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The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City

by Geremie Barme (Author)

  • Used

    Hardcover 2008

    $3.45

  • New

    Paperback 2009

    $13.79
Synopsis

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.

$3.45

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1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
 Pages: 288
 Edition: Main
 Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 31 Jan 2008
ISBN 10: 1846680115
ISBN 13: 9781846680113
Book Overview: At the heart of Beijing lies the great walled palace compound of the Forbidden City: the palace, its mystique and its history have played a huge role in defining China and its perceptions. This book offers an amazing portrait of that storied collection of buildings which enables us to understand the life of imperial China.

Media Reviews
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 *
Author Bio
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.