Charles Hartman presents an ambitious analysis of the workings of governance in Imperial China centered on the Song Dynasty (960–1279). Here he develops a new model for thinking about the deeper structures of governance in Song and pre-imperial China – the 'technocratic–Confucian continuum' – which challenges the prevailing perception of Confucian political dominance and offers a vehicle for expanding the definition and scope of Song political culture to embrace all its actors. Building on his acclaimed work The Making of Song Dynasty History: Sources and Narratives, 960–1279 CE (2021), this richly detailed exploration of the Song court is of significance beyond the immediate period of study both in rethinking the nature of monarchy in China and in examining the constructive possibility of political dissent.

Charles Hartman presents a groundbreaking revisionist history of the political culture of Imperial China as dominated by a struggle between 'technocratic' and 'Confucian' views of governance. His analysis of the workings of Song governance both complements and extends his acclaimed previous work 'The Making of Song Dynasty History'.

A groundbreaking revisionist history of the workings of governance in Imperial China centered on the Song Dynasty (960-1279 BCE).

A revisionist analysis of the major sources for Song history, explaining their master narrative as the product of political tension.

In this ambitious work of political and intellectual history, Charles Hartman surveys the major sources that survive as vestiges of the official dynastic historiography of the Chinese Song dynasty (960–1279). Analyzing the narratives that emerge from these sources as products of Song political discourse, Hartman offers a thorough introduction to the texts and the political circumstances surrounding their compilation. Distilling from these sources a 'grand allegory of Song history', he argues that the narratives embedded within reflect tension between a Confucian model of political institutionalism and the Song court's preference for a non-sectarian, technocratic model. Fundamentally rethinking the corpus of texts that have formed the basis of our understanding of the Song and of imperial China more broadly, this far-reaching account of historiographical process and knowledge production illuminates the relationship between official history writing and political struggle in China.

A groundbreaking work examining the military and political events that shaped the Song dynasty (960-1279) in China. Peter Lorge examines the centrality of warfare and politics in the struggle for internal and external power, as well as the influence of individuals and their relationships in political processes.

The trade between peoples of differinf cultures, from the ancient world to the commercial revolution.