Product Description

Although China's great empire lasted for longer than any other, no country has suffered so great an imbalance between the fame of its art and obscurity of its history. The names of the great dynasties are familiar, yet who can actually locate a T'ang horse or a Ming vase in its social or cultural context? By focusing on the key colourful characters of the eight major dynasties, Bamber Gascoigne brings to life 3500 years of Chinese civilization. His bird's-eye view starts on the borders of myth. It moves swiftly on to the greatest achievements of language and thought, the cultural treasures and imperial palaces, wars won and lands lost to the Mongols, finally to arrive at the 1912 Revolution, which contained within it the seeds of Communism that ensured the overthrow of the last emperor. Via this portrait of an empire and its peoples he has opened the door to a world for too long inaccessible to the West.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9340 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

About the Author
Bamber Gasgoigne won scholarships to Eton and Cambridge, and a Harkness Fellowship to Yale. He presented television's University Challenge for 25 years and has written several books, including The Treasures and Dynasties of China, A Brief History of the Great Moghuls and A Brief History of Christianity.

Customer Reviews

Excellent insight into the history and culture of China
This is a gripping and excellently written introduction to the history of imperial China. It gives a very good insight into each of the dynasties without being at all dry. As a student of Chinese I particularly appreciated Gascoigne's thoughts on the language. He is really insightful and it was he obviously has a very good understanding of the development of the language and its richness. The book quoted many interesting and varied sources, letters between officials, Tang dynasty poems etc. I'd say this book is one of the best introductions to Chinese history I've seen, and anyone with any interest at all in this fascinating country would really enjoy it.

Brilliant!
Wonderful read... full of interesting facts & observations, yet leaves you feeling like you've just relaxed to a novel rather than waded through a history textbook. Highly recommended!

Now all the movies make sense!
Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Yuan, Ming, Qing - they are all names that crop up in Chinese movies. Of course these are really the names of the great Chinese dynasties so the choice of names is no accident.

This remarkably accessible work takes you through the Chinese dynasties. At the end of it you have a much broader view of the world and an understanding of how Chinese history sits alongside that of the West.