China Through The Ages: History Of A Civilization - Hardcover

Michael, Franz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0367017067 ISBN 13: 9780367017064

Publisher: Routledge, 2019

Synopsis

Past studies of China have concentrated on specific events or have related a chronological history of the dynastic periods. These works have included aspects of cultural history but have underemphasized the country's great social, political, and intellectual movements and their ultimate expression in the art and literature of the time. By focusing on such themes, Professor Michael provides a new framework for understanding the Chinese cultural tradition. The author describes the evolving history of ideas in China, from ancient faith in powerful magic to more modern concepts of a logical moral order of the universe and mankind's place in it. He also explores the intellectual ferment following the dawn of the age of reason, the integration of Buddhism into the Confucian social order, and the social transformations accompanying the rise and fall of the centralized state. Throughout, he illustrates how the changing society's beliefs, values, and aesthetic sense were embodied in its art and literature. This portrayal of the Chinese cultural tradition not only puts Chinese history in a new perspective, it also illuminates the process through which China constructed a modern society from a non-Western foundation and serves as an essential tool for understanding modern-day China and its prospects for the future.

About this title

About the Author

Franz Michael is professor emeritus at George Washington University, where he was associate director and director of the Institute for Sino~Soviet Studies from 1964 to 1972. Dr. Michael's publications include Rule by Incarnation: Tibetan Buddhism and Its Role in Society and State (Westview, 1982), The Taiping Rebellion, 3 vols. (1971), The Asian Alliance: Japan and United States Policy (with Gaston Sigur, 1972), Mao and the Perpetual Revolution (1977), and many others.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367017067
• ISBN 13: 9780367017064
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 348