The Forbidden City
Published on 31. January 2008
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-1-84668-011-3 (ISBN)
Description
It was built by a Ming Emperor in our fifteenth century - to be a terrestrial reflection of the celestial realm of the Jade Emperor. Destroyed and rebuilt on an even more splendid scale by the final ManchuQuing Emperors, it consists of a series of courtyards approached by gates (chief among them Tianan Men) and an imperial way. This book brilliantly reconstructs the life that went on in those ancestral temples, lacquered chambers and vermilion halls both in the imperial heyday and in the decadent decline under the Dowager Empress. Fifty years ago Mao considered razing all to the ground. Now it is a Wonder of the World.
Reviews / Votes
The bewildering vastness and past imperialism of the Forbidden City come alive in Barme's account. * Glasgow Herald * What a gorgeous dream of a book Barme had produced...will resonate powerfully with any history lover. * Sunday Express * ...genial, neatly written...Barme narrates the intrigues, the eunuchs and the concubines. * Independent * A vivid and compelling portrait of this extraordinary attraction. * Sunday Telegraph * This Rolls-Royce of a guidebook covers almost every conceivable physical and historical nook...packs a veritable palace of information into its pages... brims with scholarship. * Sunday Times * ...in a class of its own. * TLS *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 206 mm
Width: 144 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
436 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84668-011-3 (9781846680113)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
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Person
Based at the Pacific and Asian History Division of the Australian National University, Canberra, Geremie R. Barme has also worked with a number of film projects. He is joint editor of the online China Heritage Quarterly.