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Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers of Imperial China
Spanning more than two thousand years, from the first emperor, buried with his terra-cotta army in the third century B.C., to the last emperor, enthroned in the Forbidden City as a boy of four in 1911, Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors presents the entire history of this vast and still mysterious region through the stories of its all-powerful rulers. The Chinese imperial system combined a highly centralized administration with a Confucian philosophy of moral-political beliefs. The emperor was the Son of Heaven and enjoyed semi-divine powers, but he was not infallible: should he fail his subjects, rebellion was justified. The emperors therefore weathered centuries of violent change and, despite brutal revolts and civil wars, remained at the center of the largest political unit in the world, the Middle Kingdom. The emperors were an extraordinary group of men--and one woman, Wu Zetian--whose virtues and faults were magnified by their exalted position. Many were literary scholars and painters (the Song emperor, Huizong, founded an imperial academy of painting). Some were mentally retarded; and some left the control of the empire to their eunuchs, concubines, or dowager empresses. Under able rulers, China's frontiers expanded, dominating Central and Southeast Asia; under weak rulers the frontiers shrank, and for centuries the country was occupied by alien Mongols. It took the arrival of a civilization from the West with superior firepower finally to shake the Middle Kingdom's foundations. The detailed coverage includes: data files for every emperor, listing important information such as name at birth and details of wives and concubines; special features ranging from the Great Wall of China to the Ming Tombs; portraits of the major emperors and maps detailing, for example, the arrival of Buddhism and the Silk Road routes; time lines with at-a-glance visual guides to the length and key events of each emperor's reign.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1998
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October 9, 2017
Near the conclusion of Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors by Ann Paludan she writes about the Chinese imperial system:
'It had been one of the most successful political systems ever devised. Its extraordinary success had lain in its flexibility and cosmic nature, providing a philosophical and moral basis for the relationship between human society and heaven. It provided a centralized form of government with a safety valve based on morality. If the emperor erred, he forfeited the divine mantle and could be replaced, but, until the late 19th century, the system as such was never questioned.' pg. 217
Even though a book might take me forever to read doesn't mean I didn't like it. This one took me awhile, but whenever I picked it I tended to enjoy the many nuggets of information and tales of the various emperors' characters and actions. Ann Paludan's language was very descriptive at times of some of the emperors. Imperial rule in China lasted for 2132 years until the year 1911. The last Chinese emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi is the subject of one of my favorite films The Last Emperor: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093389/.
The history of the Chinese imperial system is long and at times very dramatic. All the Chinese emperors are chronicled here with photos of architecture and artwork throughout. There were many Chinese dynasties, a few running concurrently in other parts of the country. The emperors were a vast array of characters. Some were very scholarly, artistic, apt militarily and others were monkish and reclusive, and others were weak and ruled by their wive and concubines or eunuchs, and a few were dissipated and enjoyed only their harems and carousing. In early dynasties, a number died as infants.
Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors talks often about the imperial burial practices which concepts reminded me much of ancient Egypt.
By the 1400s, China was a world power in the "Old World". Envoys from not only East Asia but also West Asia (the Middle East) and Europe came there. The Chinese also struck out as a maritime power and went as even the East African coast bringing back curiosities such as giraffes to the imperial court. This report about Kenyans with Chinese ancestry was broadcast a few years ago on Chinese TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMFeZ... Like the Chinese porcelain that the villagers have in the video, Chinese porcelain and coins have been found not only along the East African coast but also in places like Baghdad.
There are so many emperors here that I still can't recall most of them except Wu Zetian (624-705) who was a woman, Khubilai Khan (1215-1294), Yonglee (1360-1424), the empress dowager Cixi, and Pu Yi (1906-1967). Not all Chinese rulers were ethnic Chinese. Some like Khubilai were Mongol and Cixi and her nephew Pu Yi were Manchu. China was also not only diverse ethnically but also religiously with besides Buddhists and Daoists also Muslims and Christians. Sorghagtani Beki, the mother of Khubilai Khan, was a Nestorian Christian who was written about and praised by at least two Middle Eastern writers.
This is as far as I will go with the tidbits I found interesting. I won't reveal anymore. There were a number of break away pages with information about sculpture, painting, architecture, burial practices and rituals, and various military conflicts and uprisings near the end. These pages rather of slowed me down at times since the print was smaller, but they also provided good insight. These break away sections are the main reasons I gave this book four instead of fives stars.
In this review I use Ann Paludan's transliteration of Chinese names.
'It had been one of the most successful political systems ever devised. Its extraordinary success had lain in its flexibility and cosmic nature, providing a philosophical and moral basis for the relationship between human society and heaven. It provided a centralized form of government with a safety valve based on morality. If the emperor erred, he forfeited the divine mantle and could be replaced, but, until the late 19th century, the system as such was never questioned.' pg. 217
Even though a book might take me forever to read doesn't mean I didn't like it. This one took me awhile, but whenever I picked it I tended to enjoy the many nuggets of information and tales of the various emperors' characters and actions. Ann Paludan's language was very descriptive at times of some of the emperors. Imperial rule in China lasted for 2132 years until the year 1911. The last Chinese emperor Aisin Gioro Puyi is the subject of one of my favorite films The Last Emperor: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093389/.
The history of the Chinese imperial system is long and at times very dramatic. All the Chinese emperors are chronicled here with photos of architecture and artwork throughout. There were many Chinese dynasties, a few running concurrently in other parts of the country. The emperors were a vast array of characters. Some were very scholarly, artistic, apt militarily and others were monkish and reclusive, and others were weak and ruled by their wive and concubines or eunuchs, and a few were dissipated and enjoyed only their harems and carousing. In early dynasties, a number died as infants.
Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors talks often about the imperial burial practices which concepts reminded me much of ancient Egypt.
By the 1400s, China was a world power in the "Old World". Envoys from not only East Asia but also West Asia (the Middle East) and Europe came there. The Chinese also struck out as a maritime power and went as even the East African coast bringing back curiosities such as giraffes to the imperial court. This report about Kenyans with Chinese ancestry was broadcast a few years ago on Chinese TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMFeZ... Like the Chinese porcelain that the villagers have in the video, Chinese porcelain and coins have been found not only along the East African coast but also in places like Baghdad.
There are so many emperors here that I still can't recall most of them except Wu Zetian (624-705) who was a woman, Khubilai Khan (1215-1294), Yonglee (1360-1424), the empress dowager Cixi, and Pu Yi (1906-1967). Not all Chinese rulers were ethnic Chinese. Some like Khubilai were Mongol and Cixi and her nephew Pu Yi were Manchu. China was also not only diverse ethnically but also religiously with besides Buddhists and Daoists also Muslims and Christians. Sorghagtani Beki, the mother of Khubilai Khan, was a Nestorian Christian who was written about and praised by at least two Middle Eastern writers.
This is as far as I will go with the tidbits I found interesting. I won't reveal anymore. There were a number of break away pages with information about sculpture, painting, architecture, burial practices and rituals, and various military conflicts and uprisings near the end. These pages rather of slowed me down at times since the print was smaller, but they also provided good insight. These break away sections are the main reasons I gave this book four instead of fives stars.
In this review I use Ann Paludan's transliteration of Chinese names.
March 13, 2011
I picked up Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors to fill in the gaping holes in my understanding of ancient China. I expected a somewhat dry succession of biographical sketches, but found myself staying up late to read about just one more emperor, one more political intrigue, one more military campaign. Ms. Paludan's volume covers 2100 years in just over 200 pages – a truly remarkable feat! All the more remarkable is the enthusiasm that exudes from every page and the clarity with which so much information is disseminated. The text is well-written and frequently flows more like a story than a reference book. The illustrations are numerous, colorful and varied. Sidebars provide additional detail on every possible topic from porcelain to paper, and The Forbidden City to footbinding. Timelines and chronological lists of the emperors in each dynasty help the reader keep track of where in history each ruler falls and the concurrent events which defined or limited his (or, in one case, her) reign.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
September 11, 2008
It only looks like a coffee table book, but it is great as a quick reference for those occasions when you need to know which emperor sat on the throne during which dynasty. You know, to resolve a bet or during some TV quiz show...
February 5, 2010
I really look forward to getting this for Christmas. (Hopefully someone will get it for me for Christmas.) It looks like a good book for reference, or just for reading. I hope she uses the commonly accepted spelling, instead of Mandarin Pinyin...
August 15, 2022
The "record of the rulers" is more a general history of imperial China than it is a biographical review. Since it covers over two thousand years in about 220 pages, corners were cut. But that is to the reader's advantage. All this history is parsed by dynasty, era, and monarch. Thus, the continuity is maintained and the story line remains "crisp". I read the Thames & Hudson (pub) version of 1998 which is full of illustrations, maps, and a continuous timeline running along the bottom of each page. Overall, and excellent read. Might not get high marks from a true China scholar, but for lay people like me is is not only informative but a joy to read.
March 3, 2018
I read this book for a history round table at the local library on Chinese history. Waaaaay too much information for that short of a book. It is a chronology of Chinese emperors, but for 2000+ years history, the book is only 217 pages. Some of the emperors only got a sentence or two. I also would have liked more sources.
May 2, 2022
A surprisingly condensed book describing an epoch spinning over two millenium presents a comprehensive information of China's history and customs by an easily-readable rich-illustrated way.
As to a reader less than acquainted with a topic, this work is extremely educative.
Highly recommended.
As to a reader less than acquainted with a topic, this work is extremely educative.
Highly recommended.
April 26, 2018
A long and sad list of the Sons of Heaven, punctuated thinly with successful Monarchs. It was eye-opening to learn how many unhappy, deposed, and unsuccessful Emperor there were. It really is true, uneasy lies the head which wears the crown.
November 28, 2018
A good starting point for any scholar of Chinese history for an overview of the various periods, reigns and cultural production under particular rulers. Valuable resource for beginners interested in the expansive Chinese history.
October 11, 2025
Short, accurate, well-written biographies of the emperors interspersed with largely relevant images and inserts to give flavor to the reigns. excellent for reference. I liked the timeline at the bottom of the pages.
June 28, 2021
Als erster Einstieg ins Thema in Ordnung
September 15, 2012
This is a great book because it highlights very real, key events and individuals who've shaped Chinese history over the centuries. The book itself says a lot about the Chinese and how they view themselves in the subject matter that is chosen by the author. For by and large, in movies, literature and art, the Chinese seem to focus quite a lot on the grandeur of their remote past - rather than upon the squalid poverty of the serfs living outside the walls of the lavish Forbidden City.
As in Korea, modern Chinese historical dramas tend to focus almost exclusively on the less than 1% of filthy rich nobles who had so much power, that they usually assumed the role of gods. Reading this book gives you a very good idea of just how great a disparity there has almost always been between the super rich and powerful and the more or less enslaved, dirt poor peasant masses that has actually long made up the bulk of Chinese history.
Even today, the new fangled "communist" system seems to have merely rejuvenated rather than truly replaced the old Imperial system. For wasn't Mao Zedong the most recent god/emperor of the vast majority of the Chinese people? Could you really ever say "no" to the guy? He even authored a sort of Bible in the form of his famed Little Red Book.
In any case, it's incredibly fascinating to read this volume for all sorts of reasons. I wonder sometimes, for example, if the average modern Chinese (or Westerner looking on from afar, for that matter) has any idea whatsoever, how despised and just plain despotic and cruel the first emperor really was. Most people today know, for example, about the famed Terra Cotta Warriors that were placed in his tomb. But do they realize that most of these artifacts have been painstakingly reconstructed from relatively small shards by modern archaeologists?
You see, the first emperor was so hated that after his death, the people revolted and even went down into the tomb and smashed his beloved funerary army into millions of pieces. In fact, Qin Shihuang was a guy who burned books and had literally hundreds of thousands of people killed. Before him, the vast country that is now known collectively as China was more akin to the collection of various European states, all with more or less separate languages and writing systems.
All in all however, there appear to have been some very good and much beloved emperors in Chinese dynastic history. Yet many of the others appear to have been characteristically selfish, greedy and arrogant, not all that different from the first emperor. Sadly, in times of famine and war, the masses often suffered greatly. Sometimes even driven to cannibalism, with peasants trading children with other families so that they wouldn't have to eat their own offspring. Perhaps, that is why there have been so many periods of upheaval in China; rebellions that make the French Revolution look like a trifle.
But this volume, like the lavish soaps and big budget Chinese movie epics of recent years, doesn't really focus on any of that. It's all in there however, if you read between the lines. For despite the 20th century attempt by the Chinese to level the social playing field by introducing Marxism - and to banish the pervasive ancient superstitions of the vast majority of a population that has been kept largely secluded on the world stage and ever economically destitute and hungry - without ever having much at all that has ever resembled human rights for literally thousands upon thousands of years... not much has really changed, has it?
Even today, modern Chinese are still held in thrall by a comparatively tiny ruling elite. And it's not like they have full use of the Internet or anything democratic like that, eh? Anyway, I love this book. If for no other reason than the fact that reading about the opulence of many of the emperors of China really provides an excellent lesson and a very clear insight into what thousands of years of static, banana republic style governance produces in the end. No wonder so many modern Chinese still whisper of the "hungry ghosts" of their ancestors. Many of whom were buried along the vast stretches of the Great Wall. May God rest them all.
As in Korea, modern Chinese historical dramas tend to focus almost exclusively on the less than 1% of filthy rich nobles who had so much power, that they usually assumed the role of gods. Reading this book gives you a very good idea of just how great a disparity there has almost always been between the super rich and powerful and the more or less enslaved, dirt poor peasant masses that has actually long made up the bulk of Chinese history.
Even today, the new fangled "communist" system seems to have merely rejuvenated rather than truly replaced the old Imperial system. For wasn't Mao Zedong the most recent god/emperor of the vast majority of the Chinese people? Could you really ever say "no" to the guy? He even authored a sort of Bible in the form of his famed Little Red Book.
In any case, it's incredibly fascinating to read this volume for all sorts of reasons. I wonder sometimes, for example, if the average modern Chinese (or Westerner looking on from afar, for that matter) has any idea whatsoever, how despised and just plain despotic and cruel the first emperor really was. Most people today know, for example, about the famed Terra Cotta Warriors that were placed in his tomb. But do they realize that most of these artifacts have been painstakingly reconstructed from relatively small shards by modern archaeologists?
You see, the first emperor was so hated that after his death, the people revolted and even went down into the tomb and smashed his beloved funerary army into millions of pieces. In fact, Qin Shihuang was a guy who burned books and had literally hundreds of thousands of people killed. Before him, the vast country that is now known collectively as China was more akin to the collection of various European states, all with more or less separate languages and writing systems.
All in all however, there appear to have been some very good and much beloved emperors in Chinese dynastic history. Yet many of the others appear to have been characteristically selfish, greedy and arrogant, not all that different from the first emperor. Sadly, in times of famine and war, the masses often suffered greatly. Sometimes even driven to cannibalism, with peasants trading children with other families so that they wouldn't have to eat their own offspring. Perhaps, that is why there have been so many periods of upheaval in China; rebellions that make the French Revolution look like a trifle.
But this volume, like the lavish soaps and big budget Chinese movie epics of recent years, doesn't really focus on any of that. It's all in there however, if you read between the lines. For despite the 20th century attempt by the Chinese to level the social playing field by introducing Marxism - and to banish the pervasive ancient superstitions of the vast majority of a population that has been kept largely secluded on the world stage and ever economically destitute and hungry - without ever having much at all that has ever resembled human rights for literally thousands upon thousands of years... not much has really changed, has it?
Even today, modern Chinese are still held in thrall by a comparatively tiny ruling elite. And it's not like they have full use of the Internet or anything democratic like that, eh? Anyway, I love this book. If for no other reason than the fact that reading about the opulence of many of the emperors of China really provides an excellent lesson and a very clear insight into what thousands of years of static, banana republic style governance produces in the end. No wonder so many modern Chinese still whisper of the "hungry ghosts" of their ancestors. Many of whom were buried along the vast stretches of the Great Wall. May God rest them all.
November 16, 2015
I can't even begin to count the ways I have found this book useful throughout the last decades or more--when I need general information about a specific emperor, when I am trying to put together a short synopsis of a particular dynasty, when I am looking for important events/discoveries associated with a dynasty or ruler, when I need to know a ruler's dynastic name versus his personal name (or how many wives or children he had, or his chief consorts' names, his parents)--in short, this is my "Go To" volume for a quick overview of the Chinese Dynasties and their emperors.
Despite working in this area for 30+ years, I, along with everyone else interested in China, need a book like this to keep us grounded in the right time period, with the right personalities, seeing the big picture. There are lots of 'little picture' books--wonderful volumes on individual emperors, art periods, movements--but this is one of those "must have" big picture volumes on China for anyone with more than a cursory curiosity.
It is 'evergreen'; if you don't already have a copy, hurry and find one. It will quickly become one of your most-thumbed-through volumes, sitting right next to your Chinese dictionaries and atlas.
Despite working in this area for 30+ years, I, along with everyone else interested in China, need a book like this to keep us grounded in the right time period, with the right personalities, seeing the big picture. There are lots of 'little picture' books--wonderful volumes on individual emperors, art periods, movements--but this is one of those "must have" big picture volumes on China for anyone with more than a cursory curiosity.
It is 'evergreen'; if you don't already have a copy, hurry and find one. It will quickly become one of your most-thumbed-through volumes, sitting right next to your Chinese dictionaries and atlas.
March 14, 2015
Well-written, thorough, fairly readable. This is certainly not light reading or for the reader interested in a quick afternoon browse. Nor is it for the serious scholar who already has a journeyman's knowledge of the subject and is looking for a more detailed exploration of Chinese history. But it accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish masterfully, giving a quick summary of each of the reigns in the Chinese Imperial period and in the process, a short overview of that period in Chinese history.
October 27, 2016
A decent summary about emperors and high level government in China. A nice companion to Asian inspired works like Ken Liu's The Wall of Storms or Guy Gavriel Kay's Under Heaven. Many illustrations, mostly black and white, but typical for books of this vintage.
September 20, 2010
There is a tremendous amount of detail in this fascinating
book, so it will be an ongoing reference tool. I have decided to focus on remembering the major periods of Chinese history, the story of the first emperor, descriptions of Confucianism and Daoism, and details of the Golden Age. The pictures accompanying the story of the first emperor include items displayed in the recent Terracotta Warriors display at the Royal Ontario Museum, so this section was the easiest to absorb.
book, so it will be an ongoing reference tool. I have decided to focus on remembering the major periods of Chinese history, the story of the first emperor, descriptions of Confucianism and Daoism, and details of the Golden Age. The pictures accompanying the story of the first emperor include items displayed in the recent Terracotta Warriors display at the Royal Ontario Museum, so this section was the easiest to absorb.
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October 1, 2008Interesting to read if you are interested in history of chinese emperors
February 27, 2011
I'm disappointed by some of the points in Chinese history the book brushes over.
May 11, 2011
Good reference book !!!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews