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This groundbreaking book provides the first comprehensive analysis
of Ming China's pursuit of national security along its 1,700 miles
of northern frontier. Drawing on a wealth of original sources, John
Dardess vividly portrays how Ming China's emperors, officials, and
commanders in the field thought, argued, and made decisions in real
time as they worked to defend their country. Despite common
perceptions of the central role of the so-called Great Wall of
China, Dardess convincingly shows that the wall was but a minor
piece in a much bigger effort to battle Tatar looting. Dardess
immerses readers in the day-to-day world of the Ming as he explores
the question of how leaders kept their country safe over the 276
years the dynasty ruled.
This compact narrative history of government institutions and their
dialectical relation to society makes a perfect introduction to
traditional China for political science, modern history, and
comparative politics classes.
This engaging, deeply informed book provides the first concise
history of one of China's most important eras. Leading scholar John
W. Dardess offers a thematically organized political, social, and
economic exploration of China from 1368 to 1644. He examines how
the Ming dynasty was able to endure for 276 years, illuminating
Ming foreign relations and border control, the lives and careers of
its sixteen emperors, its system of governance and the kinds of
people who served it, its great class of literati, and finally the
mass outlawry that, in unhappy conjunction with the Manchu
invasions from outside, ended the once-mighty dynasty in the
mid-seventeenth century. The Ming witnessed the beginning of
China's contact with the West, and its story will fascinate all
readers interested in global as well as Asian history.
This important contribution to imperial Chinese history illuminates
the basic concerns of the Ming state. Eminent scholar John W.
Dardess shows in fascinating detail how Emperor Jiajing and his
grand secretaries managed affairs of state and how personal
ambition and policy differences combined to animate imperial
political life. At the top sat Jiajing, industrious, religious,
knowledgeable, ritually pious, but short-tempered and cruel. His
chief assistants during his forty-six-year reign were his four
successive grand secretaries. First was Zhang Fujing, a hard-minded
bureaucratic fighter and ideologue, life coach to Jiajing during
his youth. Then came Xia Yan, a superb technocrat who was executed
for his part in a major policy dispute. He was followed by Yan
Song, a colossally corrupt machine politician who knew how to
please his ruler. Finally was Xu Jie, a liberal-minded reformer who
put a benign edge on the regime's final years. Drawing on a
treasure trove of the grand secretaries' personal writings, his
narrative brings to life the inner workings of imperial governance,
providing detailed descriptions of the challenging problems and
crises faced by the largest polity on the face of the earth. Richly
researched and engagingly written, this book will be essential
reading for scholars and students of Ming China.
This important contribution to imperial Chinese history illuminates
the basic concerns of the Ming state. Eminent scholar John W.
Dardess shows in fascinating detail how Emperor Jiajing and his
grand secretaries managed affairs of state and how personal
ambition and policy differences combined to animate imperial
political life. At the top sat Jiajing, industrious, religious,
knowledgeable, ritually pious, but short-tempered and cruel. His
chief assistants during his forty-six-year reign were his four
successive grand secretaries. First was Zhang Fujing, a hard-minded
bureaucratic fighter and ideologue, life coach to Jiajing during
his youth. Then came Xia Yan, a superb technocrat who was executed
for his part in a major policy dispute. He was followed by Yan
Song, a colossally corrupt machine politician who knew how to
please his ruler. Finally was Xu Jie, a liberal-minded reformer who
put a benign edge on the regime's final years. Drawing on a
treasure trove of the grand secretaries' personal writings, his
narrative brings to life the inner workings of imperial governance,
providing detailed descriptions of the challenging problems and
crises faced by the largest polity on the face of the earth. Richly
researched and engagingly written, this book will be essential
reading for scholars and students of Ming China.
John Dardess has selected a region of great political and
intellectual importance, but one which local history has left
almost untouched, for this detailed social history of T'ai-ho
county during the Ming dynasty. Rather than making a sweeping,
general survey of the region, he follows the careers of a large
number of native sons and their relationship to Ming imperial
politics. Using previously unexplored primary sources, Dardess
details the rise and development of T'ai-ho village kinship, family
lineage, landscape, agriculture, and economy. He follows its
literati to positions of prominence in imperial government. This
concentration on the history of one county over almost three
centuries gives rise to an unusually sound and immediate
understanding of how Ming society functioned and changed over time.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which
commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and
impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes
high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using
print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in
1996.
John Dardess has selected a region of great political and
intellectual importance, but one which local history has left
almost untouched, for this detailed social history of T'ai-ho
county during the Ming dynasty. Rather than making a sweeping,
general survey of the region, he follows the careers of a large
number of native sons and their relationship to Ming imperial
politics. Using previously unexplored primary sources, Dardess
details the rise and development of T'ai-ho village kinship, family
lineage, landscape, agriculture, and economy. He follows its
literati to positions of prominence in imperial government. This
concentration on the history of one county over almost three
centuries gives rise to an unusually sound and immediate
understanding of how Ming society functioned and changed over time.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which
commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and
impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes
high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using
print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in
1996.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which
commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and
impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes
high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using
print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in
1983.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which
commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out
and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and
impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes
high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using
print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in
1983.
This groundbreaking book provides the first comprehensive analysis
of Ming China’s pursuit of national security along its 1,700
miles of northern frontier. Drawing on a wealth of original
sources, John Dardess vividly portrays how Ming China’s emperors,
officials, and commanders in the field thought, argued, and made
decisions in real time as they worked to defend their country.
Despite common perceptions of the central role of the so-called
Great Wall of China, Dardess convincingly shows that the wall was
but a minor piece in a much bigger effort to battle Tatar looting.
Dardess immerses readers in the day-to-day world of the Ming as he
explores the question of how leaders kept their country safe over
the 276 years the dynasty ruled.
This compact narrative history of government institutions and their
dialectical relation to society makes a perfect introduction to
traditional China for political science, modern history, and
comparative politics classes.
This fascinating history uncovers the hidden political world of
Ming China, exploring how the most powerful man in
mid-sixteenth-century China steered the empire through the worst
crises it had ever faced. Distinguished scholar John W. Dardess
traces the life of Chief Grand Secretary Xu Jie (1503-1583), the
leading politician-statesman in the China of his time. Drawing on
years of research, Dardess uses Xu Jie's extensive letters to
officials in the field and reports of conversations with the
emperors he served to show just how difficult it was to defend the
empire. His correspondence vividly shows how he organized its
defenses and shepherded it through the twin crises of raids along
the thousands of miles of continental and maritime frontiers in the
1550s and 1560s. The book traces his origins, his rise to power,
and his engagement with the leading Confucian school of his time,
that of Wang Yangming and his electrifying ethical teachings.
Dardess describes how Xu used those teachings to build a following
and leverage his way up the Ming bureaucracy. He shows how Xu was
able both to suppress corruption and liberalize bureaucratic
procedures. At the same time, the book highlights the psychological
strain Xu suffered as a result and the vindictive and nearly lethal
attacks directed at him after his retirement. Arguing that Xu was
instrumental to the survival of the Ming dynasty through a long
period of severe stress, Dardess tells his long-neglected story in
rich and engrossing detail.
This engaging, deeply informed book provides the first concise
history of one of China s most important eras. Leading scholar John
W. Dardess offers a thematically organized political, social, and
economic exploration of China from 1368 to 1644. He examines how
the Ming dynasty was able to endure for 276 years, illuminating
Ming foreign relations and border control, the lives and careers of
its sixteen emperors, its system of governance and the kinds of
people who served it, its great class of literati, and finally the
mass outlawry that, in unhappy conjunction with the Manchu
invasions from outside, ended the once-mighty dynasty in the
mid-seventeenth century. The Ming dynasty witnessed the beginning
of China's contact with the West, and its story will fascinate all
readers interested in global as well as Asian history."
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