Imperial China 900-1800

Citation

Mote, F. W. (2003). Imperial China 900–1800. Harvard University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book is a single-author history of China from the end of the Tang to the late eighteenth century, nearly 1,000 pages of text divided into five parts and thirty-six chapters. Mote's stated approach, in the publisher's description, is to highlight the personal characteristics of rulers and dynasties and to follow the recurring theme of Chinese adaptation to alien rule. The Liao, Xi Xia, Jin and Mongol states are treated as parts of Chinese history, not as footnotes to the Song.

Part One, Conquest Dynasties and the Northern Song, 900–1127 (Chapters 1–8)

The chapters are: The Five Dynasties; Abaoji; Building the Liao Empire; Liao Civilization; Creating the Song Dynasty; The World of Ideas in Northern Song China; Dimensions of Northern Song Life; and Origins of the Xi Xia State. Five of the eight chapters concern the Five Dynasties and the Khitan and Tangut states, and three the Northern Song, so that the Chinese dynasty is read alongside its northern neighbours from the start. Danny Yee's review notes that the Liao receive as much as sixty pages.

Part Two, Conquest Dynasties and the Southern Song, 1127–1279 (Chapters 9–16)

The chapters are: The "Wild Jurchens" Erupt into History; The Jurchen State and Its Cultural Policy; The Later Xi Xia State; Trends of Change under Jin Alien Rule; The Southern Song and Chinese Survival; Chinese Civilization and the Song Achievement; Southern Song Life – A Broader View; and A Mid-Thirteenth-Century Overview. Jurchen Jin and Tangut Xi Xia are again given chapters of their own, set against the Southern Song, and the part closes with chapters on Song civilisation and a survey of the mid-thirteenth century.

Part Three, China and the Mongol World (Chapters 17–20)

The chapters are: The Career of the Great Khan Chinggis; Forging the Mongol World Empire; Khubilai Khan Becomes Emperor of China; and China under Mongol Rule. The part moves from Inner Asian history to the Yuan dynasty in China.

Part Four, The Restoration of Native Rule Under the Ming, 1368–1644 (Chapters 21–30)

The chapters are: From Chaos toward a New Chinese Order; Zhu Yuanzhang Builds His Ming Dynasty; Civil War and Usurpation; The "Second Founding" of the Ming Dynasty; Ming China in the Fifteenth Century; The Changing World of the Sixteenth Century; Ming China's Borders; Late Ming Political Decline, 1567–1627; The Lively Society of the Late Ming; and The Course of Ming Failure. The sequence runs from the founding of the dynasty through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with chapters on borders, society and decline.

Part Five, China and the World in Early Qing Times (Chapters 31–36)

The chapters are: Alien Rule Returns; The Kangxi Emperor: Coming of Age; The Kangxi Reign: The Emperor and His Empire; The Yongzheng Emperor as Man and Ruler; Splendor and Degeneration, 1736–1799; and China's Legacy in a Changing World. The publisher highlights the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns.

Key Concepts

Parts One and Two

• Conquest dynasties: states such as the Liao, Xi Xia and Jin, established by non-Chinese peoples and treated as part of the history of the period.
• Song civilisation: the intellectual and social world of the Northern and Southern Song, including its ideas.

Part Three

• Mongol world empire: the rise of Chinggis Khan and the incorporation of China into it under Khubilai.

Parts Four and Five

• Restoration of native rule: the Ming as the return of Chinese rulers after Mongol domination.
• Alien rule returns: the establishment of the Qing and its early reigns.
• Adaptation to alien rule: the cultural theme that, according to the publisher, runs through the book.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Inclusion of non-Chinese states. The publisher and reviewers emphasise that the Khitan, Tangut, Jurchen and Mongol regimes are treated seriously; a reviewer quoted by Harvard University Press praises the reconstruction of Khitan–Liao, Jurchen–Jin and Tangut–Western Xia from the perspective of the "Other".
• Readable synthesis. Reviewers describe a lucid, accessible style. Lucian Pye in Foreign Affairs called it history on a grand scale but with intimate details, and Denis Sinor in The Historian praised the use of political history as a backdrop for subjects such as economics and religious philosophy.
• Clear architecture. Five parts keyed to periods and regimes make it easy to find a section on one dynasty or one transition.
• Intellectual history. According to Danny Yee, it goes into more detail on elite intellectual history, from Song Neo-Confucianism to Qing evidential learning, than on other cultural topics.

Limitations

• Political focus. Danny Yee's review notes that social and economic history take second place, with one chapter for each dynasty or era and no attempt at a connected account of them. Sinor judged the coverage of the fine arts to be lacking.
• Size and level. At nearly a thousand pages it is a book for serious students; the reviewer says it will suit those seriously interested in Chinese history, though it may prove engaging.
• Illustrations. The review mentions a good selection of maps and dynastic charts but only six half-tone illustrations.
• End date. It stops at 1800, before the later Qing and the modern period.

Where It Fits in the Course

This is the long period history in the East Asian history list, and its subject is China. Ebrey and Walthall's East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History and Holcombe's A History of East Asia are one-volume surveys covering the region and are the better starting points for readers new to the subject; Mote can then be used to go deeper on the Chinese part. Jonathan Spence's The Search for Modern China begins in the late Ming and carries the story forward, so it follows Mote's later chapters naturally, while Rana Mitter's Modern China: A Very Short Introduction is a short orientation to the modern period. Marius Jansen's The Making of Modern Japan offers a comparable single-author long narrative for Japan.

How to Use This Book

It suits advanced undergraduates, graduate students and committed general readers with an interest in premodern China and Inner Asia. A first survey of East Asia or Chinese history is a useful preparation.

A practical reading plan:

• Core: Part One for the Liao and Northern Song background, Part Three for the Mongol world, Part Four for the Ming and Part Five for the early Qing.
• Selective: Part Two and the individual chapters on the Jurchen and Xi Xia states, for courses that stress the conquest dynasties.
• Thematic use: chapters on ideas and society (Chapters 6, 7, 14, 15, 29) can be taken together for cultural and intellectual history.
• Alongside: keep the book's dynastic succession charts and maps at hand, and read translated primary sources for each period to supplement the political narrative.