The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han (History of Imperial China)

Mark Edward Lewis inaugurates Harvard University’s ‘History of Imperial China’ series in this first installment. The major themes are set, and the format will remain mostly consistent over six volumes and three authors. Generally 100 pages are dedicated to political and military history, and 200 to urban and rural life, foreigners, family, religion, literature and law. The aim is to synthesize these elements, rather than to provide discrete essays. Major dynasties (such as Han, Tang and Ming) are paired with pivotal ones (such as Qin, Sui and Yuan). Minor dynasties are glossed over in favor of brevity.Lewis begins with an inevitable comparison of the Han empire with the Roman empire, which co-existed during 27 BC to 229 AD. He sees a distinction in the Chinese empire’s ‘ability to reform itself again and again after periods of disunity’ due to a ‘reshaping of Chinese culture by the earliest dynasties, the Qin and the Han’. It is true that all later and even foreign dynasties (such as the Yuan and Qing) would adopt Han culture as their own. Lewis shows how future dynasties ‘cannot be understood without a grasp of China’s first period of unification’, as Western culture cannot without the Greco-Roman periods.The five major features of the Chinese classical period are defined by Lewis as: ‘regional cultures transcended but not eradicated’, a ‘political structure centered on the emperor’, a ‘state-sponsored script and literary canon’, ‘military activities assigned to people on the frontier’ and ‘wealthy families in the countryside who maintained order’. This last principle differed from Roman patricians in that the great Han families were not large landowners deriving wealth from tenant or slave workers. They were groups of relatives and associates who formed leagues able to augment the power of the state.The Han city had outer defense walls and an inner walled forbidden city. ‘Unlike Rome, where the ruler showed himself to the people, the ruler in China derived status from being invisible’, writes Lewis. While Rome had Latin and Greek for law and science, the Qin invented non-alphabetic symbols so that different languages could share the same written words. ‘Pliny complained that all of Rome’s gold was flowing east to pay for silk’. Silk was used by China to pay for nomadic military confederates. ‘Whereas the stone ruins of Rome survived, the capitals of China burned when a new dynasty took control.’Lewis, as with his other two volumes in the series, is consummately erudite. When he discusses the material in the topical sections, he provides readings from the ancient sources his text is based on. This is a cut above mere footnotes, engaging the reader in his process of interpretation, and revealing the lens the ancient past is being viewed with. Usually this is ’through a glass darkly’, but happily the Chinese (like the Romans) had a great wealth of historical and other literature to draw from. He is a generalist in Chinese history, equally at home with religion and arts as with war and law. A tour de force.

I meant to get a preview of this book but purchased it by mistake, so I felt compelled to finish it. On the positive side, the authors clearly did a lot of research and put in a lot of effort. For that reason I am giving it two stars instead of oneOn the negative side: They took a fascinating period of Chinese history and made it boring as hell. The main problem is that they decided to organize this thematically instead of chronologically. As a result，we jump back and forth time wise (Warring States, Qin, Western Han, Xin, Eastern Han) between, and often within, sections. I strongly recommend starting with the "Dates and Usage" section, inexplicably placed at the end of the book, to orient yourself. If you have seen King's War on Netflix or Prince of Han Dynasty on Amazon Prime you know that this period is filled with fascinating events and characters. The authors give little detail of the events. The Chu Han Contention, for example, is relegated to oblique references to a civil war leading to the formation of the Han Dynasty. We also get no sense of Liu Bang, Xiang Yu, Han Xin, etc as people. As noted by others, many illustrations are not available in the Kindle edition. If, however , you are interested in tax and land use policy in ancient China, then this is the book for you. Otherwise , watch King's War and Prince of Han Dynasty.

Interesting though too short on actual history and long on fairly arcane aspects of these two early dynasties. Although there are several maps, none of the images from the print edition are included, instead the images are replaced with the ridiculous suggestion: "to view this image, refer to the print edition of this title". Kindle books that do not include original images or maps should make this clear in the description.

This isn't light reading for most people, but I wanted some background to for a more thorough appreciation of some literature I've been reading. This is fascinating and accessible as a history source, and I'll be purchasing the others in the series.

I became interested in early Chinese history while watching a TV fictional series set during this period. I wanted to know what was fiction and what was historically accurate. This book filled the bill.

A fascinating read but the Kindle version lacks the illustrations. Perhaps better to buy a paper version. Would be good if that information were included prominently in the description of the Kindle version so we might make an informed choice. 5 stars for the history, 1 star for the poor implementation and documentation of the Kindle Version.

Another very workmanlike book by Mark lewis on Chinese history. A good introduction which will equip you for further, more detailed exploration

What I like most about the book is that it has updated my knowledge of that particular period of Chinese history. I also appreciate the writer's analysis from different perspectives, which makes reading about history a joy.

A detailed description of the Qin and Han dynasties given in ten chapters, each dealing with a particular topic, such as language, law, religion, etc. Mark E. Lewis discusses crucial points in the development of the first Chinese empire and gives reasons why some things changed in the transition from the Qin to the Han and why others remained the same. Overall a very nice book, although it would benefit immensely from more and better (chronological) maps in order to give a graphic representation of provinces, geographical data, army movements and so on. Hence the 4 stars.

Very good overview of the Qin and Han Empires by a first-rate historian. It's arranged thematically (war, cities, rural society, religion etc etc) - there is no single narrative of the period so it might not be suitable for someone completely new to the subject. There is much interesting detail crammed into quite a short book - around 260 pages of text. There are good maps but regrettably the illustrations (black and white) are muzzy and indistinct, otherwise I would have given 5 stars.

Intensly detailed to the beginnings of China as we know it today. The research must of been astronomical and is a must to livers of ancient china

This is an incomplete history book.The introduction is not detailed enough.

Great fascinating read