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Title: Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'Ang-Hsi by Jonathan D. Spence, Kangxi ISBN: 067972074X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: October, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57
Rating: 4
Summary: Read carefully
Comment: Spence deserves his wide reputation as America's foremost China scholar. In this book (which I admit that I had to read for class) he tells of one of the most famous emporers from the Qing dynasty. Spence wrote this book using scraps and notes found from this era. Sometimes it's hard to see where the line is between hard fact and Spence's conjecture, however, given the quality of his other research, I'll trust his conjecture even if he doesn't always offer up the evidence to support it. Read it carefully though, so you know what's what.
Rating: 5
Summary: It's good to read a non-Western history for a change
Comment: In this book, Jonathan Spence has assembled a narrative montage from the fragmentary surviving writings of the ruler of a great nation who lived three hundred years ago and half a world away. In so doing, Spence has crafted a work that reads seamlessly as if it were Emperor K'ang Hsi's own memoirs. Knowing as we do that even democracies frequently fail to produce leaders equal to the task of governance, one is pleasantly amazed when a hereditary ruler proves more than able wisely to govern in an enlightened fashion. In fact, in some ways the emperor comes across as very modern, so that the chapter entitled "Sons", with it's strong supernatural component, strikes one as all the more disturbing -- like finding a skull while perusing beloved family heirlooms. I say this without intended condescension, because the events described in that chapter would be accepted matter-of-factly in many American Christian churches, particularly those with fundamentalist or charismatic leanings. I don't pretend to bring any deep historical/philosophical erudition to my consideration of this book, but I think that any book that illuminates the life of a great man is worth reading, and if he has qualities of wisdom and humility, so much the better, and if he lived in a time and place that I had little fore-knowledge of, the book is twice worthy. I highly recommend "Emperor of China".
Rating: 5
Summary: excellent introduction to late imperial China
Comment: Jonathan D. Spence has accomplished a lot in this remarkable biography of the second emperor of the last Chinese imperial dynasty Qing, K'and-Hsi, for the general audience. Based on the writing of the emperor, court records and later secondary sources, book follows the emperor through his struggles with opposition, Manchurian and Han nobility, his troubled relationships with his numerous sons, his old age, and his legacy. Remarkable in its vividness is last few chapters, where the emperor legacy is laid out based on the official court-issued papers, and the informal drafts of the will. I would like to see more description of court ceremony; and perhaps a more thorough reflection on the Manchu / Han opposition; but those subjects are well covered in the other book by the same author (e.g. "The Search for Modern China"). Great starting point for anybody interested in Chinese history.
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Title: Treason by the Book by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0142000418 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 05 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Imperial China 900-1800: F.W. Mote by Frederick W. Mote ISBN: 0674445155 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0140080988 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: June, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Search for Modern China by Jonathan D. Spence ISBN: 0393307808 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: 1587, A Year of No Significance by Ray Huang ISBN: 0300028849 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: May, 1986 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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