Imperial China

A Beginner's Guide

By: Peter Lorge

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eBook | 1 July 2021

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192 Pages

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A comprehensive and engaging guide to Imperial China

Imperial China, dating from the Qin conquest of China in 221 BCE until the final abdication of the last Qing emperor on 12 February 1912, maintained many consistent threads over its two millennia but was neither static nor unchanging. This introduction will examine both the changes and the consistencies of imperial Chinese history, spanning centuries and dynasties to examine what was characteristic of this period. The contradictions and tensions inherent in the imperial system were solved in some periods before subsequent changes undermined that solution. Yet the history of imperial China remains important because many of those tensions remain until this day.

About the Author

Peter Lorge is Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Vanderbilt University. He is a historian of tenth- and eleventh-century China, with a particular interest in Chinese military, political and social history. His previous books include Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century and The Asian Military Revolution.

Industry Reviews

'In short, fast-paced chapters, Peter Lorge provides a fresh look at key elements of China's imperial past. He invites the reader to ponder what we mean by "China", how to understand "dynasty", and whether sources written in literary Chinese overstate unity and continuity and underplay law, the military, and openness to new ideas.'
Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Professor of History, University of Washington, and author of The Cambridge Illustrated History of China