The Origins of the Chinese Nation
Song China and the Forging of an East Asian World Order

Nicolas Tackett explores the emergence of a new worldview and sense of Chinese identity during the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127).

Nicolas Tackett (Author)

9781316647486, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 November 2017

354 pages, 17 b/w illus. 1 map 17 tables
23.4 x 16.4 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

'Nicolas Tackett's The Origins of the Chinese Nation provides a wealth of material in a renewed attempt at exploring 'when is the nation?' …' Atsuko Ichijo, Nations and Nationalism

In this major new study, Nicolas Tackett proposes that the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127) witnessed both the maturation of an East Asian inter-state system and the emergence of a new worldview and sense of Chinese identity among educated elites. These developments together had sweeping repercussions for the course of Chinese history, while also demonstrating that there has existed in world history a viable alternative to the modern system of nation-states. Utilising a wide array of historical, literary, and archaeological sources, chapters focus on diplomatic sociability, cosmopolitan travel, military strategy, border demarcation, ethnic consciousness, and the cultural geography of Northeast Asia. In this ground breaking new approach to the history of the East Asian inter-state system, Tackett argues for a concrete example of a pre-modern nationalism, explores the development of this nationalism, and treats modern nationalism as just one iteration of a phenomenon with a much longer history.

Introduction
Part I. Political Space: 1. Diplomacy and cosmopolitan society
2. Military defense of the Northern Frontier
3. Bilateral boundaries
Part II. Cultural Spaces: 4. The Chinese nation
5. Mortuary cultures across the Chinese-Steppe divide
6. Sinic space and Han Chinese
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Diplomacy [JPSD], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], Asian history [HBJF]