Mountain of fame : portraits in Chinese history / John E. Wills.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wills, John E., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

China--Biography.

China.

China--History.

Asia--China.

Medical Subjects:

Asia--China.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 411 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2012]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Through biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities, John Wills displays the five-thousand-year sweep of Chinese history from the legendary sage emperors to the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. This unique introduction to Chinese history and culture uses more than twenty exemplary lives--biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities--including those of statesmen, philosophers, poets, and rulers, to provide the focus for accounts of key historical trends and periods. What emerges is a provocative rendering of China's moral landscape, featuring characters who have resonated in the historical imagination as examples of villainy, heroism, wisdom, spiritual vision, political guile, and complex combinations of all of these. Investigating both the legends and the facts surrounding these figures, Wills reveals the intense interest of the Chinese in the brilliance and in the frail complexities of their heroes. Included, for instance, is a description of the frustrations and anxieties of Confucius, who emerges as a vulnerable human being trying to restore the world to the virtue and order of the sage kings. Wills recounts and questions the wonderfully shocking stories about the seventh-century Empress Wu, an astute ruler and shaper of an increasingly centralized monarchy, who has since assumed a prominent position in the Chinese tradition's rich gallery of bad examples--because she was a woman meddling in politics. The portrayal of Mao Zedong, which touches upon this leader's earthy personality and his reckless political visions, demonstrates the tendency of the Chinese not to divorce ideology from its human context: Maoism for them is a form of "objective" Marxism, inseparable from one man's life and leadership. Each of the twenty chapters provides a many-sided exploration of a "slice" of Chinese history, engaging the general reader in a deep and personal encounter with China over the centuries and today. The biographies repeatedly mirror the moral earnestness of the Chinese, the great value they place on the ruler-minister relationship, and their struggles with tensions among practicality, moral idealism, and personal authenticity. Culminating in a reflection on China's historical direction in the aftermath of Tiananmen Square, the biographies show the modern Chinese still inspired and frustrated by a complex heritage of moral fervor and political habits and preconceptions. As absorbing as it is wide ranging, this history is written for the general public curious about China and for the student beginning to study its rich cultural heritage. This new edition highlights important figures that have emerged in China since the book's initial publication and provides updated suggestions for further reading.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTE ON ROMANIZATION

A SUMMARY TIME LINE

1. Yu

2. Confucius (Kongzi)

3. The First Emperor of Qin (Qin Shihuang)

4. Sima Qian

5. Wang Mang

6. Ban Zhao

7. Zhuge Liang

8. Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch

9. Empress Wu

10. Su Dongpo

11. Yue Fei

12. Qiu Chuji, the Daoist

13. Wang Yangming

14. Zheng Chenggong (Coxinga)

15. The Qianlong Emperor

16. Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King

17. Liang Qichao

18. The Kuomintang Legacy

19. Mao Zedong

20. Names in the News

Afterword to the 2012 Edition

Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading

Index

Notes:

Updated suggestions for further reading.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781400845040

1400845041

OCLC:

1129174247