Critical Readings on Japanese Confucianism facilitates more in-depth and profound understandings of the many dimensions of Confucianism in Japan by bringing together important studies from the disciplines of history, philosophy, and religion, as well as important texts in translation. Volume one examines historical unfoldings of Japanese Confucianism as a stimulating array of intellectual expressions operative from the beginnings of Japanese literary culture through the present. Volume two explores philosophical approaches to Confucian ethics, metaphysics, and political thinking....

Critical Readings in the Intellectual History of Early Modern Japan provides an overview of recent research into the most fascinating period in the development of Japanese thought. Against a background of Buddhism, which all through the period remained the state-sponsored religion, Chinese studies spread and became the basis of all higher education. Chinese studies, and the Confucianism they implied, provoked a reaction, "National Studies," which took the philological method elaborated by the Chinese scholars and applied it to the ancient Japanese corpus, in an attempt to articulate a...

The three volumes of this collection (Tokugawa Economy and Society, Meiji Industrialization, and Twentieth Century Japan) feature essays examining the economic and social transformations that redefined Japan from the proto-industrial economy of the early moder era to Japan's twentieth-century emergence as one of the world's great industrialized nations. The first volume, Tokugawa Economy and Society, examines how the political economy of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, despite political constraints designed specifically to hinder social and economic change,...

In Critical Readings on the History of Tibetan Foreign Relations Saul Mullard has presented some of the world's leading academic contributions to the history of Tibetan contacts with other nations and states. This selection of key texts manages to chart the historical development of Tibet and her position in the politics and history of Central, South and East Asia. Beginning with the Tibetan Imperialperiod, and ending with Tibet's contemporary position in international relations, this collection explores the important linguistic, diplomatic, political, and religious connections that...

The imperial dynasty of Japan is the oldest on earth and the only one the Japanese have ever known. It is unique in the sense that Japanese emperors hardly ever decided policies, commanded troops, administered the state, passed judgments, or decreed on matters of faith. Actual power was usually in the hands of subordinates, whether aristocrats, warlords, bureaucrats or politicians. Despite their political and military weakness, the emperors of Japan occupied the highest position in the realm, enjoyed a sacred status, and their dynasty could not be overthrown. This 4-volume publication...

Food in East Asia presents a collection of articles that treat a wide variety of aspects related to food in contemporary East Asia. Cuisine is a very persuasive tool for delineating East Asia as a region. Food and foodways of Greater China, Japan and Korea obviously differ from one another, but they all rest upon the foundations of ancient Chinese civilization that once dominated this part of the world. The use of chopsticks and a widespread consumption of processed soybeans rank among the most vivid indicators of the common heritage of the Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisines. Yet,...

A collection of the best scholarship on the subject of minorities and multiculturalism in Japan, with a special focus on recent work dealing with Japan's ongoing transition to a country of immigration and the social and political responses to this. Multiculturalism (itself defined and practiced in different ways), and the supposed backlash against it, is currently one of the most important social and political issues in the developed world in the contexts of immigration, social cohesion and security. Japan, facing a declining population and increased immigration, is beginning to address these...

Until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, there were no Christians in Korea. Today Korea is one of the most Christian countries in Asia, with over 30% of South Koreans claiming Christianity as their religious affiliation. The articles in these volumes trace the history of Christianity in Korea from its eighteenth-century beginnings to the present day. These articles address differences in how Catholicism and Protestantism were received, as well as the changing relationship of Christianity to political power, and the impact of Christianity on gender roles. They also examine how...

Critical Readings on China-Taiwan Relations reprints important articles and book chapters which examine aspects of China-Taiwan relations historically, bilaterally in military-security and economic affairs, and multilaterally with the United States, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific. The work begins with an introduction by the editor, Professor J. Bruce Jacobs, outlining several key issues in China-Taiwan relations. Critical Readings provides important background and facilitates understanding of such potential world...

Critical Readings on Christianity in Japan is a multidisciplinary collection of scholarship on the history, cultural reshaping, and social impact of a relative latecomer to the world of Japanese religions. The selected studies are arranged historically and analyze the particular challenges and roles played by this minority religion over the course of five centuries, beginning with the mission of the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. The readings critically examine the diverse institutional forms of Christianity, including transplanted mission churches from the West,...