1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779759903321

Autore

Bray Francesca

Titolo

Technology, gender and history in imperial China : great transformations reconsidered / / Francesca Bray

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Routledge, , 2013

ISBN

1-136-18428-7

0-415-63959-X

0-203-08330-X

1-136-18429-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (297 p.)

Collana

Asia's transformations. Critical Asian scholarship

Critical Asian scholarship ; ; 10

Disciplina

303.48/30820951

Soggetti

Technological innovations - China - History

Technology - Social aspects - China

Sex role - China - History

China Social conditions 960-1644

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

section 1. Material foundations of the moral order -- section 2. Gynotechnics : crafting womanly virtues -- section 3. Androtechnics : the writing-brush, the plough and the nature of technical knowledge.

Sommario/riassunto

<P>What can the history of technology contribute to our understanding of late imperial China? Most stories about technology in pre-modern China follow a well-worn plot: in about 1400 after an early ferment of creativity that made it the most technologically sophisticated civilisation in the world, China entered an era of technical lethargy and decline. But how are we to reconcile this tale, which portrays China in the Ming and Qing dynasties as a dying giant that had outgrown its own strength, with the wealth of counterevidence affirming that the country remained rich, vigorous and powerful at