Treason by the Book

Rating:
Summary: Lacks Analysis
Review: This is a solid book by a renowned China scholar. The author, Jonathan Spence, has written a number of books in which he focuses on one individual or episode of Chinese history to explore some important aspect of the Chinese past. Spence is an excellent writer and scholar who excels at weaving primary sources into a coherent narrative. In this book, Spence details the story of an obscure provincial who attempted to arouse resistance against the ruling Qing Emperor. This incredibly naive attempt is immediately crushed and the ensuing investigation is directed largely by the Emperor himself. Spence uses this story to implicitly portray several important aspects of the Qing state. Among these are the impressive reach and organization of the Ching bureaucracy, the tremendous involvement of the Emperor at the center of the Qing state, the insecurity felt by the Qing because of their non-Chinese origin, and the consequences of poorly defined succession for the Imperial throne. Other important aspects of Chinese society revealed by this story are the resentments felt by provincials unable to succeed in the Imperial examination system and the over-arching importance of Confucian ideology. This is an effective and very readable way of presenting historical information.
This vignette approach, however, has significant drawbacks. Spence makes all his points implicitly and there is no explicit analysis of the importance of the phenomena exposed by the story. For example, does this story tell us something about the Qing state in general (probably yes) or does the way events unfolded have more to do with the personality of the Yongzheng emperor? Both are relevant but Spence never provides the broad perspective needed to address this question. To be a first rate book, Spence would have to provide additional information about the nature of the Qing state, the nature and consequences of dissent, and how other emperors handled these questions. As shown in some of his other books, Spence is certainly capable of broader analysis.

Rating:
Summary: HISTORICAL novel
Review: _Treason by the book_
jonathan spence

This book once again cements my feeling that J.Spence is the best English speaker on the History of China. The book is truely amazing.
Part of the amazement is that the topic can be worded so narrowly that you wonder how to write an essay on it, rather than a whole and interesting book.

For from the outset the book is about a note, passed from the hand of one-Zhang Xi to General Yue Zhongqi , in the city of Xi 'an, late October 1728 (western calendar of course). The emperor is Yongzheng, of the Qing dynasty, which has been in power since 1644. It is what Spence does with this event, how he unfolds and adds systematically to our knowledge of China, to our appreciation of the intricacies of Chinese society and its governance by the Manchurians, having replaced the Ming who were native Chinese, that makes this a great book. It reads like a detective novel, slowly introducing new facts as we need them, leading us by the hand to his deep and sympathic understanding of Chinese history, all the time using words and phrases that beguile and intertwine us with the unfolding events as they become real from the distant past. Spence found his calling by crossing from academic writing in his strict histories back and forth to this genre which is more accurate than historical novels yet shares in the attractiveness and readability of them. The qualities of respect for historical accuracy and a good storyteller are not commonly found inside one person's head and i am gratefully for their collusion in J.Spence for his writing makes us all much more aware and involved in the history of the Chinese.

From the last page:
"Thus it can be said that both emperors got it wrong. One emperor thought that by airing all the negative facts against himself, he could purge the record of the noxious rumors, and because of his honesty posterity would revere his name. But his people remembered the rumors and forgot the disclaimers. The second emperor thought that by destroying the book he world lay his father's ghosts to rest. But his people thought that the reason he wanted to destroy the book was because so much of what it contained was true. " pg 247

It is a good book, one of those pieces of history that in the writing and our reading of it, transcend the particular and cast light on the general condition of being human. Certainly there is much in this book particular to being Chinese in the early 1700's, much that is culture bound and as a result something i can read about but can never experience. But in sharing those particulars, Spence has shown, and often made us feel, what it means to live as human beings, striving to understand while trying to get enough to eat. Striving to honor parents, governmental authorities, Heaven itself, while exercising freedom of thought, and pushing the limits of acceptability to the greater classes to which they belong.

I put the book down with a greater respect for Confucian classics and the way they held China together for 2500 years, for the respect that the Chinese have for book knowledge, for calligraphy, for writing, for scholarship. I am left with a much better understanding of the problems of bureaucracy and governing a population of tens of millions before electronic means of communication and the instantaneousness we have come to demand and expect. All big ideas that Spence could have written a dry scholarly textbook on, say _the means of governance of China via Confucian classics and the literary bureaucracy_. but i know this imaginary book could have none of the emotional appeal and humanity that _Treason by the book_ does. Form does matter, some things do communicate better, more forcefully and easier, this book is one. So, if you have any interest in China, again J.Spence has my highest recommendation and grateful thanks.