Review:
Before the arrival of the Mongols, present-day Beijing was the site of the Jin capital under the Jurchens. After it was sacked by Genghis Khan in 1215, the city was virtually laid waste. Later, the Mongols built a separate city north of the Jin capital site, which substantially overlapped the Ming-Qing city of Beijing. In 1267, Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan designated it as his main capital, Dadu, and went on to found the Chinese-style Yuan dynasty there in 1271. The city lost its capital status in 1368 when Mongol rule in China was overthrown. Originally written in Chinese and translated into English, this book is authored by a well-known Song-Yuan scholar in the PRC and is a worthwhile effort to systematically examine various aspects of Dadu, including its prehistory, construction, layout, and political, economic, and cultural life, and ends with a chapter devoted to a brief history of the city in the last days of the Yuan dynasty. It cites a rich body of modern, especially traditional, Chinese sources. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. March 2015 issue of CHOICE--V. C. Xiong
CHEN Gaohua is one of the best-known Chinese scholars in Yuan Studies. His book Yuan Dadu published in 1982 was translated into Japanese in 1984, and into Mongolian language in 1985. The English translation by Phoebe Poon is a creditable contribution to the research literature of Yuan history in the western world. The glossary of personal names, building names and official titles is a handy reference tool for general readers, and Yuan studies scholars may find it useful, too.--Xian Wu
About the Author:
Chen Gaohua is Director at the Institute of History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and was the Director of the Research Center of the Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties. He is the author of The Oversea Trade in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, The Capital City of the Yuan Dynasties, Research of the Yuan Dynasty, and Chen is the co-editor of the Cambridge History of China (The Qin and Han Dynasties)
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