Raymond Yiwen Huang Knihy

1587, a Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline (Chinese: 萬曆十五年; pinyin: Wanli Shiwunian) is Chinese historian Ray Huang's most famous work. First published by Yale University Press in 1981,[1] it examines how a number of seemingly insignificant events in 1587 might have caused the downfall of the Ming empire. The views expressed in the book follow the macro history perspective.

Based on phonetic and contrastive methods, the book is not only useful for the learning and teaching of Mandarin pronunciation but also as a contribution to comparative linguistics. For the first time the Chinese syllable is phonetically analysed in terms of vowels and consonants and the mandarin vowels and consonants are described systematically in comparision with those in English and illustrated in clear and accurate diagrams.