The Dynasties of China: A History

Rating:
Summary: Extremely readable synthesis of classic scholarship
Review: Early on in the introduction to this book, author and ex-gameshow host Bamber Gascoigne quizzes the reader on their knowledge of Chinese history with questions in the vein of `which came first between Song and Tang' and `name a Chinese emperor besides Kublai Khan.' If you happen to be privy to this information, chances are you won't find anything earth-shattering or even particularly new here, but if, falling in with one of Gascoigne's running themes, you've heard of Ming vases and Tang poetry and are curious about some of the stories behind the "inscrutable monosyllables" that describe them, The Dynasties of China: A History is an extremely well-written, accessible, and consciously Eurocentric yet relatively harmless place to start.

The book is divided into 8 chapters, each devoted to a big name Chinese dynasty. There were of course many more, but Gascoigne's focus, and his greatest strength here, is building up on what the `lay reader' is most likely to be familiar with going into the text. Parallels and references to the `western tradition' abound, but they are deftly handled, steering clear of reductionism and exotification. That said, the book is at its best in the earlier chapters covering the legends of high antiquity through to the fall of the Han, a vast stretch of time including some of the least well-known eras in Chinese history. After that we immediately skip ahead some four centuries to the Tang dynasty (fans of the Three Kingdoms period will need to look elsewhere), which is given a bizarre treatment as the entire chapter is almost exclusively handed over to a description of the relationship between Bai Juyi and Yuan Zhen, who were, admittedly, accomplished poets and occasional minor statesmen. While it's normal for general history books like this to elaborate on certain stories to put the focus on underlying trends and major social developments instead of on names and dates, it's still pretty rare to see an intro to the Tang where the Empress Wu Zetian basically only shows up in a clarification of the naming system (in case you're asking why there are so many Wu's) and a towering figure like the Taizong Emperor Li Shimin isn't mentioned at all. It could be noted that Gascoigne's elevation of Bai Juyi to something of a backbone supporting Chinese civilization throughout the ages is a rather novel approach, as well as a pretty good hint that we're getting more of a tour of heavyweight traditional scholars like de Bary, Watson and Waley (lots and lots of Waley) than of "primary," or even "Chinese" sources.

This contentment with relying on `western observers' becomes much more evident in the later chapters, where we're presented with the Mongol Empire essentially as recorded by Marco Polo, the Ming through Matteo Ricci's eyes, and the late 17th through the 18th century, which saw the Qing Empire take Chinese Civilization to its arguably greatest heights, is given the customary polite nod of acknowledgement before Gascoigne launches into the inevitable and sufficiently apologetic and `self-critical' retelling of the opium wars and the destructive role of imperialism in the construction of Modern China. This actually works well enough here, as, again, the point of this book isn't to provide a comprehensive historical account of the area, but to flesh out the background that most readers of English already have of Chinese history. Gascoigne excels at this and keeps the information as clear and familiar as possible. The details are necessarily anecdotal at best, and while we zip through some controversies, historical exceptions and peculiarities without so much as a second glance, all the major `macro' themes are there and the reader should finish this book with a painlessly acquired grasp of the bigger picture that will hopefully lead to further, and better informed, reading.

It's already a well worn cliché to highlight the challenge of condensing X thousand years of imperial Chinese history into Y hundred pages, and this is hardly the most exhaustive attempt out there. It is, though, an engaging and relatively quick read (contrary to what it says above, the book has a total of 228 pages including the index and short bibliography), and is definitely recommendable to anyone with even a passing interest in the area, for getting your bearings during an introductory course, or as a rewarding way to spend a lengthy first or second flight to China.

Rating:
Summary: An absorbing tour through the centuries
Review: The Dynasties Of China: A History By British author Bamber Gascoigne is an informed and informative history of the eight major dynasties of ancient China that span 3,500 years of Chinese civilization. The focuses is upon crucial characters of Chinese history, from antiquity up to the 1912 revolution that spelled the end of an Empire. Concise and fact-filled, specially written so as to be easily accessible to the lay reader, The Dynasties Of China: A History is an absorbing tour through the centuries and a highly recommended addition to school and community library World History collections.