Are there any book recommendations for middle imperial Chinese court culture?

by kenod102818

As the title says, I'm wondering if there are recommendations for good books on middle imperial Chinese court culture, focusing on the Tang and Song dynasties (I don't really know much about this period, but I suspect there's probably a decent bit of difference between them).

I'm not a historian and don't have much experience with history except for pop history such as youtube, so I'm looking for something relatively accessible, but I'd also prefer something that does a bit more of a deep dive than standard pop history books.

The aspects I'm personally interested in is how political factions worked, but also the roles of people like the various imperial consorts, and how imperial court politics was influenced by other factors in China such as noble families in other regions of China.

Harvard's History of Imperial China series includes book-length entries on the Tang and Song. Both provide discussions of governance that are more detailed than a pop history book but more accessible than a specialist academic text. Even more detail can be found in the Cambridge History of China series which entails multiple volumes concerning the Tang, the Song, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period that separated the two.

It's also worth nothing that a fair amount of specialist literature on the Tang and Song is quite accessible to the general reader. The main challenge is that many relevant monographs are cost-intensive, some are becoming a bit dated, and some are only available in hardcover. Here are a few books that speak to the topics you mention:

Wu Tse-T'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China: a very detailed study of court politics under Empress Wu, with plenty of expository detail on her reign, intrigues at court, and the dynamics surrounding her continued hold on power (and rise to becoming the only female sovereign to claim emperorship in her own right throughout Chinese history). This one is also free to read online, for what it's worth.
Background to the Rebellion of An Lushan: short but very accessible and engaging overview of the political situation before An Lushan's rebellion. While not a recent text, it's well-written and provides an overview of political factionalism in the Tang court during the "Golden Age" reign of Emperor Xuanzong and the primary of his notable/notorious chief ministers Li Linfu and Yang Guozhong.
To Rebuild the Empire: academic but accessibly written, follows the career and political ideologies of the statesman Lu Zhi during a period of dynastic crisis during the Tang. Factional infighting, or at least personal enmity at court, plays an important role here.
City of Marvel, City of Transformation: might not speak specifically to the topics you're most interested in, but it provides a very good overview of culture in the Tang capital of Chang'an. While it's a scholarly work, its author is also a novelist and so the monograph benefits from an immersive writing style.
The Destruction of the Medieval Chinese Aristocracy: a very readable analysis of how the Tang bureaucratic aristocracy worked, how its central government maintained control over the provinces, and how everything came crashing down in very dramatic fashion amid the Huang Chao Rebellion.
Emperor Huizong: an accessible biography of the Song emperor Huizong, who oversaw a brilliant flourishing of literature and the arts but also the military collapse of the northern Song state. This might come closer than most scholarly texts to providing a detailed overview of life at court and relationships between an individual emperor and other key figures.
Song Gaozong (r. 1127-1162) and his chief councilors: not a monograph but a very readable PhD dissertation on the Song emperor Gaozong and his court. Provides an outstanding study of factional politics at court during a period of grave crisis (with the court essentially on the run from invaders who had seized northern China and captured the previous two emperors).

The mid-Tang period, and particularly the reign of Emperor Wenzong, featured a great deal of factional strife at court (not just between bureaucratic factions but between officials and court eunuchs, as well). This is a really good and illustrative piece on a particularly bloody event emerging from this period of factionalism.