Gilded Dragons

This text brings to life a succession of fascinating golden ages in Chinese history, from the reign of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Hungdi, in the early 3rd Century BC through the Han to the Tang dynasties.

An inkstone, a piece of polished stone no bigger than an outstretched hand, is an instrument for grinding ink, an object of art, a token of exchange between friends or sovereign states, and a surface on which texts and images are carved. As such, the inkstone has been entangled with elite masculinity and the values of wen (culture, literature, civility) in China, Korea, and Japan for more than a millennium. However, for such a ubiquitous object in East Asia, it is virtually unknown in the Western world. Examining imperial workshops in the Forbidden City, the Duan quarries in Guangdong, the commercial workshops in Suzhou, and collectors� homes in Fujian, The Social Life of Inkstones traces inkstones between court and society and shows how collaboration between craftsmen and scholars created a new social order in which the traditional hierarchy of �head over hand� no longer predominated. Dorothy Ko also highlights the craftswoman Gu Erniang, through whose work the artistry of inkstone-making achieved unprecedented refinement between the 1680s and 1730s. The Social Life of Inkstones explores the hidden history and cultural significance of the inkstone and puts the stonecutters and artisans on center stage.

This is the only fully annotated and comprehensive selection of Tennyson’s poetry. Acknowledged as a major achievement of editorial scholarship, it has established itself as the standard edition of Tennyson. The collection contains in full all four of Tennyson's long poems: The Princess, In Memoriam, Maud, and Idylls of the King. Other key works are included from Mariana, The Lady of Shallott, Morte d'Arthur, Ulysses, and Tithonus through Tennyson's middle life and the Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, to his last years and Crossing the Bar.

In 1878, a decade after Japan was launched into the world of modern nations by the Meiji restoration of 1868, Isabella Lucy Bird set off alone to explore the interior. Ninety years ago Japan was still a mysterious country to Westerners. Miss Bird must have presented a fearsome sight to Japanese villagers when she came into view clad in American mountain dress and Wellington boots. However the country people liked her. She took off her boots before entering houses, she was of small stature, of quiet voice, and courteous! Many of the Japanese she met had never seen a European before. They were convinced all Westerners were uncouth barbarians. The Japan Isabella Bird describes is not the sentimental world of a Madame Butterfly, festooned with cherry blossoms. She describes real people in back country districts. Peasant life in Japan had never been easy but in early Meiji Japan, when the country was in a state of cultural shock following the opening of its doors to Western civilization, the drain of wealth from rural Japan to all-important Tokyo was particularly hard on the rural population. In this classic Japanese travelogue we see a side of Japan that is little known today.

Relaying a chronological account of the Metropolitan Museum's collection of pottery, porcelain and faïence, this book reveals the economic, cultural, and social history of diverse cultures through their ceramic and plastic arts. The catalogue has a global reach, covering the Far East, the Near East, and Europe while tracking the medium from its origins in Dynastic China to the elaborate works in the Rococo style. In his account, Pier also points to areas of the museum's ceramics and plastics collection that will continue to develop into a strong collection. At the time of writing, he identified the Museum's European and Near East collections as particularly promising.