Culture, Courtiers, and Competition
Culture, Courtiers, and Competition

Author: David M. Robinson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-03-23

Total Pages: 475

ISBN-13: 1684174740

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"This collection of essays reveals the Ming court as an arena of competition and negotiation, where a large cast of actors pursued individual and corporate ends, personal agency shaped protocol and style, and diverse people, goods, and tastes converged. Rather than observing an immutable set of traditions, court culture underwent frequent reinterpretation and rearticulation, processes driven by immediate personal imperatives, mediated through social, political, and cultural interaction. The essays address several common themes. First, they rethink previous notions of imperial isolation, instead stressing the court’s myriad ties both to local Beijing society and to the empire as a whole. Second, the court was far from monolithic or static. Palace women, monks, craftsmen, educators, moralists, warriors, eunuchs, foreign envoys, and others strove to advance their interests and forge advantageous relations with the emperor and one another. Finally, these case studies illustrate the importance of individual agency. The founder’s legacy may have formed the warp of court practices and tastes, but the weft varied considerably. Reflecting the complexity of the court, the essays represent a variety of perspectives and disciplines—from intellectual, cultural, military, and political to art history and musicology."

The Empress and the Heavenly Masters
The Empress and the Heavenly Masters

Author: Luk Yuping

Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

Published: 2016-02-16

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9629966530

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Over twentyseven meters long, the Ordination Scroll of Empress Zhang (1493) is an important Ming Dynasty Daoist artifact from the San Diego Museum of Art's collection that records the imperial ordination of Empress Zhang (1470–1541), consort of the Ming Dynasty Hongzhi emperor (r. 1488–1505), by Zhang Xuanqing (d. 1509), the fortyseventh Heavenly Master of the Zhengyi institution. This book uncovers the history of imperial ordinations through a detailed examination of the scroll's transcriptions and the meticulouslypainted images of celestial beings, as well as the influences of the Daoist leaders known as the Zhengyi Heavenly Masters.

Warfare and Culture in World History, Second Edition
Warfare and Culture in World History, Second Edition

Author: Wayne E. Lee

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1479842214

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An expanded edition of the leading text on military history and the role of culture on the battlefield Ideas matter in warfare. Guns may kill, but ideas determine when, where, and how they are used. Traditionally, military historians attempted to explain the ideas behind warfare in strictly rational terms, but over the past few decades, a stronger focus has been placed on how societies conceptualize war, weapons, violence, and military service, to determine how culture informs the battlefield. Warfare and Culture in World History, Second Edition, is a collection of some of the most compelling recent efforts to analyze warfare through a cultural lens. These curated essays draw on, and aggressively expand, traditional scholarship on war and society through sophisticated cultural analysis. Chapters range from an organizational analysis of American Civil War field armies, to an exploration of military culture in late Republican Rome, to debates within Ming Chinese officialdom over extermination versus pacification. In addition to a revised and expanded introduction, the second edition of Warfare and Culture in World History now adds new chapters on the role of herding in shaping Mongol strategies, Spanish military culture and its effects on the conquest of the New World, and the blending of German and East African military cultures among the Africans who served in the German colonial army. This volume provides a full range of case studies of how culture, whether societal, strategic, organizational, or military, could shape not only military institutions but also actual battlefield choices.

War and the Cultural Turn
War and the Cultural Turn

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-05-08

Total Pages: 202

ISBN-13: 0745656382

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In this stimulating new text, renowned military historian Jeremy Black unpacks the concept of culture as a descriptive and analytical approach to the history of warfare. Black takes the reader through the limits and prospects of culture as a tool for analyzing war, while also demonstrating the necessity of maintaining the context of alternative analytical matrices, such as technology. Black sets out his unique approach to culture and warfare without making his paradigm into a straightjacket. He goes on to demonstrate the flexibility of his argument through a series of case studies which include the contexts of rationale (Gloire), strategy (early modern Britaisn), organizations (the modern West), and ideologies (the Cold War). These case studies drive home the point at the core of the book: culture is not a bumper sticker; it is a survival mechanism. Culture is not immutable; it is adaptable. Wide-ranging, international and always provocative, War and the Cultural Turn will be required reading for all students of military history and security studies.

Martial Spectacles of the Ming Court
Martial Spectacles of the Ming Court

Author: David M. Robinson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 1684170710

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Like most empires, the Ming court sponsored grand displays of dynastic strength and military prowess. Covering the first two centuries of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Martial Spectacles of the Ming Court explores how the royal hunt, polo matches, archery contests, equestrian demonstrations, and the imperial menagerie were represented in poetry, prose, and portraiture. This study reveals that martial spectacles were highly charged sites of contestation, where Ming emperors and senior court ministers staked claims about rulership, ruler-minister relations, and the role of the military in the polity. Simultaneously colorful entertainment, prestigious social events, and statements of power, martial spectacles were intended to make manifest the ruler’s personal generosity, keen discernment, and respect for family tradition. They were, however, subject to competing interpretations that were often beyond the emperor’s control or even knowledge. By situating Ming martial spectacles in the wider context of Eurasia, David Robinson brings to light the commensurability of the Ming court with both the Mongols and Manchus but more broadly with other early modern courts such as the Timurids, the Mughals, and the Ottomans.

Screen of Kings
Screen of Kings

Author: Craig Clunas

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2013-06-15

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1780231407

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Screen of Kings is the first book in any language to examine the cultural role of the regional aristocracy – relatives of the emperors – in Ming dynasty China (1368–1644). Through an analysis of their patronage of architecture, calligraphy, painting and other art forms, and through a study of the contents of their splendid and recently-excavated tombs, this innovative study puts the aristocracy back at the heart of accounts of China’s culture, from which they have been excluded until very recently. Screen of Kings challenges much of the received wisdom about Ming China. Craig Clunas sheds new light on many familiar artworks, as well as work that have never before been reproduced. New archaeological discoveries have furnished the author with evidence of the lavish and spectacular lifestyles of these provincial princes and demonstrate how central the imperial family was to the high culture of the Ming era. Written by the leading specialist in the art and culture of the Ming period, this book will illuminate a key aspect of China’s past, and will significantly alter our understanding of the Ming. It will be enjoyed by anyone with a serious interest in the history and art of this great civilization.

"Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500-1900 "

Author: MeliaBelli Bose

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 739

ISBN-13: 1351536559

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Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500?1900 brings women's engagements with art into a pan-Asian dialogue with essays that examine women as artists, commissioners, collectors, and subjects from India, Southeast Asia, Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan, from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. The artistic media includes painting, sculpture, architecture, textiles, and photography. The book is broadly concerned with four salient questions: How unusual was it for women to engage directly with art? What factors precluded more women from doing so? In what ways did women's artwork or commissions differ from those of men? And, what were the range of meanings for woman as subject matter? The chapters deal with historic individuals about whom there is considerable biographical information. Beyond locating these uncommon women within their socio-cultural milieux, contributors consider the multiple strands that twined to comprise their complex identities, and how these impacted their works of art. In many cases, the woman's status-as wife, mother, widow, ruler, or concubine (and multiple combinations thereof), as well as her religion and lineage-determined the media, style, and content of her art. Women, Gender and Art in Asia, c. 1500?1900 adds to our understanding of works of art, their meanings, and functions.

War in the World
War in the World

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-16

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0230344267

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War was a central theme in the world history of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with military capability and activity central to its states, societies, economies and cultures. War in the World 1450–1600 provides an account of warfare in the period, placing it in global context. It offers a corrective to a narrative that has emphasised European developments and obscured the history of non-European military systems and cultures of war. Highlighting conflict between non-Western powers, which constituted most of the conflict around the world, as well as giving due attention to warfare between Western and non-Western powers, Black emphasises the breadth and variety of military trajectories and connections. This comparative context also provides a framework for considering the idea of a European-based Military Revolution. A wide-ranging account of world military history in a period of substantial development, the book will be essential reading for those interested in global history and conflict. War in the World 1450–1600 is designed as a companion volume to Jeremy Black's Beyond the Military Revolution: Warfare in the Seventeenth-Century World.

1616
1616

Author: Thomas Christensen

Publisher: Catapult

Published: 2012-03-01

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 1619020467

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Using the lens of one riotous year—1616—the acclaimed writer and translator weaves together the surprising tales of the men and women who set the world on its tumultuous course toward modernity With 140 full color reproductions of period artwork, engravings, maps, and drawings, plus fascinating sidebars throughout The early 17th century was a time of enormous change in most regions of the world. The advent of maritime globalism accelerated the exchange of both goods and ideas, and the first international mega-corporations started to emerge as economic powers. In Europe, the deaths of Shakespeare and Cervantes marked the end of an era in literature. The discoveries of Kepler and Galileo inspired new attitudes that would lead to an age of revolutions. Great changes were also taking place in East Asia, where the last native Chinese dynasty was entering its final years and Japan was beginning its long period of warrior rule. Artists there were rethinking their connections to ancient traditions and experimenting with new directions. Women everywhere were redefining their roles in family and society. Slave trading was relocating large numbers of people, while others were migrating in search of new opportunities. The first tourists, traveling not for trade or exploration but for personal fulfillment, were exploring this new globalized world. "With its stories of restless spirits and restless feet and its truly amazing images from Japan to Persia to Rome, this book will surprise and delight every reader and provide new insights into an interactive early modern world." —John E. Wills, Jr., author of 1688: A Global History