The Women Who Ruled China : Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Balkwill, Stephanie.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ling, Empress dowager of China, approximately 490-528.

Ling.

Buddhism--China--History--To 581.

Buddhism.

Multiculturalism--China--History--To 1500.

Multiculturalism.

China--History--Northern Wei dynasty, 386-534.

China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, 2024.

Summary:

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In the late fifth century, a girl whose name has been forgotten by history was born at the edge of the Chinese empire. By the time of her death, she had transformed herself into Empress Dowager Ling, one of the most powerful politicians of her age and one of the first of many Buddhist women to wield incredible influence in dynastic East Asia. In this book, Stephanie Balkwill documents the Empress Dowager's rise to power and life on the throne against the broader world of imperial China under the rule of the Northern Wei dynasty, a foreign people from Inner Asia who built their capital deep in the Chinese heartland. Building on largely untapped Buddhist materials, Balkwill shows that the life and rule of the Empress Dowager is a larger story of the reinvention of religious, ethnic, and gender norms in a rapidly changing multicultural society. The Women Who Ruled China recovers the voices of those left out of the mainstream historical record, painting a compelling portrait of medieval Chinese society reinventing itself under the Empress Dowager's leadership.

Contents:

Cover

Subvention

Title

Copyright

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Conventions

Dramatis Personae

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Luoyang Reborn

2. A Woman of Power, Remembered Poorly

3. Brought to Court by a Nun

4. A Girl on the Throne

5. No Salvation in Buddhism

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Character Index

Index.

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780520401822

OCLC:

1427062987