"Splendid... One could not imagine a better subject than Zhan Dai for Spence." (The New Republic)

Celebrated China scholar Jonathan Spence vividly brings to life seventeenth-century China through this biography of Zhang Dai, recognized as one of the finest historians and essayists of the Ming dynasty. Born in 1597, Zhang Dai was forty-seven when the Ming dynasty, after more than two hundred years of rule, was overthrown by the Manchu invasion of 1644. Having lost his fortune and way of life, Zhang Dai fled to the countryside and spent his final forty years recounting the time of creativity and renaissance during Ming rule before the violent upheaval of its collapse. This absorbing tale of Zhang Dai's life illuminates the transformation of a culture and reveals how China's history affects its place in the world today.

• We started tracking this book on November 13, 2016.
• This book was $12.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 97 times in the past 3,194 days.
• The current price of this book is $4.99 last checked one day ago.
• The lowest price to date was $4.99 last reached on August 10, 2025.
• This book has been $4.99 5 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $14.99 last reached on November 19, 2023.
• This book has been $14.99 15 times since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• Biographies & MemoirsHistoricalAsia
• HistoryAsiaChina

• Publication Date: September 20, 2007
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 364 Pages
• File Size: 16 KB