The Lost of Great Powers

Author: Ye Shuming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-02-01
Features: At critical moments in history, why did some great powers rise while others fell into confusion? Why was China unable to complete the transition from imperial rule to a democratic system after the Xinhai Revolution? Why could the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War give rise to figures like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, while China produced Yuan Shikai and a host of large and small warlords? Why did we keep sowing dragon seeds but always harvest fleas? Is this land truly different? The Xinhai Revolution did not overthrow the "Qin political system" that had lasted for over two thousand years; the patriarchal autocratic orthodoxy remained strong, and the "Republic" merely served as a variant of the "Empire," continuing its legacy. Why could a small country like Japan rise rapidly after the Meiji Restoration, while a vast nation like China fell into prolonged turmoil after the Xinhai Revolution? Where exactly did we lose our way? Why, when history repeatedly presented us with crossroads of choice, did we repeatedly miss the opportunity? The author attempts to connect the causes of the formation and evolution of social, political, and cultural systems with geographical environments, natural climates, cultural backgrounds, ethnic psychology, and even physiological factors. This book uses the geographical and cultural perspective to re-examine a century of Chinese revolution and the transformation of modern Chinese society.