Woodblock printing originated in China in the Tang dynasty and spread to Japan. So why did it become more culturally prominent and enduring in Japan?…
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Tag: Chinese History (Books)
Yellow and two recent books on China
These 2 recent books were bought by me to understand how far China has progressed since 1949. China Resurrected (2025) is a political history from…
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Imperial China – Part 1
The stability of the Chinese civilisation pre-1900 compared to the instability of European civilisation in the same period is striking. In Europe, there were constant…
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The Chinese Experience
The Chinese Experience by Raymond Dawson is an old book. Written and published in 1978 by an Oxford lecturer in Chinese history, it is an…
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The Three Kingdoms and Chiang Kai-shek
It is a well-known fact that Chiang Kai-shek is steeped in the Chinese classics. One wonders, therefore, whether this famous quote from the Three Kingdoms…
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The Golden Urn – Part 2
In this deeply researched book by Max Oidtmann, a German professor of Chinese history, we learn that the Golden Urn was used by the Qing…
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Tianjin Cosmopolis – Part 1
The Siege of Tianjin was part of a wider assault on foreigners in northern China, including the more famous Siege of the Legations in Peking…
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After Empire – Part 1
“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide.” Thus begin the famous opening lines of The Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guan Zhong, summarizing…
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China and Japan – Part 1
Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech, delivered on August 15, 1945, over the radio, was in classical Japanese that was heavily influenced by classical Chinese, especially in…
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Buddhism in China – Part 2
During and post-Mao Under Mao, all religions, including Buddhism, were regarded as “feudal superstitions.” After Mao died, Deng Xiaoping allowed the restoration of religious sites…
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