Home History China’s Cosmopolitan Empire
book: China’s Cosmopolitan Empire
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

China’s Cosmopolitan Empire

The Tang Dynasty
  • Mark Edward Lewis
  • Edited by: Timothy Brook
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2012
View more publications by Harvard University Press
History of Imperial China
This book is in the series

About this book

The Tang dynasty is often called China’s “golden age.” Mark Lewis captures a dynamic era in which the empire reached its greatest geographical extent under Chinese rule, painting and ceramic arts flourished, women played a major role both as rulers and in the economy, and China produced its finest lyric poets in Wang Wei, Li Bo, and Du Fu.

Reviews

This is an impressive survey history of the Tang dynasty, concise and accessible. China's Cosmopolitan Empire is written so succinctly and clearly that it provides, to my knowledge, the best summary of the Tang period yet available in English. It will make an excellent source for the general student of Chinese or East Asian history.
-- David L. McMullen, University of Cambridge

[A] readable introduction to the Tang Dynasty.
-- J. K. Skaff Choice

This series on China, brilliantly overseen by Timothy Brook, is a credit to Harvard University Press. Above all, it encourages us to think of China in different ways.
-- Jonathan Mirsky Literary Review

In China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty, Mark Edward Lewis has done a superb job of synthesizing the scholarship on the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and rendering it into a readable account. Professor Lewis's general narrative of Tang history, chapters two and three of the book, is the best overview of Tang history in any language, and would be a good starting point for anyone interested in the dynasty...There is a large corpus of scholarship in English on Tang dynasty history and culture. China's Cosmopolitan Empire is an admirable addition to that corpus. It will undoubtedly become the standard survey in English for the foreseeable future.
-- Peter Lorge Journal of Military History

With clarity and rich details, sustained by quotes, anecdotes, poems, and visual images, Lewis brings to life the vitality of a transforming China in geography, politics, urban life, rural society, the outer world, kinship, religion, and writing, all in comparison with previous times...Lewis's nuanced details of a changing Tang are direct challenges to the dated but still influential views of China as an unchanging Sinocentric empire, uninterested in commerce and foreign contact.
-- Yihong Pan China Review International

Lewis' book will be of great interest and utility to general readers as well as students who are looking for a lucid overview of Tang history and culture.
-- Michael R. Drompp Journal of Asian History

Mark Edward Lewis has produced an impressive volume on the history of the Tang dynasty...Its greatest contribution is its integration of the latest secondary scholarship into interesting arguments about the evolution of Chinese society between the seventh and tenth centuries...This book remains an excellent place to see the latest insights into Tang history. It is a thought-provoking effort to synthesize that work and reflect on the significance of the Tang for China's history. If it inspires the next generation of students to pursue Tang history seriously, Lewis will have made a real contribution to Tang studies.
-- Anthony DeBlasi Journal of Asian Studies


Publicly Available Download PDF
i

Publicly Available Download PDF
v

Publicly Available Download PDF
vii

Publicly Available Download PDF
viii

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
1

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
5

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
30

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
58

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
85

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
121

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
145

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
179

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
207

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
241

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
272

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
281

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
284

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
285

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
317

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
341

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
Download PDF
343

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 30, 2009
eBook ISBN:
9780674054196
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
368
Downloaded on 2.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674054196/html
Scroll to top button