Empire of Min: A South China Kingdom of the Tenth Century

History of a little-known state on the south China coast during the brief period between the Tang and Song dynasties. As Schafer says in his introduction, this era is usually called the "Five Dynasties" from the series of short-lived regimes in northern China whose claim to the "Mandate of Heaven" was later accepted by Song (and later) historians who denied the legitimacy of the southern states of the same era including MIn, though realistically, the southern kingdoms probably had as good or better claim to be "Chinese" than the northern ones who were often dominated by nomad invaders. Min itself was a fairly small but prosperous and civilized entity.T his book is an interesting mini-sequel to Schafer's Vermilian Bird on the southern show more connections of the Tang Dynasty. There is very little other material on Min or the other southern states if its time in English. show less