Liao Architecture (review)

Reviews 271 countries, even though these institutions are supposed to provide die vehicle for collective-oriented, less personalistic interest articulation. Tianjian Shi's book is, in short, a major contribution to our understanding of political participation in China. And, while dozens of Chinese organizations are doing serious social science survey research in China today, most (but not all) lack Shi's knowledge ofWestern social science theories and a carefully constructed research methodology. Finally, Shi's ability to analyze his data in a meaningful way for Western readers and in ways diat can be used for comparative analysis with other political systems makes his book an important addition to the literature of comparative politics. Suzanne Ogden Suzanne Ogden is a professor ofpolitical science at Northeastern University and specializes in the issue ofdemocratization in China. Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt. Liao Architecture. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997. 497 pp. Hardcover $55.00, isbn 0-8248-1843-1. The Liao dynasty (907-1125), which ruled the north of China while the Five Dynasties and Northern Song ruled the south, is a period ofinestimable significance as a turning point in Chinese history, but few resources for the study ofthe Liao and the culture ofits Qidan rulers are available in the English language. Nancy Steinhardt's Liao Architecture is doubly important because it makes a major contribution to the scholarship on the Liao and makes it available in English. Steinhardt explains how Liao architecture conforms to and breaks away from the Chinese, North Asian, and Northeast Asian architectural traditions tiiat preceded or were contemporary with the Liao, and, finally, she examines the legacy ofLiao architecture. This book will be valuable not just to those seeking information about Liao architecture and culture. Scholars who have special interests in the Wei, Tang, Song, Jin, and Qing dynasties, those who are searching for material on the Xi Xia state and the Bohai kingdom, and those who are students ofKorean and Japanese© 1999 by University architecture will all find thoughtful insights into previously known material as ofHawai'i Presswejj as important presentations ofnew material pertinent to their own fields of inquiry. 272 China Review International: Vol. 6, No. i, Spring 1999 Steinhardt's analysis ofthe state ofthe field reveals the breadth and depth of her understanding of the importance of the topic itself and of die political context of the scholarship to date. She points out tiiat the Liao dynasty is one ofthe socalled "conquest" or "barbarian" dynasties and describes how the study of Liao culture suffers from that perception. The Japanese occupation of much ofthe former Liao territory in the 1930s intensified the problem. She traces how the conflict with Japan in the 1930s resulted in the loss ofmonuments and monographs and created a hostility in China toward Japanese scholarship on the Liao monuments in the areas they controlled. That scholarship comprises a major portion of the literary resources for the study of Liao architecture. Steinhardt, fortunately, is able to make full use ofboth Chinese and Japanese sources as well as those in French, German, and, ofcourse, English. She develops her themes and supports her conclusions on the basis of her careful investigation ofthe literary source material and her extensive on-site research. An abundance ofphotographs (373 to be exact), plans, and elevations together with six maps, five tables (of Liao imperial tomb sites and of Liao, preLiao , Song, and Jin wooden buildings), a character glossary, and full notes make tiiis book a resource replete with easily accessed information. For literally hundreds of structures, Steinhardt provides technical but understandable, even interesting, prose analyses oftheir features, from their siting to their architectural details. She queries why they differ widi preceding and contemporary structural traditions, and her answers and speculations are informed by an understanding of Liao culture and its broader context of Chinese history. For scholars of Chinese architecture in general, chapter 3, "Chinese Architecture before Dulesi [984]" is a succinct presentation of resources old and new. The analysis ofthat material leads to die observation that the "Liao builders followed Chinese dictates from base to roof and went on from there to create symbolic buildings witii associations ofpower" (p. 80). In the chapter on the "pinnacle of Liao architecture...