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.
Author(s): Mark Edward Lewis
Series: History of Imperial China Ⅱ
Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Year: 2009
Language: English
Commentary: This version not only has proper bookmarks and stuff, but I added the images which were originally only in the print version (For some reason they were included in the chinese version of this book)
Pages: 351
Tags: Imperial China
Cover
Contents
Maps
Figures
China Between Empires
Introduction
Ⅰ. The Geography of North and South China
Agriculture and Water Control
Mountains and Migration
Writing the Periphery
Painters, Hermits, and Sacred Places
The Birth of Elite Regionalism
Ⅱ. The Rise of the Great Families
The Pursuit of Status among the Great Families
The Han Collapse and the Rise of the Three Kingdoms
Character Evaluation and Claims to Office
Pure Conversation and Eremitism among Elites
The Golden Age of the Great Families
Ⅲ. Military Dynasticism
Origins of Military Dynasticism
Military Dynasticism in the South
Military Dynasticism in the North
Ⅳ. Urban Transformation
Regional Cities and Customs
Cityscapes, Villas, and Gardens
Buddhist Temples as Semi-Public Spaces
Urban Economies
Ⅴ. Rural Life
New Crops and Agricultural Techniques
Social Organization of Families in the North and South
State-Owned Lands
Writing about Village Life
Ⅵ. China and the Outer World
The Northern Nomads in China
Sedentary Neighboring States
Trade and Buddhism
Foreigners in China
Ⅶ. Redefining Kinship
Cemeteries and Festivals
Writing the Lineage
Kinship and Buddhism
New Roles for Women
Ⅷ. Daoism and Buddhism
Institutional Daoism
Institutional Buddhism
Overlap and Borrowing between Daoism and Buddhism
Taming the Wilds
Ⅸ. Writing
Explorations of the Mysterious
Lyric Poetry
Literary Theory
Calligraphy
Prose Narrative
Conclusion
Supplemental Information
Dates and Dynasties
Pronunciation Guide
Notes
Introduction
1. The Geography of North and South China
2. The Rise of the Great Families
3. Military Dynasticism
4. Urban Transformation
5. Rural Life
6. China and the Outer World
7. Redefining Kinship
8. Daoism and Buddhism
9. Writing
Conclusion
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index
