{"title":"Mark Edward Lewis","description":"\u003cp\u003eMark Edward Lewis offers a profound exploration of ancient China, illuminating the intricate dynamics of its history and culture between vast empires. His works blend rigorous scholarship with accessible storytelling, making complex historical periods engaging and understandable.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders drawn to detailed historical narratives and the interplay of military, political, and cultural forces will find Lewis's books compelling. His focus provides a unique window into the forces shaping imperial China and its enduring legacy.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"china-between-empires-by-mark-edward-lewis-9780674060357","title":"China between Empires","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter the collapse of the Han dynasty in the third century CE, China divided along a north-south line. Mark Lewis traces the changes that both underlay and resulted from this split in a period that saw the geographic redefinition of China, more engagement with the outside world, significant changes to family life, developments in the literary and social arenas, and the introduction of new religions.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Yangzi River valley arose as the rice-producing centre of the country. Literature moved beyond the court and capital to depict local culture, and newly emerging social spaces included the garden, temple, salon, and country villa. The growth of self-defined genteel families expanded the notion of the elite, moving it away from the traditional great Han families identified mostly by material wealth. Trailing the rebel movements that toppled the Han, the new faiths of Daoism and Buddhism altered every aspect of life, including the state, kinship structures, and the economy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy the time China was reunited by the Sui dynasty in 589 CE, the elite had been drawn into the state order, and imperial power had assumed a more transcendent nature. The Chinese were incorporated into a new world system in which they exchanged goods and ideas with states that shared a common Buddhist religion. The centuries between the Han and the Tang thus had a profound and permanent impact on the Chinese world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47485993943276,"sku":"9780674060357","price":65.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9fbf1d3dfa8a14495d39aa4cb1b1bdbb.jpg?v=1775784706"},{"product_id":"the-early-chinese-empires-by-mark-edward-lewis-9780674057340","title":"The Early Chinese Empires","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 221 BC, the First Emperor of Qin unified the lands that would become the heart of a Chinese empire. Though forged by conquest, this vast domain depended for its political survival on a fundamental reshaping of Chinese culture. With this informative book, we are present at the creation of an ancient imperial order whose major features would endure for two millennia.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe Qin and Han constitute the \"classical period\" of Chinese history—a role played by the Greeks and Romans in the West. Mark Edward Lewis highlights the key challenges faced by the court officials and scholars who set about governing an empire of such scale and diversity of peoples. He traces the drastic measures taken to transcend, without eliminating, these regional differences: the invention of the emperor as the divine embodiment of the state; the establishment of a common script for communication and a state-sponsored canon for the propagation of Confucian ideals; the flourishing of the great families, whose domination of local society rested on wealth, landholding, and elaborate kinship structures; the demilitarisation of the interior; and the impact of non-Chinese warrior-nomads in setting the boundaries of an emerging Chinese identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe first of a six-volume series on the history of imperial China, \u003cem\u003eThe Early Chinese Empires\u003c\/em\u003e illuminates many formative events in China's long history of imperialism—events whose residual influence can still be discerned today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47487589187820,"sku":"9780674057340","price":69.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/ca3919f138d79a315f2938bceefd43ae.jpg?v=1775773178"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/mark-edward-lewis.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}