[Yun]

General History

China: A Macrohistory
Ray Huang
(New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997 Revised Edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: In this book, Ray Huang (a former KMT army officer who migrated to the US after the Civil War and became a professor) analyses the history of China from the perspective of modern economic and organisational theory. He skims over most of the individuals and events, focusing instead on the "big picture" of long-term trends and patterns. He also divides imperial Chinese history into three Empires: the First (Qin-Han), Second (Sui-Tang-Song), and Third (Yuan-Ming-Qing). Both these approaches may not convince every reader, but Huang's book is always a refreshing and engaging read, and a perfect introduction to the more complex issues of Chinese history.

The Cambridge Illustrated History of China
Patricia Buckley Ebrey
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: A well-illustrated book (as its title suggests) in a coffee table format, concise and well-suited to the general reader but rather inadequate in depth and detail for more advanced research. You won't find another credible book on Chinese history with as many colour photographs as this one.

Focus on Imperial Chinese History

China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture
Charles O. Hucker
(Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1975)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: A classic work that is still very useful in devoting sufficient space to cultural and intellectual history. It divides pre-imperial and imperial Chinese history into three periods: the Formative Age (Prehistory - Qin), the Early Empire (Qin - Song), and the Later Empire (Song - 1850). For the second and third periods, Hucker has five main sections: General History, Government, Society and Economy, Thought, and Literature and Art. For the Formative Age, "Government" and "Society and Economy" are conflated into a single section on State and Society because of a lack of extant material.

A History of Chinese Civilisation
Jacques Gernet (translated from French)
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996 second English edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: Another classic, first published in French in 1972. Some of Gernet's views and material are somewhat dated, but the depth and scope of his coverage have perhaps never been equaled since. Whereas there is slightly less cultural history than Hucker's book (especially in art history), Gernet more than makes up for this with maps and illustrations (in black and white). There is a chapter on 20th-century Chinese history up to the Cultural Revolution, but for this area readers are encouraged to look to the more recent works by Spence and Fairbank listed below in "Focus on Modern Chinese History".

Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900
David A. Graff
(London: Routledge, 2002)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: This recent book, the only one in English dealing in sufficient depth with the Age of Fragmentation, compensates for the relative neglect of that important period of history in the books by Hucker and Gernet. The focus is on military history, and extends to the Sui and Tang, but the overall narration of events in the Age of Fragmentation will prove very helpful in dispelling any confusion faced by readers approaching that period.

Imperial China 900-1800
Frederick W. Mote
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: This book covers the period of later imperial history after the end of Graff's book, right up to the eve of the Qing decline. While Mote's writing style is not impressive, his scope is far greater than Graff's, including important analyses of social and economic history. This is reflected in the thickness of the book, which ranks first among all the books on this list - thicker even than the already thick volumes by Gernet, Hsu and Spence. A harder but still rewarding read.

Coming Soon:
Focus on Modern Chinese History

[General_Zhaoyun]

Wonderful recommendation :P , I've just added this link to the "Imperial Edict and Important Info" board guidelines.

[DaMo]

How's about them Joseph Needham books? B)

[wuTao]

I second that recommendation on "Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900" by David A. Graff. It's entertaining, and at the same time very informative. Another book that I own and have read, and which is very entertaining and informative:

Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle
Shih-Shan Henry Tsai
(University of Washington Press; New Ed edition March 1, 2002)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: This is a very entertaining and informative biographical sketch on the Emperor Yongle. It begins with his childhood and the events that shaped his understanding of the world, through his young days as Prince of Yan and a cavalrymen in his father's army, to his launching of the civil war which brought him into power as Emperor. The book also gives alot of good information on the government policies and institutions he initiated, his cultural works, his personal dealings and expeditionary wars against the Mongols, and the other conquests (such as Vietnam and Manchuria) and foreign tributes Ming China recieved during his reign.

[Tyler]

Well the Marsh and ROTK are also good reading

[Yun]

History of Chinese Science

In reply to Da Mo's suggestion: Needham's multi-volume work "Science and Civilisation in China" is indeed the very best English-language resource on the fascinating history of Chinese science, but it is much too detailed and technical for the general reader (not to mention MUCH too expensive!!). Here are two simplified and condensed versions of Needham's work:

The Genius of China: 3,000 years of Science, Discovery and Invention
Robert K.G. Temple, based on the work of Joseph Needham
(London: Prion Books, 1998 Paperback Edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=books&n=507846


Description: The lavish colour illustrations and highly readable format of this book make it a perfect introduction to the little-known achievements of ancient Chinese science and technology uncovered by Professor Joseph Needham over many decades of research. However, Temple tends to exaggerate the importance of some Chinese inventions and achievements (for example by repeating the old myth that stirrups were essential for the medieval European knight), so it's best to supplement your reading of this book with other sources, including the books by Needham himself (if you're prepared to tackle them).

The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 1
Colin A. Ronan
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980 Paperback Edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: This is a more professional abridgement of Needham's work, but it covers only the first and second volumes in the massive series (Needham's series is now up to Volume 7, with each volume itself having a few lengthy parts). Since Vols. 1 and 2 mainly cover the history of civilisation and scientific thought in China, readers will find material that is more theoretical and philosophical in orientation than that in Temple's book. This makes it less sensationalistic, but also perhaps less interesting to many people. However, anyone who wishes to understand the Yin-Yang and Five Phases system that governed early Chinese thought would have a good starting point here.

[Yun]

Focus on Modern Chinese History

The Rise of Modern China
Immanuel Chung-Yueh Hsu
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 6th Edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...61901822&sr=8-1



Description: Immanuel Hsu's 1,000-page masterwork spans 350 years from the beginning of the Qing in 1644 to the beginning of Jiang Zemin's rule in 1998. It has drawn both praise and criticism over the years, but remains a popular textbook for college courses in modern Chinese history. The reason for this is the amount of detail in his chapters, such as those on the Taiping Rebellion and the Kuomintang's Nanjing Decade, which is only surpassed by other books devoted exclusively to these topics. While Spence and Fairbank generally see the big picture better than Hsu, especially when it comes to post-1949 China (Hsu has a strong pro-KMT bias), they do not devote as much loving care to the characters and events of the great drama of modern Chinese history.

The Search for Modern China
Jonathan Spence
(New York: W.W. Norton, 2001 Reprint Paperback Edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: Spence writes beautiful and elegant prose, and knows how to throw in nuggets of detail to add human interest to his narrative - which accounts for his being probably the only Western scholar of Chinese history who consistently produces best-sellers. Like Hsu, he chooses to define modern Chinese history as starting from the end of the Ming and beginning of the Qing. Spence has two big areas of interest: the history of the early Qing, and the history of Western interactions with China. In the late Qing and Republican period, he tends to focus a little more on the activities of foreigners in China than on the activities of Chinese personalities themselves, but this tendency is not taken to extremes (contrary to some accusations of him being an apologist for imperialism). He also provides tables of useful statistics to illustrate his points, and there are a good number of colour plates including great works of art from the Ming and Qing. The main flaw of this book is that it stops at the Tiananmen Tragedy of 1989, Spence having written the book in 1991. Although the reprint edition was published ten years later, Spence seems not to have updated his coverage to include the crucial developments of the 1990s.

China: A New History
John King Fairbank, with a chapter by Merle Goldman
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998 Enlarged Edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: Fairbank, the great Godfather of Chinese history in the West, submitted the manuscript for this book just two days before he died in 1991. The book thus suffers from skimpy coverage and poor editing in areas that lay outside Fairbank's field of expertise, since no-one was willing to show disrespect to his memory by altering it too much. Although it was ambitiously projected as a general history of China, some of his inaccuracies and misconceptions in the chapter on the Age of Fragmentation are enough to make one cringe. Fairbank famously identified modern Chinese history as starting from China's defeat by Westerners in the Opium War, and though this view has been much challenged since, his Eurocentric bias is still evident in the limited detail that he spares on imperial Chinese history before the late Qing. But when it comes to 19th-century and 20th-century Chinese history, Fairbank is a master of his material. His information comes in bite-size portions of insight, rather than the fact-heavy approach of Hsu and the literary style of Spence. This makes the book more accessible but less informative or entertaining than the other two. The chapter on the post-Mao period was also added on to the book by Merle Goldman, since Fairbank did not attempt to analyse this period before he died.

[Yun]

Focus on Military History

A Military History of China
Edited by David A. Graff and Robin Higham
(Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2002)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=glance&s=books


Description: For military buffs lamenting the lack of English-language material on Chinese military history, this is the best general work available. Graff is an expert on the military history of the Age of Fragmentation and the Tang, while Higham specialises in modern Chinese military history. For this book they gathered a collection of essays by a range of experts on various aspects of the Chinese military, from the ancient wars with nomads to recent developments in the PLA. The coverage is thus diverse rather than comprehensive, and leans towards the modern history side. However, there are good recommendations for further reading at the end of every essay, making this book a good launching-pad for further research on a particular area of interest.

[Yun]

Focus on Cultural History

Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilisation
Edited by Paul S. Ropp and Timothy Hugh Barrett
(Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1990)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...0998623-5646440


Description: Another collection of good essays, this time on various aspects of Chinese culture including science, religion, politics, law, women, economics, philosophy, literature and art. The credentials of the contributors are impeccable, and while some of the essays are more enjoyable to read than others, the entire book is well worth a careful read. A good corrective to other works of history that pay attention only to emperors and battles.

[Yun]

Another recommended reading:

If you have Adobe Reader, download all the PDF files on these site:

Introduction to East Asian Civilisations
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~kaplan/eas201

A History of Chinese Statecraft
http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~kaplan/H370

The first is focused on the social and economic history of China, Japan and Korea, and the second is about the evolution of Chinese political culture and political thought. Very educational and very fun to read!

[caocao74]

I would just like to know if anyone has read 'A Concise History of China' by J.A.G.Roberts. He was one of my tutorial professors at university, and I considered him a great lecturer, but I would love to know the comments of anyone here who has also read his work.

[Tyler]

I'm looking for a good classic Chinese book that has been translated to English, any recommendations?

[wuTao]

Just finished another really good book on Chinese history...

Ancient China and it's Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History
Nicola Di Cosmo
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004 Paperback Edition)
On Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.co...=books&n=507846

Description: This is a very tough, yet at the same time rewarding read. Di Cosmo, using archeological and historical evidence, traces the rise of the Northern Nomads in East Asian history. The book is divided into four parts. In the first part, Di Cosmo gives a description of the Northern Nomadic Zone of China and goes over the archeological evidence of the evolution of pastoral Nomadism as a way of life in in China as well as the broader steppe world. In the second part of the book, Di Cosmo describes early relations between Northern peoples and Zhou states, which includes an interesting theory on the reasons why the Long Walls were built. The third part of the book is devoted to the story of the rise and fall of the Xiong-nu, including a theory on the impetus behind the establishment of a large nomadic confederacy for the first time in history. Finally, Di Cosmo covers the great achievement of Sima Qian's "Shi ji", in that it's descriptive narrative of the Xiong-nu was the first serious ethnographic and geographic study of the world outside the Central Plains, while at the same time the normative narrative of Sima's work shaped the perception of Chinese/Northern steppe relations up to this day. It is a tough read though, as the sections on the archeological record can be confusing to someone (like myself) not in that field.

[caocao74]

Ann Paludan, Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign by Reign Record of the Rulers of China (Thames and Hudson), 2003

I just bought this book and it seems a soild, basic chronological guide to the Emperors of China, with a great amount of illustrations. Has anyone else read it?

[Yun]

Oh no - I knew I should have included a warning on this thread NOT to buy that book! I know it's on sale everywhere, even in Chinese airports, but Ann Paludan did a disappointing job on it and we can only hope someone produces a better book of this type soon. A book describing all the Chinese emperors is certainly long overdue.

This is my review of the book on Amazon.com:



A blooper on page 10 says it all: the Sui Dynasty is inexplicably represented by the character 'Qi'. Paludan's book is well-intentioned and nicely-illustrated, but her grasp of the Chinese language and experience in historical research are clearly not up to the daunting task of presenting a comprehensive account of imperial Chinese history. As her bibliography shows, she has had to rely on several dated works in English, as well as more recent and authoritative ones like the massive Cambridge History of China. However, she flounders badly in the second section ("Confusion, Reunification and Golden Age", AD 220-907) and never makes it out of the confusion. The text in this section is peppered with factual inaccuracies and errors in translation that can only be blamed on general ignorance. While struggling with the emperors of the Southern Dynasties, she ignores those of the concurrent Northern Dynasties, sparing only two pages to comment on socio-economic developments in the North. The rulers of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms receive equally sparse attention. The superficial quotations that she has selected from Western sources betray the same lack of depth in examining the historical record.
It would be unfair to single out Ann Paludan for lack of scholarship, however, because the ages of fragmentation from AD 189-589 and 907-979 suffer from a miserable dearth of research among Western historians of China. Paludan apparently had only three sources in English to go upon, none published within the last 20 years. Sadly, one of them is the famous but thoroughly mythologised "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", the author of which she characteristically names as Zhong Luo Guan rather than Luo Guanzhong. She parrots that novel's popular perception of the Three Kingdoms as "the golden age of chivalry and romance", without any attempt to compare this with historical reality.

From here, everything goes downhill, because the Cambridge History volume on the 220-589 period has yet to be published. Paludan, probably referring to the primary sources, fails completely to get her facts and names right, translating "Prince of Yingyang" as "Sun King of Ying", for example, and referring to his replacement by an "older" half-brother when that brother was in fact younger. For that matter, Paludan bothers to give us the Chinese characters for the temple names and reign titles of the various emperors, but not their actual names (not even in romanized form, in many cases). One would think the reader is just as much interested to know the name an emperor was born with.

The later chapters from Tang to Qing are rather more credible, but readers would do better to read the (still incomplete) Cambridge History and F.W. Mote's "Imperial China 900-1800" for the same information in greater detail and accuracy. Sadly, a proper history of the chaotic period from AD 189 to 589, imperial China's longest ever period of inter-regional war, has yet to be written for English-speaking readers (David A. Graff's recent "Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900 AD" has gone some way towards filling that gap in the political and military aspects). Beyond brief excursions into the then-rising religions of Buddhism and Daoism, Ann Paludan does not even begin to do justice to its fascinating complexities.