Mountain of Fame

Through biographies of China's most colorful and famous personalities, John Wills displays the five-thousand- year sweep of Chinese history from the legendary sage emperors to the tragedy of Tiananmen Square. This unique introduction to Chinese history and culture uses more than twenty exemplary lives, including those of statesmen, philosophers, poets, and rulers, to provide the focus for accounts of key historical trends and periods. [A] spirited and highly intelligent book.... A splendid reflection on the nature of the Chinese relationship to history, culture, and morality.... What gives Wills's [book] its originality and its effectiveness is the artful span of examples he has chosen, examples that not only range across time ... but are also chosen to illuminate major themes and continuities within the Chinese universe.... There is high drama, cruelty, and excess in many of these stories.... And there is also wit and charm mixed with the telling of great events.--Jonathan Spence, The New York Times Book Review A tapestry displaying a vast array of noble dreams and failures, of initial utterances and long-distance echoes, of recurrent patterns and abrupt innovations intended to intrigue and inform educated readers looking for a way into three thousand years of Chinese history.--Jerry Dennerline, The Journal of Asian StudiesJohn E., Jr. Wills is the author of 'Mountain of Fame', published 1994 under ISBN 9780691055428 and ISBN 0691055424.