One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2012 "A unique perspective, well presented in accessible language and backed up with extensive notes and bibliography, the work represents high-quality scholarship from broad-based social science at its best. It belongs in all college and university libraries."
Choice "Pines is successful in pointing out many critical characteristics of Chinese imperial system and political culture, ... Read morenot only the ideological but also the institutional and the practical, which are indeed highly relevant to the system's sustainability."
Hsiao-wen Cheng, Insight Turkey "[T]here is enough in this book to make it a valuable contribution to the study of empire and its legacies."
Brian Moloughney, Asian Studies Review "Moving between ideology and the real world, the author has gone far to deepen our understanding of the practical impact of traditional Chinese political culture on the empire. In so doing, he debunks various myths and stereotypes prevalent in both China and the West. This book is a good starting point for those who wish to provide a more comprehensive answer. It should be of interest to both students and scholars."
Jingbin Wang, H-Net Reviews "Professor Pines writes with the benefit of wide and deep reading that enables him to survey the intellectual, political, and social background against which kingdoms and then empires were founded, maintained, declined, and closed from the time of the Warring States until the modern age."
Michael Loewe, Journal of Chinese Studies Show Less