Hanshu Volume 95 The Southwest Peoples Two Yues And Chaoxian Translation With Commentary

A new translation of Volume 95 of the Hanshu, also known as the Book of Han, is provided along with commentary on the text and discussion. The present translation is given with aligned Chinese source text. Volume 95 is a 傳 zhuan ‘biography’ describing the 西南夷 Southwest peoples of present-day Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou; 兩粵 two Yues, Nanyue of present-day Guangdong, Guangxi, and Vietnam and Minyue of present-day Fujian, Jiangsu, and adjacent areas; and 朝鮮 Chaoxian in the Korean peninsula. A discussion of how the text relates to trade, transportation, and cultural exchange in Panyu, in the area of present-day Guangzhou, as the capital of Nanyue and administrative center of the Nanhai commandery is also given.

In Nation and Ethnicity Julia C. Schneider give an analysis of the Chinese discourse on nationalism and historiography in the 1900s-1920s with regard to non-Chinese people’s assimilation and integration into the nation.

This volume ties together the histories of Japan and China for the modern period prior to the 20th century. The chapters look at Chinese and Japanese works which were written in response to events in the other country. None of these works has received any sustained attention in the west. As a result we get a view of how Chinese and Japanese saw each other at a time when there were few personal contacts allowed. Many of these texts were built on fanciful embellishments of stories that migrated from one land to the other. But the unique qualities of the Sino-Japanese cultural bond seem to have conditioned the interaction so that these texts all reveal a fascinatingly well-defined area.

In 221 BCE the state of Qin vanquished its rivals and established the first empire on Chinese soil, starting a millennium-long imperial age in Chinese history. Hailed by some and maligned by many, Qin has long been an enigma. In this pathbreaking study, the authors integrate textual sources with newly available archeological and paleographic materials, providing a boldly novel picture of Qin’s cultural and political trajectory, its evolving institutions and its religion, its place in China’s history, and the reasons for its success and for its ultimate collapse.

A Chinese Bestiary presents a fascinating pageant of mythical creatures from a unique and enduring cosmography written in ancient China. The Guideways through Mountains and Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries b.c.e., contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora, and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together translations from the work itself with information from other texts and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated guide to the imaginative world of early China. Unlike the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens. Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition. Seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time, and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art during the late Ming dynasty. This beautiful volume, compiled by a well-known specialist in the field, provides a fascinating window on the thoughts and beliefs of an ancient people, and will delight specialists and general readers alike.

A celebration of Taoist art traces the influence of philosophy on the visual arts in China.