China: A History

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It’s a good book to give a sense of more individuals than just Mao and Deng Xiaoping and maybe a famous dissident or two—who will be the only people that many readers know about. It’s a nicely varied collection that focuses on life stories, which is a recurring theme in the books that I tend to be drawn to. After Emperor Wu the empire slipped into gradual stagnation and decline. Economically, the state treasury was strained by excessive campaigns and projects, while land acquisitions by elite families gradually drained the tax base. Various consort clans exerted increasing control over strings of incompetent emperors and eventually the dynasty was briefly interrupted by the usurpation of Wang Mang.

In AD 9 the usurper Wang Mang claimed that the Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the Han dynasty and the rise of his own, and he founded the short-lived Xin dynasty. Wang Mang started an extensive program of land and other economic reforms, including the outlawing of slavery and land nationalization and redistribution. These programs, however, were never supported by the landholding families, because they favored the peasants. The instability of power brought about chaos, uprisings, and loss of territories. This was compounded by mass flooding of the Yellow River; silt buildup caused it to split into two channels and displaced large numbers of farmers. Wang Mang was eventually killed in Weiyang Palace by an enraged peasant mob in AD 23. Beachum, Lateshia (17 November 2019). "Uighurs and their supporters decry Chinese 'concentration camps', 'genocide' after Xinjiang documents leaked". The Washington Post. Ao, Hong; Dekkers, Mark J.; Wei, Qi; Qiang, Xiaoke; Xiao, Guoqiao (15 August 2013). "New evidence for early presence of hominids in North China". Scientific Reports. 3 (2403): 2403. Bibcode: 2013NatSR...3E2403A. doi: 10.1038/srep02403. PMC 3744199. PMID 23948715.

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The Eastern Han dynasty was one of the most prolific eras of science and technology in ancient China, notably the historic invention of papermaking by Cai Lun, and the numerous scientific and mathematical contributions by the famous polymath Zhang Heng. So, if you read this book, you have a pretty good sense of what’s going on in Xinjiang with the Uyghurs? Xinran pays tribute to these incredible men and women who lived through war, revolution, famine and urbanisation. They watched China transform from an agricultural state to a modern country with over 1.3 billion people. You’ll meet ordinary, yet fascinating people; taxi drivers, teachers, shoe menders, a herbalist, lantern makers, an acrobat, Red Guards, a naval general and many more, all ranging in age from their seventies to nineties. While they were once forced to be the silent generation, their precious stories will now live on in this remarkable work of oral history.

In the Camps is designed to give a feel for the human experience of having the ground pulled out from under you in every conceivable way. Forms of movement become constrained, everything you’re doing is watched. People are disappearing into camps, but also going silent because of fear of being targeted. It’s an incredibly important story, because of the impact it has on the people involved. Also—and this is something Byler gets at—while it’s a very distinctive and unusual story, it’s not an isolated one. This is an extreme example, with both the assault on the Uyghurs and on Islam as a religion, but the effort to control forms of difference is something that’s happening in other places across China, too. Boltz, William G. (February 1986). "Early Chinese Writing, World Archaeology". Early Writing Systems. 17 (3): 420–436.Roberts, John Morris (1997). A Short History of the World. Oxford University Press. p.272. ISBN 0-19-511504-X. Archived from the original on 25 November 2022. Youngs, R. (2002). The European Union and the Promotion of Democracy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-924979-4. . A stupa on top of an arch ( crossing street tower), is a common form of architecture during Yuan period. The Song dynasty was also a period of major innovation in the history of warfare. Gunpowder, while invented in the Tang dynasty, was first put into use in battlefields by the Song army, inspiring a succession of new firearms and siege engines designs. During the Southern Song dynasty, as its survival hinged decisively on guarding the Yangtze and Huai River against the cavalry forces from the north, the first standing navy in China was assembled in 1132, with its admiral's headquarters established at Dinghai. Paddle-wheel warships equipped with trebuchets could launch incendiary bombs made of gunpowder and lime, as recorded in Song's victory over the invading Jin forces at the Battle of Tangdao in the East China Sea, and the Battle of Caishi on the Yangtze River in 1161. A Tang period gilt-silver jar, shaped in the style of northern nomad's leather bag decorated with a horse dancing with a cup of wine in its mouth, as the horses of Emperor Xuanzong were trained to do. [65]

Cheung, Kwong-yue; (transl. Noel Barnard) (1983), "Recent archaeological evidence relating to the origin of Chinese characters", in Keightley, David N.; Barnard, Noel (eds.), The Origins of Chinese Civilization, University of California Press, p.235, ISBN 978-0-520-04229-2

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Valentino, Benjamin A. (2005). Final solutions: mass killing and genocide in the twentieth century. Cornell University Press. p.88. Lewis, Mark Edward (2007). The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02477-9.

EXPERIENCE IT FOR YOURSELF: Classic China 2. The Corpse Walker by Liao Yiwu Image credit: Penguin Random House It’s one of those books that if you grow up in China, you know the story, even if you haven’t read the book. It’s a bit like Alice in Wonderland or the story of Romeo and Juliet if you’re growing up in England or America. Even if you’ve never seen Romeo and Juliet, you still know the characters, somebody can refer to Romeo and it means something. Political and intellectual ferment waxed strong throughout the 1920s and 1930s. According to Patricia Ebrey: Harper, Damsan; Fallon, Steve; Gaskell, Katja; Grundvig, Julie; Heller, Carolyn; Huhti, Thomas; Maynew, Bradley; Pitts, Christopher (2005). Lonely Planet China (9ed.). Lonely Planet. ISBN 1-74059-687-0. Rice and Early Agriculture in China". Legacy of Human Civilizations. Mesa Community College. Archived from the original on 27 August 2009 . Retrieved 10 February 2008.It’s a dark story: there’s no way around that. But he is somebody who—to return to the theme—fills his book with real people. He’s sensitive to things like poetry, which is incredibly important as a form of expression among Uyghurs, both within the PRC and now in exile. You’re not simply reading a catalogue of human rights abuses. It’s the story of a slide toward a very dystopian daily life. Keightley, David N. (1999). "The Shang: China's First Historical Dynasty". In Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.). The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8. Byler also takes pains to show that what is happening in China has parallels in other places and global relevance. The technologies that are being developed to control are ones that are, in some cases, being developed in part by international companies and being used in other locales.