A Brief Discussion of the Origins of the Sui and Tang Institutions

This book covers topics related to Sui and Tang institutions and their establishment, including rites, officialdom, penal codes, music, military organization, and finance. It spans many fields related to medieval history, such as the history of the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang history, ethnology, sociology, archaeology, cultural history, and linguistics. It demonstrates Chen Yinke’s remarkable insight into the substance of traditional Chinese culture, the relationship between Chinese and Western cultures, the definition of race and culture, and the essence of cultural assimilation between the Hu peoples and the Han.

Although A Preliminary Discussion of the Origins of Sui and Tang Institutions was not written as an argument about the history of the Western Regions, research and evidence relevant to that subject appear throughout the book. Whether in its brilliant explanation of “Chinese learning as the essence, Western learning for practical use,” or its distinctive insight that “culture, not race, is what matters,” it is a classic work for the study of the history of the Western Regions.