Daily Life In China Summary
The book “Daily life in China On the eve of the Mongol Invasion 1250-1276” is a Chinese historical book that historians and readers will enjoy to read because it has information written about all aspects of life during 1250 in such a vivid way that it would not be insane to say that is possible to picture the stories and documents found within the book. This book mentions about a time when the population of China was only six million inhabitants compared to the 1.3 billion of today but was the riches and most powerful country in the world. This time was during the Sung dynasty. Life was booming and even though wealth was not fairly distribute, China was becoming a very modern country way before the west. Readers will learn what China could
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have been today if it were not for the Mongol Invasion, that did not just pause the birth of a modern China but stopped it. This book review has the purpose to comment and present the chronological scope and the major emphasis of the book as well as the main idea of the book: which is the change of China over time and what could have been different if the Mongol invasion would not happened.
The Daily life in China was written in French by Jacques Gernet but translated to English by H. M. Wright. This book talks about how during the period 1250-1276 China was not the same as the China people know today. The country that we know as China today has no always been known by that name; it has not always been so big and populated, and even their culture has changed throughout the years. The book uses as a demonstration the town of Hangchow, a town that had neither importance nor a past historic but became the residence of the Son of Heaven, the Emperor of China. There are so much lively and informative details in Jacques Gernet’s book noted by the inhabitants of the city of Hangchow about the buildings, markets, canals, streets, festivals, and amusements in anecdotes, tales, and documents to such an extent of detail that it could be possible to reconstruct this capital to the tiniest details.
Jacques Gernet the author of the Daily life in China also mentions the way people live and communicate during this period, how society was formed and the different social classes that people were divided into: the upper classes, the merchants, the lower classes in urban areas, and the peasants.
The author showed the readers how the people lived from the poor to the middle class, upper/wealthy class, and to the emperor. What did they do, what kind of cloths they wore, what type of food they ate? What festivals and customs were important? The reader can experience what the different social classes would do to experienced satisfaction and enjoyment. The housing was very interestingly done during this period; the basic materials used were wood, bamboo, bricks and tiles. Stones were saved for bridges, paving the streets and roads, and for Buddhist buildings. Fires were very common during this time. Houses for rich and poor people or for private or public buildings were all made from the same materials and all buildings without exceptions were made in rectangular shape. The life cycle: How education would differ between classes, also marriage, illness, death, and the position of women in society as well as the festivals and religions are some of the other aspects of life that Jacques
cover.
China as we know it today has grown a lot economically, culturally, and its diversification has changed the way people from China see themselves. However, lets no forget that even though China changed in size, number of population, and customs to mention some, there were still a lot of differences between people living in the north and the people living in the south.
There are times that unintended events organize things nicely. In 1126, the barbarian Ju-chen horsemen took the Sung capital now known as Kaifeng by storm and the departure or migration to the south began. The barbarians had the Emperor and his court, plus more than three thousand prisoners in captivity; however, a prince that escaped the Mongol invasion proclaimed himself Emperor at the city of Nanking in 1127 and was to be seeing escaping before the nomad invasions. On his way to a safe place the new Emperor past through many walled towns such as: Yangchou, Yangtze, Chen-chiang, at Suchow, further south, or at Hangchow. None of these walled towns were safe from invasion. But one, Hangchow, a town where the captured Emperor took several stops plus it was better protected than the Yangtze towns. There was nothing that would predict that Hangchow was going to be the center of the new dynasty. Hangchow nowadays is a small town close to Shanghai. However, about 1275 Hangchow was the biggest and richest city in the world.
The book Daily life in China brings about all the aspects there are out there about how people in China during the last years of the Southern Sung dynasty used to live; The years before the captured of the capital by Mongols at the beginning of 1276. The China from the days of the Mongol invasion was a time period of conflicts that divided China in two: barbarians to the north of the Great Wall and Chinese to the south. The Mongols invasion happened almost 800 years ago but it changed the Chinese history forever by slowing the modernization and developing of China by hundreds of years before the west (Europe and United States).
have been today if it were not for the Mongol Invasion, that did not just pause the birth of a modern China but stopped it. This book review has the purpose to comment and present the chronological scope and the major emphasis of the book as well as the main idea of the book: which is the change of China over time and what could have been different if the Mongol invasion would not happened.
The Daily life in China was written in French by Jacques Gernet but translated to English by H. M. Wright. This book talks about how during the period 1250-1276 China was not the same as the China people know today. The country that we know as China today has no always been known by that name; it has not always been so big and populated, and even their culture has changed throughout the years. The book uses as a demonstration the town of Hangchow, a town that had neither importance nor a past historic but became the residence of the Son of Heaven, the Emperor of China. There are so much lively and informative details in Jacques Gernet’s book noted by the inhabitants of the city of Hangchow about the buildings, markets, canals, streets, festivals, and amusements in anecdotes, tales, and documents to such an extent of detail that it could be possible to reconstruct this capital to the tiniest details.
Jacques Gernet the author of the Daily life in China also mentions the way people live and communicate during this period, how society was formed and the different social classes that people were divided into: the upper classes, the merchants, the lower classes in urban areas, and the peasants.
The author showed the readers how the people lived from the poor to the middle class, upper/wealthy class, and to the emperor. What did they do, what kind of cloths they wore, what type of food they ate? What festivals and customs were important? The reader can experience what the different social classes would do to experienced satisfaction and enjoyment. The housing was very interestingly done during this period; the basic materials used were wood, bamboo, bricks and tiles. Stones were saved for bridges, paving the streets and roads, and for Buddhist buildings. Fires were very common during this time. Houses for rich and poor people or for private or public buildings were all made from the same materials and all buildings without exceptions were made in rectangular shape. The life cycle: How education would differ between classes, also marriage, illness, death, and the position of women in society as well as the festivals and religions are some of the other aspects of life that Jacques
cover.
China as we know it today has grown a lot economically, culturally, and its diversification has changed the way people from China see themselves. However, lets no forget that even though China changed in size, number of population, and customs to mention some, there were still a lot of differences between people living in the north and the people living in the south.
There are times that unintended events organize things nicely. In 1126, the barbarian Ju-chen horsemen took the Sung capital now known as Kaifeng by storm and the departure or migration to the south began. The barbarians had the Emperor and his court, plus more than three thousand prisoners in captivity; however, a prince that escaped the Mongol invasion proclaimed himself Emperor at the city of Nanking in 1127 and was to be seeing escaping before the nomad invasions. On his way to a safe place the new Emperor past through many walled towns such as: Yangchou, Yangtze, Chen-chiang, at Suchow, further south, or at Hangchow. None of these walled towns were safe from invasion. But one, Hangchow, a town where the captured Emperor took several stops plus it was better protected than the Yangtze towns. There was nothing that would predict that Hangchow was going to be the center of the new dynasty. Hangchow nowadays is a small town close to Shanghai. However, about 1275 Hangchow was the biggest and richest city in the world.
The book Daily life in China brings about all the aspects there are out there about how people in China during the last years of the Southern Sung dynasty used to live; The years before the captured of the capital by Mongols at the beginning of 1276. The China from the days of the Mongol invasion was a time period of conflicts that divided China in two: barbarians to the north of the Great Wall and Chinese to the south. The Mongols invasion happened almost 800 years ago but it changed the Chinese history forever by slowing the modernization and developing of China by hundreds of years before the west (Europe and United States).