What do you think?
Rate this book
Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook
Chinese Civilization sets the standard for supplementary texts in Chinese history courses. With newly expanded material, personal documents, social records, laws, and documents that historians mistakenly ignore, the sixth edition is even more useful than its classic predecessor. A complete and thorough introduction to Chinese history and culture.
524 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
33 people are currently reading
293 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Buckley Ebrey
188books24followersPatricia Buckley Ebrey is an American historian specializing in cultural and gender issues during the Chinese Song Dynasty. Ebrey obtained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago in 1968 and her Masters and PhD from Columbia University in 1970 and 1975, respectively. Upon receiving her PhD, Ebrey was hired as visiting assistant professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She became an associate professor in 1982 and a full professor three years later. She is now a professor at the University of Washington.
Ebrey has received a number of awards for her work, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Ebery's The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period received the 1995 Levenson Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. Her 2008 work, Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong, received the Smithsonian Institution's 2010 Shimada Prize for Outstanding Work of East Asian Art History.
(from Wikipedia)
Ebrey has received a number of awards for her work, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation. Ebery's The Inner Quarters: Marriage and the Lives of Chinese Women in the Sung Period received the 1995 Levenson Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. Her 2008 work, Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong, received the Smithsonian Institution's 2010 Shimada Prize for Outstanding Work of East Asian Art History.
(from Wikipedia)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 19, 2021
Ebrey acts like a curator of textual museum pieces, providing snippets of writing like a gallery of snapshots. She presents an almost random selection of material from people of almost every station--nuns, farmers, courtesans, merchants, bandits, accountants. The pieces of writing these people leave behind are like pieces of papyrus from the refuse pits of Egypt. Much of this writing was never intended for publication, and this is part of its authenticity. Ebrey wants a thousand authentic glimpses of the past rather than a modern person's rational summary.
May 17, 2019
The best book to get an authentic understanding of China
For a long time I was struggling to find books that could help my Western friends have an authentic, comprehensive and unfiltered understanding of Chinese culture, society and history. This is by far the one and only book I recommended to my families and friends. Living in North America for years, I’m still often astonished by people’s lack of any BASIC level of understanding of China...Most people know nothing about this nation and culture with a history of 5000 years. Pathetically, the medias keep feeding public’s innocence and bias, instead of providing the authentic and whole vision. Hope more people get to read it.
For a long time I was struggling to find books that could help my Western friends have an authentic, comprehensive and unfiltered understanding of Chinese culture, society and history. This is by far the one and only book I recommended to my families and friends. Living in North America for years, I’m still often astonished by people’s lack of any BASIC level of understanding of China...Most people know nothing about this nation and culture with a history of 5000 years. Pathetically, the medias keep feeding public’s innocence and bias, instead of providing the authentic and whole vision. Hope more people get to read it.
January 3, 2018
In this book of primary sources, Ebrey has selected passages that reflect the ongoing development of Chinese culture � a daunting task for one volume. There are some obvious selections with lasting relevance, such as this passage from the Laozi:
“Do not honor the worthy,
And the people will not compete.
Do not value rare treasures,
And the people will not steal.
Do not display what others want,
And the people will not have their hearts confused.
A sage governs this way:
He empties people’s minds and fills their bellies.
He weakens their wills and strengthens their bones.
Keep the people always without knowledge and without desires,
For then the clever will not dare act.
Engage in no action and order will prevail.�
More obscure but equally interesting are a number of passages. I found this one particularly interesting and somewhat in line with the previous passage:
“Recently, a system of salt and iron monopolies, a liquor excise tax, and an equable marketing system have been established throughout the country. These represent financial competition with the people which undermines their native honesty and promotes selfishness. As a result, few among the people take up the fundamental pursuits [agriculture] while many flock to the secondary [trade and industry]. When artificiality thrives, simplicity declines; when the secondary flourishes, the basic decays. Stress on the secondary makes the people decadent; emphasis on the basic keeps them unsophisticated. When the people are unsophisticated, wealth abounds; when they are extravagant, cold and hunger ensue.�
To those who have grown up in western civilization, these are very different thought processes on what makes good governance. That’s the point in reading a book like this however, to expose the historical reality of different systems and cultures. All in all, this is an interesting read.
See my other reviews here!
“Do not honor the worthy,
And the people will not compete.
Do not value rare treasures,
And the people will not steal.
Do not display what others want,
And the people will not have their hearts confused.
A sage governs this way:
He empties people’s minds and fills their bellies.
He weakens their wills and strengthens their bones.
Keep the people always without knowledge and without desires,
For then the clever will not dare act.
Engage in no action and order will prevail.�
More obscure but equally interesting are a number of passages. I found this one particularly interesting and somewhat in line with the previous passage:
“Recently, a system of salt and iron monopolies, a liquor excise tax, and an equable marketing system have been established throughout the country. These represent financial competition with the people which undermines their native honesty and promotes selfishness. As a result, few among the people take up the fundamental pursuits [agriculture] while many flock to the secondary [trade and industry]. When artificiality thrives, simplicity declines; when the secondary flourishes, the basic decays. Stress on the secondary makes the people decadent; emphasis on the basic keeps them unsophisticated. When the people are unsophisticated, wealth abounds; when they are extravagant, cold and hunger ensue.�
To those who have grown up in western civilization, these are very different thought processes on what makes good governance. That’s the point in reading a book like this however, to expose the historical reality of different systems and cultures. All in all, this is an interesting read.
See my other reviews here!
April 13, 2014
I read selections from this book during my freshman year of university. Primary source documents can be really dull if you don't know what you're looking for; however, these documents were chosen to be read in conjunction with Patricia Buckley Ebrey's main textbook, 「The Cambridge Illustrated History of China,」which, in my opinion, is an excellent overall perspective of Chinese history. This primary-source book was compiled by Ebrey, so both books work very well together.
December 20, 2009
I adored this book. These mainly primary source readings were fascinating and were my favorite readings of the semester. The sourcebook has a wide variety of reading son different topics ranging from the family to the economy in past China. It also goes up to the modern era of China. Very useful and interesting.
April 28, 2021
A random collection of historical readings in English from Chinese sources. Since there are no Chinese characters used in the book in the 1981 edition, it would be tough to find the original source. Includes a bibliography. It might be worth checking out a later edition.
July 5, 2023
This is a good reference to Chinese history, inserting excerpts of historical Chinese writing, translated into English. I can definitely see myself breaking into this book often when I'm trying to explore a specific era in Chinese history.
Read
October 4, 2015Another standard find in intro Chinese history courses in college.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.