The Aobo tu, the 'Illustrated Boiling of Sea Water', was completed and published by Chen Chun in 1334. It is the world's earliest extant work exclusively dealing with salt production and salt production techniques. The first part of this book focuses on the technical, fiscal, administrative, social and economic background of the Aobo tu. It also provides the reader with information on the various editions and related material. This is followed by a complete annotated translation and the reproduction of two different sets of illustrations. By combining research on various aspects...

This collection of essays written by his former students and colleagues represent the many foci of interest that Erik Zurcher has shared with them during his tenure as professor at Leiden University. They include discussions of Confucian philosophy, Buddhist and Christian polemics, the spread of Jesuit literature and anti-Christian attitudes among the literati, Ming aphorisms, the Chinese pictorial of skulls and skeletons, the Ch'ien-lung Emperor's eightieth birthday celebrations, Sino-Korean relations, and the "little traditions" in Chinese historical development, secret societies and...

All cultures and times have their own notions of time and space. Being one of the fundamental ideas in every society they influence virtually every aspect of society. In this book the authors explain the notions of time and space in China, how culturally concrete and particularly Chinese they are and how significant such Chinese cultural-ness of these notions is. Seventeen scholars of various disciplinary backgrounds have treated topics within this general perspective in a comprehensive way.

This book is about the tension between de facto political power and the claims to intellectual and moral leadership of the shi ('gentleman class') in Early Medieval China. Shelun, or Hypothetical Discourse, is a hitherto neglected Chinese literary genre. The author for the first time places the surviving texts against the political background that accounts for its rise and decline in early medieval China. Comprehensively annotated translations of seven Hypothetical Discourses are placed in the context of their authors' lives and times, with an emphasis on the post-Han...

This volume deals with the social legislation of Zhu Yuanzhang, who founded the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), following the era of Mongol rule in China. It recounts the circumstances under which the laws were enacted and what the Emperor claimed he was trying to accomplish - a restoration of traditional Chinese social norms. The contents of several codes are discussed in terms of the groups to which they applied and the range of activities they purported to regulate.
The early Ming codes formed one of the most comprehensive and cohesive bodies of law in all of Chinese history. Taken as a...

A reconstruction of the Chinese sky of two thousand years ago, based on analysis of the first star catalogue in China and other sources. Presented in six well-sized star maps for 100 BC, it is especially important for the history of astronomy. The Han sky, with five times more constellations than Ptolemy knew, reflects diverse human activities. The way in which constellations were grouped discloses a systematic cosmology, uniting universe and the state. The work of the three Han schools is comparable to Ptolemy's Almagest. With three detailed Appendices on the constellations of the...

How do Chinese and Western philosophical traditions interact today? In the underlying collection of articles both Chinese and Western scholars carefully examine the issue, one of fundamental importance for the mutual understanding of China and the West. The volume is the result of a symposium which sought to initiate a dialogue between China and the West on questions ranging from philosophy to politics and aesthetics. The papers deal with various topics of cross-cultural hermeneutics, such as differences between Chinese and Western concepts of man's relation to the universe, human...