The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism

Robert E. Buswell, Jr., Donald S. Lopez, Jr.

The most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of Buddhism ever produced in English With more than 5,000 entries totaling over a million words, this is the most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary of Buddhism ever produced in English. It is also the first to cover terms from all of the canonical Buddhist languages and traditions: Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Unlike reference works that focus on a single Buddhist language or school, The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism bridges the major Buddhist traditions to provide encyclopedic coverage of the most important terms, concepts, texts, authors, deities, schools, monasteries, and geographical sites from across the history of Buddhism. The main entries offer both a brief definition and a substantial short essay on the broader meaning and significance of the term covered. Extensive cross-references allow readers to find related terms and concepts. An appendix of Buddhist lists (for example, the four noble truths and the thirty-two marks of the Buddha), a timeline, six maps, and two diagrams are also included. Written and edited by two of today's most eminent scholars of Buddhism, and more than a decade in the making, this landmark work is an essential reference for every student, scholar, or practitioner of Buddhism and for anyone else interested in Asian religion, history, or philosophy. The most comprehensive dictionary of Buddhism ever produced in English More than 5,000 entries totaling over a million words The first dictionary to cover terms from all of the canonical Buddhist languages and traditions—Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Detailed entries on the most important terms, concepts, texts, authors, deities, schools, monasteries, and geographical sites in the history of Buddhism Cross-references and appendixes that allow readers to find related terms and look up equivalent terms in multiple Buddhist languages Includes a list of Buddhist lists, a timeline, and maps Also contains selected terms and names in Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer, Sinhalese, Newar, and Mongolian

Searches for an Imaginary Kingdom

The Legend of the Kingdom of Prester John

Lev Nikolaevich Gumilev

This bold synthesis fills in many of the missing links between the histories of Europe and medieval China.

Babur-name

Sahiriddin Muhammed Babur

Sahiriddin Muhammed Babur war Nachfahre von Timur-Beg und Herrscher in seiner Heimat Sogdiana (heute Usbekistan) und später in Afghanistan. Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts begründete er das Baburidenreich in Nordindien, das bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts existierte, bevor es von den Briten erobert wurde. Dies ist die von dem Historiker Helmut Dalov erstmals ins Deutsche übersetzte Kurzfassung der von Babur selbst verfassten Memoiren, in denen er, untypisch für seine Zeit, großen Wert auf die Beschreibung der Natur und Gebräuche der Bevölkerung sowie auf die Kunst legte neben den unvermeidlichen politischen und kriegerischen Inhalten. Diese zweite, erweiterte Auflage von Helmut Dalov enthält viele Passagen und Erläuterungen, ohne die viele Ereignisse und Zusammenhänge unverständlich blieben. Das Buch vermittelt, obwohl es "nur" die Kurzfassung ist, somit ein besseres Gesamtbild über Baburs Leben und die Epoche zu seinen Lebzeiten in Mittelasien und Nordindien, ohne sich in den unbedeutenden Details der Langfassung zu verlieren. Zahlreiche farbige historische Miniaturmalereien, Fotos und Karten runden dieses Buch ab und machen es so auch für den interessierten Laien interessant.

From Savages to Subjects

Missions in the History of the American Southwest

Robert H. Jackson

Incorporating recent findings by leading Southwest scholars as well as original research, this book takes a fresh new look at the history of Spanish missions in northern Mexico/the American Southwest during the 17th and 18th centuries. Far from a record of heroic missionaries, steadfast soldiers, and colonial administrators, it examines the experiences of the natives brought to live on the missions, and the ways in which the mission program attempted to change just about every aspect of indigenous life. Emphasizing the effect of the missions on native populations, demographic patterns, economics, and socio-cultural change, this path-breaking work fills a major gap in the history of the Southwest.

Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937-1945

The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism

John W. Garver

Traces the complex history of Sino-Soviet relations during the critical anti-Japanese period, shedding new light on the diplomacy of Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists and the inner history of Chinese Communist relations with the USSR.

Women in China's Long Twentieth Century

Gail Hershatter

“An important and much-needed introduction to this rich and fast-growing field. Hershatter has handled a daunting task with aplomb.” —Susan L. Glosser, author of Chinese Visions of Family and State, 1915–1953

Edge of Empires

Chinese Elites and British Colonials in Hong Kong

John M. Carroll

In an engaging, revisionist study, John M. Carroll argues that in the century after the Opium War, Hong Kong's colonial nature helped create a local Chinese business elite. By the end of the nineteenth century, the colonial government saw Chinese businessmen as allies in establishing Hong Kong as a commercial center. The idea of a commercially vibrant China united them. Chinese and British leaders cooperated on issues of mutual concern, such as the expansion of capitalism and political and economic directions for an ailing China. These Chinese also found opportunities in the colonial system to develop business and commerce. In doing so, they used Hong Kong's strategic position to underscore their own identity as a distinctive group unlike their mainland counterparts. Nationalism took on a specifically Hong Kong character. At the same time, by contributing to imperial war funds, organizing ceremonies for visiting British royalty, and attending imperial trade exhibitions, the Chinese helped make Hong Kong an active member of the global British Empire. In Edge of Empires, Carroll situates Hong Kong squarely within the framework of both Chinese and British colonial history, while exploring larger questions about the meaning and implications of colonialism in modern history.

Erotic Grotesque Nonsense

The Mass Culture of Japanese Modern Times

Miriam Silverberg

"A sumptuously documented book, one that makes innovative use of the principle of montage to generate informative historical readings of Japan's myriad mass cultural phenomena in the early twentieth century. Both in terms of its scholarship and its methodology, this is a truly admirable work."—Rey Chow, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, Brown University "As Miriam Silverberg has brilliantly shown here, the modern times of 1920s and ‘30s Japan were rendered in a cacophony of cultural mixing: a period of consumerist desires and Hollywood fantasy-making but also the rise of nationalist empire-building. Excavating its kaleidoscope of everyday culture Silverberg astutely offers a theory of montage for how Japanese subjects 'code-switched' in juggling the mixed cultural/political elements of these times. Utilizing a montage of media, texts, sites, and scholarship, Silverberg leads the reader into the terrain of the 'erotic grotesque nonsense' in a work that is as scintillating as it is theoretically important."—Anne Allison, author of Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination "Unlike other scholars who merely view ero-guro-nansensu in its literal meanings, Silverberg brilliantly documents it as a complex cultural aesthetic expressed in a spectrum of fascinating mass culture forms and preoccupations. With great erudition and humor, she traces the sensory and conceptual modes that are animated with potency and sophistication through this cultural metaphor. This book is destined to be a classic in Japan scholarship."—Laura Miller, author of Beauty Up: Exploring Contemporary Japanese Body Aesthetics

Tao and Method

A Reasoned Approach to the Tao Te Ching

Michael LaFargue, Laozi

While the Tao Te Ching has been translated and commented on countless times, interpretations are seldom based on systematic theoretical treatment of the problems of interpretive method posed by this enigmatic classic. Beginning with a critical discussion of modern hermeneutics including treatments of Hirsch, Gadamer, and Derrida, this book applies methods developed in biblical studies to the Tao Te Ching. The following chapters discuss systematically four areas necessary to recovering the Tao Te Ching 's original meaning: its social background; the semantic structure of the brief aphorisms contained in the book; the concrete background of the more cosmic sayings; and the origin and genre of the 81 chapters of the Tao Te Ching. These essays propose relatively new theories in each of these areas, leading to a new approach to the interpretation of the text. This approach is illustrated in the translation and the detailed commentary on each chapter.

Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea

Andrew C. Nahm, James Hoare

This dictionary presents a balanced and objective view of South Korea, providing a long perspective and covering varied aspects of South Korean life. Domestic, political, and social events, foreign affairs, economic and cultural developments, and the men and women who have influenced the country's history are reviewed in the more than 400 entries, many of which are new or have been updated from the first edition. The dictionary's chronology and historical narrative, also updated, cover the entire history of Korea for the benefit of readers who have little or no knowledge of the overall history of the Korean people. The extensive bibliography has been updated to include the most current and best books, journals, and websites, making this a valuable reference source for the scholar, student, and general reader.

Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution

Hue-Tam Ho Tai

The events of the 1920s and 1930s were crucial in the evolution of modern Vietnam. Yet our knowledge of this complex period of student strikes, revolt against the patriarchal family, debates on women's emancipation, and the search for a new worldview to replace the bankrupt Confucian ideology has been distorted by a preoccupation with the eventual establishment of a Communist regime there.

Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader who Changed the Course of History

Giles Milton

In 1616, Nathaniel Courthope was dispatched to Run, the most lucrative of the Spice Islands to hold off the massive Dutch Navy. But after a four-year siege, Britain ceded the island and its lucrative spice trade to Holland--in exchange for Manhattan.

Buddha in the Crown

Avalokiteśvara in the Buddhist Traditions of Sri Lanka

John Holt

Sri Lanka has one of Asia's most pluralistic religious cultures. From a study of the changing role played by one Buddhist deity in Sinhala religious culture, the author of this study develops a thesis about the mechanism of religious change.

All the Pasha's Men

Mehmed Ali, His Army and the Making of Modern Egypt

Khaled Fahmy

While previous scholarship has viewed Mehmed Ali Pasha as the founder of modern Egypt, Khaled Fahmy offers a new interpretation of his role in the rise of Egyptian nationalism, locating him in the Ottoman context as an ambitious Ottoman reformer. Basing his work on previously neglected archival material, the author demonstrates how Mehmed Ali sought to develop the Egyptian economy and to build up the army, not as a means of gaining Egyptian independence from the Ottoman Empire, but to further his own ambitions for hereditary rule over the province. In its analysis of nation-building and the construction of state power, the book makes a significant contribution to the larger theoretical debates. It will therefore be essential reading for students in the field, as well as for Ottomanists, military historians and those interested in the development of the modern nation-state.

The Columbia Guide to Asian American History

Gary Y. Okihiro

Offering a rich and insightful road map of Asian American history as it has evolved over more than 200 years, this book marks the first systematic attempt to take stock of this field of study. It examines, comments, and questions the changing assumptions and contexts underlying the experiences and contributions of an incredibly diverse population of Americans. Arriving and settling in this nation as early as the 1790s, with American-born generations stretching back more than a century, Asian Americans have become an integral part of the American experience; this cleverly organized book marks the trajectory of that journey, offering researchers invaluable information and interpretation. * Part 1 offers a synoptic narrative history, a chronology, and a set of periodizations that reflect different ways of constructing the Asian American past. * Part 2 presents lucid discussions of historical debates--such as interpreting the anti-Chinese movement of the late 1800s and the underlying causes of Japanese American internment during World War II--and such emerging themes as transnationalism and women and gender issues. * Part 3 contains a historiographical essay and a wide-ranging compilation of book, film, and electronic resources for further study of core themes and groups, including Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, and others.

The Jewish War

Flavius Josephus, E. Mary Smallwood

2 MP3-CDs, Unabridged, With Music and Sound Effects, Includes Volumes 1 and 2, Running Time: 20 hours Contents of Volume I: In A.D. 66, nationalist and religious revolutionaries in Palestine led a ferocious revolt of the Jewish people against the authority of mighty Rome, culminating in the greatest upheaval and savagery the world had known up to that time. By the end of the conflict seven years later, over one million Jews had perished and tens of thousands were sold into slavery. Until the Holocaust, it remained the greatest tragedy ever endured by a people. How had this once peaceful and prosperous region been struck down, and by what process did its fratricidal feuds take it down this slippery slope to utter annihilation? Fortunately for us, there was an eyewitness historian to the momentous events: Joseph ben Mattathias, known to posterity as Flavius Josephus. In beautifully written and clearly understood prose, Josephus sets out to explain the origin of the conflict. He describes how the fanatical zealots came to dominate the political life of Palestine, illustrates ho! w the Romans were drawn into the fight, and shows how the war was carried on by both sides, ending with the siege of the fortress of Masada. In volume 1, discover how Herod the Great came to be king of the Jews during the time of Julius Caesar, how he ruled and what he accomplished. You will hear the story of his larger-than-life personality and how family conflict poisoned his reign. Discover the means by which Herod eliminated his enemies, including members of his own family, and how his successors' corruption and ineptitude brought on growing anarchy and religious tension. Peer into the mind of nationalist fanatics bent on destroying themselves and their nation for the sake of their beliefs. Hear how famous persons like Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Pontius Pilate, Augustus, Nero, Vesapasian and Josephus himself played their parts in this fascinating history. Volume 1 begins with the origins of the House of Herod in the middle of the first century B.C. and carries us to the opening battles of the Jewish revolt and the arrival of Vespasian in Judaea. Although we encourage listeners to hear the entire work from the beginning in order to form a more complete understanding, those who are only interested in the revolt itself may skip to Chapter 9 in volume 1. Running time: 10 hours for Volume 1. Contents of Volume II: The spectacularly violent Jewish revolt of A.D. 66 is in full swing as volume 2 opens, and we begin our story with the horrific siege of Jotapata and the capture of Josephus. Listeners receive a rousing, eyewitness account of Roman arms in action as Vespasian presses relentlessly onward to Jerusalem. As the Roman war machine closes in on Jerusalem, the fanatic zealots inside the city are involved in tearing each other apart and savaging the citizens trapped inside. With doom approaching from afar and civil war convulsing the city from within, the once grand metropolis of Jerusalem begins to disintegrate. Vespasian is proclaimed emperor upon Nero's death, and turns over command of the army to his brilliant son, Titus, who encircles Jerusalem and places it under siege. Unable to escape the city and preyed upon by the enraged fanatics from within, the pitiful citizens can only watch helplessly as the horrible specter of famine begins to envelope Jerusale! m and spread into every household. The horrors of siege warfare are driven home as we hear some of the most impassioned descriptions of man's folly ever put on paper. Learn how the magnificent Great Temple was burned and obliterated, and discover the fate of Jerusalem itself. And finally, hear the account of the incredible siege of Masada, one of the last major events of the war. The Jewish War is one of the most important histories to survive from ancient times, dealing as it does with a subject of which there are very few sources. This is an engaging and heart-felt chronicle by

China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949

Peter Gue Zarrow

Providing historical insights essential to the understanding of contemporary China, this text explores the events that lead to the rise of communism and a strong central state during the early twentieth century.

Historical Dictionary of Armenia

Rouben Paul Adalian

"The entries are related in topical cycles covering the whole span of Armenian history. Subjects such as cities, royal dynasties, political organizations, and national leaders can thus be seen through the common threads that bind them across centuries. The smaller sections are no less important, whether the list of acronyms, which allows for easier navigation of several passages, or the exhaustive bibliography, which points toward many other significant sources of information. Perhaps the most useful section is the fully detailed chronology, which gives readers a roadmap to the countless twists and turns that fill the pages of Armenian history."--BOOK JACKET.

Revenge and Reconciliation

Rajmohan Gandhi

An Original, Provocative And Compelling Reading Of The Subcontinent S History In This Remarkable Study, Well-Known Biographer Rajmohan Gandhi, Underscoring The Prominence In The Mahabharata Of The Revenge Impulse, Follows Its Trajectory In South Asian History. Side By Side, He Traces The Role Played By Reconcilers Up To Present Times, Beginning With The Buddha, Mahavira And Asoka. Encompassing Myth And Historical Fact, The Author Moves From The Circumstances Of Drona S Death And Parasurama S Slaying Of The Kshatriyas To The Burst Of Islam In India And Akbar S Success In Gaining Acceptance For It, The Executions Of Guru Arjan Dev And Guru Tegh Bahadur, And Shivaji S Achievement Of Self-Rule. His Explanation Of The 1947 Division Of India Identifies The Role Of The 1857 Rebellion In Shaping Gandhi S Thinking And Strategy, And Reflects On The Wounds Of Partition. The Survey Of Post-Independence India, Pakistan, Bangladesh And Sri Lanka Also Touches Upon The Tragic Bereavements Of Six Of Their Women Leaders. Incisive And Finely Argued, Revenge And Reconciliation Compels Us To Confront Historical And Contemporary Realities Of Intolerance, While Pointing To Possible Strategies Of Mutual Accommodation In India And The Rest Of South Asia At The Threshold Of The Twenty-First Century.

Querying the Medieval

Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia

Ronald Inden, Jonathan Walters, Daud Ali

"Drawing on thinkers as diverse as V. N. Volosinov, R. G. Collingwood, and E. Laclau, this volume challenges the predominant idea of a text as "monological" both in its "authorist" and "contextualist" versions. The authors instead seek to understand texts as "dialogical" moments in the relations that agents have with themselves and with other agents. From this perspective, each author is able to pry open a particular text and reveal the articulative relation that each has had with the world in which it was situated. The result is a revised look at the relationship between history, national identity, and religion in medieval South Asia."--BOOK JACKET.