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The great city of Beijing, capital of China from the ninth century, was for a millennium one of the most extraordinary places on earth. At a time when London, Paris, or Rome had only several hundred thousand residents, Beijing held over a million. This book tells the history of this great city, and through it provides a highly engaging summary history of China. In the summer of 1997, President Jiang Zemin made a decision to destroy Beijing. There was no announcement, no explanation given, nor an...

A history of Chinese immigrants encounter with Canadian Protestant missionaries, "His Dominion" and the "Yellow Peril": Protestant Missions to Chinese Immigrants in Canada, 1859-1967 , analyzes the evangelizing activities of missionaries and the role of religion in helping Chinese immigrants affirm their ethnic identity in a climate of cultural conflict. Jiwu Wang argues that, by working toward a vision of Canada that espoused Anglo-Saxon Protestant values, missionaries inevitably reinforced pop...

Benjamin Schwartz taught at Harvard from 1950 until his retirement in 1987. Through his teaching and writing, he became a major force in the field of Chinese studies, setting standards-above all in the area of intellectual history-that have been a source of inspiration to students and scholars worldwide. His influence extends well beyond the China field, cutting across conventional disciplinary boundaries, touching political science, religion, philosophy, and literature as well as history.The es...

Demon warrior puppets, sword-wielding Taoist priests, spirit mediums lacerating their bodies with spikes and blades-these are among the most dramatic images in Chinese religion. Usually linked to the propitiation of plague gods and the worship of popular military deities, such ritual practices have an obvious but previously unexamined kinship with the traditional Chinese martial arts. The long and durable history of martial arts iconography and ritual in Chinese religion suggests something far...

A comprehensive history of the Sino-Russian border, one of the longest and most important land borders in the worldThe Sino-Russian border, once the world's longest land border, has received scant attention in histories about the margins of empires. Beyond the Steppe Frontier rectifies this by exploring the demarcation's remarkable transformation-from a vaguely marked frontier in the seventeenth century to its twentieth-century incarnation as a tightly patrolled barrier girded by watchtowers, ba...

Lucid and economical, this introductory text delivers a brisk, fast-moving survey of Tibetan Buddhism. For many years Powers's nearly 600-page Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism has served as the field's most authoritative and comprehensive overview of Tibet's distinctive Buddhist tradition. A Concise Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism explains the core Buddhist doctrines and the practices of meditation and tantra and provides a survey of the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

The English edition of Liu Lihong's work is a milestone for the profession of Chinese medicine in the 21st century. Classical Chinese Medicine delivers a straightforward critique of the politically motivated 'integration' of traditional Chinese wisdom with Western science during the last sixty years, and represents an ardent appeal for the recognition of Chinese medicine as a science in its own right. Professor Liu's candid presentation has made this book a bestseller in China, treasured not onl...

The Columbia History of Chinese Literature is a comprehensive yet portable guide to China's vast literary traditions. Stretching from earliest times to the present, the text features original contributions by leading specialists working in all genres and periods. Chapters cover poetry, prose, fiction, and drama, and consider such contextual subjects as popular culture, the impact of religion, the role of women, and China's relationship with non-Sinitic languages and peoples. Opening with a major...

Perhaps no aspect of early Chinese history and culture has prompted more controversy than that associated with the ancient State of Chu. This major new volume of essays offers the most comprehensive and current analysis of Chu culture during the Eastern Zhou period (770-221 B.C.) in a Western language. Li Xueqin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, writes on Chu bronzes and Chu culture; Lothar von Falkenhausen of Stanford University analyzes the implications of Chu ritual music; A...

In the early spring of 1961, Dr. Corneille Jest undertook a three-week circumambulation of the valley in the company of Tibetans visiting temples, shrines, and sacred mountains. His companion Karma, an elderly nomad from Western Tibet and a gifted storyteller, punctuated the journey with traditional tales and his own reflections. Charmingly written, colorful, and engaging, the narrative transports the reader to a world of Tibetan spirit in ways not readily accessible to outsiders.