Download or read book The Warring States written by Greg Strandberg and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War looms in the land that will one day become China. Seven States battle for power and influence in the waning days of the Zhou Dynasty, and each of them wants to be the best. The State of Wei is one, and in 403 BC Marquis Wen of Wei finally conquers the small state of Zhongshan by flooding it with the diverted Fan River. His power stands unopposed. A ceremony of honor is called in the capital city of Luoyang; Wen's finally being recognized by the King of Zhou. Unfortunately two other states are as well, and these Three Jins must now stand on an equal footing. Must, that is, until the peaceful balance is uprooted and the Seven States start down a path of war.
Download or read book Legends of the Warring States written by J. Crump and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2022-07-07 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The origins of the Chan-kuo Ts’e (Intrigues of the warring states) as an entity can be traced to a palace librarian at the Han Court, Liu Hsiang (76–6 BCE), who compiled and edited the pre-Han texts (c. 300–221 BCE) into a single volume and gave the collection a name. Thereafter, surviving manuscripts show the Chan-kuo Ts’e circulated during the Later Han Dynasty. Sometime during the years of decline and following the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Chan-kuo Ts’e began to acquire the aura of a wicked book, somewhat analogous to Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince. From time to time it was seen as one of a number of books that could unlock immense power in an era characterized both by widespread illiteracy and common belief in literacy and scholarship as the best if not the only vehicle to any goal. After 400 CE, there is no record of the text until it was reconstructed by an 11th-century scholar, Tseng Kung, who formed a model for critical circulation for the next nine centuries. This volume presents selections and commentary by the premier Western translator and interpreter of the Chan-kuo Ts'e—ninety pieces singled out for their literary sophistication and sprightliness of conception. It also features more complete warring states narratives, the “romances”—persuasions of four of the best-known figures, Fan Chü, Chang Yi, Su Ch'in, and Ch'un-shen Chün, augmented by biographical material from the Shi-chi. This reader highlights both the nature of Chan-kuo Ts'e, an important pre-Han collection, and its considerable pleasures.
Download or read book Philosophers of the Warring States A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy written by and published by Broadview Press. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophers of the Warring States is an anthology of new translations of essential readings from the classic texts of early Chinese philosophy, informed by the latest scholarship. It includes the Analects of Confucius, Meng Zi (Mencius), Xun Zi, Mo Zi, Lao Zi (Dao De Jing), Zhuang Zi, and Han Fei Zi, as well as short chapters on the Da Xue and the Zhong Yong. Pedagogically organized, this book offers philosophically sophisticated annotations and commentaries as well as an extensive glossary explaining key philosophical concepts in detail. The translations aim to be true to the originals yet accessible, with the goal of opening up these rich and subtle philosophical texts to modern readers without prior training in Chinese thought.
Download or read book Strategies of the Warring States written by Liu Xiang and published by DeepLogic. This book was released on with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Zhan Guo Ce, also known in English as the Strategies of the Warring States, is an ancient Chinese text that contains anecdotes of political manipulation and warfare during the Warring States period (5th to 3rd centuries bc).[1] It is an important text of the Warring States Period as it describes the strategies and political views of the School of Diplomacy and reveals the historical and social characteristics of the period. The Zhan Guo Ce recounts the history of the Warring States from the conquest of the Fan clan by the Zhi clan in 490 BC up to the failed assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Gao Jianli in 221 BC. The chapters take the form of anecdotes meant to illustrate various strategies and tricks employed by the Warring States. With the focus thus being more on providing general political insights than on presenting the whole history of the period, there is no stringent year-by-year dating such as that found in the preceding Spring and Autumn Annals. Stories are sorted chronologically by under which ruler they take place, but within the reign of a single king there is no way to tell if the time elapsed between two anecdotes is a day or a year. The book comprises approximately 120,000 words, and is divided into 33 chapters and 497 sections.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Early China written by Elizabeth Childs-Johnson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-23 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook on Early China brings 30 scholars together to cover early China from the Neolithic through Warring States periods (ca 5000-500BCE). The study is chronological and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach, covering topics from archaeology, anthropology, art history, architecture, music, and metallurgy, to literature, religion, paleography, cosmology, religion, prehistory, and history.
Download or read book Intrigues written by James Irving Crump (Jr.) and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Ancient Chinese Thought Modern Chinese Power written by Yan Xuetong and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-25 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From China's most influential foreign policy thinker, a vision for a "Beijing Consensus" for international relations The rise of China could be the most important political development of the twenty-first century. What will China look like in the future? What should it look like? And what will China's rise mean for the rest of world? This book, written by China's most influential foreign policy thinker, sets out a vision for the coming decades from China's point of view. In the West, Yan Xuetong is often regarded as a hawkish policy advisor and enemy of liberal internationalists. But a very different picture emerges from this book, as Yan examines the lessons of ancient Chinese political thought for the future of China and the development of a "Beijing consensus" in international relations. Yan, it becomes clear, is neither a communist who believes that economic might is the key to national power, nor a neoconservative who believes that China should rely on military might to get its way. Rather, Yan argues, political leadership is the key to national power, and morality is an essential part of political leadership. Economic and military might are important components of national power, but they are secondary to political leaders who act in accordance with moral norms, and the same holds true in determining the hierarchy of the global order. Providing new insights into the thinking of one of China's leading foreign policy figures, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in China's rise or in international relations.
Download or read book Ancient Chinese Warfare written by Ralph D. Sawyer and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of China is a history of warfare. Rarely in its 3,000-year existence has the country not been beset by war, rebellion, or raids. Warfare was a primary source of innovation, social evolution, and material progress in the Legendary Era, Hsia dynasty, and Shang dynasty -- indeed, war was the force that formed the first cohesive Chinese empire, setting China on a trajectory of state building and aggressive activity that continues to this day. In Ancient Chinese Warfare, a preeminent expert on Chinese military history uses recently recovered documents and archaeological findings to construct a comprehensive guide to the developing technologies, strategies, and logistics of ancient Chinese militarism. The result is a definitive look at the tools and methods that won wars and shaped culture in ancient China.
Download or read book War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe written by Victoria Tin-bor Hui and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-07-04 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a common belief that the system of sovereign territorial states and the roots of liberal democracy are unique to European civilization and alien to non-Western cultures. The view has generated popular cynicism about democracy promotion in general and China's prospect for democratization in particular. This book demonstrates that China in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (656-221 BC) consisted of a system of sovereign territorial states similar to Europe in the early modern period. It examines why China and Europe shared similar processes but experienced opposite outcomes.
Download or read book Envisioning Eternal Empire written by Yuri Pines and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This ambitious book looks into the reasons for the exceptional durability of the Chinese empire, which lasted for more than two millennia (221 B.C.E.-1911 C.E.). Yuri Pines identifies the roots of the empire's longevity in the activities of thinkers of the Warring States period (453-221 B.C.E.), who, in their search for solutions to an ongoing political crisis, developed ideals, values, and perceptions that would become essential for the future imperial polity. In marked distinction to similar empires worldwide, the Chinese empire was envisioned and to a certain extent "preplanned" long before it came into being. As a result, it was not only a military and administrative construct, but also an intellectual one. Pines makes the argument that it was precisely its ideological appeal that allowed the survival and regeneration of the empire after repeated periods of turmoil. Envisioning Eternal Empire presents a panoptic survey of philosophical and social conflicts in Warring States political culture. By examining the extant corpus of preimperial literature, including transmitted texts and manuscripts uncovered at archaeological sites, Pines locates the common ideas of competing thinkers that underlie their ideological controversies. This bold approach allows him to transcend the once fashionable perspective of competing "schools of thought" and show that beneath the immense pluralism of Warring States thought one may identify common ideological choices that eventually shaped traditional Chinese political culture
Download or read book Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China written by Donald John Harper and published by Handbook of Oriental Studies.. This book was released on 2017 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Books of Fate and Popular Culture in Early China is a comprehensive introduction to the daybook manuscripts found in Warring States, Qin, and Han tombs (453 BCE-220 CE) and intended for use in daily life.
Download or read book Zizhi Tongjian written by Sima Guang and published by . This book was released on 2016-05-31 with total page 670 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Zizhi tongjian Vol 1-8 - Warring States and Qin - Translated by Joseph P Yap Sima Guang (1019-1086 CE) completed his Zizhi tongjian (Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance) in 1084, a monumental historiography that commences in 403 BCE and ends in 959 CE, covering a span of 1362 years of ancient and medieval Chinese history. Qin Mu the eminent contemporary Chinese historian remarks, "Sima Guang successfully merged the three disciplines of literature, history, and philosophy into one entity." The Zizhi tongjian is about historical experience, and Sima Guang maintains that the heads-of-states can learn so much by studying history. The book has earned high acclaim among Chinese and Asian scholars ever since its publication. However, only a very small part of the work has been translated into English; hence, the work is not widely read. This volume of this translation begins in 403 BCE and concludes with the fall of the Qin Dynasty in 207 BCE. The Zizhi tongian assimilated the exceptional attributes and defining qualities of the Zuozhuan (the Commentary of Zuo) and the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian). Since its publication, it has held a very special and esteemed position among Chinese scholars and historians. Although the work was principally sponsored and financed by the Song Imperial Court, it was organized and written by private individuals; it, therefore, deviated significantly from historical texts prepared by court officials during previous dynasties. In 403 BCE, the once powerful Jin hegemonic state was partitioned into Hann, Wei, and Zhao. Together with Qi, Qin, Chu and Yan they came to be known as the seven warring states. Sima Guang in his annotation on the enfeoffment of the three fief lords by the King of Zhou laments over the breakdown of li (rites). He says, 'It was not the three Jin ministers who bankrupted the instituted rites; rather, the Son of Heaven brought on the collapse.' He contends that as the illegitimate act of partitioning a state by its subjects was legitimized by the Son of Heaven - the Zhou king was wholly accountable for the demise. Sima Guang thus chose to commence his chronicle of Zizhi tongjian during the 23rd year of King Weilei of Zhou, 403 BCE, when the Son of Heaven enfeoffed the Jin ministers. The times of the Warring States was about reforms, political strategies, intrigue, warfares, conquests and wholesale massacres when the major states vied for control of China. Wei was the first state that made reforms and enjoyed of decades of prosperity and military strength; it was followed by others in varying forms. The tide turned when Duke Xiao of Qin ascended to the throne; he made resolve to strengthen his state, and it was the turning point of the Warring States. Through Shang Yang's reform, Qin basically laid down the foundation for the final conquest of the six states. This volume offers the readers a glimpse of the political struggles between the seven states culuminating in the final unification of China by by the First Emperor Qin Shihuang in 221 BCE. The book ends with the demise of Qin. When Sima Qian (145?-90 BCE) composed the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) he used all the information that was available to him, numerous errors were incorporated. Sima Guang, while conducted extensive research, drew copiously on the information from Shiji on the parts of Warring States, Qin, and early Han, and his work included many of the mistakes made. Ever since much textual and archaeological information on the Warring States have become available. Yang Kuan, one of the most eminent contemporary scholars, had conducted extensive textual and archaeological research on the Warring States, shedding much light on the errors on Shiji, Zhanguoce (Warring States Strategies) and Zizhi tongjian. The author translated some of his more outstanding articles.
Download or read book Famous Japanese Swordsmen of the Two Courts Period written by William De Lange and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of the best-selling Famous Japanese Swordsmen: The Warring States comes more solid sword history in the guise of thrilling narrative. The Two Courts Period was a turning point in Japan's medieval era - a time when an unbridgeable rift appeared in the fragile fabric of Japanese feudal society. On each side stood a separate imperial court, each with its own army and its own agenda. As the schism deepened and the positions hardened, every warrior faced the terrible choice between loyalty and friendship. Two such men were Nennami Okuyama Jion and Chûjô Hyôgo no Kami Nagahide. Jion, an impoverished warrior monk who had lost his father through the treachery of a Bakufu official, joined the side of the loyalists, the forces fighting on behalf of the Southern Court. Nagahide, whose ancestors had stood at the cradle of feudal society and had risen to high rank within the Bakufu, was bound by duty to the Northern Court. Their stories, set against the greater historical backdrop of ruthless political intrigue and vast military campaigns, tell of loyalty, of betrayal, and of seemingly insurmountable setbacks; they describe the tragedy of civil war experienced at the personal level.
Download or read book Honor and Shame in Early China written by Mark Edward Lewis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lewis sheds new light on the early Chinese empires through an ambitious examination of evolving ideas about honor and shame.
Download or read book Spring and Autumn Annals written by Confucius, and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-11-27 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Spring and Autumn Annals or Chunqiu is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics since ancient times. The Annals is the official chronicle of the State of Lu, and covers a 241-year period from 722 to 481 BC. It is the earliest surviving Chinese historical text to be arranged in annals form.
Download or read book Law and Morality in Ancient China written by R. P. Peerenboom and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1993-02-11 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Huang-Lao thought, a unique and sophisticated political philosophy which combines elements of Daoism and Legalism, dominated the intellectual life of late Warring States and Early Han China, providing the ideological foundation for post-Qin reforms. In the absence of extant texts, however, scholars of classical Chinese philosophy remained in the dark about this important school for over 2000 years. Finally, in 1973, archaeologists unearthed four ancient silk scrolls: the Silk Manuscripts of Huang-Lao. This work is the first detailed, book-length treatment in English of these lost treasures.
Download or read book Rhetoric in Ancient China Fifth to Third Century B C E written by Xing Lu and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Xing Lu examines language, art, persuasion, and argumentation in ancient China and offers a detailed and authentic account of ancient Chinese rhetorical theories and practices within the society's philosophical, political, cultural, and linguistic contexts. She focuses on the works of five schools of thought and ten well-known Chinese thinkers from Confucius to Han Feizi to the the Later Mohists. Lu identifies seven key Chinese terms pertaining to speech, language, persuasion, and argumentation as they appeared in these original texts, selecting ming bian as the linchpin for the Chinese conceptual term of rhetorical studies. Lu compares Chinese rhetorical perspectives with those of the ancient Greeks, illustrating that the Greeks and the Chinese shared a view of rhetoric as an ethical enterprise and of speech as a rational and psychological activity. The two traditions differed, however, in their rhetorical education, sense of rationality, perceptions of the role of language, approach to the treatment and study of rhetoric, and expression of emotions. Lu also links ancient Chinese rhetorical perspectives with contemporary Chinese interpersonal and political communication behavior and offers suggestions for a multicultural rhetoric that recognizes both culturally specific and transcultural elements of human communication.
