In Four Seasons, John Dardess has once again deployed his unsurpassed mastery of the primary sources for the political history of the Ming court to present a panoramic view of the intricate and fluid dynamics of the Jiajing reign, from 1522 to 1567. Focusing his narrative on the succession of four Chief Grand Secretaries, he traces the course of affairs at the imperial court through the turbulent years of the mid-sixteenth century, from the Great Rites controversy of the 1520s to the aftermath of the fall of Yan Song in the early 1560s. Dardess has mined the correspondence of the emperor and his top counsellors and official records of the court, as well as private writings of the key figures who shaped this era. He has produced an intimate account of the interplay of imperial power in the person of the emperor Zhu Houcong and the individual ambitions and policy agendas of the four most powerful leaders of the civil bureaucracy across the four decades of Jiajing's reign. This book will provide specialists in the Ming with access to a most welcome level of fine detail for a crucial period in China's early modern transformation, and it can also serve as a readable and engaging text for undergraduate courses in Chinese history. -- Kenneth Hammond, New Mexico State University
Professor Dardess's book Four Seasons is a remarkable study of Jiajing's court politics and governance.... In sum, this book is a rich, informative, and thoughtful narrative of Jiajing's court politics and governance refracted through four senior bureaucratic careers. Readers will come away with great appreciation of the role of personality, of the influence of chance, of the relations between the Emperor and his top officials, and of the complexity and ironies at Jiajing's court. The book is a significant contribution to the political history of Ming China. * Ming Studies *
John W. Dardess offers a detailed and lively narrative of the life of Jiajing and the dramatic period as a whole. . . . Returning to the model of in-depth studies of individuals, Four Seasons represents a long-overdue consideration of the personalities of this pivotal period. * Ming Qing Yanjiu *
In Four Seasons, John Dardess has once again deployed his unsurpassed mastery of the primary sources for the political history of the Ming court to present a panoramic view of the intricate and fluid dynamics of the Jiajing reign, from 1522 to 1567. Focusing his narrative on the succession of four chief grand secretaries, he traces the course of affairs at the imperial court through the turbulent years of the mid-sixteenth century, from the Great Rites controversy of the 1520s to the aftermath of the fall of Yan Song in the early 1560s. Dardess has mined the correspondence of the emperor and his top counsellors and official records of the court, as well as private writings of the key figures who shaped this era. He has produced an intimate account of the interplay of imperial power in the person of the emperor Zhu Houcong and the individual ambitions and policy agendas of the four most powerful leaders of the civil bureaucracy across the four decades of Jiajing's reign. This book will provide specialists in the Ming with access to a most welcome level of fine detail for a crucial period in China's early modern transformation, and it can also serve as a readable and engaging text for undergraduate courses in Chinese history. -- Kenneth Hammond, New Mexico State University
Four Seasons provides a vivid account of the tempestuous confrontations between the Jiajing emperor and his officials-confrontations that altered the political landscape of the Ming Dynasty. Dardess draws on a rich array of private writings and official documents, tracing the arc of the emperor's reign from his hurried and unexpected enthronement as a boy through his political battles over rituals, religion, and war and into cranky old age and Daoist reclusion. Dardess writes with his usual flair, offering a gripping, thoughtful, and informative narrative that's a pleasure to read. -- Peter Ditmanson, Pembroke College, University of Oxford
The Jiajing era comes to life in this record of powerful personalities, mammoth rituals, and court intrigue. Four Seasons is a signal contribution to Ming institutional history. -- Katherine Carlitz, University of Pittsburgh
