Customer Reviews

Imperial China 900-1800

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In an earlier generation, the one-volume textbook East Asia: Tradition and Transformation, by John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M. Craig, considerably reduced from the original two-volume version, unwittingly left many students with the impression that the history of premodern East Asia, and especially China, could be categorized meaningfully as "traditional." Such a misrepresentation may have held some appeal for students of twentieth-century China who wanted to regard China of the Qing dynasty as an incarnation of unchanging essentials of traditional society, a foil against which the dynamism of revolutionary China could be viewed. That perspective could find generous reinforcement from China itself where the official historiography of the People's Republic classified the entire span of the imperial era as a feudal stage of historical evolution. Imperial China 900-1800 is an antidote to the toxin of such erroneous conceptions; it traces nine hundred years of profound changes that precede d the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Why the period 900 to 1800? Mote tells us in the Preface that these dates defined his teaching field at Princeton; early portions of the book incorporate accounts he wrote years ago for use by students in his classes. Superficially, the rounded Western dates, 900 and 1800, are close to real events in Chinese history--the end of the Tang in 907 and the death of the Qianlong emperor in 1799--but the true rationale lies at a deeper level than those events. Mote argues that these nine centuries constitute a coherent period, later imperial China, characterized by the intensified interaction of Inner Asian peoples with agricultural China, the evolution of an East Asian system of interstate relations based on Chinese ritual forms, the centralization of imperial power, increased trade, population growth, and the emergence of a new class of civil bureaucrats, facilitated by the invention of printing and connected to the scholarly developments we refer to as Neo-Confucianism. All of this contributed to the maturation of Chinese high culture, what Mote calls "China's timeless achievement".

Mote is passionate about the value of Chinese high culture and insistent that knowledge of traditional life and learning are necessary to anyone who would seek to understand China's modern history. His own knowledge of Chinese high culture is both personal and scholarly. He lived and studied in China before 1950 with teachers and fellow students who shared a knowledge of the literary heritage and who embodied the old customs in their daily lives. After 1950 high culture ceased to play the guiding role it had in earlier centuries, and the destructive forces of revolutionary change estranged younger generations from a consciousness of the historical past. In Imperial China Mote seeks to condense an overview of the field he taught for half a century, infusing it with insights and judgements based on deep erudition and an extraordinary knowledge of the Chinese written record.

Imperial China is intended as a textbook. It is handsomely produced by Harvard University Press in a hefty volume of 973 pages of text. Black-and-white reproductions from Chinese paintings grace the title page and the beginnings of the five sections; nine charts and twenty-two maps appear at strategic points in the text. Even though, thanks to what must have been a substantial subsidy, the book is priced to be within reach of student budgets, it is hard to imagine that many undergraduates, even at the best schools, will be induced to buy and read a work of this size and complexity. There cannot be many schools that offer courses devoted to this segment of China's history, and the book is too big to be used as a supplementary reading in a more general survey of the history of China or East Asia. Individual chapters or sections might be placed on reserve as background reading in advanced courses, but such assignments are increasingly resisted or ignored by students. The real audience for Imperial China, I suspect, will be graduate students preparing for field examinations in Chinese history and faculty writing lectures.

Space does not allow an exploration of all the riches of this great work. The account of the Ming dynasty alone covers more than three hundred pages. It is the longest single-author history of the dynasty written in English by one of the foremost authorities on the subject and deserves a separate review by itself. Imperial China, 900-1800 is a monumental contribution to our understanding of premodern Chinese history. Students and scholars will want to have this volume on their shelves.

F. W. Mote, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, has produced by far one of the most comprehensive and authoritative renditions on Chinese history ever published in English. What makes this book so great is that it combines many disparate texts (often in Chinese) into one comprehensive, chronological volume that is accessible to everyone with but a modest interest in Chinese history. It is hard to find other more complete works in English on such a vast and eventful span of China's history.

About 30 years ago, I married a cute guy who happens to have been born in (mainland) China. So we had these two kids, but really I never thought about Chinese civilization until #1 child (a girl) decided to teach English there. So, being a good mom and all, I bought Mote's book, figuring it was high time to learn a bit about this corner of the world. !!!!!!!! Well, Dr. Mote is a wonderful storyteller with the uncanny ability to explain a whole civilization to ignorant me, teaching respect for one of humankind's greatest achievements -- a civil society mature enough to run along while its government messed up. Of course, as a modern Western woman, I can see room for improvement here and there, but I am happy to claim the role of Dr. Mote's #1 groupie!! Wow, what a book!!!!

This is a book to be read carefully, as it is filled with well reasoned analysis and historical details. A very long book, 973 pages excluding footnotes and index, it would take too long to summarize the main points in the book. However, I highly recommend this book to any person having a serious interest in Chinese history and culture, especially during the time period covered in this book. One can imagine how this book is the result of decades of teaching, reading and research by Frederick W. Mote.

I was especially impressed by how Dr. Mote emphasizes the importance of Inner Asian history, especially the Liao, Jin, Mongol and Qing conquest dynasties, in Chinese history. While some material relating to the conquest dynasties in the book is basically repeated in certain sections, it is done so primarily to look at the same events from different perspectives.

My only relatively minor quibbles with the book are I would have preferred greater discussion of Chinese poets, writers and their important literary works. I found the coverage of Neo-Confucian philosophical thought to be uninteresting and it is easy to see why some Chinese thinkers considered much of Neo-Confucian writings to be irrelevant to the actual needs of the Chinese people and China as a nation.

I completely agree with Dr. Mote's contention the collapse of the Ming dynasty was not inevitable and could have been prevented, especially if the last two or three Ming emperors had made better decisions affecting two very capable Chinese generals and enacted different policies. I highly recommend reading Jonathan Spence's "The Search for Modern China" to accompany Frederick M. Mote's coverage of the fall of the Ming dynasty and the Qing dynasty up to about 1800.

This nearly thousand page book successfully manages to summarize imperial Chinese history from the

formation of the 'Five Dynasties' (actually about ten) to the end of the Qianlong emperor's reign in 1799.

The author is F.W. Mote, a professor emeritus of Chinese history and civilization at Princeton.

Mote's focii in the book are on all the emperors and other significant historical personalities, the structure

of imperial governments, social organization, philosophical systems, warfare, and culture. This book

includes the histories of the 'Five Dynasties', the Northern Song, the Liao, the Jin, the Southern Song, the Xi

Xia, the Yuan, the Ming, and finally the Qing. Despite the massive scope of this book, Mote does an

excellent job of penetrating the character of each emperor and defining the events of his reign.

Unlike some Chinese scholars, Mote refutes the theory of dynastic lifecycles. Instead, he argues that the

rise and fall of dynasties is largely dependent on the individual leadership of each emperor. Regardless of

dynastic age, vigorous emperors, such as the Yongzheng emperor, can successfully halt and turn around

governmental decay. Another common presumption he refutes is the sudden rapid population increase

during Qing times. The author presents a convincing case that this sudden population increase is actually

accounted for by more accurate census taking during the late Qing versus early Qing/late Ming. In addition,

the author presents the distinctive decline in human rights during the disastrous Mongol invasions and

carried forward by both the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Another unusual aspect of this book is the space given to non-Chinese dynastic empires, such as the Liao,

the Jin, and the Xi Xia. The author contrasts the Liao empire's relatively successful strategy of remaining

physically separate from their Chinese subjects and refusing to embark on a wholesale invasion of the

entire Chinese lands with the Jin empire's rapid assimilation of its Jurchen people into Chinese society in

less than 50 years, which largely resulted in the loss of a Jurchen national identity and effective

governance. A similar, though less strongly pronounced, result is also presented during the Mongol

occupation.

Some other very interesting subjects which Mote discusses are the justification and operation of the Grand

Canal, the great voyages of Admiral Zheng He, the problems of piracy, relations with Tibet, the annexation

of southern tribes and lands, dynastic factional strife, eunuch governing powers, China's international trade

(especially importation of silver from the Spanish), and China's treaty and tribute system with its neighbors.

Also, of special interest are the concise biographies of the China's most fascinating emperors, such as Zhu

Yuanzhang, Zhu Di, Prince Yinzhen, Kubilai Khan, Abaoji, and Aguda. He also profiles Chinggis Khan.

The book contains tables for all the dynastic successions, a few maps, copious notes, and an excellent

bibliography. The writing style, while not stirring, is nonetheless easily readable. The book's signal

advantage is the wealth of information Professor Mote has compiled and clearly presented. With the book's

973 pages and estimated half a million words, most casual readers can expect to spend a few months with

it. In summary, I learned an exceptional amount about imperial China, though I occasionally found the

reading heavy going in places, especially during the discussions about religion and philosophy. I

recommend this book to anyone wanting a comprehensive imperial history of China from the Northern Song

to the mid-Qing.

This is about as good a book as I have ever read. It certainly helped that I was already familiar with the outline(s) of China's history and I actually jumped into this after finishing Gernet's 1-volume history. But there is so much here that even someone starting with a lot more knowledge than me would find it a lot to keep track of. Therefore, any newcomer could find themselves feeling at sea in all this. But that is part of the glory of China. Spatially and temporally there is so much of it.

I love the cultural sensitivity with which Mote tries to reach into the inner guts of the Khitan, Jurchen and Mongol northern neighbors and conquerors.

I actually hesitated buying this book because a review criticized its lack of footnotes. Oops on that. How about pages 979-1056. And they were interesting. And the books they referenced in the bibliography are an adventure in themselves, many of which I've already purchased and many more of which are on my Wish List(s).

It's a great read. Every sentence holds up. It may be hard but it's rewarding. I took it very slowly. Sometimes I could only handle a few pages a day. But I'm sure I've never had a BETTER time reading a work of non-fiction. So ... maybe you would enjoy it.

There seems to be a lot of books out there now about China's imperial period. This one is a good mix of hard facts and interpretation. I would not call Mote's style light and breezy but the book is certainly accessible to amateur historians. Mote obviously cares about his subject and cares about his readers. That is not a common combination in professional academics.

The text is 970 dense pages not including the front and back matter. I found myself losing track of time as I let the narrative flow over me.

Yes, I recommend this book.

I bought this book on a written recommendation before I started my classes. turned out the professor wanted this book, and I can understand why. this book is written with enough storytelling of the historic figures plus the authors analysis. Great book...alot of reading but worth it.

i looked at several other books and finally decide to get this one. i'm glad i bought the book it was worth the price and very interesting. it was well written well organized and provide a lot of information. if you want to learn more about Chinese history then i highly recommend this book :)

I am a huge history fan and Chinese history is such a wonderful study with its long sweep and fascinating rise and fall of dynasties. While this book does cover a lot of groud and does so in a workmanlike manner ultimately it is unsatisfying. In the preface the author states that much of the material for the book was pulled from his lecture notes and it shows in the text. There is litte narrative flow and the writing style is somewhat stilted. What this book needs above all is a good editor. If you are looking for a Chinese history book in the tradition of Jonathan Spence you will be disappointed, if you are looking for a book that covers the facts and little more this is the book for you.