Book Analysis Essay on Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty

Introduction

The book is used to address the instances of World Civilization. Critical thinking of this book would show how best the author presents his main arguments, how much it fits into the topic of civilization and its enhancement to the understanding of the class materials. The value of the knowledge is analyzed to weigh if the book can be recommended for other students on the same line of the subject. As the title goes, the book addresses the Tang Dynasty which is traditionally referred to as the Golden Age of China. This was a time of intellectuals and patricians, Taoist priests and Buddhist monks, dance and song, music and poetry. The author Charles Benn paints a clear image of the lifestyle associated with the grandeur of this culture. All dimensions of everyday life are exposed which includes transportation, dwelling, hygiene, marriage, fashion, entertainment, and crime. The comprehensive explanation in the book gives a fascinating knowledge into a time and culture that is sometimes misunderstood by the westerners, the author himself is a European. The book is organized into chapters that talk about various aspects of life in the Tang Dynasty. It paints a vivid picture of how people lived during the earlier days.

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Benn paraphrases and translates his vibrant Chinese sources from the era of Tang with polished and fresh prose. He even incorporates his elaborations of everything from hairstyles and tools to courtyard dwellings and musical instruments. The history of the rise and fall of this dynasty is addressed for this is a mirror of the societal structures such as bureaucracy, aristocracy, clergy, eunuchs, artisans, peasants, slaves and merchants. Both the timeliness splendor and everyday routine of this artistically and intellectually compelling epoch is brought alive by the author. He intersperses his findings with nearly folkloric anecdotes, he sugeu into the narration of a criminal story insinuating totes possessed supernatural elements. The age of anecdote is evident as the author uses original observations based on the Chinese classics with a distinct lack of eager on display; he gives little comparison and statistics (Benn 1). The historical nature states that the emphasis is made on the lives of those high in the society like the imperial houses, but the author tries his best to handle this by hypothesizing how much these accounts may be used by merchants and peasant as well as illustrating written instances of commoners. The way of presentation used by the author is convincing of how life was like for the average Chinese people in their old days.

The narration provided in the book offers a rich source of additional knowledge for the history of civilization learned in class. The story is like a tour of understanding the Chinese Golden days. One learns the colors concubines applied for their beauty and eye makeups and the things jealous wives did to manage such decorations. The history of civilization by the comparison of modern pubs and the Tang alehouses in which women were hired to sing and dance to lure and make patrons stay longer hence spend more money in the houses. Ale was served in open pitchers just before a meal of twenty-three courses and fourteen hors d'oeuvres. The concepts that one could only partially understand before like the 'Confucian value' become incredibly obvious like second nature, the book filled up some of the blanks. The little examples are used by the author to complement the work, it is not straight but includes other narrations for instance "The bureaucrats of Changan spent three weeks in the winter compilling..." (Benn 1) The narratives used in the story though not all, address the context of historical civilization. The author gives a superb bibliography in the ending to aid readers to explore the different topics more like death, food, and kinship. The book is essential for those having an interest in the topic who are not familiar with China. It, therefore, does not only expand one's understanding of the class material but also gives additional valuable information in the field of history.

Giving a more critical thought, every chapter of the book concentrates on a single topic; crime, food, punishment, work, marriage, death, etc. The author looks like he just gathered information into its specific chapter without much concern to the timeliness. There is a little attempt in explaining the concepts. The accounts are straightforward like say. A ghost story might follow a legal proceeding. The ghost story is not the problem, but its presentation without any discussion on it seems off-put. The author makes no point of explaining that he will not be using endnotes or citations from any source in the introduction part. It looks like the work is only available for specialist scholars. This may mean that the translations are not available and any attempt to cite them is difficult and may interrupt the flow of the text. Their absence though maks one look at the work skeptically (Ennis 179). The author would have improved the subjects by providing more insights into the attributes of its topics instead of doing random factoids of the catalog.

Conclusion

But all in all, for those interested in the history of civilization as opposed to grammar, the book is essential in accomplishing the mission. The boom is like a diagram which exposes the equipment used in Chinese prisons. The idea makes a good history of an array of events flashbacked factually in the absence of supernatural elements, it is a construction to enlightenment and makes one ponder on how the Western concept has shaped our way of thinking toward history. Even though it is focused majorly on the Tang Dynasty, it gives a stable base for a start for history buffs since they apply the strong foundation as they do more research on their own. It is a light reading experience as compared to other academic texts available. It is a historical book which is researched and at the same time entertaining, I recommend it for those who have an interest in history and especially the future students who will be taking the class. The author's coverage of the monasteries' roles is much informing. The book is fantastic with the extra amount of information it equips one's brain with, and one can hope to do well in the exams because of the book. It is a promising rich source of information.

Works Cited

Benn, Charles D. China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford University Press, USA, (2004): 1-317.

Ennis, Robert H. "Critical thinking assessment." Theory into practice 32.3 (1993): 179-186.