Hi Everyone,
I am starting a new project, and I am in need of narrative or chronicles books regarding China, Korea, and Japan.
I have checked the reading list, and while there are some great books, I'm not sure if they fit what I am looking for.
The best example of what I am looking for is George Sansom's Three volume of "A history of Japan". Those volumes go through the origin of Japan, Heian period, the various shogunates, and the Meiji restoration. However this book was also written in the 1950s making the book potentially outdated.
Do you have any recommendations for these three countries with the books I am looking for? Some of the books I have found on my own had discussions and reviews citing bias and "pushing agenda or view". I am needing more of the narrative or chronicle type books.
Your help would be greatly appreciated.
What period in history are you looking for? China's written history spans nearly 3,500 years, so you kind of need to be more specific if you want a pertinent answer. I'm currently doing research for my senior thesis on the Ming-Qing transitional bureaucracy, so here are some related sources:
1587: A Year of no Significance
Tao Hua Shan
Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm
Confucian Image Politics
Ming Shi (You will 100% need a translator who knows literary Chinese if you intend to use any of the official histories)
Xing Shi Heng Yan
Vignettes from the late Ming
The Cambridge History of China, Ming/Qing volumes
Various written works preserved in my university's East Asian libraries from late Imperial scholar-bureaucrats. If you have access to these, you again will need a translator who has working knowledge of literary Chinese, but they are great primary sources.
In general, avoid books pushed by non-academic publishers if you want more objective/less subjective materials, or go with primary sources if at all possible. If you are in secondary school, you might not be able to use any of the non-translated works, though pieces of vernacular fiction like Tao Hua Shan have been extensively translated and are definitely primary sources. Can't help you with Japan or Korea, sorry.
It really sounds like Japan to 1600: A Social and Economic History and The Making of Modern Japan on the book list should be adequate for your purposes. Have you checked them out?