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Hot Spots and Dodgy Places
He visits a bizarre flower-show in Pyongyang, crosses confusing ethno-religious fault lines in the Balkans and Lebanon, drinks tea with friendly Yemenis near Osama bin Laden’s ancestral village, explores prehistoric caves with Tuareg tribesmen in Libya, and plays Indiana Jones among pyramids shortly after a rebel attack on Khartoum. Through long-forgotten characters, bizarre coincidences of history and personal stories of individuals he encountered, Wee Cheng turns faraway lands alive, and convinces the reader that these are more than just places in the news.
Ancestors and Anxiety
This innovative work on Chinese concepts of the afterlife is the result of Stephen Bokenkamp's groundbreaking study of Chinese scripture and the incorporation of Indic concepts into the Chinese worldview. Here, he explores how Chinese authors, including Daoists and non-Buddhists, received and deployed ideas about rebirth from the third to the sixth centuries C.E. In tracing the antecedents of these scriptures, Bokenkamp uncovers a stunning array of non-Buddhist accounts that provide detail on the realms of the dead, their denizens, and human interactions with them. Bokenkamp demonstrates that the motive for the Daoist acceptance of Buddhist notions of rebirth lay not so much in the power of these ideas as in the work they could be made to do.
Rhythms of Insect Evolution
Documents morphology, taxonomy, phylogeny, evolutionary changes, and interactions of 23 orders of insects from the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous faunas in Northern China This book showcases 23 different orders of insect fossils from the Mid Mesozoic period (165 to 125 Ma) that were discovered in Northeastern China. It covers not only their taxonomy and morphology, but also their potential implications on natural sciences, such as phylogeny, function, interaction, evolution, and ecology. It covers fossil sites; paleogeology; co-existing animals and plants in well-balanced eco-systems; insects in the spotlight; morphological evolution and functional development; and interactions of inse...
Struggle for Empire
Struggle for Empire provides the first comprehensive modern biography in English of the late Qing dynasty statesman, strategist, and military commander, Zuo Zongtang (1812-1885). A national hero in China, Zuo’s remarkable story remains understudied in the West. Author Kenneth Swope traces Zuo's unlikely rise from poverty and obscurity in rural Hunan province to become the most powerful Han Chinese official in Manchu China. Zuo embodied a new practical type of Chinese official, grounded in the study of military history and strategic geography, who realized that the secret to China’s survival was to both live up to traditional Confucian norms and expectations while also adapting science and technology from the West. Zuo also pushed for self-strengthening, building China’s first modern naval yard and setting up arsenals, silk factories, and publishing houses across China. Zuo also helped the Qing put down the greatest civil war in human history, the Taiping Rebellion.
The Construction of Space in Early China
This book examines the formation of the Chinese empire through its reorganization and reinterpretation of its basic spatial units: the human body, the household, the city, the region, and the world. The central theme of the book is the way all these forms of ordered space were reshaped by the project of unification and how, at the same time, that unification was constrained and limited by the necessary survival of the units on which it was based. Consequently, as Mark Edward Lewis shows, each level of spatial organization could achieve order and meaning only within an encompassing, superior whole: the body within the household, the household within the lineage and state, the city within the region, and the region within the world empire, while each level still contained within itself the smaller units from which it was formed. The unity that was the empire's highest goal avoided collapse back into the original chaos of nondistinction only by preserving within itself the very divisions on the basis of family or region that it claimed to transcend.
Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance
This important volume affords a panoramic view of local elites during the dramatic changes of late imperial and Republic China. Eleven specialists present fresh, detailed studies of subjects ranging from cultivated upper gentry to twentieth-century militarists, from wealthy urban merchants to village leaders. In the introduction and conclusion the editors reassess the pioneering gentry studies of the 1960s, draw comparisons to elites in Europe, and suggest new ways of looking at the top people in Chinese local social systems. Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance lays the foundation for future discussions of Chinese elites and provides a solid introduction for non-specialists. Essay...
The Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads
The extensive ritual and mythological lore of the Chinese Triads form the scope of this new paperback in Brill’s Scholar’s List. In it the reader will find a critical evaluation of the extant sources together with a true wealth of context. The core of the book is formed by a close reading of the initiation ritual, including the burning of incense, the altar, the enactment of a journey of life and death, and the blood covenant. Different narrative structures are also presented. These include the messianic demonological paradigm, political legitimation, and the foundation of myth. Triad lore is placed in its own religious and cultural context, allowing radically new conclusions about its origins, meanings and functions. This book is of special interest to social historians, anthropologists, and students of Chinese religious culture.
The Story of Xinjiang Revealed through Old Maps (1759-1912)
Xinjiang, named in 1759 by Emperor Qianlong (?? 1711-1799) of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China, was ruled by the Qing from the final phase of the Dzungar-Qing Wars when the Dzungar Khanate was conquered, and lasted until the fall of the imperial dynasty in 1912. Based on rare ancient maps and historical archives, the book tells stories of Xinjiang during the Qing. It involves Emperor Qianlong, Fragrant concubine (xiangfei ??, Uyghur concubine married with Emperor Qianlong), Lady Catherine (the wife of the British consul-general in Kashgar at the end of the 19th century, and lived in Xinjiang for nearly two decades), Swedish missionaries (persisted in spreading Christianity for 38 years among Uyghurs who believed in Islam), Guan Gong temples (the belief in Lord Guan, a religious tradition of the Han and Manchus) and so on.
Power of Place
Mountains have always been integral components of China's religious landscape. Early in Chinese history five mountains were co-opted into the imperial cult and declared sacred peaks--yue--demarcating and protecting the imperium's boundaries. Here, Robson demonstrates the value of local and Buddho-Daoist studies in research on Chinese religion.
International Encyclopedia of Military History
With its impressive breadth of coverage – both geographically and chronologically – the International Encyclopedia of Military History is the most up-to-date and inclusive A-Z resource on military history. From uniforms and military insignia worn by combatants to the brilliant military leaders and tacticians who commanded them, the campaigns and wars to the weapons and equipment used in them, this international and multi-cultural two-volume set is an accessible resource combining the latest scholarship in the field with a world perspective on military history.
