Middle Imperial China, 900–1350
A New History

A highly readable and engaging survey of China's history from the tenth through the mid-fourteenth centuries.

Linda Walton (Author)

9781108430753, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 August 2023

484 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.624 kg

'Pedagogically well-conceived for classroom use, this authoritative text surveys and synthesizes the past century of scholarship on the politics, economies, religions, and cultures of all the Sinitic and non-Sinitic societies of continental East Asia that predated the emergence of modern China – an essential book for the serious student of China's history.' Charles Hartman, The University of Albany

In this highly readable and engaging work, Linda Walton presents a dynamic survey of China's history from the tenth through the mid-fourteenth centuries from the founding of the Song dynasty through the Mongol conquest when Song China became part of the Mongol Empire and Marco Polo made his famous journey to the court of the Great Khan. Adopting a thematic approach, she highlights the political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural changes and continuities of the period often conceptualized as 'Middle Imperial China'. Particular emphasis is given to themes that inform scholarship on world history: religion, the state, the dynamics of empire, the transmission of knowledge, the formation of political elites, gender, and the family. Consistent coverage of peoples beyond the borders – Khitan, Tangut, Jurchen, and Mongol, among others – provides a broader East Asian context and introduces a more nuanced, integrated representation of China's past.

Introduction: Middle Imperial China in East Asian and world History
1. The turbulent tenth century: transforming the East Asian world
2. Song in a multipolar world
3. Schooling, state, and society in song and Jin
4. An economic revolution?
5. Cities and urban life
6. Religious transformations
7. Ways of knowing: learning and knowledge
8. The arts of culture
9. Gendered and generational lives: women, men, children and families
10. Mapping the built and natural environment
11. Sustaining life and healing bodies: food and medicine
12. The Mongol Yuan dynasty in China
13. Yuan China in the Mongol Eurasian Empire.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]