History books of the various dynasties

[lilongyue]

One of my long-term goals is to translate Chinese history books into English, as there are almost no "popular "history books (meaning for non-scholars) available about ancient China.  I'm especially interested in the classical dynasties (Tang, Sung, etc.).  I'm interested in modern history books, written in modern Chinese, about those eras.  I'm not interested in ancient texts or classic novels based in those times.  

For those of you who have read some history books in Chinese, can you recommend any?  Are there any famous Chinese historians I should check out?  Also, what do you think of Mainland scholars versus Taiwanese, or Hong Kong scholars?  Given the Mainland approach to history, and the Communist government's censorship and control, I have the feeling that Mainland scholars might not be accurate.  I'm worried that if I read Mainland history books I'll just get the version of history approved by the Communist party.

[gato]

There are many such books published in the mainland. The best thing to do since you are in Hangzhou is to spend some time in the history section of a large bookstore near you. As you say, many history used as textbooks in the mainland are written from the perspective of the Party. Books written for the popular consumer market, however, are less politically dogmatic.

There are many such dynasty-oriented history books available. These on the Tang Dynasty, for example: http://search.dangdang.com/search.aspx?key=%CC%C6%B3%AF&selbook=0&selmusic=0&selmovie=0&key1=&key2=&key3=&key4=&key5=&catalog=

I recently bought a copy of 重读中国历史 (Re-reading Chinese History), which seems very good. It's a look at many major events in Chinese history from a somewhat contrarian perspective (contrarian compared to the standard textbook account, that is).

In general, books published in HK and Taiwan will be more objective, but these markets are smaller and publish much fewer books compared to the mainland. So it's best to look at books published from all three places and choose the best available. For instance, I've been looking for a general history book (通史) that covers the entire span of Chinese history, and most such 通史 books published in China are either textbooks written from the Party perspective already mentioned or from the pre-1949 era written in classical Chinese (read almost only by scholars today). The few choices available from publishers in Taiwan appear to be more on the level of historical survey books that you would see in the West (e.g. History of Europe, etc.).

[wushijiao]

I'm worried that if I read Mainland history books I'll just get the version of history approved by the Communist party

I don't know if it is quite that simple. For textbooks, sure, they all propagandistic. But for more general history, I think there aren't really strict restraints, and the more specialized the history books, especially in areas that aren't sensitive, the more objective. Also, many scholars are Mainland history fans take history too seriously too be simply lured in by propaganda.

It seems to me that Hong Kong and Taiwan have a lot of great books that you can't find in the Mainland, especailly about modern history, but the Mainland just has a huge population, and thus the number of books written in the Mainland just surpasses that of those areas. Even in Hong Kong bookstores, about half or more of the history books are published in the Mainland.

I think the biases are more subtle. In my view, the two biggest biases are:

1) A pro-China/pro-Han bias. For example, in books about the Qing dynasty, the slaughter of over a million Dzungars in order to solidify the empire doesn't get much press, but the Opium Wars do. (Of course, the actions of the British and the other Western powers were morally appalling). But, China benefits still from the borders that were paid for in blood, using the same imperial logic that other empires used. However, by not mentioning the atrocities committed by China, and often describing the atrocities caused by foreigners in very emotionally-laden language, people mistakenly get the impression that the actions of the past imperial governments were peaceful and benevolent, and by extension, that China is a “peaceful country” by nature. (Of course, I’m not necessarily arguing that it won’t be in the future).

2) Many histories suffer from the "dynastic cycle complex", in which the official politics of the dynasties are over-emphasized compared to some of the broader and more important changes in the wider society.

Anyway, if you want to translate a modern historian, maybe you could try something by 易中天? He is a popular, controversial author that writes best-selling history books that have been hugely successful with the public. He has written about the Three Kingdoms period, and about the Han, among other. (But some people think his books have some flaws).

[gato]

I bought a book called "宋代政治史" (A Political History of the Song Dynasty) in my usual jaunt through the local bookstore the other day. I've only skimmed through it so far, but it appears to be exactly the kind of book that's been so lacking: a broad-scoped Jonathan-Spence-level history text about a period in relatively-easy-to-read modern language. It reminds me of a great book called "Taiwan: A Political History" written by Denny Roy, a researcher at the University of Hawaii. This book is like that book but about the Song Dynasty.

Like in many other areas, some of the best history books by Chinese authors were written in the 1912-1949 period (between the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the founding of the PRC), many of them written entirely or almost entirely in classical Chinese, as most readers at the time had an extensive background in classical Chinese. But few people nowadays are comfortably reading an entire book written in classical Chinese, and these books could use some updating.

[lilongyue]

Thanks for all the info. When I have a chance to make it to a book store, I plan on looking for some of the titles you mentioned.

[lilongyue]

Well, several months after starting this thread, and a lots looking and asking around, I found a book about the Tang Dynasty that is close enough to my level to make it worth the effort required to read it. It's called 大唐帝国. As I was preparing to write this thread, and checking for the author's name, I noticed that a translator was listed. Translator? So I flipped to the back of the book and found out the original author is Japanese! The author's name is 陈舜臣 (Chen Shunchen). He seems to be a well known historian in Japanese, specializing in Chinese history. On the cover it say the book is 隋乱唐盛三百年, and is written in a story-like manner. I still need to read it with a dictionary, but compared to a book I bought a week ago (隋唐五代简史 , published by 福建人民版社) it's a breath of fresh air, as 隋唐五代简史 is pretty heavy, and took about 45 minutes to an hour per page, with more time spent looking up characters than actual reading.

I saw another book that also seemed appropriate, but whose focus was on the emperors of the Tang dynasty. Just forgot the name, but both books were in the small branch of a Xinhua book store near my house. For anyone else interested in finding readable history books, an important work to help steer you clear of cryptic specialist texts is 畅销. Wenlin defines it as a verb meaning "to sell well," but it also seems to be equivalent to "popular," as in "popular science," meaning written for the general public. You can also ask for "不专业的."