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Thomas J. Barfield
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The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China 221 B.C. to AD 1757 (Studies in Social Discontinuity) Edition Unstated

by Thomas Barfield (Author)
4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 14 ratings
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Around 800 BC, the Eurasian steppe underwent a profound cultural transformation that was to shape world history for the next 2,500 years: the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Asia invented cavalry which, with the use of the compound bow, gave them the means to terrorize first their neighbors and ultimately, under Chingis Khan and his descendants, the whole of Asia and Europe. Why and how they did so and to what effect are the themes of this history of the nomadic tribes of Inner Asia - the Mongols, Turks, Uighurs and others, collectively dubbed the Barbarians by the Chinese and the Europeans.

This two-thousand year history of the nomadic tribes is drawn from a wide range of sources and told with unprecedented clarity and pace. The author shows that to describe the tribes as barbaric is seriously to underestimate their complexity and underlying social stability. He argues that their relationship with the Chinese was as much symbiotic as parasitic and that they understood their dependence on a strong and settled Chinese state. He makes sense of the apparently random rise and fall of these mysterious, obscure and fascinating nomad confederacies.

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  1. ISBN-10
    9781557863249
  2. ISBN-13
    978-1557863249
  3. Edition
    Edition Unstated
  4. Publisher
    John Wiley & Sons
  5. Publication date
    February 3, 1992
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    6 x 0.79 x 9 inches
  8. Print length
    348 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent piece of work ... Barfield writes clearly, with a gratifyingly total absence of social scientific jargon ... his case is put with impressive cogency." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

"Barfield's significant and demanding book brings to a general audience a challenging new interpretation of relations between China and her northern neighbours ... provocative and persuasive ... Highly recommended." Choice

"Barfield's study is rich and provocative." Graham E. Johnson, University of British Columbia

"A welcome addition to the literature on the relations between Central Asian empires and China in premodern times. Thomas J. Barfield provides us with stimulating interpretations." American Historical Review

"Excellent study of Chinese-nomadic relations. Weaves a fascinating and detailed tapestry. This excellent work awakens the reader to another level affected by the emerging world system in the nineteenth century." The International History Review

"The appearance in paperback of this book is welcome. Breaking moulds." Asian Affairs

"Fine study. A most welcome addition to the literature." Bulletin School of Oriental and African Studies

From the Inside Flap

Around 800 BC, the Eurasian steppe underwent a profound cultural transformation that was to shape world history for the next 2,500 years: the nomadic herdsmen of Inner Asia invented cavalry which, with the use of the compound bow, gave them the means to terrorize first their neighbors and ultimately, under Chingis Khan and his descendants, the whole of Asia and Europe. Why and how they did so and to what effect are the themes of this history of the nomadic tribes of Inner Asia - the Mongols, Turks, Uighurs and others, collectively dubbed the Barbarians by the Chinese and the Europeans.

This two-thousand year history of the nomadic tribes is drawn from a wide range of sources and told with unprecedented clarity and pace. The author shows that to describe the tribes as barbaric is seriously to underestimate their complexity and underlying social stability. He argues that their relationship with the Chinese was as much symbiotic as parasitic and that they understood their dependence on a strong and settled Chinese state. He makes sense of the apparently random rise and fall of these mysterious, obscure and fascinating nomad confederacies.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1557863245
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ John Wiley & Sons; Edition Unstated (February 3, 1992)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 348 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781557863249
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1557863249
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.09 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.79 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

About the author

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Thomas J. Barfield

Thomas J. Barfield

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THOMAS BARFIELD is a social anthropologist who received his PhD from Harvard and is currently a professor at Boston University. His fieldwork with nomads in Afghanistan during the 1970s resulted in the publication of The Central Asian Arabs of Afghanistan (1981). Teaming up with the late Albert Szabo, he co-authored Afghanistan: An Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture (1991) that was awarded an Outstanding Academic Book citation in Art and Architecture by the American Library Association in 1993. In 2006 Barfield was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship that led to the publication of Afghanistan: A cultural and political history (2010, updated 2nd edition 2023) that also received an outstanding Middle East & North Africa title award from the American Library Association in 2011. He is the President of the American Institute for Afghanistan Studies. Barfield’s historical research on the rise and rule of nomadic empires over the course of two millennia resulted in the publication of The Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China (1989) that is also available in Korean, Russian and Chinese translations. Barfield's comparative study of empires more generally, Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History, will be published in October 2023.

Customer reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
4.9 out of 5
14 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book on a Very Complicated History
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2023
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The author gives a very clear and interesting history of relations between China and the nomad peoples. Before reading this I didn't realize how much China had to appease them with large gifts in order to stop raids on Chinese territory. However, the gifts were usually in the sham form of rewards for the nomads paying tribute to the Son of Heaven.
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5.0 out of 5 stars The is absolutely the BEST book on the subject that I have encountered
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2017
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The is absolutely the BEST book on the subject that I have encountered, and a must-read for those interested in the topic. Truly an enlightening history.
2 people found this helpful
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Inoplanetianka
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic of the field - informative and essential reading for ...
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2017
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Classic of the field - informative and essential reading for those studying Central Asia and historic relations between nomadic groups and successions of Chinese dynasties.
One person found this helpful
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laolaohu
4.0 out of 5 stars this is the one
Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2021
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I have read up to two dozen books (probably more) on various aspects of Chinese and Central Asian history, and if I were forced to recommend just one, this would be it. It covers the entire range of historical Chinese/steppe nomad interactions, from the early Han encounters with the Xiongnu in the centuries B.C. to the Qing encounters with the Jungars in the 18th century A.D. This includes the Xi Xia, the Turks, the Uighers, the Khitans, the Jurchens, the Oirats, as well as of course the Mongols. And even others that did not immediately jump to mind. This is an invaluable reference resource. And he presents this material in a framework that makes it readily comprehensible. But be prepared to read it twice, unless you have a fantastic mind for recalling details. I only wish he had included more on the Tibetans and the Tarim Basin area, but then again, those societies were not technically steppe nomads. The only reason I give it a four instead of a five is that I'm somewhat of a curmudgeon and I reserve that rating for perfection. Also, I think most perceptive researchers read the lower stars first.
4 people found this helpful
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wanghaosai
5.0 out of 5 stars and I hope people who are interested in China's history can enjoy this book
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2015
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It's really helpful to understand why Manchuria could conquest China 300 years ago, and I hope people who are interested in China's history can enjoy this book.
One person found this helpful
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R. Albin
5.0 out of 5 stars Steppe-Centric
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2012
This concise and thoughtful book provides a really interesting prespective on the history of China and surrounding societics. Written by an anthropologist with field experience among central Asian nomads and largely a reinterpretation of prior secondary literature and the primary narrative sources, The Perilous Frontier provides a fine narrative and analysis of the centuries of interactions between Chinese states and Inner Asian nomads. This book has 2 particular strengths. First, it focuses primarily on the actions and institutions of the nomadic peoples of the steppe rather than putting Chinese civilization at the center of the story. Second, Barfield provides a very useful analytic scheme to make sense of the centuries of conflict between China and the steppe peoples.

Looking across a very broad sweep of time, 200 BC to the mid-18th century, Barfield defines 3 major types of actors in an essentially cyclical series of events. These are relatively centralized, relatively urbanized agrarian Chinese empires dominated by Confucian ideology and civilian bureaucracies, fluctuating steppe nomad empires north and west of China, and a group of states combining elements of both the prior polities emerging from the Manchurian region. Barfield sees the existence of strong Chinese states and real steppe empires as linked. Leaders of steppe empires could only maintain their states by extorting-raiding resources from a centralized Chinese state. Steppe empires rose and fell in tandem with the rise and fall of Chinese states, the latter usually done in by internal pressures. Manchurian based states act as "vultures" in this process. The fall of a Chinese state precipitates the collapse of its corresponding steppe empire. In the chaos accompanying the process of dual collapse, Manchurian states, with a dual experience in managing both nomadic and sedentary peoples, are able to build successful states in North China. These states eventually experience their own difficulties, collapse, and are replaced by Chinese dynasties ruling all of China with the re-emergence of a corresponding steppe empire. The cycle then recurs.

Apparently based on the experience of the first major Chinese-steppe empire dyad, the Chin-Han/Hsiang-Nu, Barfield's model works well up to the irruption of Chinggis Khan and his empire. This is shown to be distinctive in that the Mongols directly conquer China, they are succeeded directly by a native Chinese dynasty, and the Ming successors did not pursue the tributary diplomacy typical of earlier dynasties. Barfield's pattern is partly restored by the Qing conquest of China, which has many of the features of prior Manchurian "vulture" conquests. In the mid-18th century, expanding Qing and Russian power, and some luck lead to the extinction of the last great nomadic state, the Zunghar confederation, ending 2 millenia of Inner Asian influence over Eurasia.
13 people found this helpful
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Dan
5.0 out of 5 stars Tough, but good
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2005
My history professor claims that this is one book which former students complain about years after having read it. It is dense. There are lots of odd names which run together. It is absolutely not for the casual reader. But I would consider it necessary reading for all scholars of China, Asia, or just history in general. I found it fascinating that the steppe tribes and the various Chinese governments had a not-always unspoken agreement, in which the tribes were essentially allowed to conquer a limited region of China, in exchange for securing trade routes and defending against tribes outside of the system.
35 people found this helpful
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Tom L. Forest
5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating recasting of the dynamics of Chinese history
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2000
Barfield's primary thesis is that the dynamics of Chinese civilization are not intelligible considered in isoloation. Rather, comprehension requires the distinction between Manchurian and Native dynasties and the role that empires of the steppe played in the changes between them.
Of special interest is that by far the best know steppe empire, that of the Mongols under Temujin and his successors, was an anomalous exception to the 2,000 year pattern. Typical steppe empires were interested in extortion (or tribute, or gifts, depending on who tells the story), not direct rule.
If you're a student of Chinese history or of the dynamics of civilizations, read this book. You'll think differently.
39 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Julia Strong
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book about a little-written about area
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2015
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This is a very accessible interesting book that gives you a real insight into the nomadic way of life and how the nomadic empires developed.
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Laffargue Jean-Pierre
5.0 out of 5 stars Ce livre est extraordinaire
Reviewed in France on May 28, 2015
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Ce livre est extraordinaire et porte sur un sujet passionnant et mal connu. La lecture est parfois difficile, mais elle vaut la peine. La thèse théorique qu'établit le livre est originale et convaincante.
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Aldo C. Marturano
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 7, 2017
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Expectedly good....
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