for two; and most importantly the author must deviate from the traditional Chinese historians' point of view (I am not trying to judge who is right or wrong here). A lot of us who learned Chinese history, most likely we dissect this whole culture dynasty by dynasty - be it a political issue or an economical event. The biggest question we keep asking was why the Chinese, considered as the hardest working group of people on earth, always ended up being one of the poorest and most miserable group of people in history. In this book (and other books by the same author), Mr. Huang tried to show that consistently lacking solid source for tax income is the key for most of the problems. What makes the whole theory interesting is that every generation seems to be trying hard to deal with this issue but failed eventually. You have to read this book to understand why all efforts failed. Most importantly, where is China heading today? Why Deng's Open Door Policy will undoubtfully failed just like all the endeavors for the past 2500 years before 1950 even if they try hard enough, on the other hand, the same policy in late 1970's can easily boost Communist China (Communist? Aren't they suppose to be all collapsed by now?) to become the such a huge economical powerhouse. Want to know the answer? This is the best book I've read for past 10 years. Enjoy!

I'm a male, Chinese-American. 26 y.o. I hardly knew/know much of my own ancestral history. This was a required text, but I'm glad I went thru it. It's a short (relatively speaking), concise text that's pretty absorbable.

It gave me a good "introduction".

This is a good book on Chinese history. It show us 3000 years history in a single book. The author tried to discover the secret of evolving of Middle Empire, and the result can be got in the book.

I bought this book looking for an accessible overview of Chinese history. I was disappointed after reading it.

While it held many interesting kernels, on the whole the book seems under-developed. I was hoping for insight into the themes driving China's history, but found little insight.

The author has a recurring analogy about China--China is like a submarine sandwich. Really. I was willing to go along, but the whole thing falls apart and doesn't even hold up for his own purposes.

Perhaps the author was trying to get too much into a macro-history book. I would not recommend this book.