A study of the continuing migration of the Chinese diaspora. The book blends history, biography and travel writing with a personal portrait from the author. THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S GREATIEST CONTINUING MIGRATION The Chinese Diaspora stretches all over the world. It represents the most widespread and prolonged series of migrations by one nation ever. Chinese emigrants have been tycoons in Hong Kong and America, coolies in Peru and South Africa, underworld gangsters in San Francisco and Bangkok. Today, whether as near-slave laborers on illicit
A study of the continuing migration of the Chinese diaspora. The book blends history, biography and travel writing with a personal portrait from the author.
The first text to restore the Four Canons of the Yellow Emperor to its rightful place alongside the Tao Te Ching • Presents the practical guidance of the Four Canons on the art of ruling, metaphysics, military matters, and ways of meditation • Includes translations of the earliest known versions of the Tao Te Ching • Highlights the many links between the Four Canons and the Tao Te Ching In 1973, in Mawangdui, China, a large number of silk manuscripts were discovered at an early Han burial place. Among these were two versions of the Tao Te Ching by Lao-tzu. Dated to around 200 bce, these manuscripts were much older than all existing versions and included, quite surprisingly yet deliberately, the Four Canons of the Yellow Emperor--a long-lost treatise never-before seen in modern times. Based on both the Mawangdui version of the Tao Te Ching and the recently discovered Guodian version, this book is the first to restore the Four Canons of the Yellow Emperor to its rightful place alongside the Book of the Way. Complementing the philosophy of the Tao Te Ching with its more practical advice, the Four Canons cover the art of ruling, metaphysics, military matters, and ways of meditation. Showing how this pairing of texts established the foundations of the Han Dynasty’s power, Jean Levi offers extensive notes throughout the text, providing information essential for understanding as well as highlighting the many connections between these two classic works.
"A magnificent tapestry . . . a story that reaches beyond China into our world and time: a story of faith, hope, passion, and a fatal grandiosity."--Washington Post Book World Whether read for its powerful account of the largest uprising in human history, or for its foreshadowing of the terrible convulsions suffered by twentieth-century China, or for the narrative power of a great historian at his best, God's Chinese Son must be read. At the center of this history of China's Taiping rebellion (1845-64) stands Hong Xiuquan, a failed student of Confucian doctrine who ascends to heaven in a dream and meets his heavenly family: God, Mary, and his older brother, Jesus. He returns to earth charged to eradicate the "demon-devils," the alien Manchu rulers of China. His success carries him and his followers to the heavenly capital at Nanjing, where they rule a large part of south China for more than a decade. Their decline and fall, wrought by internal division and the unrelenting military pressures of the Manchus and the Western powers, carry them to a hell on earth. Twenty million Chinese are left dead.
This biography of the ancient Chinese ruler delves into his life and times, chronicling his immortal achievements and reconsidering his legacy. Unifier or destroyer, lawmaker or tyrant? China’s First Emperor (258–210 BC) has been the subject of debate for over 2,000 years. He gave us the name by which China is known in the West and, by his unification or elimination of six states, he created imperial China. He stressed the rule of law but suppressed all opposition, burning books and burying scholars alive. His military achievements are reflected in the astonishing terracotta soldiers—an astonishing army of statues buried with the emperor. And his Great Wall still fascinates the world. Despite his achievements, however, the First Emperor has been vilified since his death. China’s First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors describes his life and times and reflects the historical arguments over the real founder of China and one of the most important men in Chinese history.
"This accessible account describes the personal struggles and public drama surrounding one of the major political figures of the early modern age, with special consideration given to the emperor's efforts to rise above ethnic divisions and to encompass the political and religious traditions of Han Chinese, Mongols, Tibetans, Turks, and other peoples of his realm." From Amazon.
Wu Zhao (624–705), better known as Wu Zetian or Empress Wu, is the only woman to have ruled China as emperor over the course of its 5,000-year history. How did she—in a predominantly patriarchal and androcentric society—ascend the dragon throne? Exploring a mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries, this multifaceted history suggests that China's rich pantheon of female divinities and eminent women played an integral part in the construction of Wu Zhao's sovereignty. Wu Zhao deftly deployed language, symbol, and ideology to harness the cultural resonance, maternal force, divine energy, and historical weight of Buddhist devis, Confucian exemplars, Daoist immortals, and mythic goddesses, establishing legitimacy within and beyond the confines of Confucian ideology. Tapping into powerful subterranean reservoirs of female power, Wu Zhao built a pantheon of female divinities carefully calibrated to meet her needs at court. Her pageant was promoted in scripted rhetoric, reinforced through poetry, celebrated in theatrical productions, and inscribed on steles. Rendered with deft political acumen and aesthetic flair, these affiliations significantly enhanced Wu Zhao's authority and cast her as the human vessel through which the pantheon's divine energy flowed. Her strategy is a model of political brilliance and proof that medieval Chinese women enjoyed a more complex social status than previously known.
