About the author

Hing Ming Hung

Hung Hing Ming studied English at China’s most prestigious university in the early 1960s and went on to work as an official interpreter and translator working with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). He taught English at Zhongshan University (Dr. Sun Yat San University), Guangzhou, in 1984 and again from 1987 to 1991, as an associate professor and an instructor for graduate students in the Foreign Languages and Literature Department. He was a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and at the University of Kansas from late 1984 to 1987, when he earned his Masters degree in linguistics, before returning to Zhongshan University. In 1991, Mr. Hung moved to Hong Kong where he worked as a legal translator with international law firms for close to 20 years.Mr. Hung is writing a series of biographies to introduce some of China’s most emblematic historical figures to the American public.

Ten States, Five Dynasties, One Great Emperor

Name: Ten States, Five Dynasties, One Great Emperor
Price: 22.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Hing Ming Hung
ISBN: 9781628940725

How Emperor Taizu Unified China in the Song Dynasty

Price range: $22.95 through $32.95

This enjoyable little book introduces more of China’s heroes and villains, highlighting a modest man yet a great emperor who brought peace and stability to the realm and saved the people from great suffering.

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Categories: Biography, History: Ancient, History: InternationalAuthor: Hing Ming Hung SKU: ten-states-five-dynasties-one-great-emperor Categories: Biography, History: Ancient, History: International Tags: ancient Chinese emperors, Asia history books, China political history, Chinese classics history, Chinese dynasties explained, Chinese emperor biography, Chinese historical biography, Chinese history, Chinese leadership lessons, chinese military strategy, chinese unification history, Eastern history nonfiction, Emperor Taizu, Five Dynasties and Ten States, founding of the Song Dynasty, good books on Chinese history, how China was unified, medieval china, power and leadership ancient China, rise of the Song Dynasty, Song Dynasty 960 AD, Song Dynasty China, ten kingdoms China, warlord era China, Zhao Kuang Yin biography Author: Hing Ming Hung

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Drawn from Chinese classics of history, Hing Ming Hung's biographies introduce China's most emblematic historical figures and the cultural attributes fostered by China's ancient chronicles. This book is about one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history, Zhao Kuang Yin, Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). He is honored for having unified China in the extremely chaotic period of 'Five Dynasties and Ten States.

About the Book

This enjoyable little book introduces more of China's heroes and villains, highlighting a modest man yet a great emperor who brought peace and stability to the realm and saved the people from great suffering. Interwoven into the narrative of battles fought and alliances forged or flouted, we find examples of good leadership and bad, hot-headed fighters and disciplined warriors, and lessons on how to assess - and win - people's loyalty.

Introduction

This book is about one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history, Zhao Kuang Yin (927-976), Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Chinese historians have highly praised him because he unified China in the extremely chaotic period of 'Five Dynasties and Ten States' (907-960). He brought peace and tranquility to the realm and saved the people from great sufferings.

By the end of the Tang Dynasty (Tang Dynasty: 618-907), the emperor was very weak and could not rule the country. Power was in the hands of the regional military governors, and popular uprisings were common. A famine in 875 devastated the eastern part of China. A man named Huang Chao led the hungry people in a revolt.

In December of 880, Huang Chao seized control in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty. The Emperor had to escape to Chengdu (now Chengdu, Sichuan Province). The regional military governors tried to defeat Huang Chao's army, but they could not.

However, one of Huang Chao's own generals, Zhu Wen, betrayed him and went over to the side of the Emperor....

About the Book

China in the tenth century was a mess. For over fifty years, the country had been torn apart by the chaotic era known as the Five Dynasties and Ten States — a period from 907 to 960 AD when warlords rose and fell, five successive dynasties collapsed in quick succession, and the land fractured into competing kingdoms with names like Southern Tang, Northern Han, and the State of Shu. Out of this disorder emerged one of the most remarkable figures in Chinese history: Zhao Kuang Yin, who would become Emperor Taizu, founder of the Song Dynasty.

Hung Hing Ming draws on Chinese historical classics to tell the story of how this one man managed to reunify a shattered China. The book walks through the emperor's rise step by step — from his early military career under the Later Zhou Dynasty, through the famous moment at Chenqiao where his soldiers draped him in the yellow robe of imperial authority, to the series of military campaigns that brought the fragmented states back under one rule. Along the way, readers meet a cast of generals, premiers, kings, and rivals, including the shrewd adviser Zhao Pu and the doomed poet-king Li Yu of Southern Tang.

What makes the book compelling is its focus on leadership. Emperor Taizu is portrayed not as a ruthless conqueror but as a thoughtful ruler who relieved his most powerful generals of their military commands through diplomacy rather than bloodshed. For anyone interested in Chinese history, military strategy, or the art of political power, this is an accessible and detailed account of a pivotal era.

Additional information

Weight	N/A
Book Type	Ebook, ePub, Hard cover, Soft cover
Pages	220
Release Year	2014
BISAC I	HIS008000 HISTORY / Asia / China
BISAC II	BIO006000BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical
BISAC III	BIO014000 BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Royalty

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About the author

Hing Ming Hung

Ten States, Five Dynasties, One Great Emperor

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