Rise and Fall of Imperial China (eBook)

The Social Origins of State Development

Yuhua Wang (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2022
352 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-23751-0 (ISBN)

Infos

How social networks shaped the imperial Chinese stateChina was the world's leading superpower for almost two millennia, falling behind only in the last two centuries and now rising to dominance again. What factors led to imperial China's decline? The Rise and Fall of Imperial China offers a systematic look at the Chinese state from the seventh century through to the twentieth. Focusing on how short-lived emperors often ruled a strong state while long-lasting emperors governed a weak one, Yuhua Wang shows why lessons from China's history can help us better understand state building.Wang argues that Chinese rulers faced a fundamental trade-off that he calls the sovereign's dilemma: a coherent elite that could collectively strengthen the state could also overthrow the ruler. This dilemma emerged because strengthening state capacity and keeping rulers in power for longer required different social networks in which central elites were embedded. Wang examines how these social networks shaped the Chinese state, and vice versa, and he looks at how the ruler's pursuit of power by fragmenting the elites became the final culprit for China's fall.Drawing on more than a thousand years of Chinese history, The Rise and Fall of Imperial China highlights the role of elite social relations in influencing the trajectories of state development.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.10.2022
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in Contemporary China
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in Contemporary China
• Zusatzinfo: 45 b/w illus. 17 tables.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Wirtschaftsgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Vergleichende Politikwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: Agriculture (Chinese mythology) • Ancestral home (Chinese) • An Lushan • An Lushan Rebellion • aristocracy • Beijing • British Overseas Territories • bureaucrat • Cambodia • Capital Accumulation • central government • Chang'an • Chiang Kai-shek • China • Collective Action • communist revolution • Concubinage • Confucianism • Decolonization • Deportation • Dynasty • Economic Inequality • Emperor of China • Expense • Fan Zhen • forced migration • French Revolution • gazetteer • Government of China • Guangxi • Han dynasty • Hong Xiuquan • Household • Hunter-Gatherer • Imperial examination • imperial government • imperial state • income • Infrastructure • Institution • Jiajing Emperor • Jinggang Mountains • Karl Marx • Keynesian Economics • Liao Dynasty • Liu Zhi (historian) • Li Zicheng • Mao Zedong • Max Weber • measles • Minarchism • Ming Dynasty • monetization • Neo-Confucianism • Opium • opium wars • Ottoman Empire • Politics • Population decline • Processing (Chinese materia medica) • Provinces of China • Qianlong emperor • Qing Dynasty • Qing Province • Qin (state) • rationing • Retirement • Ruler • salary • Semarang • Service Tax • Shaanxi • Shandong • Sinophobia • Social Group • Social Science • Song dynasty • Southwestern United States • St. Louis • Taiping Rebellion • Tang Dynasty • Tax • Tax Cut • Tax Rate • tax revenue • Thomas Jefferson • Tigris–Euphrates river system • Total War • Trade Route • Treaty of Nanking • Wang Anshi • Wanli Emperor • warfare • Western United States • World Government • wuchang uprising • Yongzheng Emperor • Yuan Dynasty • Zhang Juzheng • Zheng (state)
• ISBN-10: 0-691-23751-4 / 0691237514
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-23751-0 / 9780691237510