State Evolution and Governance in Ancient China

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Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

3 519 kr

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This book employs the analytical framework of "relational superposition" to explain the continuity, breakthroughs, and repetitions of Chinese state evolution.Specifically, it elucidates how, after Qin Shi Huang’s unification of China, the ancient Chinese state and its governance transcended the dominance of kinship relations and shifted to territorial relations. This shift formed a super-large territorial state. Sustaining this state was an imperial system that included new institutional factors, such as centralized power represented by imperial authority, the prefecture-county bureaucracy, and the household-official system. Factors associated with the long-standing kinship system reemerged in new forms within the imperial system. Simultaneously, the imperial state reproduced relationships between itself and mandarins, scholar-officials, peasants, merchants, and soldiers that evolved through interaction. Consisting of thirteen chapters, the book explores the process of state formation and governance, as well as the dominant underlying relationships from the unification of China by Qin Shi Huang to the late Qing Dynasty through thematic discussions.The book will be valuable for scholars and students of political science, history, and sociology.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-04-29
Mått156 x 234 x undefined mm
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieChina Perspectives
Antal sidor380
FörlagTaylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN9781041290711

Tillhör följande kategorier

Sociologi inom Samhalle och politik
Historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Xu Yong, Distinguished Professor of the "Changjiang Scholar" Program in Liberal Arts under the Ministry of Education; Senior Professor at Central China Normal University; specializes in research on Chinese politics and grassroots governance; author of Nationalisation, Peasantry and Rural Integration in China, among other works. Former Convener of the Political Science Discipline Review Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, Member of the Social Sciences Division of the Ministry of Education's Social Science Committee, among other positions.

1. The Imperial State in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 2. The Emperor and the Patriarch in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 3. The Emperor, His Family and Courtiers in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 4. Legalism and Confucianism in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 5. Prefectures and Counties and Feudalism in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 6. Cities and Villages in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 7. The Political Regime and Clan Power in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 8. State Law and Family Kinship in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 9. The Imperial State and Its Mandarins in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 10. The Imperial State and Its Scholar-officials in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 11. The Imperial State and Its Peasants in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 12. The Imperial State and Its Merchants in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics 13. The Imperial State and Its Military in Territorial-Kinship Dynamics