Technology, gender and history in imperial China : great transformations reconsidered / Francesca Bray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bray, Francesca, author.

Series:

Critical Asian scholarship.

Critical Asian scholarship ; 10

Asia's transformations. Critical Asian scholarship

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Technological innovations--China--History.

Technological innovations.

Technology--Social aspects--China.

Technology.

Sex role--China--History.

Sex role.

China--Social conditions--960-1644.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (297 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

<P>What can the history of technology contribute to our understanding of late imperial China? Most stories about technology in pre-modern China follow a well-worn plot: in about 1400 after an early ferment of creativity that made it the most technologically sophisticated civilisation in the world, China entered an era of technical lethargy and decline. But how are we to reconcile this tale, which portrays China in the Ming and Qing dynasties as a dying giant that had outgrown its own strength, with the wealth of counterevidence affirming that the country remained rich, vigorous and powerful at

Contents:

section 1. Material foundations of the moral order

section 2. Gynotechnics : crafting womanly virtues

section 3. Androtechnics : the writing-brush, the plough and the nature of technical knowledge.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

1-136-18428-7

0-415-63959-X

0-203-08330-X

1-136-18429-5

9780203083307

OCLC:

852757411