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This is the first volume of a two-volume set on the names of China, focusing on the country's official titles throughout history.Using interdisciplinary approaches from fields such as history, geography, ethnic studies, linguistics, psychology and toponymy, this two-volume set examines the origin and evolution of China's names over more than 4,000 years of history. The first volume examines the official names of the country given by the rulers or government, including the names of the imperial dynasties, from the earliest Xia to the last Qing, and the title of the Republic of China, which symbolises a new era in national naming. The author examines the common features as well as the cultural contexts and historical traditions that underlie these diverse titles. The origins and meanings of national titles, their secondary connotations, evolving understandings and related implications are explored. The book also analyses the lifespan and spatial references of these national titles.This book will appeal to both academic and general readers interested in Chinese history, Chinese historical geography and Chinese toponymy.

This is a unique and conclusive reference work about the 6,000 individual men and women known to us from China's formative first empires. Over decennia Michael Loewe (Cambridge, UK) has painstakingly collected all biographical information available. Not only those are dealt with who set the literary forms and intellectual background of traditional China, such as writers, scholars, historians and philosophers, but also those officials who administered the empire, and the military leaders who fought in civil warfare or with China's neighbours.The work draws on primary historical sources as interpreted by Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars and as supplemented by archaeological finds and inscriptions. By devoting extensive entries to each of the emperors the author provides the reader with the necessary historical context and gives insight into the dynastic disputes and their far-reaching consequences.No comparable work exists for this important period of Chinese history. Without exaggeration a real must for historians of both China and other cultures.

Ethnic classification is the process of establishing standards, such as shared ancestry, language, religious practices, cultural traditions, and geographical distributions, for categorizing ethnic groups. Tracing the history of China to its tribal origins, the book explores how the identities of the numerous ethnic groups in China were established and how these groups interact with one another. By comparing and contrasting exonyms and autonyms, the authors offer an insightful ethnographic analysis of the system for assigning ethnonyms. Drawing on a large body of research in history, folklore studies, archaeology and linguistics as well as a rich trove of primary sources, the book provides readers with a both expansive and in-depth look at how people understand their similarities with, differences from and relationship to one another.

As the final volume of a multi-volume set on the Chinese language, this book studies the Western and Japanese influence on the lexicon of Modern Chinese, lexical developments in synonyms, idioms and proverbs in modern times, and lexical developments in contemporary times.This volume first introduces the influence of foreign cultures on the modern Chinese lexicon with an emphasis on loanwords from Japanese and Indo-European languages. It then discusses the synonyms, idioms, and proverbs of Modern Chinese, elucidating their evolution, sources, and composition. The final part centers on the development of the Chinese lexicon after the May Fourth Movement in 1919, marking the beginning of the contemporary phase of the Chinese language. The author analyzes trends and types of neologisms and loanwords and analyzes the blend of Mandarin and dialect words and the necessity of lexical standardization.Illustrated with abundant examples, this comprehensive groundwork on Chinese lexical history will be a must-read for scholars and students studying Modern Chinese language, linguistics, and especially for beginning learners of modern and contemporary Chinese lexicon.

This book provides extensive information on craftsmen-built houses in China. Though some inroads have been made in studying this folk custom, this work represents the first comprehensive and systematic monograph. The book examines the topic at the two main levels of “history” and “theory”. Combining historical textual research, contemporary textual research, and field study, the book presents systematic information on the folk custom of craftsmen-built houses in China. At the level of theoretical research, it puts forward some original opinions on the major theoretical issues, such as the folk custom of religious belief, the boundary between superstition and religion, and the relationship between oral literature and ritual. The book provides a guide to help readers systematically understand the folk custom of craftsmen-built houses in China. Sharing valuable insights into Chinese architectural history, as well as religious studies, cultural anthropology, and folklore, it will appeal to researchers in the fields of folklore, cultural anthropology, and architecture and can also serve as a popular science book for understanding Chinese architectural culture.

Pan'gye surok (or'Pan'gye's Random Jottings') was written by the Korean scholar and social critic Yu Hyŏngwŏn(1622-1673), who proposed to reform the Joseon dynasty and realise an ideal Confucian society. It was recognised as a leading work of political science by Yu's contemporaries and continues to be a key text in understanding the intellectual culture of the late Joseon period.Yu describes the problems of the political and social realities of 17th Century Korea, reporting on his attempts to solve these problems using a Confucian philosophical approach. In doing so, he establishes most of the key terminology relating to politics and society in Korea in the late Joseon. His writings were used as a model for reforms within Korea over the following centuries, inspiring social pioneers like Yi Ik and Chŏng Yakyong. Pan'gye surok demonstrates how Confucian thought spread outside China and how it was modified to fit the situation on the Korean peninsula.Providing both the first English translation of the full Pan'gyesurok text as well as glossaries, notes and research papers on the importance of the text, this four volume set is an essential resource for international scholars of Korean and East Asian history.

The traditional Chinese notion of itself as the “middle kingdom”—literally the cultural and political center of the world—remains vital to its own self-perceptions and became foundational to Western understandings of China. This worldview was primarily constructed during the earliest imperial unification of China during the Qin and Han dynasties (221 BCE–220 CE). But the fragmentation of empire and subsequent “Age of Disunion” (220–589 CE) that followed undermined imperial orthodoxies of unity, centrality, and universality. In response, geographical writing proliferated, exploring greater spatial complexities and alternative worldviews. This book is the first study of the emergent genre of geographical writing and the metageographies that structured its spatial thought during that period. Early medieval geographies highlighted spatial units and structures that the Qin–Han empire had intentionally sought to obscure—including those of regional, natural, and foreign spaces. Instead, these postimperial metageographies reveal a polycentric China in a polycentric world. Sui–Tang (581–906 CE) officials reasserted the imperial model as spatial orthodoxy. But since that time these alternative frameworks have persisted in geographical thought, continuing to illuminate spatial complexities that have been incompatible with the imperial and nationalist ideal of a monolithic China at the center of the world.

The Record of Transmitting the Light traces the inheritance of the Buddha's enlightenment through successive Buddhist masters. Written by a seminal figure in the Japanese Zen tradition, its significance as an historical and religious document is unquestionable. And ultimately, The Record of Transmitting the Light serves as a testament to our own capacity to awaken to a life of freedom, wisdom, and compassion. Readers of Zen will also find the introduction and translation by Francis Dojun Cook, the scholar whose insights brought Zen Master Dogen to life in How to Raise an Ox, of great value.

This book, based on the theory of Marxism-Leninism, aims to study the essence, content and features of various legal systems in China in different historical periods, as well as the rules of the development of Chinese legal system. It effectively combines classic and historical analysis to probe the historical facts and elaborate the historical role of the legal system, revealing both the general and the specific rules of the development of the Chinese legal system on the basis of the existing relevant researches. The subject matter is of abundant theoretical and practical significance, as it enriches Marxist legal studies, deepens the readers'understanding of Chinese legal civilization and offers guiding principles for the creation of socialist legal systems with Chinese characteristics. The chapters are structured chronologically, ranging from the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period, the Han Dynasty, the South and North Dynasties, the Suiand Tang Dynasties, the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties when Chinese legal system took on its final form. The chapters are compiled according to legislation, administrative law, criminal law and judicial system. Besides, the Chinese legal civilization after the Revolution of 1911 led by Sun Yat-sen is also addressed.

This was a world of Martial Soul.Here, book Martial Soul could kill people with their poems. A Martial Spirit of Arrow could chase after the soul for thousands of miles. The sword Martial Soul could cut through the sky.In Ascension God Dynasty City, a teenager with a Superb Martial Spirit changed his fate and returned to sixteen.It was the beginning of a blood-boiling legend.— Universal World, my lord!

This was a book about human nature. Loyalty and betrayal, life and death were all reflected in this book. Every single moment, every single character was struggling with their own thoughts. Their will had made this book a reality. The story of a small Golden Triangle warlord passing through the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty to become a famous general, Lu Bu, and struggling to survive in the stormy seas. Every step he took was filled with fear, and he had to pay the price of blood. The complicated relations between the late Han Dynasty's valve families, the life on the market of the small people, the vast and magnificent natural scenery, and the vivid and lifelike characters of the three countries occupy a great deal of space in this book.

After performing a perilous service for the future Emperor, the peasant Chen Hsi-wei turns down the customary rewards in favor of receiving an education. The Court is astonished by this unheard-of request, but orders the strict teacher Shen Kuo to do what he can with the boy. In the course of copying out the words of the ancient masters, Hsi-wei begins writing poems of his own. As a young man, Hsi-wei leaves the capital for a vagabond life, supporting himself by making straw sandals. He encounters people of all stations and occupations, trekking through landscapes both flat and mountainous. He learns of the terrible price of building the Grand Canal, the miseries caused by floods, droughts, and endless wars. To his astonishment, Hsi-wei gains a degree of fame, first as a curiosity, then as a writer whose poems are beloved by the people and pass into the vast life of China.

Tracing descent from common ancestors was extremely important in imperial China. Members of such lineage communities sacrificed to ancestors in periodic ceremonies, maintained written genealogies to demonstrate their descent, and held some properties in common. This book, based on extensive original research, provides evidence that the practice originated much earlier than previously understood. It shows that in the eleventh century, in southern China under the Song dynasty, the method of compiling a genealogy in the form a table, that is, to say a family tree, replaced its statement as a textual paragraph and that this allowed the tracking of multi-line descent in ways that had previously been impossible. The book also reveals that the practice of recording and presenting genealogical information was not originally unique to communities of common surnames, but that the Southern Song government, keen to encourage loyalty to the state and cohesion within communities, favoured the building of common surname lineages, a practice which then had far-reaching consequences for the nature of Chinese society over a very long period.

After crossing the river and falling into Big Qiao's bathtub, Chen Lang began his journey to train the three kingdoms.

Tens of thousands of epitaphs, or funerary biographies, survive from imperial China. Engraved on stone and placed in a grave, they typically focus on the deceased's biography and exemplary words and deeds, expressing the survivors'longing for the dead. These epitaphs provide glimpses of the lives of women, men who did not leave a mark politically, and children—people who are not well documented in more conventional sources such as dynastic histories and local gazetteers.This anthology of translations makes available funerary biographies covering nearly two thousand years, from the Han dynasty through the nineteenth century, selected for their value as teaching material for courses in Chinese history, literature, and women's studies as well as world history. Because they include revealing details about personal conduct, families, local conditions, and social, cultural, and religious practices, these epitaphs illustrate ways of thinking and the realities of daily life. Most can be read and analyzed on multiple levels, and they stimulate investigation of topics such as the emotional tenor of family relations, rituals associated with death, Confucian values, women's lives as written about by men, and the use of sources assumed to be biased. These biographies will be especially effective when combined with more readily available primary sources such as official documents, religious and intellectual discourses, and anecdotal stories, promising to generate provocative discussion of literary genre, the ways historians use sources, and how writers shape their accounts.

The three kingdoms will rise, who will fight, and see how I can achieve my own hegemony in this chaotic world. The world is filled with beauties, can it be settled by both sides?

After crossing the river and falling into Big Qiao's bathtub, Chen Lang began his journey to train the three kingdoms.

In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the three kingdoms were at loggerheads.Generals were like dragons, strategists were like tigers.Overnight, he crossed over to Ma Chao, and was alone in the fray. He took the enemy's head among tens of thousands of soldiers.

While the mainland was about to fall and the world was about to be destroyed, Xie Fei's talent started to show up and got noticed. He got on the way of unifing the world. He resolved the crisis step by step in wars again and again, in which he fully demonstrated his military talent. From north to south, from territory to thought, he gradually unified the mainland. He was sought after by beauties. Plus his good reputation has been passed down through the ages.☆About the Author☆Cheng Zhi, an online novelist who is good at different kinds of fictions. Such as urban novels, oriental fantasy novels, and so on. He has written many novels. For example,,. And is the most popular one.The biggest feature of Cheng Zhi's works is that his novels have grand structure and magnificent content.

'You are a gift from Qiu Zhenyu to us, to be used in place of his head. Did your father tell you to obey me?'

The three kingdoms will rise, who will fight, and see how I can achieve my own hegemony in this chaotic world. The world is filled with beauties, can it be settled by both sides?

How could he possibly believe that Nie Mo was repayment for his kindness and enmity? Nie Mo, on the other hand, felt that he was composing a soul-stirring love song using his prime, his beautiful future, and his dazzling life.However, this was only the beginning. Why was his life so complicated and complicated? Furthermore, the wedding that Nie Mo had thought of hundreds and thousands of times was also not that easy to settle.For Yu Gongsheng, the Leaf Board was a great achievement that he had discovered after teleporting over to this world. On the other hand, for Nie Mo, why was it so hard for him to get married?! It was difficult for Yu to have a child in his womb, he couldn't rely on his father's noble position!This was actually a story of a couple struggling to get married. To paraphrase Yu's words, I am responsible for setting goals, while you are responsible for struggling.

Divine State was deceased when Xie Fei came into being. He used iron and blood to sweep the world, unifying everything under the heavens. Iron hoof trampling, the strong man is still the same; the beauty is more charming, the romance is eternal.

Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period was first developed under the auspices of the US Library of Congress during World War II. This much-loved work, edited by Arthur W. Hummel Sr., was meticulously compiled and unique in its scope, and quickly became the standard biographical reference for the Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1911/2. Amongst the contributors are John King Fairbank, Têng Ssû-yü, L. Carrington Goodrich, C. Martin Wilbur, Fêng Chia-shêng, Knight Biggerstaff, and Nancy Lee Swann. The 2018 Berkshire edition contains the original eight hundred biographical sketches as well as the original front and back matter, including the preface by Hu Shih, a scholar who had been China's ambassador to the United States. An introduction by Pamela Crossley places this classic work in historical context, and discusses its origins, authors and editors, themes, style, and contemporary relevance. Chinese names in English have been converted to the pinyin transcription system (changing the book's title from Ch'ing to Qing), but the traditional Chinese characters have been retained. Additional materials added by Berkshire include a general bibliography, a Wade-Giles to pinyin conversion table, and a list of Qing dynasty emperors. Arthur W. Hummel Sr. (1884–1975) was a missionary, sinologist, and the first director of the Orientalia Division at the Library of Congress. Pamela Crossley is a professor at Dartmouth College and a specialist on the Qing empire and modern Chinese history, as well as the software author and scholarly editor of the ECCP Reader, a digital companion to the original Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period.

Ge Zhaoguang, an eminent historian of traditional China and a public intellectual, takes on fundamental questions that shape the domestic and international politics of the world's most populous country and its second largest economy. What Is China? offers an insider's account that addresses sensitive problems of Chinese identity and shows how modern scholarship about China—whether conducted in China, East Asia, or the West—has attempted to make sense of the country's shifting territorial boundaries and its diversity of ethnic groups and cultures.Ge considers, for example, the ancient concept of tianxia, or All-Under-Heaven, which assigned supremacy to the imperial court and lesser status to officials, citizens, tributary states, and tribal peoples. Does China's government still operate with a belief in divine rule of All-Under-Heaven, or has it taken a different view of other actors, inside and outside its current borders? Responding both to Western theories of the nation-state and to Chinese intellectuals eager to promote “national learning,” Ge offers an insightful and erudite account of how China sees its place in the world. As he wrestles with complex historical and cultural forces guiding the inner workings of an often misunderstood nation, Ge also teases out many nuances of China's encounter with the contemporary world, using China's past to explain aspects of its present and to provide insight into various paths the nation might follow as the twenty-first century unfolds.

Paphos Publishers offers a wide catalog of rare classic titles, published for a new generation. Romance of the Three Kingdoms Volume 1 of 3 is the first part of the famous Chinese classic.

Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia offers insights into various techniques of divination, their evolution, and their assessment. The contributions cover the period from the earliest documents on East Asian mantic arts to their appearance in the present time. The volume reflects the pervasive manifestations of divination in literature, religious and political life, and their relevance for society and individuals. Special emphasis is placed on cross-cultural influences and attempts to find theoretical foundations for divinatory practices. This edited volume is an initiative to study the phenomena of divination across East Asian cultures and beyond. It is also one of the first attempts to theorize divinatory practices through East Asian traditions.

From its first designation as temporary capital in 1138, the city of Hangzhou (then called Lin'an) was deemed representative of the diminished empire of the Song (960–1279), in all its contradictory aspects. The exquisite beauty of the city confirmed its destiny to become an imperial residence, but it also portended its fatal corruption. The wealth and ease of Hangzhou epitomized the vigor of the southern empire as well as its oblivious decadence. The city was paramount and feeble, aweinspiring and threatened, the most admired city in the civilized world and a disgrace to the dynastic founders. Rather than perpetuating the debate about the merit of these polemical judgments, the contributors of Senses of the City treat them as expressions of their historical moment, revealing of ideological conviction or aesthetic preference, rather than of historical truth. By reading the sources as expressions of individual experience and political conviction, the contributors defy the impassioned rhetoric of past generations in order to recover the solid ground of historical evidence. Leading scholars of the field, including Beverly Bossler, Stephen West, and Martin Powers have produced essays that relate changes in literary convention to shifts in territorial boundaries, and analyze writing, painting, dance, and music as means by which individual literati placed themselves in time and space. The contributors reestablish the historical connections between writing and meaningful action, between text and world, between the sources and their own words, and between the page and the senses. Their efforts to retrieve the sounds, sights, and smells of Hangzhou from Southern Song texts replicate, in reverse direction, the attempts of twelfth and thirteenthcentury authors to devise effective tropes and suitable genres that would preserve their living impressions of the city in writing.

Huang Xiangjian, a mid-seventeenth-century member of the Suzhou local elite, journeyed on foot to southwest China and recorded its sublime scenery in site-specific paintings. Elizabeth Kindall's innovative analysis of the visual experiences and social functions Huang conveyed through his oeuvre reveals an unrecognized tradition of site paintings, here labeled geo-narratives, that recount specific journeys and create meaning in the paintings. Kindall shows how Huang created these geo-narratives by drawing upon the Suzhou place-painting tradition, as well as the encoded experiences of southwestern sites discussed in historical gazetteers and personal travel records, and the geography of the sites themselves. Ultimately these works were intended to create personas and fulfill specific social purposes among the educated class during the Ming-Qing transition. Some of Huang's paintings of the southwest, together with his travel records, became part of a campaign to attain the socially generated title of Filial Son, whereas others served private functions. This definitive study elucidates the context for Huang Xiangjian's painting and identifies geo-narrative as a distinct landscape-painting tradition lauded for its naturalistic immediacy, experiential topography, and dramatic narratives of moral persuasion, class identification, and biographical commemoration.

China has its own history and success in business with a system of management which is very different to Western models. China's business methods are receiving more global attention as the Chinese economy rises and proves resilient to many international financial problems. However, Chinese business and management are not widely understood outside of China. This book addresses the issue by discussing Western and Chinese management practices and exploring how successful management practices can be learned from both models. An understanding and appreciation of both Western and Chinese management is likely to be essential for the corporate leaders of tomorrow. The book argues that good management education should not only pay attention to the preaching of theories and techniques, but also value the teaching of wisdom and art, and thus get a good balance between the two. In other words, it means keeping a dynamic balance so as to ensure the compatibility of Yin and Yang and the coexistence of two extremes, reaching the final goal of all living creatures growing together without doing harm to one another, roads running parallel without interfering with each other. (Series: Cases in Modern Chinese Business) [Subject: Chinese Studies, Asian Studies, Business, Economics]

Mingming Wang, one of the most prolific anthropologists in China, has produced a work both of long-term historical anthropology and of broad social theory. In it, he traces almost a millennium of history of the southern Chinese city of Quangzhou, a major international trading entrepot in the 13th century that declined to a peripheral regional center by the end of the 19th century. But the historical trajectory understates the complex set of interrelationships between local structures and imperial agendas that played out over the course of centuries and dynasties. Using urban structure, documentary analysis, and archaeological artifacts, Wang shows how the study of Quangzhou represents a Chinese template for civilizational studies, one distinctly different from Eurocentric models propounded by such theorists as Sahlins, Wolf, and Elias.

The Yuan Dynasty was different from other dynasties in the history of China, and so was its capital, Dadu, the city that laid the foundation for what would become modern-day Beijing. As the first publication of its kind, The Capital of the Yuan Dynasty presents the capital's history using a thematic approach. Starting from Beijing in the pre-Yuan Dynasty period, and the building of Dadu as a new city, the author introduces the layout of the city and imperial palaces, and then focuses on Dadu in detail from political, economic, and cultural angles. The Capital of the Yuan Dynasty references over 100 Chinese classics of the Yuan and succeeding dynasties, including Yuanshi (History of Yuan), Xijinzhi jiyi (Compilation of the Scattered Writings of the “Gazetteer of Xijin”), and Tongzhi tiaoge (Legislative Articles from the “Comprehensive Regulations”). Insights from contemporary prose, poetry and references from Goryeo Korea (Nogŏltae and Pak T'ongsa) complement the text.

'This book is the definitive study of imperial Chinese local gazetteers, one of the most important sources for premodern Chinese studies. Methodologically innovative, it represents a major contribution to the history of books, publishing, reading, and society. By examining how gazetteers were read, Joseph R. Dennis illustrates their significance in local societies and national discourses. His analysis of how gazetteers were initiated and produced reconceptualizes the geography of imperial Chinese publishing. Whereas previous studies argued that publishing, and thus cultural and intellectual power, were concentrated in the southeast, Dennis shows that publishing and book ownership were widely dispersed throughout China and books were found even in isolated locales. Adding a dynamic element to our earlier understanding of the publishing industry, Dennis tracks the movements of manuscripts to printers and print labor to production sites. By reconstructing printer business zones, he demonstrates that publishers operated across long distances in trans-regional markets. He also creates the first substantial data set on publishing costs in early modern China—a foundational breakthrough in understanding the world of Chinese books. Dennis's work reveals areas for future research on newly-identified regional publishing centers and the economics of book production.'

Drawing on his extensive experience and study in the field, Charles Buck presents an authoritative and accessible account of the history of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. The book provides an accurate overview, focussing on the key developments that are of most practical relevance to clinicians of today.

This exciting new translation of the Chinese classic is designed to delight modern readers.The Three Kingdoms is an epic Chinese novel written over six centuries ago. It recounts in vivid historical detail the turbulent years at the close of the Han Dynasty when China broke into three competing kingdoms and over half the population was killed or driven from their homes. readers will experience the loyalty and treachery, the brotherhood and rivalry of China's legendary heroes and villains during the most tumultuous period in Chinese history.Part myth, part reality, The Three Kingdoms is considered the most significant work in classic Chinese literature. Many Chinese people view it not only as a work of art but also as a moral guide to success in life and business. Foreigners often read it to gain insights into Chinese society and culture. From the saga of The Three Kingdoms, readers will learn how great warriors motivated their troops and enhanced their influence while disguising their weaknesses and turning the strengths of others against them. Complete with footnotes and a detailed character list, this readable new edition is sure to thrill today's readers from all over the world.As the first volume in a trilogy, The Three Kingdoms: The Sacred Oath introduces Liu Bei and his brothers-in-arms Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, whose allegiance is sorely tested in a society in which each group is fighting for its own survival.

This innovative sourcebook builds a dynamic understanding of China's early medieval period (220–589) through an original selection and arrangement of literary, historical, religious, and critical texts. A tumultuous and formative era, these centuries saw the longest stretch of political fragmentation in China's imperial history, resulting in new ethnic configurations, the rise of powerful clans, and a pervasive divide between north and south. Deploying thematic categories, the editors sketch the period in a novel way for students and, by featuring many texts translated into English for the first time, recast the era for specialists. Thematic topics include regional definitions and tensions, governing mechanisms and social reality, ideas of self and other, relations with the unseen world, everyday life, and cultural concepts. Within each section, the editors and translators introduce the selected texts and provide critical commentary on their historical significance, along with suggestions for further reading and research.

This collection of songs and rhymes composed by Chinese acupuncturists was compiled by the physician Yang Jizhou in 1601. Used both as teaching vehicles and as expressions of the poetry behind their work, these odes offer a rich insight into the history of acupuncture, as well as practical indications for treatment.

Bringing together over sixty pre-modern Chinese primary sources on same-sex desire in English translation, Homoeroticism in Imperial China is an important addition to the growing field of the comparative history of sexuality and provides a window onto the continuous cultural relevance of same-sex desire in Chinese history.Negotiating what can be a challenging area for both specialists and non-specialists alike, this sourcebook provides: accurate translations of key original extracts from classical Chinese concise explanations of the context and significance of each entry translations which preserve the aesthetic quality of the original sources An authoritative and well organised guide and introduction to the original Chinese sources, this sourcebook covers histories and philosophers, poetry, drama (including two complete plays), fiction (including four complete short stories and full chapters from longer novels) and miscellanies. Each of these sections are organised chronologically, and as well as the general introduction, short introductions are provided for each genre and source. Revealing what is a remarkably sophisticated and complex literary tradition, Homoeroticism in Imperial China is an essential sourcebook for students and scholars of Imperial Chinese history and culture and sexuality studies.

As Prime Minister Cao Cao tightens his grip on the emperor and his people, Bei Liu is approached by many, including the emperor himself, who would like to see Cao Cao's reign ended. Oaths are sworn and pledged are written in blood, but spies are everywhere, and one false move will result in blood being spilled on more than just a page.

Western scholars of ancient Chinese ceramics have long thought blue and white porcelain manufactured before the Ming (1368-1644 A.D.), dates to the Yuan (1279-1368 A.D.). Even in China today these porcelains are still termed “Yuan Blue and White.” Based upon first-hand surveys of sites in Inner Mongolia, Adam T. Kessler's Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road demonstrates that blue and white was made during the Song (960-1279 A.D.) ended up in the hands of the Xi Xia (1038-1226 A.D.) and the Jin (1115-1234 A.D.). Blue and white found today in hoards was buried prior to Mongol invasions of China in the 1200s. Sites from the Philippines to Egypt have yielded Song blue and white. Also reviewed is the cobalt-bearing ore used by Song China to create blue and white.