Fire over Luoyang: A History of the Later Han Dynasty 23-220 Ad (Sinica Leidensia) (Sinica Leidensia, 134) Illustrated Edition

by Rafe de Crespigny (Author)

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Winner of the 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award

The Later Han dynasty, also known as Eastern Han, ruled China for the first two centuries of the Christian era. Comparable in extent and power to the early Roman empire, it dominated east Asia from present-day Vietnam to the Mongolian steppe.
Rafe de Crespigny presents here the first full account of this period in Chinese history to be found in a Western language. Commencing with a detailed account of the imperial capital, the history describes the nature of government, the expansion of the Chinese people to the south, the conflicts of scholars and officials with eunuchs at court, and the final collapse which followed the rebellion of the Yellow Turbans and the rise of regional warlords.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The bulk of this book consists of chronologically arranged chapters bookended by two chapters on the first reign and the Later Han capital Luoyang and the fall of the city, as well as a short introduction and concluding chapter. Written by a leading scholar in the field and meticulously researched, this book should be read by every student of Later Han China in the West. [..] Summing Up: Essential. All academic levels/libraries." - V. C. Xiong, Western Michigan University, in: CHOICE, Vol. 54/8 (April 2017)
"'We two reviewers see the riches that this book offers to specialists and non-specialists alike. Fire over Luoyang, along with de Crespigny's Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD) (2007), has laid the firmest of hangtu foundation for many topics in Eastern Han history. Like the fabled palaces of Luoyang itself, it is a splendid edifice." - MICHAEL NYLAN, University of California, Berkeley & THOMAS H. HAHN, Independent Scholar, Berkeley, in: Monumenta Serica, 66:1 (2018)

About the Author

Rafe de Crespigny, Ph.D. (1968), Australian National University, is a professor at that university. His publications include A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms and Imperial Warlord: a Biography of Cao Cao 155-220 (Brill 2007 and 2010).