Nicola Di Cosmo is Professor of East Asian Studies in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. His recent publications include Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Powers in East Asian History (2002), Manchu-Mongol Relations on the Eve of the Qing Conquest (2003), and The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century China (2006).