Ancient China and its enemies : the rise of nomadic power in East Asian history / Nicola Di Cosmo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Di Cosmo, Nicola, 1957- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

China--History--To 221 B.C.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 369 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Ancient China & its Enemies

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Relations between Inner Asian nomads and Chinese are a continuous theme throughout Chinese history. By investigating the formation of nomadic cultures, by analyzing the evolution of patterns of interaction along China's frontiers, and by exploring how this interaction was recorded in historiography, this looks at the origins of the cultural and political tensions between these two civilizations through the first millennium BC. The main purpose of the book is to analyze ethnic, cultural, and political frontiers between nomads and Chinese in the historical contexts that led to their formation, and to look at cultural perceptions of 'others' as a function of the same historical process. Based on both archaeological and textual sources, this 2002 book also introduces a new methodological approach to Chinese frontier history, which combines extensive factual data with a careful scrutiny of the motives, methods, and general conception of history that informed the Chinese historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien.

Contents:

Steppe Highway: Rise of Pastoral Nomadism as a Eurasian phenomenon

Bronze, Eron and Gold: Evolution of nomadic cultures on the Northern frontier of China

Beasts and birds: Historical context of early Chinese perceptions of northern peoples

Walls and horses: Beginning of historical contacts between horse-riding Nomads and Chinese states

Those who draw the bow: Rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the political unification of the Nomads

From peace to war: China's shift from appeasement to military engagement

In search of grass and water: Ethnography and history of the North in the Historian's Records

Taming the North: Rationalization of the nomads in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's historical thought Conclusion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 335-359) and index.

ISBN:

0-511-08326-2

1-107-11907-3

1-280-15901-4

0-511-11830-9

0-511-04077-6

0-511-15717-7

0-511-30259-2

0-511-51196-5

0-511-04938-2

OCLC:

475914912