| Description |
1 online resource (xxv, 355 pages) : illustrations, map |
| Series |
Oxford studies in early empires |
|
Oxford studies in early empires.
|
| Contents |
Prologue: Defining Our Arenas -- Section I: On Sources. -- Chapter 1: The Emperor Taiwu and the Creation of History -- Chapter 2: History Writing and Its Discontents -- Section II: Origins. -- Chapter 3: Growth from out Decay -- Chapter 4: Myths of Origin -- Section III: A Dynasty Takes Shape. -- Chapter 5: The Interloper -- Chapter 6: Establishing a State -- Section IV: Creating an Empire. -- Chapter 7: The Way of War -- Chapter 8: The World Shegui Entered -- Chapter 9: The World Shegui Created -- Chapter 10: Troubling Innovation -- Section V: Pingcheng as Center of a World. -- Chapter 11: The Wei Army -- Chapter 12: The Wolf Lord -- Chapter 13: Hunting and Gathering in the Land of Dai -- Section VI: End Games. -- Chapter 14: A Transitional Age -- Chapter 15: The Two Buddhas -- Chapter 16: To Luoyang -- Chapter 17: Downfall of the Theater State -- Summing Up; Looking Ahead |
| Summary |
"This is a study of an Inner Asian people called the *Taghbach (Ch. Tuoba), who half a century after collapse of the Han state (206 BCE-220 CE) began the process of building a new kind of empire in East Asia. Though addressing larger historiographical issues, the book's main purpose is, within the limits of our sources, to see this people in and of themselves, in a detailed narrative that follows them from the emergence of the khan Liwei in the mid-third century, in the highland frontier between Inner Asia and the Chinese world, and ends almost three hundred years later, with the drowning of the dynasty's last matriarch in the Yellow River. Across the centuries, they repeatedly changed their name, nature and location. What remained relatively consistent, however, was their reliance on cavalry armies, filled with loyal men of Inner Asian origin. When that ended, the dynasty ended as well. Underlying the narrative are two main issues. One is that Northern Wei was the first major example of a kind of empire seen often in East Asian histories, the "conquest dynasties," regimes of Inner Asian origin which would over the centuries repeatedly seize control of territories inhabited for the most part by Chinese to create cultural and ethnically complex state systems. The second is historiographical: that this dynasty was renamed and reimagined to fit into the textual tradition of its Chinese subjects. Being our only primary written sources for the dynasty, these texts are here used with care"-- Provided by publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on May 24, 2023) |
| Subject |
Xianbei (Asian people)
|
|
Northern Wei Dynasty (China)
|
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Xianbei (Asian people)
|
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Asian history.
|
|
History.
|
| SUBJECT |
China -- History -- Northern Wei dynasty, 386-534.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85024050
|
| Subject |
China.
|
| Genre/Form |
History.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| LC no. |
2022059420 |
| ISBN |
9780197600429 |
|
0197600425 |
|
0197600409 |
|
9780197600412 |
|
0197600417 |
|
9780197600405 |
|
