Product Description

Spanning over 2000 years, from the great First Emperor, buried with his terracotta army in the 3rd Century BC, to the last emperor, enthroned in the Forbidden City in 1911, this book details the lives and personalities of all 157 Chinese emperors. Weathering centuries of violent change, the Chinese emperor remained at the centre of the largest political unit in the world, the Middle Kingdom. This extraordinary group of men - and one woman, Wu Zetian - had virtues and failings that were magnified by their exalted position. Some were villainous debauchees, or simply weak, leaving the control of the empire to their eunuchs, concubines or dowager empresses. Others were great warriors, literary scholars and painters. The book includes: biographical accounts of all 157 emperors of China, from Qin Shihuangdi, the great "First Emperor", to Puyi, the four-year-old last emperor; timeliness throughout with at-a-glance visual guides to the length and important events of each emperor's reign; datafiles for every emperor listing key information, such as name at birth and in Chinese calligraphic script, wives and concubines, manner of death and location of tomb; extensive quotations from contemporary sources; numerous sidebars and special features ranging from the Great Wall of China to the opium wars; and illustrations including portraits of the emperors, art treasures from imperial tombs and maps, detailing, for example, the Silk Roads and the maritime expeditions of the Ming Dynasty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #181111 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable and informative
A great overview of the Chinese rulers! Includes lovely photos and illustrations and little bits of interesting information. The book doesn't aim to provide a deep critique of each ruler but rather provides highlights and anecdotes.

A clear, illustrated overview
The rulers of a period of 2100 years are described in 224 richly illustrated pages with additional time lines, quotes and special features, so the books can not dig very deep into the characters of the Emperors. Eleven rulers of five dynasties in the period 907-960 are described in 1 paragraph only, but famous Emperors like Qin Shihuangdi, Xuanzong, Kublai Khan and Qianlong are described in more than 3 pages each. Nevertheless, the story of the Chinese Emperors and dynasties is a very interesting one. Not only the decline of a dynasty was marked by murders and suicides. The only reigning Empress of China ever, Wu Zetian, remained in power by murdering other members of the imperial family. Ming Jiajing narrowly escaped being strangled by his concubines and Prince Wuzong was chosen as Emperor by the eunuchs, who slew two rival candidates and their mothers. Still, some Emperors were mainly interested in artistic, intellectual or spiritual pursuits. The special features give additional background information with topics like the Great Wall, the Terracotta Army and the Forbidden City.

For all Chinese Emperors the book shows the Chinese signs, the temple name and the deaths of their accession and their death. From 400 AD onwards gradually the birth date, name of the parents and wives, the number of children and the place of the tomb are added. The book really gives a clear overview. What I especially liked were the tables with information about each Emperor and the many portraits.

Fascinating But Brief
As with almost all the books in this series Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors is intriguing, but suffers from the problem of being too brief to cover it's ancient subjects.

Despite this I found that this book gave a tantilising taste of the live of the "Sons of Heaven". This book is a brilliant starting point for anyone intersted in Imperial Chinese history, and encourages further reading. I did particulary like the fact box on every emperor, listing their name, their tomb location and other facts when available.

One thing that greatly dissapointed me was the pages on the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi. The author simply reeled off the age old injustices that have been attributed to this woman by sensationalist British men, encompassing the traditional notion that all women in power are evil hoars. The author would have done well to take into account the more modern and balanced portrait of this shy and chaste woman painted from actual historic evidence, rather than the completely unbelievable stories of her thousands of lovers, particulary "Dragon Lady" by Sterling Seagrave. I realise I have focused on a few short pages, but when you are faced with such blatently prejudiced and unresearched information, it casts a shadow over the rest of the manuscript. Despite this I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone.