"This volume which brings together experts in the history of the ancient Mediterranean and early China, makes a first step in this direction by presenting a series of comparative case studies on clearly defined aspects of state formation in early eastern and western Eurasia, foc…
Acknowledgments. List of maps, figures, and tables. Notes on contributors. Chronology. Maps. Introduction, Walter Scheidel. 1. From the "Great Convergence" to the "First Great Divergence:" Roman and Qin Han State Formation and its Aftermath, Walter Scheidel. 2. War, State Format…
"Through an examination of the Great Peace (taiping), one of the first utopian visions in Chinese history, Zhao Lu describes the transformation of literati culture that occurred during the Han Dynasty. Driven by anxiety over losing the mandate of Heaven, the imperial court encou…
"Michael Loewe calls on literary and material evidence to examine three problems that arose in administering China's early empires. Religious rites due to an emperor's predecessors must both pay the correct services to his ancestors and demonstrate his right to succeed to the th…
"Michael Loewe calls on literary and material evidence to examine three problems that arose in administering China's early empires. Religious rites due to an emperor's predecessors must both pay the correct services to his ancestors and demonstrate his right to succeed to the th…
"Emperor Wu is generally recognized as the greatest ruler of the Han Dynasty, and his wars against the steppe warrior Xiongnu as one of his greatest undertakings. To the chief narrator of these events, ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian, the turning point in Han Dynasty history…
Steel and silk -- Silk in Roman society -- The Chinese empire and the Xiongnu -- The discovery of the west -- Securing the silk routes -- The Kushan empire -- The Sogdian intermediaries -- Caspian routes and the Crimea -- Black Sea voyages -- The Sarmatians -- The Parthian empir…
Using archaeological data to examine the development of Han dynasty Chinese art (206 BC-AD 220), 'Sources of Han Decor' focusses on three major iconographies (the animal master, the tree of life, and animal predation), together with a series of minor motifs (particularly the gri…
"Using archaeological data to examine the development of Han dynasty Chinese art (206 BC - AD 220), Sources of Han Décor focusses on three major iconographies (the animal master, the tree of life, and animal predation), together with a series of minor motifs (particularly the gr…
In this volume, Mu-chou Poo offers a new overview of daily life in Ancient China. Synthesizing a range of textual and archaeological materials, he brings a thematic approach to the topic that enables a multi-faceted understanding of the ideological, economical, legal, social, an…
