The Fall of Imperial China

Transformation of Modern China

by Frederic E. Wakeman Jr.

From Simon & Schuster, The Fall of Imperial China is Frederic Wakeman, Jr.'s exploration of Imperial China—both its astronomic rise and steep decline.From the "Historians of modern China are used to contrasting the dizzying changes in post-renaissance Europe with the glacial creep of Confucian civilization. The West's global expansion to new vistas of discovery thus distorts our perspective of those older worlds that resisted European conquest. The most tenacious of these ancient civilizations was the Chinese empire."

Genres: China, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 1976

About the author

Frederic Evans Wakeman, Jr. (Chinese: 魏斐德; pinyin: Wèi Fěidé) was a prominent American scholar of East Asian history and Professor of History at University of California, Berkeley.

His father was the novelist Frederic E. Wakeman, Sr. (publishing as "Frederic Wakeman")
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederi...

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Extremely dated now. It’s over forty years old now! William T. Rowe’s newer history of the Great Qing Empire is much better. This book is only useful for seeing how the scholarship has explained the collapse of the Qing dynasty over the years.

[Monty Milne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history of China’s last imperial dynasty has only one flaw: it is forty years old. I am not sure if that is such a bad thing anyway. No doubt the “correct” historical view as sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party differs from some of the views here: but I am not inclined to accept anything we are told by the murderous regime that gave us Uighur Genocide and the Wuhan Virus. (I am currently suffering from a particularly virulent form of the latter, so I am even less inclined to give the Reds the benefit of the doubt).

I also like that the author uses Wade Giles rather than Pin Yin, so we are talking about the Ch’ing Empire, not the Qing. I am told the Chinese Communist Party want all of us to use Pin Yin, which to me is a good enough reason for using Wade Giles all the time. I also like it that the book is written as a flowing linear narrative with each chapter following the next in time: one of the (many) annoying things about the Harvard History of China I read recently is that it eschews this approach in favour of non linear thematic chapters.

I have no doubt that Great Britain played a shameful role in China in the nineteenth century, and the full horror of the Opium Wars is here set forth in painful detail. The hypocrisy of the collective West at that time makes for difficult reading. Christianity, though undoubtedly working to alleviate suffering in some respects, was also seen as a vehicle of Western imperialism: “a barbarian toxin, spiritually poisoning the body politic.” Not that the home grown Chinese reaction to it was any better: the religious psycho-insanity of the Taiping Rebellion caused thirty million deaths over a fourteen year period.

I never understood why both Nationalists and Communists co-opted Sun Yat Sen as a Great Philosopher of the New China. He was, according to Wakeman, essentially bogus. Pithy assessments such as this made the book a pleasure to read. Now I must go and see if there is an organisation working for a restoration of the Mandate of Heaven under the Ch’ing Banners, and if so I might send a small donation to the current Pretender.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although dated (which actually is positive) the “Spin merchants” from the Mainland Communist or Taiwanese political parties or the Western nations have not rewritten this history to align with their own ideological thinking.
Well researched and moderately unbiased, this book is helpful in presenting the tapestry of Chinese Imperial history … especially when read with many other Chinese history books and textbooks.
Wakeman does however, loves to show off his stylistical language (and somewhat inappropriate use of French, such as Laissez-faire) … which was a little distracting.

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[Ryo · Rating 4 out of 5]

告别九年义务教育之后必须得靠这种阅读来进行抠喉催吐狼奶般的自我通识教育

[王棕 · Rating 4 out of 5]

@微信读书

[Sam von Dresden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a cool grandparent, this book is outdated but entertaining.