Customer Reviews

The Open Empire: A History of China to 1600

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
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As more and more people discover that China is going to be part of their future, a book like this becomes all the more precious. In my 15 years of groping to understand Chinese civilization, this is the single most insightful work of general history I have found. Valerie Hansen has a genius for condensing large subjects in deft strokes. In the process she answers in advance the kinds of questions I as a Western reader want to raise myself, whether the subject be oracle-bone divination or foot-binding.

The work of synthesis here is impressive for the consistency with which it improves on the clichés of Chinese historiography by incorporating the latest findings. Also she makes sure to include snapshots of the life of families and the place of women, long ignored in standard histories. For example, when she wants to shows how some oracle bone inscriptions from the Shang Dynasty record negative outcomes, she chooses the birth of a daughter to Lady Hao, explicitly identified in the original divination record as unfavorable. That allows us to see in passing that the Chinese preference for sons has been in place for at least 3000 years.
In addition the author improves on conventional histories by focusing attention on the "interregnum" periods between major dynasties. Her point is well taken that these periods, though they do not produce major monuments, contribute importantly to the way the Chinese way of life evolved.

Professional sinologists may well complain that she simplifies matters that are still open to dispute among experts, but a well informed overview of Chinese history is justified in making reasonable guesses concerning elements still under dispute. An example concerns the Song Dynasty scroll called "Springtime on the River" (Qing Ming Shang He Tu). Art historians are still arguing about when it dates from between the late 11th and late 12th centuries. Valerie Hansen places it near the end of this range, at around 1186, suggesting that this visual celebration of Kaifeng city life was painted about half a century after this capital city was destroyed by barbarian invasion in 1127, hence that be read as nostalgia than as "realism." In the long run, she could be shown to be wrong, but this fresh reading deserves to be taken into account.

A less contentious example involves her pages on the origins of foot-binding. These are the best I have ever read for succinctness and suggestive placement in the larger context of Chinese life around the year 1000. Valerie Hansen offers the Western reader a way of understanding now only how it worked, but how such a cruel custom could grow under the conditions of Song China when well-brought-up women were newly obliged to compete with courtesans and prostitutes for the attention and affection of men.

I would be delighted if Valerie Hansen would extend her work of synthesis to include China since 1600, a period with so many confusing assessments in circulation that her genius for credible overview would be most welcome. That may be unlikely given that her research concentrates on earlier China, but no other book of 400 pages does so well in summing up 3000 years of Chinese history to 1600.

I highly recommend reading this book for one reason: it is not the standard view that has been presented in most Chinese History textbooks. Thinking about the differences and reflecting upon them could be a valuable use of time. Often textbooks on history are written from a certain perspective without considering many other views. Hansen has given us many ideas to discuss. I do not suggest reading this book quickly. Comparing it to a standard text on Chinese History would also benefit the reader. Hansen asks lots of questions and raises many issues. When dynasties fall and new ones rise, new books on the past history are commissioned. How objective or complete are they? Thank you, Professor Hansen. I will be buying your next publication for sure not because I want to learn "the truth" but because I want to question my perception of the truth that has been given to me.

This is a great book for any sinophile. While the great bulk of it is familiar to anyone who's read Chinese history with any attention, it also includes material due to recent archaeological work, for example the tomb of a Qin dynasty official. The Qin dynasty has been excoriated for millenia because of its harsh treatment of the Confucians and their books. But the laws found in this official's tomb show that, at least on paper, the Qin's laws were not appreciably harsher than those of subsequent dynasties. It reminds you of the famous dictum that history is written by the winners, in this case the succeeding Han dynasty. The discussion of the painting of Yang Guifei's sisters is a priceless little vignette of its own. Every one who's read Chinese history or poetry has heard of Yang Guifei, China's Helen of Troy. But this painting of her sisters conveys a great deal of information about Yang and about Chinese women in general. I can't help wondering if this book's title is a reference to Peyrefitte's book "The Immobile Empire", an account of George MacCartney's mission to China in 1790.

The Open Empire is a textbook of Chinese history from the beginnings to 1600. The books' best points are the descriptions of current discoveries, new interpretations, and unexplored facets of Chinese history. Particularly interesting, but not over emphasized, are the discussions of womens' roles in the different ages. Military, artistic and philosophic topics are also well covered. In all, a fine read.

I started out by getting Valerie Hansen's other book, "Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary People Used Contracts, 600-1400", which had a more scholarly feel to it. For me, this book provides a touch stone for other topics. I find myself looking up in Google Books the titles and authors she mentions in this book.

I don't agree that the book is opinionated, it it is an overview book and brushes over a lot of subjects only lightly, but I think the really nice thing about the book is that it mentions a lot of other authors and titles of books published in traditional China and provides lots of touch points to go track down. It can provide a guide for other exploration.

As someone who has a deep interest in the periods this book covers, I've had a hard time reading this book quickly since I keep going to my laptop to surf Google Books and then Amazon to see if I can track down the books and authors she mentions. Don't expect this book to be a deep and scholarly book with lots of footnotes, but for someone just starting out their exploration of Chinese history, this book is a good place to start.

For people, who've been reading and following the threads and tracking things down, as I have, it can still provide some surprises too.

I consider this book money well spent.

A draft of this book was assigned in my ancient chinese history class 2 years ago, so I don't know how much it has changed since then, but the book was a fairly straightforward (and very condensed) account of the first 2000+ years of Chinese history. It pays particular attention to the Han, Tang, and Sung periods, and its main focus is trying to portray China as a vibrant and open society, with many different ethnic groups, religions, languages and travelers, which was pretty interesting considering most other texts on China always inevitable treat it as a enigma and something mysterious and difficult to understand. Other than that, there's nothing really shocking about it. It's a pretty decent textbook account of Chinese history up to 1600 - after that, go to Jonathan Spence.

The Open Empire is a wonderful introduction to Chinese history to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. A special strength of the book is that the author pays particular attention to contributions made by non-Chinese to Chinese history and gives details about gender that I haven't encountered in other sources. Exceptionally well-written, the book presents a clear, coherent narrative of political, social, and cultural developments interspersed with accounts of historical figures, some of great importance and some unnamed.

In addition, pictures, descriptions of archaeological findings, and a clever use of primary sources give an unusual feeling of immediacy to distant history. For instance, a father during the Ming Dynasty remembers his daughter lost to smallpox:"When you were born I was not pleased. A man over thirty wanted a son, not a daughter. But you won me over before you had completed your first year. ..You often knocked on the door and then quickly went inside and asked: 'Who is there?'...Who would have believed that not quite half a month later you would breathe your last?" The quote is successful in illustrating general trends [i.e., the preference for sons] while showing a more complex reality at the individual level. At the same time, I can picture the little girl playing hide-and-seek with her father -- the tenderness in language collapses the hundreds of years between the contemporary reader and the anguished father. For me, this is history at its best. We also see a diagram of a bound foot, a document from a 10th century women's association, and pictures of the remains of rice and lentils in a tomb from 168 BC. A good introductory chapter lays out the main events, and there are helpful suggestions for further reading at the end.

I needed this book for a fall class, I ordered it 1 week before the semester start, and for some reason it did not ship too quick, but it did arrive within the quoted time frame.

There are some marking on the book. However, these marking save my time. I dont need to read the whole book

This book is wonderful to have for people who don't have knowledge in Chinese History. The author categorized the subjects neatly. However, I am pretty dissapointed with this book because the author focus more on the literature and philosophy then the history itself.