Ban Gu S History Of Early China

This book employs textual and archaeological material to reconstruct the various features of daily life in ancient China.

2013 Reprint of 1950 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. There are four ancient histories of China. The second oldest is the Han Shu, the "Book of Han," which is divided into the Former Han and Later Han dynastic histories. Chapter 24 of the Former Han Shu, dealing with food and money, comprises the bulk of this scholarly work. The value of the "Book of Han" lies in the fact that it was written shortly after the period which it describes (the Former Han Dynasty covers the period from 206 B.C. to A.D. 19). The historian had access to materials which have since been lost and, what is more, was in a position to reproduce faithfully the spirit of the era. The shortcomings are, from an economist's point of view, the lack of systematic specific in- formation on prices and on forms of economic activity. Nevertheless, Han Shu 24 makes interesting reading. The author(s) recorded the then prevalent belief that agriculture is the basis of all endeavor and that trade is a somewhat superfluous, and often wicked, enterprise. Another idea preserved for posterity is that the forces of the market have to be contained. During the Han period a number of emperors instituted complicated price-equalization programs for agricultural commodities, and one of the early Han rulers unequivocally recognized that the demand for agricultural commodities was highly inelastic. The orientation of this probably definitive translation is toward the Chinese language scholar and, in a lesser way, toward the historian. The additional commentaries, of which there are a number in the book, are slanted the same way.

Pan Ku's celebrated and influential History of the Former Han has been a model for dynastic history since its appearance in the first century A.D.Burton Watson has translated ten chapters from the biography section, including the lives of imperial princes, generals, officials, and some lesser figures.

In 221 BC, the First Emperor of Qin unified the lands that would become the heart of a Chinese empire. Though forged by conquest, this vast domain depended for its political survival on a fundamental reshaping of Chinese culture. With this informative book, we are present at the creation of an ancient imperial order whose major features would endure for two millennia. The Qin and Han constitute the “classical period” of Chinese history—a role played by the Greeks and Romans in the West. Mark Edward Lewis highlights the key challenges faced by the court officials and scholars who set about governing an empire of such scale and diversity of peoples. He traces the drastic measures taken to transcend, without eliminating, these regional differences: the invention of the emperor as the divine embodiment of the state; the establishment of a common script for communication and a state-sponsored canon for the propagation of Confucian ideals; the flourishing of the great families, whose domination of local society rested on wealth, landholding, and elaborate kinship structures; the demilitarization of the interior; and the impact of non-Chinese warrior-nomads in setting the boundaries of an emerging Chinese identity. The first of a six-volume series on the history of imperial China, The Early Chinese Empires illuminates many formative events in China’s long history of imperialism—events whose residual influence can still be discerned today.

Pangu, a god asleep inside a giant black egg for 18,000 years, wakes up to create the world. Liu Bang, the founder of a Chinese dynasty, begins his life as a peasant. Sun Tzu, a fearless war strategist, writes one of the most popular books of all time. These are just a few of the captivating figures you'll meet in The Ancient Chinese World. Terry Kleeman and Tracy Barrett use a rich variety of intriguing primary sources-turtle shells, clay pots, an ancient wall, folk songs, poetry, and more-to construct a lively history of the politicians, farmers, warriors, and philosophers who created and shaped the ancient Chinese world. They also show us the fascinating process of constructing the historical jigsaw puzzle. Archaeologists discover a 400,000-year-old skull near modern-day Beijing and determine that it is one of our earliest human ancestors. A scholar who is prescribed "dragon bones" to cure an illness realizes that the bones-which are actually turtle shells-contain ancient Chinese writing used to send messages to the gods. The fantastic discovery of Lady Hao's tomb reveals that in ancient China a powerful woman led soldiers into battle. The letters exchanged by two military leaders show not only how the Chinese invented the sword, but also how they used the kite as a military weapon. Using these ancient artifacts and writings, Kleeman and Barrett weave the dramatic story of rulers, writers, soldiers, and citizens who made up the fascinating and unique world of ancient China.