China between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties (History of Imperial China) First Edition (1st printing) Edition

by Mark Edward Lewis (Author), Timothy Brook (Editor)

12 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0674026056

ISBN-10: 0674026055

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After the collapse of the Han dynasty in the third century CE, China divided along a north-south line. Mark Lewis traces the changes that both underlay and resulted from this split in a period that saw the geographic redefinition of China, more engagement with the outside world, significant changes to family life, developments in the literary and social arenas, and the introduction of new religions.

The Yangzi River valley arose as the rice-producing center of the country. Literature moved beyond the court and capital to depict local culture, and newly emerging social spaces included the garden, temple, salon, and country villa. The growth of self-defined genteel families expanded the notion of the elite, moving it away from the traditional great Han families identified mostly by material wealth. Trailing the rebel movements that toppled the Han, the new faiths of Daoism and Buddhism altered every aspect of life, including the state, kinship structures, and the economy.

By the time China was reunited by the Sui dynasty in 589 ce, the elite had been drawn into the state order, and imperial power had assumed a more transcendent nature. The Chinese were incorporated into a new world system in which they exchanged goods and ideas with states that shared a common Buddhist religion. The centuries between the Han and the Tang thus had a profound and permanent impact on the Chinese world.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

An original, useful, and very timely book, China between Empires is arguably the first single-volume comprehensive treatment for general readers of Chinese history between AD 220 and 589. Lewis writes clearly and with conviction and marshals an impressive array of evidence--historical, religious, technological, literary, and archaeological. It is a remarkable achievement, especially considering the extreme complexity of the period. (Lothar von Falkenhausen, University of California, Los Angeles)

The book is wide-ranging in scope and interspersed with interesting ideas. (V. C. Xiong Choice 2010-01-01)

This series on China, brilliantly overseen by Timothy Brook, is a credit to Harvard University Press. Above all, it encourages us to think of China in different ways. (Jonathan Mirsky Literary Review 2010-11-01)

About the Author

Mark Edward Lewis is Kwoh-Ting Li Professor in Chinese Culture at Stanford University.

Series: History of Imperial China (Book 2)
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Belknap Press; First Edition (1st printing) edition (February 15, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0674026055
ISBN-13: 978-0674026056
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Average Customer Review: 12 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,452,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1829 in Books > Science & Math > Earth Sciences > Geography > Regional
- #4015 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Asia
- #4710 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Ancient

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Felipe N.

Excelent book. Excelent description

May 27, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I am engineer by profession and passionate for history in my day to day life, especially, that history that can explain why humanity and the society where we are born was shaped by our past. Then "China between Empires" gives us an explanation of how China was crossing the road from the dissolution of the Han empire until the dawn of reunification with the Tang empire, describing the geography of north and south China , the enthronement of Buddhism, the habits of the common man and the literati. There is not superficial presentation of facts, but neither reaches a profundazacion of events that take us away from the objective of knowing how a people was forging its destiny othe moment they needed the domain and administration of agriculture and water. An excellent book.

2 people found this helpful

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William

One of the best so far. More books like this need to be published covering the ancient early period of Chinese history.

April 9, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

One of the few well-written sources of ancient Chinese history in English.

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Byungho Lee

missing important aspects

January 27, 2010

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I absolutely agree with the comment below.
It would be fair to say that this period is not so easy to write a textbook in English.
To me, most of my understandings of this period first came from Japanese books written by Miyazaki and Tanikawa (both were professors @ Kyoto U). Unlike this book by Lewis, they all have a clear vision and perspective of this period, although they did not try to sell out their ideas.

Most works in much Western scholarship (such as Albert Dien and Lewis) have been to delve into some specific questions (Buddhism, Fine Arts, etc) rather than generalization. The recent book from Harvard University Press is also based on the collection of independent articles, which is not so much for general readers.
For the Western readers, in addition, one of difficulties for non-specialists to comprehend this period would be the delay of long-waited publication of the CHC volume.2., as the reviewer below mentioned. This book not so much transcends as follows the existing intellectual tradition.

When I purchased this book, I expected the readable textbook summarizing major aspects of this period within a unifying theme. well... This book does not seem to satisfy my expectation. The author focused more on cultural history a bit loosely organized way which resonates the edited book by HUP I mentioned above.

The lack of his discussion of political event and ethnicity in fact shocked me a lot. The book title betrays me since the author did not make a strong link to Han and Tang dynasties. How it is possible to understand this period without considering two major aspects (political division and ethnic diversity)? Why, unlike the aftermath of the Roman Empire, Chinese established another unified Sui-Tang Empires after the collapse of Han Empire and three centuries of political division thereafter? The history of ethnic relations is crucial yet this book never took it seriously, if not completely ignoring).

Also military history (of the late Norther Dynasties) should have been discussed more since it is crucial to understand the rise of Sui-Tang empires. The Fubing (military conscription) system, Guan-long group, Six Garrisons are the core of the birth of later empires. In addition, we should realize that all the dynastic changes in the Southern Dynasties were driven by warlordism and factionalism (from Eastern Jin until Chen). This book will not help the reader to comprehend such complex mechanism both in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Finally, this book missed the population dynamics occurred in this period.How many non-Han peoples moved to North China (Central Plains)? In turn, how many Han Chinese were migrated to the south of Yangtze River? How they interacted with local natives? What happened after the three centuries of mutual interactions?

If I am not so biased, i) ethnicity, ii) military history and warlordism, iii) political events and iv) population dynamics (emigration of Han peoples to South China and influx of non-Han to Central Plains) must not be excluded.

So I instead read the works of Chen Yinge, Tang Changrou, Zhou Yiliang and others to fill the gap. The author did not introduce and summarize such brilliant scholarship. He should have made it accessible to those who cannot read East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean).
I hope forthcoming CHC vol. 2 would look more systematic and resourceful.

Be honest, if Amazon provided the preview, I might have not purchased this book after reading the chapter organization.

20 people found this helpful

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April 19, 2009

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Although a new treatment of this period is long overdue, I was rather diappointed by this book. For the most part the author seems to rely mainly on the same 2 or 3 secondary sources [one Japanese, one mainland compiler and an English-language military history] for his analysis of key trends in politics and society; the secondary sources in turn, do not seem to be convincingly based on a thorough study of the primary sources either. Hopefully, the Cambridge History will eventually fill the gap--until then, better to read Hans Bielenstein's translation of the dynastic histories available as 2 volumes of the Bulletin of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm

37 people found this helpful

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some guy on the internet

Clear, readable introduction

December 9, 2009

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This is a broad overview of the political and cultural changes in the period. The book is clearly and well written, with good maps and useful illustrations. The reviewer who says there is nothing new here is off the mark, at least for the non-specialist.

2 people found this helpful

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April 15, 2009

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

As the other reviewer has already remarked, this is the only volume devoted exclusively to the Six Dynasties period. Cambridge University Press has yet to produce their volume on this period. The author does such a presentable job that I can hardly wait to read his works on other, more thoroughly covered periods. Just one highlight is his coverage of the great poet Tao Yuanming / Tao Qian.

10 people found this helpful

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Gderf

Social and political history

September 14, 2015

Format: Paperback

This is great on social history of the period between the Han and Sui unifications of China. It covers development of religion, legal doctrine, agriculture, urban life, art and especially literature. This was not a period of anarchy or lawless sub-culture that one might expect from other interregnum episodes. The contending states had significant contributions to culture and law. The book does a good job of showing the cultural advancement between the Han and Tang eras. While not a period of unification the era was not a period of political anarchy that one might expect. There were many social advances made. One important and surprising aspect is the influence of the Northern “barbarian” tribes on the sinification process.

The political history analysis is not up to par with the social history. The maps and chronology are not quite adequate to support the text, which oscillates sporadically between eras in this long period. One example is that I can't count the 16 kingdoms, but worse, is that I don't know if that has any importance. Best is the coverage of external relations with neighbors, Korea and Viet Nam. This may be admirable as an erudite study, but it's not the place to start learning Chinese history although it's worth the time to read it. The book's aim may be a bit too ambitious for a single volume.

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China between Empires: The Northern and Southern Dynasties (History of Imperial China) First Edition (1st printing) Edition

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