What’s the Significance?
Big Picture Questions
How can you explain the changing fortunes of Buddhism in China?
How did China influence the world of the third-wave era? How was China itself transformed by its encounters with a wider world?
How might China’s posture in the world during the Tang and Song dynasty era compare to its emerging role in global affairs in the twenty-first century?
Looking Back: In what ways did Tang and Song dynasty China resemble the earlier Han dynasty period, and in what ways had China changed?
Next Steps: For Further Study
Samuel Adshead, Tang China: The Rise of the East in World History (2004). Explores the role of China within the larger world.
Patricia Ebrey, The Inner Quarters (1993). A balanced account of the gains and losses experienced by Chinese women during the changes of the Song dynasty.
Mark Elvin, The Pattern of the Chinese Past (1973). A classic account of the Chinese economic revolution.
James L. Huffman, Japan in World History (2010). The first three chapters of this recent work place Japan’s early history in the framework of world history.
Paul S. Ropp, China in World History (2010). An up-to-date telling of China’s historical development, cast in a global context.
Arthur F. Wright, Buddhism in Chinese History (1959). An older account filled with wonderful stories and anecdotes.
Upper River during the Qing Ming Festival, http://www.ibiblio.org/ulysses/gec/painting/qingming/full.htm. A scrolling reproduction of a huge Chinese painting, showing in detail the Song dynasty city of Kaifeng.