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Subtitle: Dynasties, Life, and Culture, The Great Courses, Chantilly,
VA., 2017, 520 pgs, bibliography, illustrations, paperback
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Reviewer comments:
This is an excellent lecture course with 24 lectures and accompanying 24
chapter transcript. China is much more than a country, it is a civilization,
and its people remember their ancestors and what they accomplished. One now
could consider if Europe still spoke Latin and had its capital in Rome and
included the Mediterranian basin it might be comparable to China. But China is
even centuries older than Rome. At the same time contemporary China includes
many ethnic nationalities who do not speak Chinese (or speak different versions
of Chinese) and territories not always included in its current domain; but it
is much more centralized in political-cultural control than was Imperial Rome.
It is very important today to understand China in terms of the continuing
influence of centuries of development and the lessons of history that the
people well understand. They certainly know more about their past than do most
Americans know about theirs.
Human actions are based on decisions and decisions are based on beliefs.
Therefor to understand the source of the actions found in the historical record
one must understand the beliefs that they stem from. Dr. Wilson devotes this
course to describing and explaining the origins of the central beliefs upon
which Chinese civilisation as been based.
The historical record shown in the huge Chinese Military History
Museum in Beijing has
displays beginning in Neolithic era and tracing continuous development through
the many dynasties to today. The reality of the the continuous nature of this
development may be questioned. But the Chinese do not question it. The central
theme is that whenever centralized political control weakened China was
attacked by external enemies or subject to devastating internal civil wars.
Another continuing theme is the vital importance to China and its rules of the
control of water. Water is essential to life, but in China it also has been the
repeated destroyer due to floods and shifting of the rivers. (See a reference
below.)
Obviously in 24 lectures and chapters it is impossible to include a full
history of over 3000 years of China. The author has selected many significant
and representative subjects but much more is needed for full understanding.
Consider the series of chapters as detailed and representative anecdotes in
which the author has skipped through the millennia to capture some varied
aspects of Chinese life. Please note that the spelling of proper names in this
book and the various references differ.
Below, I have listed a few additional references. And I have a link to the few
photos taken during a visit to China
which can serve, perhaps, as illustrations for some of the topics in these
chapters.
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Chapter 1 - Opium, Trade, and War in Imperial China
Dr. Wilson begins with a discussion of 19th century China, toward the close of
the Imperial eras. He is describing the impact not only, or so much, on the use
of opium, which had long antecedents, but the role of foreign, European
military power in overwhelming a China which had by then deteriorated
internally and was ripe for foreign exploitation. With this final outcome in
mind the reader is returned to the first development of a centralized Chinese
empire. This is by centuries not the origin of Chinese civilization but the
first time in which the many waring Chinese regions (at least of northern
China) had been conquered and ruled by a self-proclaimed Emperor.
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Chapter 2 - The First Emperor's Terra-cotta Warriors
And this is the story of the discovery of a remarkable result of that Emperor's
megalomania and brutality in unifying the part of China he conquered not only
geographically but as a polity with imposed standards in all aspects of
culture. And his demands included destruction of previous records and
literature. He also had constructed a massive underground tomb with a nearby
underground army of Terra-cotta warriors. This was only discovered by accident
in very recent years, and been turned into an extensive tourist location. For
photos of these warriors 
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Chapter 3 - China's Early Golden Age, The Han Dynasty
The dynasty of the first emperor did not last long. His tyranny generated
rebellion and it was the Han Dynasty that took over and utilized the
centralization achieved by Shih Huang Ti to complete the China that has
survived through many difficulties (internal and external) to this day.
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Chapter 4 - Amazing Ban Clan, Historian, Soldier, Woman
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Chapter 5 - China's Buddhist Monks and Daoist Recluses
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Chapter 6 - Cosmopolitan Chang'an, Tang Dynasty Capital
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Chapter 7 - China's Grand Canal, Lifeline of an Empire
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Chapter 8 - Triumph and Tragedy in Tang Poetry
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Chapter 9 - Life and Times of Song Dynasty Literati
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Chapter 10 - A Day's Journey along the Qingming Scroll
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Chapter 11 - Peasant Life on the Yellow River
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Chapter 12 - Rice, Silk, and Tea: South China's Peasants
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Chapter 13 - Genghis Khan and the Rise of the Mongols
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Chapter 14 - The Mongols and Marco Polo in Zanadu
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Chapter 15 - Admiral Zheng He's Treasure Fleet
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Chapter 16 - China's Bound Feet, Brides, and Widows
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Chapter 17 - Ming Dynasty Trade and Spanish Silver
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Chapter 18 - The Great Wall and Military Life in China
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Chapter 19 - Qing Dynasty: Soul Stealers and Sedition
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Chapter 20 - Emperor Qianlong Hosts a British Ambassador
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Chapter 21 - The Taiping Rebellion and Its Cult Leader
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Chapter 22 - China's Treaty Ports
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Chapter 23 - Experiencing China's Civil Service Exams
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Chapter 24 - China's Last Dynasty: Fall of the Manchus
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Blunden, Caroline & Mark Elvin - China: The Cultural Atlas of the
World series, Stonehenge press, Va., 1991, 237 pgs., index, gazetteer, large
format, maps, illustrations - This is a fine supplement in both text content
and especially extensive illustrations -
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Paludan, Ann - Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign
Record of the Rulers of Imperial China, Thames & Hudson, 1998, 224 pgs. ,
index, bibliography, large format, many illustrations. This excellent book
fills in the chronology of Imperial China and shows the context for the various
examples included in Wilson's book. But as the title indicates it begins with
the first emperor so skips over several millennia of early China.
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Sawyer, Ralph D. Ancient Chinese Warfare. Basic Books, NY., 554 pgs.
index, huge bibliography including original Chinese sources, notes,
illustrations. This excellent book, as the title indicates, is about warfare,
but since massive warfare was a central pastime during the pre-imperial era in
China we can learn about economic and political history of the long era
proceeding the Imperial times described in other texts.
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Frankopan, Peter - The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Alfred
A. Knopp, NY., 2016, index, notes, maps - The author describes Chinese history
in the context of world history and China's interconnections.
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Andrade, Tonio - The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the
Rise of the West in World History,. Princeton Univ. Press, 2016, 432 pgs.,
index, bibliography - The author dispels myths about the use of gunpowder and
firearms in medieval and early modern China.
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Ball, Philip - The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China, Univ. of
Chicago Press, 2017, 341 pgs., index, bibliography, illustrations. A very
interesting book focused on the history of control of or devastation from water
in China since ancient times. The great rivers, especially the Yangtze and
Yellow provide crucial benefits but also cause massive destruction through
floods. Chinese government has always been required to devote massive resources
and attention to their control. Also the canals have been very important
economic factors.
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Hsu, Robert - China Fireworks: How to Make Dramatic Wealth from the
Fastest-Growing Economy in the World, John Wiley & Sons, N.Y., 208, 275
pgs., index, bibliography - Advice on investments in modern China
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Jacques, Martin - When China Rules the World: The End of the Western
World and the Birth of a New Global Order, Penguin Press, NY., 2009, 550 pgs.,
index, notes, bibliography, illustrations - The author is ideologically
anti-western and especially anti US and UK. In this book he describes what he
hopes will happen.
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Allison, Graham - Destined for War: Can America and China Escape
Thucydides's Trap?, Scribe, London, 2017, 364 pgs. , index, notes, paperback-
The author relates the current confrontation between China and the United
States to that between Sparta and Athens as described by Thucydides.
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Wittfogel, Karl A. - Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total
Power, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven, 1957, 556 pgs., index, bibliography, notes.
The author is basically a Marxist but in this book he challenges Marx's
categorization of historical societies and draws attention to an entirely
different social/political organization, the hydraulic societies of the ancient
Near East and China.
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Peers. C. J. - Soldiers of the Dragon: Chinese Armies 1500 BC - 1848
AD, Osprey Publishing, London, 2006, 248 pgs., index, bibliography, many
illustrations. A comprehensive study of the development of Chinese armies,
warfare, from the Shang era to the last dynasty. The material with extensive
illustrations is also published by Osprey as separate paperbacks: all by Peers
as, Imperial Chinese Armies 1200 BC - AD 589, Imperial Chinese Armies 2, 590 -
1260 AD, Medieval Chinese Armies 1260-1520, Late Imperial Chinese Armies 1520 -
1840.
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