Better known in his own times than later, Huan T’an (43 BCE–25 CE) was a scholar-official, independent in his thought and unafraid to criticize orthodox currents of his time. A practitioner of the Old Text exegesis of the Classics, he maintained a position on the court during a turbulent time of political crises, uprisings, and civil war, spanning the reigns of four emperors. His principal work, Hsin-lun, differs from other books on political criticism in that it does not deal primarily with history but takes many examples from contemporary social and political life. While belonging to the Old Text group of court officials and scholars, Huan T’an differed radically from them in his stress on direct knowledge, in his range of practical experience, and in his outspoken criticism of popular opinions. He was not a systematic philosopher, but his ideas were influential in the return to a more worldly conception of Confucianism. To translate Huan T’an’s writings, one must reconstruct the texts. Timoteus Pokora uses two nineteenth-century fragments as a basis around which to orient quotations from Hsin-lun from sixty-four other sources, primarily encyclopedias and commentaries. Pokora provides notes to give context to these short references and to account for discrepancies between quotations and originals, and he includes a large index to add coherence and points of entry.

This is the first comprehensive, Western-language study of the important Chinese genre of writing known as "accounts of the anomalies" (zhiguai) in its formative period. The book sets forth a new view of the nature and origins of the genre.

Intellectual developments of the Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 9 CE) have been studied hitherto on the assumptions that a system described as ‘Confucianism’ acquired paramount importance and that Dong Zhongshu (ca. 198 to ca. 107 BCE) had been responsible for formulating its principles. In challenging these assumptions, this book examines Dong’ career and reputation, and his supposed authorship of the Chunqiu fanlu, for long subject to question. It is concluded that while some parts of that text may well represent the teachings that Dong Zhongshu promoted, some may perhaps date from as late as 79 CE; still others bear an affinity to writings which, banned as being suspect or potentially subversive, survive in no more than fragmentary form.

From its beginnings, Confucianism has vibrantly taught that each person is able to find the Way individually in service to the community and the world. John Berthrong’s comprehensive new work tells the story of the grand intellectual development of the Confucian tradition, revealing all the historical phases of Confucianism and opening the reader’s eyes to the often neglected gifts of scholars of the Han, T’ang, and the modern periods, as well as to the vast contributions of Korea and Japan. The author concludes his revelatory study with an examination of the contemporary renewal of the Confucian Way in East Asia and its spread to the West.

During the long years of civil strife in China the Nationalist authorities amassed extensive materials on their Communist adversaries. Now stored in government institutions on Taiwan, these materials are an excellent source for the study of the Chinese Communist movement. Among them is the Bureau of Investigation Collection (BIC), which holds over 300,000 volumes of primary documents on the Chinese Communist movement. The purpose of Chinese Communist Materials is, without any attempt at comprehensive listing of the Bureau’s holdings, to give scholars a representative description of the collection, to point out its implications for research, and suggest new areas for research at the Bureau in the fields of political science and history [1, 4].

The origins of the Cultural Revolution are still shrouded in uncertainty. Crucial questions either remain unanswered or have been given answers which derive from conflicting interpretations. To what period can the direct origins of the Cultural Revolution be traced? What issues, if any, divided the leadership, and how deep were these divisions? What was the state of power relations and what was Mao’s position? Why did developments in the period preceding the Cultural Revolution reach a climax in such a convulsion? Between Two Plenums examines these questions as they apply to the years 1959–1962. At base, the perspective of pre-Cultural Revolution politics adopted therein is that of “conflict” rather than “consensus.” From this vantage point, the Eighth and Tenth Plenums loom in retrospect as important watersheds in the development of the intraleadership conflict which culminated in the great upheaval.

Two thousand years ago, the Qin/Han and Roman empires were the largest political entities of the ancient world, developing simultaneously yet independently at opposite ends of Eurasia. Although their territories constituted only a small percentage of the global land mass, these two Eurasian polities controlled up to half of the world population and endured longer than most pre-modern imperial states. Similarly, their eventual collapse occurred during the same time. The parallel nature of the Qin/Han and Roman empires has rarely been studied comparatively. Yet here is a collection of pioneering case studies, compiled by Walter Scheidel, that sheds new light on the prominent aspects of imperial state formation. This essential new volume builds on the foundation of Scheidel's Rome and China (2009), and opens up a comparative dialogue among distinguished scholars. They provide unique insights into the complexities of imperial rule, including the relationship between rulers and elite groups, the funding of state agents, the determinants of urban development, and the rise of bureaucracies. By bringing together experts in each civilization, State Power in Ancient China and Rome provides a unique forum to explore social evolution, helping us further understand government and power relations in the ancient world.

First published in 1998, the papers in this second volume by Donald Holzman are concerned with the themes of religion and poetry and song in early medieval China. Religion is to the fore in the first two sections, dealing with Daoist immortals and their cult, as reflected in poetic works of the first three centuries ad, with songs used in religious ceremonies, and with the origins and history of the cold food festival. The last group of articles includes a major study of the poems of Ji Kang (223-262) as well as other poetry of the 4th-5th centuries, and an analysis of the changing image of the merchant from the 4th to the 9th centuries.

Covers topics related to the understanding of Chinese Confucianism. Includes entries in the following categories: arts, architecture, and iconography; astrology, cosmology, and mythology; biographical entries; ceremonies, practices, and rituals; concepts; dynasties, official titles, and rulers; geography and historical events; groups and schools; literature, language, and symbols; and texts.