Jonathan Clements - A Brief History of China: Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: The Incredible Story of the World’s Oldest and Most Populous Nation

Praise for

A BRIEF HISTORY OF

CHINA

a powerful, engaging and balanced account of the vast span of Chinas history The reader can approach this book with confidence andthanks to its well-chosen reading recommendationsuse it as a springboard for deeper engagement with China, its culture and its people.

Ellis Tinios, Honorary Lecturer in East Asian History, University of Leeds

Clements spare prose, bad-boy wit and encyclopedic knowledge of Asian facts, gossip and trivia put paid to any misgivings about uttering history and page-turner in the same breath. This succinct chronicle of Chinas rise to global power is essential reading for businessmen, politicians and creatives.

J. Christopher Westland, Author of Red Wired: Chinas Internet Revolution and Overseas Chair Professor of Thousand-Talents Plan Scholar, Beihang University

A Brief History of China is a pacy romp through Chinas long and layered history that successfully walks the tightrope of the scholarly and the entertaining. In brisk, engaging prose, Clements covers this books vast territory with authority.

Pallavi Aiyar, Author of Smoke and Mirrors: An Experience of China

Clements tackles more than 5,000 years of Chinese history in an agile but comprehensible narrative of the Heavenly Kingdom. Useful for the general reader, the book has special value for the business person looking to understand the single largest commercial market in the world.

Alfonso Asensio, Author of World Wide Data and Chief Kickboxing Officer

Clements brings to light the voices of the hidden and the marginalized, through snapshots of real people, and readings between the lines of poetry, historical records, and contemporary literature. He pays particular attention to women, uncovering their often-buried impact on Chinas past, andtakes Chinas history back to its diverse human core, immersing booklovers in a vast cast of characters and a gripping narrative, effortlessly easy to enjoy.

Roxy Simons, AllTheAnime.com

Where was this book a decade ago, when I landed in China and needed a crash course on the country and the culture? With humor, respect, and a deft hand, Clements simplifies the complicated politics of 5,000 years of history and makes it accessible. He highlights and humanizes the most formative events and the people involved, so as not to overwhelm readers, and gives us insight into how events that happened long ago still resonate today.

Alicia Noel, Founder & CEO, Cultivati, Inc.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF

CHINA

DYNASTY, REVOLUTION AND TRANSFORMATION:
FROM THE MIDDLE KINGDOM TO THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC

Jonathan Clements

ABOUT TUTTLE

Books to Span the East and West

Our core mission at Tuttle Publishing is to create books which bring people together one page at a time. Tuttle was founded in 1832 in the small New England town of Rutland, Vermont (USA). Our fundamental values remain as strong today as they were thento publish best-in-class books informing the English-speaking world about the countries and peoples of Asia. The world has become a smaller place today and Asias economic, cultural and political influence has expanded, yet the need for meaningful dialogue and information about this diverse region has never been greater. Since 1948, Tuttle has been a leader in publishing books on the cultures, arts, cuisines, languages and literatures of Asia. Our authors and photographers have won numerous awards and Tuttle has published thousands of books on subjects ranging from martial arts to paper crafts. We welcome you to explore the wealth of information available on Asia at www.tuttlepublishing.com.

Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

www.tuttlepublishing.com

Copyright 2019 by Jonathan Clements

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data in process

ISBN 978-1-4629-2101-0

22 21 20 19

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1907MP

Printed in Singapore

Distributed by:

North America, Latin America & Europe

Tuttle Publishing

364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon VT

05759 9436, USA

Tel: 1(802) 773 8930

Fax: 1(802) 773 6993

www.tuttlepublishing.com

Asia Pacific

Berkeley Books Pte Ltd

3 Kallang Sector #04-01

Singapore 349278

Tel: (65) 6741 2178

Fax: (65) 6741 2179

www.periplus.com

Japan

Tuttle Publishing

Yaekari Building 3rd Floor

5-4-12 Osaki Shinagawa-ku

Tokyo 141 0032 Japan

Tel: 81 (3) 5437 0171

Fax: 81 (3) 5437 0755

www.tuttle.co.jp

TUTTLE PUBLISHING is a registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.

Dynasties of China

Notes on Names

N ames are the nemesis of any popular account of Chinese history. Kong Qiu was known to his disciples as Master KongKong Fuzi. Two thousand years later, this was garbled into Latin by Jesuit missionaries as Confucius. A brief history of China, such as this, can save dozens of pages by simply calling him Confucius, and trying not to get bogged down in the many similar crises of nomenclature that afflict almost every Chinese figure in some way. There are too many monosyllables, too many associationsthe general reader cannot be expected to know her Chu (area south of the Yangtze) from her Shu (ancient Sichuan), and must remain ever watchful so as not to forget that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (Han Wudi) is not the same as Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty (Liang Wudi).

Nomenclature can often reflect cultural assumptionswriters often mention the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but this echoes the rhythm of English speech. In Chinese, they are called the Southern and Northern Dynasties, reflecting not only the fact that south comes at the top of ancient Chinese maps, but that the chroniclers of later dynasties put the Han-centered, culturally Chinese south first.