Middle Imperial China 900-1350

In this highly readable and engaging work Linda Walton presents a dynamic survey of China's history from the tenth through the mid-fourteenth centuries from the founding of the Song dynasty through the Mongol conquest when Song China became part of the Mongol Empire and Marco Polo made his famous journey to the court of the Great Khan. Adopting a thematic approach she highlights the political social economic intellectual and cultural changes and continuities of the period often conceptualized as 'Middle Imperial China'. Particular emphasis is given to themes that inform scholarship on world history: religion the state the dynamics of empire the transmission of knowledge the formation of political elites gender and the family. Consistent coverage of peoples beyond the borders - Khitan Tangut Jurchen and Mongol among others - provides a broader East Asian context and introduces a more nuanced integrated representation of China's past.