The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (History of Imperial China)

Timothy Brook, editor of the Imperial China series, has himself authored this 5th volume of a six volume set. He is a Ming specialist, so he is eminently qualified to write this volume. He takes a creative and unorthodox approach to the subject, where he avoids the usual "here are the Yuan and Ming Dynasties "in this order" approach." Instead he deftly establishes a new conceptual framework, where for example, the weather and not just geo-politics is viewed as the major determinant shaping Yuan-Ming Chinese History. He delights in revealing how (then) contemporary voices, as revealed through Chinese primary sources, help us to better understand the epic changes at work in 13th-17th century China. In a nutshell, his unconventional, but always interesting and informative, approach serves both the generalist and the advanced student, by offering a much-needed, but also much-delayed, new perspective on Yuan-Ming History. Traditionally, the Yuan has been generally viewed alone by itself as a major dynasty, or alternately in close association with the Song (Sung) Dynasty 960-1279 CE. Brook, however, sees more logic and practicality in linking the Yuan and Ming together. This flies in the face of convention, where the Ming and Qing (Ch'ing) dynasties are traditionally viewed as a matched pair, under the well-established rubric of "Late Imperial China" in much the same way we see the Qin (Ch'in) and Han and the Sui and Tang as matched pairs, relative to the labels of "First" and "Second" empires respectfully. Beyond being unconventional in an interesting and thought provoking way, the value of such an approach is that it does two distinctly different tasks all at the same time.First, it informs us about the nuts and bolts of the narrative (essential for the novice and general reader); and it also infuses the discussion with helpful interpretations and explanations about the why and how, as we are informed about the when, who, and where. In this way we are educated about the critical role of heretofore unknown elements that have acted as driving forces for change in the unfolding of Yuan and Ming narratives. This book does not debunk for the sake of debunking, which is to say that while there is revisionist thinking, there is also much that confirms or reaffirms what we already know about this period, which may anyway sound new to many readers. Anyone looking for a basic nuts-bolts narrative summary of these dynasties may be disappointed, because of Brook's novel approach. If this is the case, I refer anyone interested in a more structured and conventional "here it is" approach to give a look at Dardess' work The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), A Concise History of a Resilient Empire. There is, unfortunately, no equivalent for the Yuan Dynasty. The closest thing in this case would be John D Langlois' work, China Under Mongol Rule (originally issued as a collection of essays in 1981, and reissued again in 2014).

This book is the fifth in Harvard's recent series on imperial China. The project spans two thousand years in six volumes, cleverly pairing pivotal dynasties (such as Qin and Yuan) with the classic eras that followed (such as Han and Ming). A device like this is needed to organize a subject so vast. At over three hundred pages each, it totals more than two thousand pages. It's a lot of reading but, as it turns out, not nearly enough to thoroughly cover the saga. It is interesting to compare this extended approach to single volume histories such as Hucker's or Gernet's that make the attempt within a quarter of the text. The greater space allows a fuller range of civic and private life to be shown, which is an important advantage. This installment revisits the Yuan dynasty of Kublai Khan and the succeeding Ming dynasty of 1368-1644. It is written by Timothy Brook, editor of the series, and is a formidable contender for the best book in the collection. It begins with the appearance of dragons, harbingers of cataclysmic change, drawn from imperial chronicles that read like medieval newspaper clippings. The collapse of the dynasties are attributed by Brook to Little Ice Age climatic disturbances, which correspond with the onset and low point of the cold temperatures. Dragons are seen as metaphors for extreme weather, the displeasure of Heaven and portend disasters for men. Periods of drought and episodes of flooding accompany meteorological anomalies. Famine followed floods, dams and dykes were destroyed, plagues and pestilence prevailed. The earth shook, toppling cities and homes, diverting rivers and killing millions. Ash and smoke from Japan's volcanoes blotted out the sun and sky. At each instance of disaster sightings of dragons were observed, and concerns were raised about dynastic survival. As with other volumes in this series there is much more territory traversed. Brook covers Marco Polo and Matteo Ricci, conquests of the Jin and Song, the Great Wall and Grand Canal, the Yellow and Yangtze river regions, civil service examinations and administrative districts, census and migration. Economy and ecology, families and religion are not left out. The dominant mode of this series is thematic and topical, instead of strictly chronological. If you seek a straightforward narrative account of reigns and campaigns you will need to look elsewhere. This book accomplishes what is occasionally attempted but seldom achieved, a synthesis of academic rigor and literary excellence. A magical key to the past.

The book arrived promptly and in very good conditions with just a few pencil marks that I can erase if I want to. I was surprised to find that it was a withdrawn library book, but I have come to see this as a plus because of the professionally applied dust jacket.

I have just finished reading all six volumes of this set. If that doesn't tell you I enjoyed learning more than I could proverbally imagine about the history of imperial China, then I do not know what else to tell you. II wanted to read about a topic that was new for me and the history of imperial China was perfect. I would not call any of the books in the series ordinary history. I'm not a historian, but to me they are more social and political history than recitations of wars and conquests and the men who led the nation. For example, if you don't know who the Boxers were and what they wanted, you will not get that background here. No script for "55 Day at Peking" here. May not be a movie script, but more information than I could handle without often going back and rereading previous material just to make sure I understood the context. Not bad writing, but lack of background and a desire to understand on my part. Book is extremely well written and, to me, absolutely fascinating.

Nice

very thorough from a historical perspective..

It is kind of ironic that at present the South China Sea is again a strategic issue. The Hugo Grotius, a Dutch jurist and philosopher published in 1608 the concept of "the Freedom of Seas" stating that all nations are free to use the seas for seafaring trade. This study was sponsored by the VOC that between 1602 and 1796 sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, and netted for their efforts more than 2.5 million tons of Asian trade goods. The VOC was established in 1602 in the Netherlands with a monopoly on trade with Asia that issued stock and probably also was the first multi-national company. The South China Sea was as important in 1600 for trade as it is now The book covers both the period that the Mongols ruled all of China, referred to as the Yuan dynasty (1279 to 1368 AD), and were defeated by Han Chinese that established the Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) in turn defeated by the Manchus that established the last dynasty, the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1911, not to be confused with the first united China dynasty the Qin Dynasty (221 to 207 BC). The book is much more about the Ming than about the Mongol Yuan dynasty. One of the great merits of Timothy Brook’s way of writing about history is to present details and big picture at the same time and using many quotes from the persons that lived in the period. Even though the book has only 266 pages it contains a huge amount of information. One problem for me was that the Chinese personalities are often referred to with three names that are hard to remember. I had to write them down to understand the texts. What did I find particularly interesting? China had three main religions; Confucianism: Buddhism and Daoism hat all were active at the same time. The emperors accepted the existence of the three religions but their support and emphasis differed. It clearly showed that the mass of the Chinese people wanted a religion with salvation and the possibility to influence one’s fate by rituals and visiting temples. Confucianism is very rational and by many not considered a religion. However it considered rituals and ancestor worship of the utmost importance. The book on this point of religion is very interesting because it presents the ideas and the ways it was practiced and how these changed over time. The merits and problems with trade and the role of silver are also very interesting. During the Ming dynasty many countries that were independent from a governing point of view paid tribute to the emperor with a large amount of goods and received many products in return resulting in a large volume of "trade". The Ming emperors liked the tribute scheme but not the involvement from foreigners in trade with China. The emperor wanted complete control of trade for taxation and control, which led to shifting positive and negative policies towards trade which in turn led to a huge amount of smuggling and violence when the emperor tried to reduce, or control trade. Silver had an enormous influence on trade. Silver was exported from Bolivia and Mexico to Manila from there with other ships to China. This large volume of imported silver made it possible in the Ming dynasty the move the tax collection system from paying in kind (mostly wheat) to silver. This change made wheat a commodity making merchants became very rich. Silver made it much easer to buy land for merchants and for wealthy elites. This, combined with the effect of bad harvests, when farmers could not pay taxes and had to sell their lands to the rich, led to declining income for the emperors, as it was very difficult to collect taxes from the large landowners and the independent tax paying farmers had declined and in some areas disappeared. The ending of the Ming dynasty was the result of many different factors including many natural disasters. A very important one the succession of the emperor by his eldest son. This was a very important concept in Confucianism. The Confucians believed that only the eldest son could function as the link between the living and their ancestors that were watching them in heaven. This link was broken several times in the emperor succession leading to conflicts and several sons were very incompetent. This problem was not unique for the Ming dynasty. It was a major cause in the decline of all dynasties There is much to learn. It is surprising to note how, the problems the people faced at that time, we still face to day and how they discussed these problems at the same level of insight as we have now.

I am very split on my review of this book. On one hand, as with all other books in this series, there is minimal attention paid towards the basics, such as who the emperors were and anything about them. There is no attention paid towards explaining the Ming and the Mongol (Yuan) on a timeline. I really had a hard time, after reading this book, at forming much memory about what I had read. The other books were scattershot like this but at least had a rougher timeline. This was the 5 th out of the 6 books in this series that I had read. Thankfully, I already had some outline of the empires, but I would have been totally lost without this prior knowledge. Who the Mongols were and how they gained and lost their empire was not covered. The loss of the Ming empire to the Manchus was also scantily covered. One the other hand, the author writes well, and each chapter, built around a theme that pervaded the entire empire, was interesting to read. The first chapter on “dragons” was interesting and unexpected, and the chapter on the constant barrage of natural disasters to strike the Ming was interesting. I enjoyed reading each chapter but have not really retained much, even though I was interested in the content. By the way, I really liked the book on the grandeur of the Qing empire and read it twice. The book on the Tang and how cosmopolitan they were was great, and even the book on the book on the Qin and Han and how they were a society of laws was great. Even the Book on the Song was good and gave me a better feel of the break up of the empire and the invasions and what the societies were like.

Buena descripción de la China de ese período. Desarrollado por temas y no por historia cronológica.

This is the fifth volume of the six volume 'History of Imperial China', written by the general editor of the series, Timothy Brooks. The volumes covers the apparently totally different Yuan (1260-1368) and Ming (1368-144) dynasties, showing, however, very interesting parallels. Brooks does not follow the example of the previous four books by starting with a summary of the political history of the period in question, but starts with dragon spotting during the two dynasties, which stands for unusual wheather phenomena symbolizing trouble for the emperor. Principally, Brooks identifies sudden climate and wheather changes (during the period the little ice age ocurred, resulting in prolonged dry periods) as well as other natural catastrophes, which he names 'sloughs', as one of the major reasons for the fall and rise of the two dynasties. Apart from this, on the 266 pages of the book (plus succession tables , notes and a 20 p. bibliography) major developments during the covered period in areas like gender and family, economy and ecology, commerce and international trade, belief systems, and arts and crafts are shown, partly from very interesting perspectives (such as from the view of a contemporary art collector). Overall, the book is written very well, introduces a lot of new and interesting perspectives, and is highly recommendable for everybody interested in the history of China.

I have for the most part liked the series so far, though I agree with another reviewer that it does help if you have another source for the actual timeline of the empire. But I am very troubled by the fact that page 80 has a paragraph with a huge factual error. It talks about the succession of Genghis khan to his son Ogodei (one of the only times it talks of timeline) and then down to Mongke. But it gets it completely wrong. It claims that Ogodei is genghis's eldest son, when he was actually his third, having Jochi and Chagatai born before him, and was chosen sort of as a compromise since Jochi and Chagatai didn't like each other. But then it says that Ogodei is succeeded by his nephew Mongke, but that is completely wrong, he's first succeeded by his son Guyuk, and then after Guyuk's reign of 2 years came Mongke.

Fascinating easy to read book on the history of the Yuan and Ming dynasties.

Just what my son needed for his A level work, glad there was a good description on Amazon. Well referenced book.