An important contribution to the reference literature on China, this historical dictionary covers the entire revolutionary period in China. Although existing biographical dictionaries focus on the twentieth century, the Chinese revolutionary movements began in the early nineteenth century. China's defeat in the Opium War (1839-1842) set the conditions for the rise of revolutionary movements, the first being the Taiping Christian Revolution of 1851-1864. Sun Yat-sen's Republican Revolution began in the late nineteenth century and was followed by the Communist Revolution during the second half of the twentieth century. With the Socialist transformation under Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese entered another revolutionary stage. The death of Mao and the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 conclude the time period covered in this dictionary.

The entries in this volume provide concise accounts and profiles of the people, events, ideas, and other factors that played a role throughout the revolutionary period including sources of additional information. The Dictionary also includes a general bibliography and chronology that provides an overview of the period covered. Cross-references and a full subject index provide access to the material.

Through the individual characteristics of China's political leaders, a nation-building process began. Chinese leaders fell into two categories of reformers: conservative and liberal. Conservative reformers saw a corruption of the moral order of society that needed to be eliminated in order to restore the country's moral integrity, while liberal reformers attempted to embrace the flaws and lead China toward Socialism. One hundred Chinese leaders--from the Opium War to 2001--are profiled in this comprehensive biographical dictionary.

This book provides the most up-to-date coverage of modern Chinese political leadership during the Imperial, Republican, and Communist periods. Political leaders throughout each period had a common desire for reform within the country while maintaining China's political and cultural legacy. Leung invokes the uniqueness of those leaders in their struggle for personal gain and national improvement as they fought to preserve traditional values. Written by 30 international scholars and experts in the field using both Western and Chinese sources, this is the most authoritative dictionary on the subject.