This study examines law enforcement within the context of Sung society. Professor McKnight shows that the group of criminals who were the core of the habitual criminal group in Sung China were young unattached males with few lifeskills. What became of the criminal after capture and conviction is also an important aspect of this study, which addresses basic questions in Chinese punishment. This work is the first comprehensive study of law enforcement in traditional China. The depth and rigour to which the subject is treated would make it most appropriate for scholars in legal history and East...

Between August 1937 and December 1941, terrorist wars broke out between Nationalist secret agents and the assassins of the Japanese military authorities who occupied most of Shanghai, and a spate of assassinations, bombings, and machine gun raids took place under the very noses of authorities. The release of secret Chinese police files by the C.I.A. allow the inner workings of these terrorist groups, and their links to the Green Gang just before Pearl Harbor was bombed and World War II erupted, to be exposed for the first time.

This book describes how the Chinese government, between about 620 and 850, developed an official organization designed to select, process, and edit material for inclusion in official historical works eventually to be incorporated in an official history of the dynasty. The first part gives a detailed account of the establishment of the official apparatus designed to produce a record of the T'ang dynasty, which would remain standard for more than a millennium, with some analysis of the individuals who served in these offices. The second part gives all available detail about the various works...

Many have accepted that the Arrow War (1856-60) was caused by an insult to the British flag belonging to the pirate boat Arrow. Dr. Wong argues that Britain's reliance on the opium trade with China played a far greater role in pushing the diplomatic conflict into war. The war was not a simple diplomatic squabble: it involved vital economic interests in British India, which had to be protected at all costs. Dr. Wong offers penetrating insights into theories of imperialism and how they might be reassessed.

The contribution of the overseas Chinese, particularly from Southeast Asia (Nanyang), to China's early modernization constitutes an important and neglected chapter in Chinese history. During the same years which saw the emergence of the Reform and Revolutionary movements, the ruling Manchu government also turned to the overseas Chinese for needed capital and expertise. Exposed to Western values and often successful in capitalist ventures, leading overseas entrepreneurs were in a special position to introduce new concepts into China. Dr Michael R. Godley's study traces the rise of overseas...

Between August 1937 and December 1941, terrorist wars broke out between Nationalist secret agents and the assassins of the Japanese military authorities who occupied most of Shanghai, and a spate of assassinations, bombings, and machine gun raids took place under the very noses of authorities. The release of secret Chinese police files by the C.I.A. allow the inner workings of these terrorist groups, and their links to the Green Gang just before Pearl Harbor was bombed and World War II erupted, to be exposed for the first time.

This book explains the general intellectual climate of the early Ch'ing period, and the political and cultural characteristics of the Ch'ing regime at the time. Professor Huang brings to life the book's central characters, Li Fu and the three great emperors he served: K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng, and Chien-lung. Although the author's main concern is to explain the contributions of Li Fu to the Lu-Wang school of Confucianism, he also gives a clear, succinct account of the Lu-Wang and Ch'eng-Chu schools from the twelfth century to the eighteenth.

A thorough analysis of Chang's contribution to the reinvigoration of Confucian thought in eleventh-century China.

The Opium Wars ushered in an era of intensive Western imperialism in China, at a time when the Ch'ing dynasty was already in decline, forcing a small number of Chinese officials to come to the realisation that China must protect itself by adopting the same military technology that had brought it national humiliation. Shen Pao-chen was one such official. Abandoning the comfort of his successful career, Shen devoted his life to building China's first modern naval dockyard and academy. His successes and failures shed new light on the story of China's efforts at modernization - a story that has...

A meticulous analysis of Tung Chung-shu's importance in Chinese philosophy and religion.