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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > General
This book is an anthology of English writing on education by Tao
Xingzhi, the great Chinese educator and thinker. It includes
several articles that represent his educational ideas and life
philosophy, such as China in Transition, Creative Education, The
Little Teacher and the Literacy Movement, and Education for All.
These works are not only highly readable, but also present
educational philosophies that are closely related to real life, and
can be used to highlight and correct the deviations of strongly
utilitarian educational concepts in modern society. Further, the
appendix includes stories, fables, and poems translated by Tao
Xingzhi, as well as his own poems written in Chinese and translated
into English. This book offers readers interested in education's
new perspectives and inspiration. It also contributes to a more
comprehensive and accurate understanding of Tao Xingzhi as well as
his educational theories.
This book features a collection of essays on China's modern
Catholic Church by a scholar of China-West intellectual and
religious exchange. The essays and reflections were mostly written
in China while the author was traveling by train, or staying in
villages or large cities near to Roman Catholic cathedrals or other
important historical sites during research trips to the country. It
is clear that Clark's understanding of Catholicism in China evolved
from the first entry to the final ones in 2019. The essays included
in this compendium were written in disparate contexts and in
response to different events. As such, there is no obvious theme or
order to the content. However, despite this, the book provides
valuable insights for readers wishing to gain a better
understanding of the complex topography of Catholic history in
China, the contours of which have undergone stark transformations
with each dynastic, political, and ecclesial transition. The
information presented serves to highlight and explain the lives of
Catholic people and the events that have punctuated one of the most
significant dimensions of China's long history of friendship,
conflict and exchange with the West.
A special agency of censors was also organized for the purpose of
enforcing the regulations concerning the sanctity of animal life
and the observance of filial piety, in the most extended sense.
These officers were expressly enjoined to concern themselves with
all sects, and with every class of society, not excluding the royal
family, while separate officials were charged with the delicate
duty of supervising female morals. In practice, this system must
have led to much espionage and tyranny] from Chapter VII: Asoka
Maurya and His Successors First published in 1906, this classic
nine-volume history of the nation of India places it among the
storied lands of antiquity, alongside Egypt, China, and
Mesopotamia. Edited by American academic ABRAHAM VALENTINE WILLIAMS
JACKSON (18621937), professor of Indo-Iranian languages at Columbia
University, it offers a highly readable narrative of the Indian
people and culture through to the time of its publication, when the
nation was still part of the British Empire. Volume II, From the
Sixth Century B.C. to the Mohammedan Conquest, Including the
Invasion of Alexander the Great, by British scholar VINCENT ARTHUR
SMITH (1848-1920), features entertaining and enlightening
treatments of: the dynasties before Alexander Alexanders Indian
campaign imperial monarch Asoka Maurya the Indo-Greek and
Indo-Parthian dynasties the Gupta Empire and the white Huns the
reign of Harsha the medieval kingdoms of the north and much more.
This beautiful replica of the 1906 first edition includes all the
original illustrations.
This book examines contemporary jihad as a cult of violence and
power. All jihadi groups, whether Shiite or Sunni, Arab or not, are
characterized by a similar bloodlust. Murawiec characterizes this
belief structure as identical to that of Europe's medieval
millenarians and apocalyptics, arguing that both jihadis and their
European cousins shared in a Gnostic ideology: a God-given mission
endowed the Elect with supernatural powers and placed them above
the common law of mankind. Although the ideology of jihad is
essentially Islamic, Murawiec traces the political technologies
used by modern jihad to the Bolsheviks. Their doctrines of terror
as a system of rule were appropriated by radical Islam through
multiple lines of communication. This book brings history,
anthropology, and theology to bear to understand the mind of jihad
that has declared war on the West and the world.
The objective of Walking through Jordan is to acknowledge and honor
the singular achievements and wider impacts of Jordan's most
prominent survey archaeologist, Burton MacDonald. MacDonald is a
biblical scholar by training who has written extensively about the
Iron Age and early Christianity. However, unlike many biblical
scholars, MacDonald has also undertaken large regional survey
projects which encompass the entire gamut of Jordanian prehistory
and history. Thus, his work is unique in that it attracts the
interest of a wide range of scholars.Contributing scholars from
around the world reflect on three important areas of MacDonald's
archaeological contributions: on archaeological survey in general,
including those focusing on methodology and/or field projects that
depend to a large extent on surveys, MacDonald's five major
surveys- papers that incorporate data from his field projects and
sites tested or excavated by others that were first identified by
his work, and the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well
as the Roman Period and the early Christian era. Despite his
important contributions to prehistoric archaeology, the early
historical periods constitute the main emphasis of Burton's
scholarly output.
The book shows how the Franciscans in Jerusalem in the fourteenth
to sixteenth centuries wrote works which standardized the cultural
memory of the Holy Land. The experience of the late medieval Holy
Land was deeply connected to the presence of the Franciscans of the
Convent of Mount Zion in Jerusalem, who welcomed and guided
pilgrims. This book analyses this construction of a shared memory
based on the continuous availability of these texts in the
Franciscan library of Mount Zion, where they were copied and
adapted to respond to new historical contexts. This book shows how
the Franciscans developed a representation of the Holy Land by
elaborating on its history and describing its religious groups and
the geography of the region. This representation circulated among
pilgrims and influenced how contemporaries imagined the Holy Land
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands
of documents of all sorts have been unearthed in China, opening
whole new fields of study and transforming our modern understanding
of ancient China. While these discoveries have necessarily taken
place in China, Western scholars have also contributed to the study
of these documents throughout this entire period. This book
provides a comprehensive survey of the contributions of these
Western scholars to the field of Chinese paleography, and
especially to study of oracle-bone inscriptions, bronze and stone
inscriptions, and manuscripts written on bamboo and silk. Each of
these topics is provided with a comprehensive narrative history of
studies by Western scholars, as well as an exhaustive bibliography
and biographies of important scholars in the field. It is also
supplied with a list of Chinese translations of these studies, as
well as a complete index of authors and their works. Whether the
reader is interested in the history of ancient China, ancient
Chinese paleographic documents, or just in the history of the study
of China as it has developed in the West, this book provides one of
the most complete accounts available to date.
This invaluable encyclopedia covers all aspects of the conflict in
Korea, principally from 1945 to the present. Conflict in Korea
features A-Z entries, many of them illustrated, and covers people,
events, places, political parties, treaties and agreements, the
origins of the conflict, and the involvement of the superpowers,
China, and the United Nations. A substantial number of the entries
deal with the Korean War itself, but many others focus on
developments since the cease-fire of July 1953. Entries cover
topics such as abductions and assassinations; the "axe murders" of
1976; border incidents along the 38th parallel; defections, the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ); espionage, family reunions, food
shortages, and the Korean War in literature and film. Of further
use to readers are a chronology, maps, bibliography, and subject
index. A-Z entries, many of them illustrated, cover everything from
people, places, and political parties, to the origins of the
conflict, and the involvement of other nations A chronology, maps,
bibliography, and subject index are also included
The past two decades have brought revolutionary changes in the
understanding of the Indian civilization. This book, as an overview
of this new understanding, is for the general reader. It is based
on several invited lectures at Stanford University, the Berkeley
and Irvine campuses of the University of California, and an invited
address at the OHM (Dutch Public TV) Congress in the Hague.
Edmund Allenby, Viscount Allenby of Megiddo and Felixstowe, as he
became later, was the principal British military figure in the
Middle East from 1917 to 1919. He fulfilled a similar proconsular
role in Egypt from the latter year until 1925. In these two roles
Allenby's eight years in the Middle East were of great impact, and
in probing his life an especially revealing window can be found
through which to observe closely and understand more fully the
history that has resulted in the terminal roil afflicting the
Middle East and international affairs today. In this biography Brad
Faught explores the events and actions of Allenby's life, examining
his thinking on both the British Empire and the post-World War I
international order. Faught brings clarity to Allenby's decisive
impact on British imperial policy in the making of the modern
Middle East, and thereby on the long arc of the region's continuing
and controversial place in world affairs.
"One of the least understood and often maligned aspects of the
Tokugawa Shogunate is the Ooku, or 'Great Interior, ' the
institution within the shogun's palace, administered by and for the
upper-class shogunal women and their attendants who resided there.
Long the object of titillation and a favorite subject for
off-the-wall fantasy in historical TV and film dramas, the actual
daily life, practices, cultural roles, and ultimate missions of
these women have remained largely in the dark, except for
occasional explosions of scandal. In crystal-clear prose that is a
pleasure to read, this new book, however, presents the Ooku in a
whole new down-to-earth, practical light. After many years of
perusing unexamined Ooku documents generated by these women and
their associates, the authors have provided not only an overview of
the fifteen generations of Shoguns whose lives were lived in
residence with this institution, but how shoguns interacted
differently with it. Much like recent research on imperial
convents, they find not a huddled herd of oppressed women, but on
the contrary, women highly motivated to the preservation of their
own particular cultural institution. Most important, they have been
able to identify "the culture of secrecy" within the Ooku itself to
be an important mechanism for preserving the highest value,
'loyalty, ' that essential value to their overall self-interested
mission dedicated to the survival of the Shogunate itself." -
Barbara Ruch, Columbia University "The aura of power and prestige
of the institution known as the ooku-the complex network of women
related to the shogun and their living quarters deep within Edo
castle-has been a popular subject of Japanese television dramas and
movies. Brushing aside myths and fallacies that have long obscured
our understanding, this thoroughly researched book provides an
intimate look at the lives of the elite female residents of the
shogun's elaborate compound. Drawing information from contemporary
diaries and other private memoirs, as well as official records, the
book gives detailed descriptions of the physical layout of their
living quarters, regulations, customs, and even clothing, enabling
us to actually visualize this walled-in world that was off limits
for most of Japanese society. It also outlines the complex
hierarchy of positions, and by shining a light on specific women,
gives readers insight into the various factions within the ooku and
the scandals that occasionally occurred. Both positive and negative
aspects of life in the "great interior" are represented, and one
learns how some of these high-ranking women wielded tremendous
social as well as political power, at times influencing the
decision-making of the ruling shoguns. In sum, this book is the
most accurate overview and characterization of the ooku to date,
revealing how it developed and changed during the two and a half
centuries of Tokugawa rule. A treasure trove of information, it
will be a vital source for scholars and students of Japan studies,
as well as women's studies, and for general readers who are
interested in learning more about this fascinating women's
institution and its significance in Japanese history and culture."
- Patricia Fister, International Research Center for Japanese
Studies, Kyoto
Monasticism was the dominant form of religious life both in the
medieval West and in the Byzantine world. Latin and Greek
Monasticism in the Crusader States explores the parallel histories
of monasticism in western and Byzantine traditions in the Near East
in the period c.1050-1300. Bernard Hamilton and Andrew Jotischky
follow the parallel histories of new Latin foundations alongside
the survival and revival of Greek Orthodox monastic life under
Crusader rule. Examining the involvement of monasteries in the
newly founded Crusader States, the institutional organization of
monasteries, the role of monastic life in shaping expressions of
piety, and the literary and cultural products of monasteries, this
meticulously researched survey will facilitate a new understanding
of indigenous religious institutions and culture in the Crusader
states.
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