The making of Song dynasty history : sources and narratives, 960-1279 CE /

In this ambitious work of political and intellectual history, Charles Hartman surveys the major sources that survive as vestiges of the official dynastic historiography of the Chinese Song dynasty (960-1279). Analyzing the narratives that emerge from these sources as products of Song political disco...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hartman, Charles, 1946- (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2021.
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Description
Summary:In this ambitious work of political and intellectual history, Charles Hartman surveys the major sources that survive as vestiges of the official dynastic historiography of the Chinese Song dynasty (960-1279). Analyzing the narratives that emerge from these sources as products of Song political discourse, Hartman offers a thorough introduction to the texts and the political circumstances surrounding their compilation. Distilling from these sources a 'grand allegory of Song history,' he argues that the narratives embedded within reflect tension between a Confucian model of political institutionalism and the Song court's preference for a non-sectarian, technocratic model. Fundamentally rethinking the corpus of texts that have formed the basis of our understanding of the Song and of imperial China more broadly, this far-reaching account of historiographical process and knowledge production illuminates the relationship between official history writing and political struggle in China.
Physical Description:xiv, 377 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Bibliography:Inclludes bibliographical references (pages 334-359) and index.
ISBN:1108834833
9781108834834