num_pages: 1128
description: This is a history of China for the 900-year time span of the late imperial period. A senior scholar of this epoch, F. W. Mote highlights the personal characteristics of the rulers and dynasties and probes the cultural theme of Chinese adaptations to recurrent alien rule. No other work provides a similar synthesis: generational events, personalities, and the spirit of the age combine to yield a comprehensive history of the civilization, not isolated but shaped by its relation to outsiders.This vast panorama of the civilization of the largest society in human history reveals much about Chinese high and low culture, and the influential role of Confucian philosophical and social ideals. Throughout the Liao Empire, the world of the Song, the Mongol rule, and the early Qing through the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns, culture, ideas, and personalities are richly woven into the fabric of the political order and institutions. This is a monumental work that will stand among the classic accounts of the nature and vibrancy of Chinese civilization before the modern period.
language: English
title: Imperial China, 900–1800
titlecomplete: Imperial China, 900–1800
characters: Qianlong Emperor, Li Siyuan, Genghis Khan, Jiajing Emperor, Yongzheng Emperor, Kangxi Emperor (康熙皇帝), Hongwu Emperor, Kublai Khan, Chongzhen Emperor
genres: China, Historical, History, 18th Century, Cultural, Asia, 17th Century, 16th Century, Nonfiction, Medieval
ratings_count: 165
publisher: Harvard University Press