Ancient Chinese Social History: Book Spine or Cover with Flaws

Author: Xu Zongyuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: The Cultural Revolution and Civil Rights Movement profoundly impacted the United States in the 1950s. The author, while at the University of Chicago, was inevitably drawn into the ongoing student movement. This experience had an undeniable influence on the writing of this book. Additionally, the author's generation had lived through two wars and experienced immense upheaval, with the world seemingly turned upside down. Faced with such changes, the author developed a keen interest in social transformations, leading them to choose the period of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States as their research topic. The Spring and Autumn and Warring States period served as the backdrop for the emergence of the Pre-Qin philosophers, and history seemed to suggest that this era of dramatic change was also one of unprecedented intellectual freedom and a brilliant, shining age. The Spring and Autumn and Warring States period was a time of earth-shattering historical transformation. The transfer of state power occurred as follows: from kings who believed in the divine right to rule, to ministerial officials bound by family lineage, to scholars who gained status based on political and military talent as well as moral character. This book examines social change by considering political structures, economic forms, modes of warfare, and ideological systems, all of which influenced each other. By studying the chronological sequence of these changes, the relationships between them gradually become apparent.