Structures of Governance in Song Dynasty China, 960–1279 CE

Charles Hartman is Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University at Albany, State University of New York.

• List of Figures and Tables; Preface; A Note on the Text; Introduction; Part I: Dual Faces of the Song State; Part II: The Technocratic and Confucian Models of Governance; Part III: Interactions; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.

'In Structures of Governance, Charles Hartman provides a radically new interpretation of Song dynasty political culture. Building on decades of meticulous work in Song historical sources, Hartman argues persuasively that Song governance was not controlled by men who espoused Confucian rule, as the conventional picture would have it, but rather by their political enemies. Hartman brilliantly lays out the mechanisms by which those enemies - palace women, eunuchs, 'petty' technocrats and 'nefarious ministers' - were able to dominate Song political life. The result is a breathtakingly transformed understanding of the functioning of the Song state, one that every student of the Song - and of Chinese history more broadly - will need to take into account.' Beverly Bossler, Brown University