Buy new:
$29.95
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$29.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
In Stock
$$29.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$29.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$7.28
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
This item shows wear including moderate wear to edges and cover and excessive highlighting or writing. This item shows wear including moderate wear to edges and cover and excessive highlighting or writing. See less
FREE delivery Thursday, May 16 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 15. Order within 4 hrs 54 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$29.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$29.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Timothy Brook
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China Paperback – September 1, 1999

by Timothy Brook (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$29.95","priceAmount":29.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"29","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"SmiIXVqNoCpAe5mqkp93CFaItBL79GJUG6fytl2W2Ywd%2F%2BTIf1TelH%2FvkWTyPOa0UyosbPTITnIRNKpMuVZYgBqCjK7Qn%2BnfKPboVWxLh0okUaoGyJb3dAdzO53uJ9eqEsDK%2BytjO9E%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$7.28","priceAmount":7.28,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"7","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"28","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"SmiIXVqNoCpAe5mqkp93CFaItBL79GJUlyyjbWM0Oi44DJJy2sTx4zuZ4kC1iM5vHl0yN7E1rmf9jcZytFOGRnTgOJrSopMGdknv9pKGnQWRt2%2BxirG0eDJJJoOGhmTL4Tz99LgJUFyBrL%2BX%2FhC%2FigH20Sfkw1Cx80gGTkpPwa6dkapevMPpSUHiaHKQVlhU","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

The Ming dynasty was the last great Chinese dynasty before the Manchu conquest in 1644. During that time, China, not Europe, was the center of the world: the European voyages of exploration were searching not just for new lands but also for new trade routes to the Far East. In this book, Timothy Brook eloquently narrates the changing landscape of life over the three centuries of the Ming (1368-1644), when China was transformed from a closely administered agrarian realm into a place of commercial profits and intense competition for status.

The Confusions of Pleasure marks a significant departure from the conventional ways in which Chinese history has been written. Rather than recounting the Ming dynasty in a series of political events and philosophical achievements, it narrates this longue durée in terms of the habits and strains of everyday life. Peppered with stories of real people and their negotiations of a rapidly changing world, this book provides a new way of seeing the Ming dynasty that not only contributes to the scholarly understanding of the period but also provides an entertaining and accessible introduction to Chinese history for anyone.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    348 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of California Press
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 1999
  5. Dimensions
    5.8 x 0.87 x 8.8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0520221540
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0520221543
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China
$29.95
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276
$21.28
Get it as soon as Tuesday, May 14
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
The Open Empire: A History of China to 1800
$71.97
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
Only 7 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book looks at changing attitudes to the inter-relationship of commerce and culture or leisure activities over the course of the Ming dynasty. . . . One of the strengths of the book . . . is the way in which much of the story is told through the words of contemporary, often little-known, observers, whose sometimes quirky views are skillfully translated. The vividness with which these distant figures and their world are presented to the reader, in the author's very readable style, should make this book accessible to non-China specialists and indeed to anyone who is interested in the ways in which a traditional, agricultural society-then or now-reacts to dramatic economic change."--"China Quarterly

From the Inside Flap

"This is joyful and comprehensive scholarship, full of motion and detail. Timothy Brook encases the fascinating and changeable world of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) in a clear conceptual and chronological framework which any non-specialist can follow. Here are a wealth of Ming people and their problems, along with the very stuff of their world: bricks and bridges; markets, monasteries, and mail; famines and fashion; printing, passion, and portents. This is the first book we have in English that shows the whole shape of Ming life in all its ebullient complexity."Jonathan Spence"

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (September 1, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 348 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520221540
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520221543
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 0.87 x 8.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 20 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Timothy Brook

Timothy Brook

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Tim Brook is a Canadian historian whose writings seek to situate China in the world and to bring the perspective of the world to our understanding of China. Among his more popular books are The Confusions of Pleasure (California 1998), Vermeer’s Hat (Bloomsbury 2008), Mr. Selden’s Map of China (Profile 2013), and Great State: China and the World (Profile 2019, HarperCollins 2020). He also served as editor-in-chief of Harvard University Press’s six-volume history of imperial China—for which he wrote The Troubled Empire (2010)—the Chinese translation of which became a bestseller in China. Recently retired from a career of teaching at the universities of Toronto, Stanford, Oxford, and British Columbia, he now devotes his working time to writing and his leisure time to music. Current projects include climate disasters in Ming China and the library of the 17th-century English legal scholar John Selden.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
20 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Fair-Oaks Mark
5.0 out of 5 stars Transitioning from agriculture to commerce
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2014
Verified Purchase
I am only into the first chapter but would like to express my pleasure on reading a well written and thoughtful book based on good scholarship. I started Chinese studies at Stanford in 1964 and in 1972-3 was at the Stanford Center in Taipei while Professor Brook was in Shanghai. I spent some pleasurable years at Berkeley with Professor Boodberg, Lancaster, Ch'en Shih-Hsiang and Tu Wei-Ming. I eventually ventured outside the university bubble and have enjoyed a variety of non-academic positions. Now that I have more time to read I am pleasantly surprised by the combination of academic and popular style mastered by Dr. Brooks. As a student I worked in the East Asiatic Library at UCB for six years and can picture all the tomes of the Ming and Ch'ing era that scholars never quite got to - the T'ang dynasty was all the rage. Interestingly, the transition from a self-contained agricultural economy to commercialism has been repeated throughout history (Early China - per the Han writers, Judea during Roman times and America). The tension between moral life versus commercial profit life goes on. A recommended read. Thanks Professor Brook.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
PBjW
3.0 out of 5 stars The rich became richer and the poor, poorer
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2016
Verified Purchase
The rise of commerce during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) brought with it the rise of private wealth and the status of merchants. This was quite alarming to many; Confucius had taught that the four classes of society were (from top to bottom): literati, peasants (who earned their high status by farming the land), military, and way down at the bottom, merchants. During the Ming, however, elitist scholars could turn into rich merchants, and land-owning peasants could take on the lifestyle and accessories of members of the court

Author Brook traces this evolution, its sources, repercussions and outcomes, but in the end concludes: "However thoroughly commerce had replaced paternalism and deference with a wage relationship, or however well some individuals managed to step over social barriers and move up the social ladder, or however deeply the successful were troubled as standards and distinctions seemed to dissolve beneath them, the class system of overlordship and deference that held the Chinese world together at the beginning of the Ming was still there at the end" (p. 260).

The stories of who, what, when and how are to be found in the preceding pages, and explain many aspects of Chinese society that one may have wondered about elsewise--for example, why certain luxury goods were considered 'collectibles' by some and 'unworthy' by others, why fashions changed in clothing, in art, etc., and the dynastic transition to "the gentry-merchant fusion of the Qing" (p. 262).

Readers will be introduced to Zhang Tao, a minor official in 1609 (near the end of the Ming) who fretted: "Those who enriched themselves through trade became the majority, and those who enriched themselves through agriculture were few. The rich became richer and the poor, poorer."

Brook's writing and stories are always enjoyable and colourful ("...as he sat at his desk putting his papers in order to the whine of summer cicadas...") and the woodcuts at the beginning of each chapter and throughout, delightful additions, but I found myself wondering over the book's potential readership. It is neither academic, nor entirely general reader-friendly. It assumes a fair amount of background concerning China (dynasties, philosophy, political structure) yet has enough anecdotes to move readers along through the slower bits. But for anyone wondering how scholar and merchant would find themselves sitting at the same banquet table one day, this is a good place to start.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2015
Verified Purchase
A superb study!
Helpful
 Report
Denise
4.0 out of 5 stars good book
Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2013
Verified Purchase
I had to use this book for class. it wasn't the most phenomenal book I have ever read but it wasn't dead boring like some required readings I've had.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Peter Braden
5.0 out of 5 stars Seasons of a Dynasty
Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2012
A clear and lively account of the transformation and constancy of Chinese society during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Brook shares his insights on the increased role of silver in the economy, the competitive connoisseurship of gentry and merchants, and a variety of other aspects of daily life. His central thesis is that, while the Ming saw the expansion of the market economy, it did not entail the destruction of the educated elite class. Rather, the scholarly gentry and the nouveau riche merchant classes became interwoven. This transition caused status anxiety and nostalgia on the part of many of the Chinese diarists Brook cites, but it also allowed Chinese elites to weather the bloody and traumatic Ming-Qing transition.

The book is cleverly structured as a progression of seasons, from Ming Taizu's austere, idealized Daoist Winter through the gaudy extravagance and debauchery of late Ming Summer and finally the ill winds of dynastic collapse in Autumn.

Highly recommended as a window on a fascinating era in history, with many thought-provoking parallels to the current situations in both China and the West.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Pammy
3.0 out of 5 stars History
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2014
Verified Purchase
The only reason why I purchased this book was for my history class and for some odd reason, they didn't have one in the library at school. Other than that, the book was in great condition for it to be used.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Read Taylor
5.0 out of 5 stars An internal view of an understudied dynasty
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2000
The Ming dynasty in China does not receive much attention since it mostly lacks the bloodshed or philosophical grandeur of the Qing, the Tang or the Han. Brook is one of the leading authorities on this era, and this book is, I believe, his most accessible. Beginning with documents written late in the dynasty, Brook shows how the elite of that time feared the collapse of the imagined golden past into what was then considered an immorally secular present. The massive economic changes in the globe in this era (14th to 17th centuries) changed the Chinese society and the Confucian elites place in it. Obviously less exciting to laymen than his work on Tiananmen, 1989, this is a clear book for students who have a general grasp of Chinese history and want to begin to grab details without losing the easy flow found in well written introductory books.
31 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report