Author : Ling Zhang
Release : 2016-09-09
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 019/5 ( reviews)
Book Synopsis The River, the Plain, and the State by : Ling Zhang
Download or read book The River, the Plain, and the State written by Ling Zhang. This book was released on 2016-09-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On July 19, 1048, the Yellow River breached its banks, drastically changing its course across the Hebei Plain and turning it into a delta where the river sought a path out to the ocean. This dramatic shift of forces in the natural world resulted from political deliberation and hydraulic engineering of the imperial state of the Northern Song Dynasty. It created eighty years of social suffering, economic downturn, political upheaval, and environmental changes, which reshaped the medieval North China Plain and challenged the state. Ling Zhang deftly applies textual analysis, theoretical provocation, and modern scientific data in her gripping analysis of how these momentous events altered China's physical and political landscapes and how its human communities adapted and survived. In so doing, she opens up an exciting new field of research by wedding environmental, political, economic, and social history in her examination of one of North China's most significant environmental changes.