Imperial Warlord (Sinica Leidensia) by Rafe de Crespigny (PDF)

Description

The warlord Cao Cao, founder of the Three Kingdoms state of Wei, is most commonly known through the romantic tradition of the novel Sanguo yanyi and other dramatic fictions, which portray him as cruel and vicious. In fact, however, Cao Cao was a fine strategist and politician who restored a measure of order after the political turmoil and civil war that brought the end of Han.The present work offers a detailed account of Cao Cao’s life and times, using historical materials and the man’s own words from official proclamations and personal poetry. Exceptionally for such a distant time, there is sufficient information in the texts to provide a rounded interpretation of one of the great characters of early China.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review Winner of the Stanislas Julien prize for 2011.Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2011This impressive volume is the culmination of a lifetime’s work on Cao Cao, the Later Han chancellor, ThreeKingdoms warlord, and, posthumously, Wei emperor. De Crespigny’s study is the definitive work on this criticalfigure in any language. The image of Cao Cao and several of his defeated opponents has been shaped in the popularmind by subsequent fictionalizations, most recently in a major film, that are now core mythologies in Chinese culture.De Crespigny (Australian National Univ.) deals sensitively with the complex historical and literary issues involved inexplaining Cao Cao, working through a thicket of frequently hostile sources with erudition and fairness. In additionto providing a painstaking narrative of the political and military events of Cao Cao’s life, the author also devotesconsiderable attention to explaining the historiographical and literary issues involved in studying Cao Cao, summingup with the aptly titled section “Why Cao Cao?” The only regret one has in reading this book is that there isn’t morescholarship like it available. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above. — P. Lorge, Vanderbilt University, CHOICE June 2011’Rafe de Crespigny’s meticulous biography of Cao Cao provides a full, detailed, carefully sourced and dispassionate account of the most powerful and controversial Chinese statesman (…)’PETER HARRIS, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 14, 1 (June 2012) About the Author Rafe de Crespigny, Ph.D. (1968) of the Australian National University, is Professor of Asian Studies at that university and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has published monographs, translations and many articles on China, including A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (Brill, 27).

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐A definitive biography of the most important player in the collapse of the Han. Far from the villain portrayed in popular drama Cao Cao restored some semblance of order and geopolitical stability to northern China at a time when Sun Quan and Liu Bei were running nearly pure warlord states. It is remarkable Cao Cao stabilized as much of China as he did using the tools of a failing state to do.This is the biography to read about the Three Kingdoms from the paramount living english language historian on the period.

⭐Rafe de Cespigny, a well known expert on the time of the Later Han Dynasty, has written a comprehensive biography of Cao Cao, one of the main characters in the Story of the Three Kingdoms. Using all of the existing literary sources examined through critical historical method, this book presents a clear narrative of the end of the Han Dynasty through the events of Cao Cao’s life, from 155 to 220 AD. This book is unique. There are no other books in the English language that gives a clear political and personal narrative of any military figure in ancient China.

⭐Very detailed description of Cao Cao from a historical point of view. Would prefer to have more grapic illustrations of important incidents because there were many different characters, backgrounds and places involved which made the whole thing quite complicated.

⭐First beware! This is not an easy read for the average history lover. I have a serious collection of Rafe de Crespigny’s work and I have to say this is probably his best! He writes extremely detailed accounts, and offers an amazing perspective of Cao Cao which most might have not known prior. I would defiantly recommend this book.

⭐Cao Cao is, by far, my favourite character from the Three Kingdoms media and the true history behind him is something anyone who is even reasonably interested in Chinese history at the time should know about. Rafe de Crespigny overlooks nothing and his work is replete with crucial information and fascinating facts about this most unique of political dynamos, military masterminds, ruthless manipulators and romantic heroes that ever graced Ancient China alongside those that made him what he was and how it came to be.I do not exaggerate when I say that one cannot understand Cao Cao or even the world he lived in before they have read this book.For a creative research project I have prepared, I bought this off an independent source via Amazon and was, to put it lightly, frustrated when it refused to arrive at its allotted date not once but twice. So I bought it off Amazon directly and it arrived the very next day (A day ahead of schedule) followed swiftly by the full refund for the order I’d placed before that had never arrived. Amazon outdid themselves and I have nothing but gratitude for their service in getting me what has become one of my most treasured pieces of literature.Thank you, Amazon; thank you, Rafe de Crespigny; and thank you, Cao Cao.

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