Richard J. Smith (1) (1944–)

While there are many books that cover periods of Chinese history, there are far fewer that cover the cultural and mental landscape of those historical periods. This text is one of the few that truly succeeds in explaining how and why this specific period (the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911) was unique in China's history.

The very foreignness of the ruling elite, the Manchus, always ensured a distinctiveness to this reign. Yet it was additionally always the Manchu intent to tolerate, incorporate, and at times even promote those elements of the conquered Chinese society that would bring stability and success to the empire. The text's first three chapters on the Qing inheritance, political order and its social and economic institutions thus set the stage for the following chapters on language, prominent philosophies, religion, art, literature, social life, and emergence into the 20th Century.

The chapters on language (Ch. 5), art (Ch. 8) and literature (Ch. 9) are especially well-written; truly insightful in their understanding of these subjects and well-written in a style that is page-turning. I would have loved to have been an undergraduate in Professor Smith's class at Rice; he must be one of their leading instructors and it is clear that these well-written, easy-to-understand chapters are the result of having mastered the challenging task of making very complicated information easily understood (as the compiler of the "Mustard Seed Garden Manual" referred to below, wrote, "If you aim for simplicity, master complexity").

An example from his chapter on Chinese art, a subject that is of particular interest to me: all art historians have studied the importance of the yin/yang bipolarities in understanding the influences at work in Chinese art, yet Smith covers this subject so he can continue to show its importance in understanding Chinese connoisseurship. In the section on painting and calligraphy, for example, he explains the criteria that brushwork needs to embody both the Confucian concept of 'li' (which he defines as "a standard for realism and general metaphor for creative process") as well as 'qi' (spirit) in order to create an organic whole. This artistic oneness is expressed in Chinese as 'kaihe' ("opening and closing" or "expanding and contracting"), and through the yin/yang lens thus creates the expectation within traditional Chinese painting that there will always be a balance of the two forces--the brush moves down before coming up, lightness will be complemented with darkness, movement with stillness, to create a harmonic and rhythmic whole. Seen in this light, the full understanding of why the Chinese have chosen the expression 'shanshui' ("mountains water") to identify landscape paintings takes on a deeper meaning. This book is worth this chapter alone and I have recommended it to many who want to have a deeper understanding of Chinese art.

A final word: the author writes in the preface to the second edition that he has taken to heart some comments made on the first edition of the book that it was "too abstract and impersonal." No one could make that complaint today. The book sings with wonderful examples of specific individuals, books, paintings and stories that illustrate the points being made. As a result, it also brings together many diverse data points for those who already have a background in Chinese history. (You may have heard of the orthodox painter Wang Hui, for example, but Professor Smith now puts him in the context of the Six Great Masters of the Qing; you may have read "The Mustard Seed Garden Manual" but you now understand it's far more than a painting manual.)

In short, this book is destined to become a classic for those wishing to understand not just the Qing Dynasty, but the very way the Manchus and the Chinese perceived their world in a period recognized by many as China's grandest "pre-modern" years.… (mehr)

This is a very succinct history of the Chinese classic: its possible origins, its acceptance into the Confucian canon, and its subsequent uses by various philosophical schools through the use of commentaries. Originally a book of divination, through the uses of commentaries and interpretations, it became a repository of philosophical thought and wisdom. Through the hegemony of Chinese culture it became influential in Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Japan. In the nineteenth and twentieth century its influence spread to Europe and the Americas. Since the middle of the twentieth century its influence and use in Mexico and the United States has grown rapidly in artistic and popular culture.… (mehr)