Read more
An innovative contribution to East Asian and Chinese history of the medieval period,
Northern Wei (386-534) brings to a new level the study of the little-known Northern Wei dynasty (386-534). Emerging from collapse of the Han empire, the founders of Northern Wei had come south from the grasslands of Inner Asia to conquer the rich farmlands of the Yellow River plains. With complex interactions of Chinese and Inner Asians, which evolved over centuries, Northern Wei laid the foundation for a new model for empire in East Asia, which in the seventh century would lead to the Tang.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Genealogies
- Maps
- 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
- Bibliography
- Glossary-Index
About the author
Scott Pearce is Professor at Western Washington University.
Summary
Emerging from collapse of the Han empire, the founders of Northern Wei had come south from the grasslands of Inner Asia to conquer the rich farmlands of the Yellow River plains. Northern Wei was, in fact, the first of the so-called "conquest dynasties" complex states seen repeatedly in East Asian history in which Inner Asian peoples ruled parts of the Chinese world.
An innovative contribution to East Asian and Chinese history of the medieval period, Northern Wei (386-534) combines received historical text and archaeological findings to examine the complex interactions between these originally distinct populations, and the way those interactions changed over time. Scott Pearce analyses traditions borrowed and adapted from the long-gone Han dynasty including government and taxation as well as the new cultural elements such as the use of armor for man and horse in the cavalry and the newly-invented stirrup. Further, this book discusses the fundamental change in the dynastic family, as empresses began to play an increasingly important role in the business of government. Though Northern Wei fell in the early sixth century, the nature of the state was thus fundamentally changed, in the Chinese world and East Asia as a whole; it had laid down a foundation from which a century later would emerge the world empire of Tang.
Additional text
Pearce's book is a major treatment of the Tuoba history in a Western language and an important contribution to the study of early medieval China. His vivid descriptions bring this part of the history closer to general educated readers and scholars. The volume offers more than the intended aim and is an indispensable reference book about this understudied period.
