Although this unique insider's account of minority life in China is clearly a book in itself, it is also the sequel to the much-acclaimed The Kam People of China (Geary, Ou and others, 2003). It describes the hitherto scarcely researched culture of people from Xiangye village, in an untravelled corner of Guizhou province, Southwest China, in the 20 years leading up to Liberation in 1949. Xiangye is a Kam (Dong) nationality village, so the book highlights Kam culture of the 1930s and 1940s. It is a fascinating and unparalleled study, also offering exceptionally clear details of many...

The poetry of the Ming dynasty has been relatively neglected in scholarship of the past century, and the 'Archaist' poets of the middle Ming especially so. This book attempts to redress this neglect by presenting by far the most detailed treatment available in any language of the life, milieu, and work of Ho Ching-ming (1483-1521). While Ho's participation in the Archaist circle of Li Meng-yang in his youth is confirmed, the later development of his ideas is shown to move toward a stance usually thought more representative of the following century. The book also argues that 'May Fourth'...

Buddhism in China gathers together for the first time the most central and influential papers of the great scholar of Chinese Buddhism, Erik Zurcher, presenting the results of his career-long profound studies following on the 1959 publication of his landmark The Buddhist Conquest of China. The translation and language of Buddhist scriptures in China, Buddhist interactions with Daoist traditions, the activities of Buddhists below elite social levels, continued interactions with Central Asia and lands to the west, and typological comparisons with Christianity are only some of the...

The early Christian presence in Inner Mongolia forms the subject of this book. These Nestorian remains must primarily be attributed to the Ongut, a Turkic people closely allied to the Mongols. Writing in Syriac, Uighur and Chinese scripts and languages, the Nestorian Ongut drew upon a variety of religions and cultures to decorate their gravestones with crosses rising from lotus flowers, dragons and Taoist imagery. This heritage also portrays designs found in the Islamic world. Taking a closer look at the discovery of this material and its significance for the study of the early Church of the...

In Law, State, and Society in Early Imperial China, Anthony J. Barbieri-Low and Robin D.S. Yates offer the first detailed study and translation into English of two recently excavated, early Chinese legal texts. The Statutes and Ordinances of the Second Year consists of a selection from the long-lost laws of the early Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE). It includes items from twenty-seven statute collections and one ordinance. The Book of Submitted Doubtful Cases contains twenty-two legal case records, some of which have undergone literary embellishment. Taken together, the two...

Yan Yuan (1635-1704) has long been a controversial figure in the study of Chinese intellectual and cultural history. Although marginalized in his own time largely due to his radical attack on Zhu Xi (1130-1200), Yan was elevated to a great thinker during the early twentieth century because of the drastic changes of the modern Chinese intellectual climate. In Body, Ritual and Identity: A New Interpretation of the Early Qing Confucian Yan Yuan (1635-1704), Yang Jui-sung has demonstrated that the complexity of Yan's ideas and his hatred for Zhu Xi in particular need to be interpreted in...

In The Early Dutch Sinologists Koos Kuiper gives a detailed account of the studies and work of the 24 Dutchmen trained as "interpreters" for the Netherlands Indies before 1900. Most began studying at Leiden University, then went to Amoy to study southern Chinese dialects. Their main functions were translating Dutch law into Chinese, advising the courts on Chinese law and checking Chinese accounts books, later also regulating coolie affairs. Actually their services were not always appreciated and there was not enough work for them; later many pursued other careers in the Indies...