Table of Contents

* Acknowledgments * Introduction Nicola Di Cosmo * Law and the Military in Early China Robin D. S. Yates * Martial Prognostication Ralph D. Sawyer * The Western Han Army: Organization, Leadership, and Operation Michael Loewe * The Military Culture of Later Han Rafe de Crespigny * Military Aspects of the War of the Eight Princes, 300--307 Edward L. Dreyer * Narrative Maneuvers: The Representation of Battle in Tang Historical Writing David A. Graff * Tang Military Culture and Its Inner Asian Influences Jonathan Karam Skaff * Unsung Men of War: Acculturated Embodiments of the Martial Ethos in the Song Dynasty Don J. Wyatt * Wen and Wu in Elite Cultural Practices during the Late Ming Kathleen Ryor * Mengzi's Art of War: The Kangxi Emperor Reforms the Qing Military Examinations Sam Gilbert * Writing from Experience: Personal Records of War and Disorder in Jiangnan during the Ming-Qing Transition Grace S. Fong * Militarization of Culture in Eighteenth-Century China Joanna Waley-Cohen * Military Finance of the High Qing Period: An Overview Yingcong Dai * Coercion and Commerce on Two Chinese Frontiers Peter C. Perdue * Notes * Glossary * Bibliography * Contributors * Index

Promotional Information

This is a very valuable contribution to Chinese history and to the growing field of comparative military history. It corrects the common view that China was a society of civil culture, to the exclusion of the military. The authors address the Chinese treatment of the culture of war in the Chinese context, not as a subset of European military culture; they move beyond works that tend to disparage China for not waging war in a European way. As contemporary China emerges as a major military power, this book is important and timely. -- Diana Lary, University of British Columbia Military Culture in Imperial China asks basic questions and answers them brilliantly. It is not about battles, but about how Chinese culture represented and in turn shaped the military and warfare. In case studies from the span of Chinese history, we finally learn how organized violence formed and reflected religious ideas and practices, traditions of historical writing, politics, literature, and economics. This book is a must for anyone interested in China's imperial history and in military history more generally. -- Hans van de Ven, University of Cambridge

About the Author

Nicola Di Cosmo is Luce Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies, Institute for Advanced Studies. Robin D. S. Yates is Assistant Professor of Chinese History, Harvard University. Peter C. Perdue is Professor of History at Yale University and the author of China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (HUP), awarded the Joseph Levenson Book Prize from the Association of Asian Studies.

Reviews

This is a very valuable contribution to Chinese history and to the growing field of comparative military history. It corrects the common view that China was a society of civil culture, to the exclusion of the military. The authors address the Chinese treatment of the culture of war in the Chinese context, not as a subset of European military culture; they move beyond works that tend to disparage China for not waging war in a European way. As contemporary China emerges as a major military power, this book is important and timely.
*Diana Lary, University of British Columbia*

Military Culture in Imperial China asks basic questions and answers them brilliantly. It is not about battles, but about how Chinese culture represented and in turn shaped the military and warfare. In case studies from the span of Chinese history, we finally learn how organized violence formed and reflected religious ideas and practices, traditions of historical writing, politics, literature, and economics. This book is a must for anyone interested in China's imperial history and in military history more generally.
*Hans van de Ven, University of Cambridge*

This excellent book will be the starting place for many future scholars of Chinese military history.
*Choice*

This is an extremely valuable study of Chinese military culture.
*Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies*

Future students of the role of the military in Chinese history will want to have the present volume close at hand.
*Journal of Military History*

Throughout Military Culture in Imperial China, it is clear China did not have the dramatic split between military and literary culture that many have perceived...As China grows economically, politically and militarily, it will become increasingly important to understand China's present military culture, which is rooted in the imperial tradition explored in this book.
*Asia Times*