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Jeff Hsieh
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 Posted: Sun 18 Dec, 2005 7:11 am Post subject: Looking for References on China, 14th-16th century |
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Despite my long interest in medieval Europe, I recently discovered that I know next to nothing about my own military heritage. I'd like to do some reading up on China over Christmas break and I'm looking for good starting references. I'm looking for books on weapons, armor and military organization. Reliable general history books are good too.
Thanks!
Jeff Hsieh
"Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum."
- The Knights Hospitaller, 1130 AD
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Hisham Gaballa
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| Posted: Sun 18 Dec, 2005 3:15 pm Post subject: Re: Looking for References on China, 14th-16th century |
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| Jeff Hsieh wrote: | Despite my long interest in medieval Europe, I recently discovered that I know next to nothing about my own military heritage. I'd like to do some reading up on China over Christmas break and I'm looking for good starting references. I'm looking for books on weapons, armor and military organization. Reliable general history books are good too.
Thanks!
Jeff Hsieh |
I must confess I know hardly anything about China in this period. However a good starting point is Osprey books. They may not be particularly accurate, and the artists have a terrible habit of taking liberties in their "reconstructions", but they give a good general idea, are relatively cheap and accessible,and usually have fairly comprehensive bibliographies.
Try these:
http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.php?ASIN=1855322544
http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.php?ASIN=1855326558
You can probably get them from Amazon.
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Chris Lampe
Location: United States Joined: 07 Mar 2005
Posts: 211
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| Posted: Sun 18 Dec, 2005 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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Hisham,
Scott Rodell (author of "Chinese Swordsmanship" and owner of Seven Stars Trading) has provided a good bibilography on Chinese history that you might want to look at. I expect some of these will be difficult to find but some are widely available.
http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s...bliography
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Felix Wang
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| Posted: Sun 18 Dec, 2005 6:02 pm Post subject: Re: Looking for References on China, 14th-16th century |
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| Jeff Hsieh wrote: | Despite my long interest in medieval Europe, I recently discovered that I know next to nothing about my own military heritage. I'd like to do some reading up on China over Christmas break and I'm looking for good starting references. I'm looking for books on weapons, armor and military organization. Reliable general history books are good too.
Thanks!
Jeff Hsieh |
1587, a year of no significance was written by Ray Huang. It is not a general history, but a slice of life in the declining Ming Empire - how a government can fossilize and ruin itself because of internal politics. One-third of the book is devoted to Ch'i Chi-Kuang, and shows how a clever general was able to defeat Japanese (and others) pirate threat in a series of land battles. He did it with an army of peasants, carefully trained.
General history on China is difficult, since it is such a massive subject. You might find Cultural Atlas of China to be useful. It is profusely illustrated and breaks the mass of material into digestible chunks. Ebrey's Cambridge Illustrated History - China is a more conventional overview, but still manageable.
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Felix Wang
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| Posted: Sun 18 Dec, 2005 6:05 pm Post subject: |
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The atlas was written by Blunden and Elvin, by the way. Neither book is really recent, but for most of Chinese history that is not a problem; it would be if you were concentrated on the 20th century.
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Jeff Hsieh
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| Posted: Wed 21 Dec, 2005 7:59 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for the replies, they were very helpful. It's library time.
"Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum."
- The Knights Hospitaller, 1130 AD
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This is a standard topic