The history of China is as rich and strange as that of any country on earth. Yet for many, China’s history remains unknown, or known only through the stylized images that generations in the West have cherished or reviled as truth.With his command of character and event––the product of thirty years of research and reflection in the field––Spence dispels those myths in a powerful narrative. Over four centuries of Chinese history, from the waning days of the once-glorious Ming Dynasty...

“A milestone in Western studies of China.” (John K. Fairbank)In this masterful, highly original approach to modern Chinese history, Jonathan D. Spence shows us the Chinese revolution through the eyes of its most articulate participants—the writers, historians, philosophers, and insurrectionists who shaped and were shaped by the turbulent events of the twentieth century. By skillfully combining literary materials with more conventional sources of political and socia...

From the renowned historian and author of The Death of Woman Wang, a vivid and gripping account of the 16th-century missionary’s remarkable sojourn to Ming ChinaIn 1577, the Jesuit Priest Matteo Ricci set out from Italy to bring Christian faith and Western thought to Ming dynasty China. To capture the complex emotional and religious drama of Ricci's extraordinary life, Jonathan Spence relates his subject's experiences with several images that Ricci himself created—four images deriv...

“Spence draws upon his extensive knowledge of Chinese politics and culture to create an illuminating picture of Mao. . . . Superb.” (Chicago Tribune)From humble origins in the provinces, Mao Zedong rose to absolute power, unifying with an iron fist a vast country torn apart by years of weak leadership, colonialism, and war. This sharply drawn and insightful account brings to life this modern-day emperor and the tumultuous era that he did so much to shape.

"A magnificent tapestry…a story that reaches beyond China into our world and time: a story of faith, hope, passion, and a fatal grandiosity." —Washington Post Book WorldWhether read for its powerful account of the largest uprising in human history, or for its foreshadowing of the terrible convulsions suffered by twentieth-century China, or for the narrative power of a great historian at his best, God's Chinese Son must be read. At the center of th...

This lively and elegant book by the acclaimed historian Jonathan D. Spence reconstructs an extraordinary episode in the early intercourse between Europe and China. It is the story of John Hu, a lowly but devout Chinese Catholic, who in 1722 accompanied a Jesuit missionary on a journey to France--a journey that ended with Hu's confinement in a lunatic asylum. At once a triumph of historical detective work and a gripping narrative, The Question of Hu deftly probes the collision of t...

Città di Xi’an, Cina, 28 ottobre 1728: poco prima di mezzogiorno, un palanchino attraversa la lunga via centrale, mentre un uomo vestito curiosamente lo insegue con una corsa affannosa, brandendo in aria una lettera. Alcune guardie lo bloccano, e il destinatario, il generale Yue Zhongqi, governatore delle province di Shaanxi e Sichuan, ordina di arrestarlo. Gli basterà leggere poche righe per intuire i contorni di una gigantesca congiura anti-imperiale e dare il via a una caccia all’uomo c...

“Splendid . . . One could not imagine a better subject than Zhan Dai for Spence.” (The New Republic)Celebrated China scholar Jonathan Spence vividly brings to life seventeenth-century China through this biography of Zhang Dai, recognized as one of the finest historians and essayists of the Ming dynasty. Born in 1597, Zhang Dai was forty-seven when the Ming dynasty, after more than two hundred years of rule, was overthrown by the Manchu invasion of 1644. Ha...

"Like everything else written by Jonathan Spence, The Chan's Great Continent is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in China. Spence is one of the greatest Sinologists of our time, and his work is both authoritative and highly readable." —Los Angeles Times Book ReviewChina has transfixed the West since the earliest contacts between these civilizations. With his characteristic elegance and insight, Jonathan Spence explores how the West has ...

Matteo Ricci fu l’uomo che con maggiore determinazione ed efficacia tentò di far comunicare due grandi civiltà – quella europea e quella cinese – che per secoli si erano ritenute autosufficienti. Gesuita, di quell’epoca in cui i gesuiti erano anche uomini temerari, che partivano verso i luoghi più remoti con l’intenzione non soltanto di convertire ma di capire chi vi abitava, patì in Cina traversie di ogni genere ma riuscì a offrire dell’Europa e della cristianità un profilo che si impress...

A remarkable re-creation of the life of K'ang-hsi, emperor of the Manchu dynasty from 1661-1772, assembled from documents that survived his reign. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

一封反清逆書，掀起一場巨大的政治風暴一部曠世奇書，顛倒兩代皇帝的臣民子孫◆****雍正何以將造謠逆賊曾靜帶至宮中坐享榮華，甚至與皇帝聯名出書？◆****乾隆為何違逆父命誅殺曾靜，甚至禁燬雍正頒行的《大義覺迷錄》？◆****一樁曲折離奇的文字獄案，如何捲起滿清皇室與臣民間的重重波瀾？恪守史料，布局奇絕，敘事精妙，文筆流暢以小說筆法書寫歷史──漢學巨擘史景遷作品經典重現──本書聚焦於雍正王朝著名的文字獄案，史氏從文化認同的角度，透過扎實的史料分析與絕妙的小說筆法，回到歷史場景中重審這起離奇案件的始末。湖...