A History of Chinese Civilization (Paperback)

by Jacques Gernet (Author), J. R. Foster (Translator), Charles Hartman (Translator) "Finally, further south, Malaya and the big islands of South-East Asia are the domain of the languages known as 'Malayo-Polynesian', a domain which in fact..." (more)
Key Phrases: sinicized empires, million liang, archaic monarchy, East Asia, South China, Yellow River (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"If one could have only one book on China's history, this would be it." Booklist

"This is the most detailed and comprehensive one-volume survey of China's social, economic, and intellectual history....This should be in the reference collection of every serious library." Library Journal

"...an excellent book which should be of interest to both professional and general readers who study or enjoy the history of China." Asian Thought & Society

Product Description
When published in 1982, this translation of Professor Jacques Gernet's masterly survey of the history and culture of China was immediately welcomed by critics and readers. This revised and updated edition includes a detailed chronology that has been updated through 1993, a new bibliography, and an expanded index that includes Chinese characters.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 780 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (May 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521497817
• ISBN-13: 978-0521497817
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #260,738 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Has its strengths and weaknesses, but look at the price!, May 5, 2003

By A Customer

If you compare this book to its obvious competitors (e.g. Valerie Hansen's Open Empire, Schirokauer's Brief History of Chinese Civilization), you have to be amazed at the relatively low list price--especially considering that the publisher, Cambridge University Press, is not famous for selling cheap books. If you can buy only one textbook history of China, this one is worth considering for that reason alone.

Students tend to have the same complaints about Gernet's book year after year (I've used this book many times in an undergraduate survey of Chinese history): it is too long and confusing, without emphasizing what is "important" and what isn't. Other reviewers on this page have similar concerns: the book isn't organized emperor-by-emperor; rather, it tends to focus topically on themes that cover several emperors' reigns, sometimes whole centuries. But weigh that against the major criticism of the book by professional historians, who argue, on the contrary, that the book is arranged only too rigidly according to a periodization imposed from Western history (ancient, medieval, modern, etc.). There isn't enough space here to get involved in these theoretical issues, but it should be clear that Gernet is to be lauded, not derided, for his courage to depart from the old fashioned year-by-year, emperor-by-emperor approach.

This is especially evident in his section on the Six Dynasties (or Northern and Southern Dynasties), which is probably the best succinct account of the period in any Western language. Instead of tediously relating events and dates for this chaotic period, Gernet reveals the underlying socioeconomic forces that dictated the pattern of history in the north and south over the course of this long and complex period. (He happens to be one of the foremost economic historians of China, and is clearly in his element with this kind of historiography.) I believe readers come away with a richer understanding of the Six Dynasties because of Gernet's focus.

Finally, the complaints about Wade-Giles Romanization are unfair and uninformed. When this book first appeared, before the Library of Congress and other major libraries switched to Pinyin, virtually all Chinese books were catalogued according to Wade-Giles, so it made much more sense to write a textbook using that Romanization system than Pinyin. Today, of course, Pinyin would be preferable. But it's not the case that Pinyin is more precise. Both are acceptable Romanization schemes for Mandarin Chinese, and both--assuming one has mastered the principles--indicate the correct sounds efficiently and unambiguously. Criticizing a book about China on the basis of its Romanization system is a bit like judging a book by its cover.

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite one-volume Chinese history, November 3, 2001

By	Tom Lum Forest (Forest Grove, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This book gives better depth to Chinese history than Spence or Fairbank do. Spence is more concerned with the last 200 years, and Fairbank is too closely tied to the US foreign policy establishment for my tastes. The fact that Gernet is on page 462 of 655 before he starts writing about the Manchus is a good thing. He covers art and economics, politics and religion, with a refreshing equanimity. It would be interesting to hear how well written it is in French, but the English is fine. While clearly Western, Gernet's French persective is a welcome change of pace to these American's eyes.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent reference, but could be stylistically better, October 27, 2005

By	J. Chan "Grammar Nut" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Contentwise, you might want to read other reviews of this book. As for me, allow me to explain my rather sub-par score...

I am currently taking a course that uses this book as a reference book (although we've never referred to it in class). I've been interested in Ancient Chinese culture because a large part of my knowledge comes from Kung Fu movies, a troubling notion that I felt had to be fixed. Essentially, I've never studied Chinese history from before the cultural revolution.

That being said, I'm sure Gernet is a wonderul writer, but the cambridge university press needs to be dragged out into the street and beaten with copies of this book till they agree to do a better job (or at least hire an editor)

An example- this is one sentence:

"The developement of infantry units from the sixth century B.C on wards- in Chin at the time of the battles in the mountainous country against the tribs of Shansi, and probably also in Wu and Yueh, where the terrain was scarecely any more suitable for chariots because of the lakes and numerous watercourses- down to the huge armies of foot-soldiers of the third century was to have very important consequences, and one may say that the advent of the centralized state was closely linked to this change in the technique of warfare."

I had to stare at this sentence for all of about 3 minutes before I could break it down and understand what it was trying to say:

Techniques in warfare were favoring foot soldier use because of the development of a central state and because of the varied terrain in China. These changes would have very large consquences in the third century.

In a sense, the book is just a tad hard to read because of awkard sentence structures. And believe me, when you encounter these sentences for 600+ pages, it gets old fast.

Give me history in a clear, concise book, or give me french!

That's just my 2 cents.