Cultural centrality and political change in Chinese history : northeast Henan in the fall of the Ming
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Cultural centrality and political change in Chinese history : northeast Henan in the fall of the Ming
Stanford University Press, 2003
- : hardcover
Available at 7 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Errat slip inserted
Includes bibliographical references (p. 377-402) and index
Contents of Works
- The state
- The elite
- Gender, class, and ethnicity
- The masses
- Rebellion in the central province, 1641-42
- Stalemate in northeast Henan, 1642
- The rise of the Shun, 1643-44
- Things fall apart, can the center hold?
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Ming period of Chinese history is often depicted as one of cultural aridity, political despotism, and social stasis. Recent studies have shown that the arts continued to flourish, government remained effective, people enjoyed considerable mobility, and China served as a center of the global economy. This study goes further to argue that China's perennial quest for cultural centrality resulted in periodic political changes that permitted the Chinese people to retain control over social and economic developments.
The study focuses on two and a half million people in three prefectures of northeast Henan, the central province in the heart of the "central plain"-a common synecdoche for China. The author argues that this population may have been more representative of the Chinese people at large than were the residents of more prosperous regions.
Many diverse individuals in northeast Henan invoked historical models to deal with the present and shape the future. Though they differed in the lessons they drew, they shared the view that the Han dynasty was particularly relevant to their own time. Han and Ming politics were integral parts of a pattern of Chinese historical development that has lasted to the present.
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