Information, territory, and networks : the crisis and maintenance of empire in Song China / Hilde de Weerdt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

De Weerdt, Hilde Godelieve Dominique, author.

Series:

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 388.

Harvard East Asian monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Elite (Social sciences).

History.

China--History--Song dynasty, 960-1279.

China.

China--Foreign relations--960-1644.

International relations.

China--Boundaries.

Boundaries.

Imperialism.

Elite (Social sciences)--China--History.

Diplomatic relations.

Song Dynasty (China).

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 512 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Distribution:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Distributed by Harvard University Press.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Published by the Harvard University Asia Center, [2015]

Summary:

"Based on a close reading of responses to official records and derivatives and a mapping of literati networks, the book proposes that the twelfth-century geopolitical crisis in Song China resulted in a lasting literati preference for imperial restoration and unified rule. It reorients the debate about the social transformation and local turn of imperial Chinese elites"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I Contemporary Dimensions of Empire: The Court

1 The Dissemination of the Archives and the Formation of the Late Imperial Archival Mentality 35

2 Court Gazettes and Short Reports 76

Part II Transhistorical Dimensions of Empire: The Chinese Territories

3 The Reconstitution of Empire in Empire Maps 107

Part III Margins, Borders, and Frontiers

4 Strategic Discourse: Building Frontiers in the Public Domain 167

5 The Multiplexity of Premodern Borders 233

Part IV Imperial Information Networks

6 The Notebook Phenomenon 281

7 Informant Networks and Literati Identities 325

8 Representing the Foreign Other 395.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 469-499) and index.

ISBN:

9780674088429

0674088425

OCLC:

907204495