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Russell J. Barber and Frances F. Berdan have created the ultimate guide for anyone doing cross-cultural and/or document-driven research. Presenting the essentials of primary-source methodology, The Emperor's Mirror includes nine chapters on paleography, calendrics, source and quantitative analysis, and the visual interpretation of artifacts such as pictographs, illustrations, and maps. As an introduction to ethnohistory, this book clearly defines terminology and provides practical and accessible examples, effectively integrating the concerns of historians and anthropologists as well as addressing the needs of anyone using primary sources for research in any academic field. A leading theme throughout the book is the importance of a researcher's awareness of the inherent biases of documents while doing research on another culture. Documents are the result of people interpreting reality through the filter of their own experience, personality, and culture. Barber and Berdan's reality mediation model shows students how to analyze documents to detect the implicit biases or subtexts inherent in primary-source materials. Students and scholars working with primary sources will particularly appreciate the case studies that Barber and Berdan use to illustrate the practical implications of using each methodology. These case studies not only apply method to actual research but also are fascinating in their own right: they range from a discussion of the debate over Tupinamba cannibalism to the illustration of Nahuatl, Spanish, and hybrid place names of Tlaxcala, Mexico.
A Translucent Mirror explores the origins of nationalism and cultural identity in China, revealing how the Qing dynasty incorporated neighbouring but disparate political traditions into a new style of imperialism.
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.
An ambitious tale of magic, war, and parallel worlds that pushes the boundaries of epic fantasy—from a two-time Hugo Award winner On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past . . . while a world goes to war with itself. In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin. At the heart of this war lie the pacifistic Dhai people, once enslaved by the Saiduan and now courted by their former masters to provide aid against the encroaching enemy. As the dark star of the cataclysm rises, an illegitimate ruler is tasked with holding together a country fractured by civil war; a precocious young fighter is asked to betray his family to save his skin; and a half-Dhai general must choose between the eradication of her father's people or loyalty to her alien Empress. Through tense alliances and devastating betrayal, the Dhai and their allies attempt to hold against a seemingly unstoppable force as enemy nations prepare for a coming together of worlds as old as the universe itself. In the end, one world will rise—and many will perish. Stretching from desolate tundras to steamy, semi-tropical climes seething with sentient plant life, this is an epic tale of blood mages and mercenaries, emperors and priestly assassins, who must unite to save a world on the brink of ruin. File Under: Fantasy [ Orphaned Child | World at War | Blood Magic | The Fluidity of Gender]
This important new and original study on the institution of the Japanese emperors focuses on the enigma of the institution itself, namely, the extraordinary continuity of the Japanese dynasty, which is unknown anywhere else in the world, yet which is now at risk on account of more recent laws of succession.
English summary: Images of war dancers enliven the third-century Shuryo-mon kyo bronze mirror in the Tokyo National Museum.The dancers are celebrating the great "Eastern Campaign" of Jimmu Tenno, Japan's legendary first emperor, according to the authors' detailed analysis and archaeological documentation. The mirror's images match, point by point, Jimmu's victorious campaign as described in the eighth-century accounts of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. It follows that, contrary to the prevailing view, the written legend too goes back to the actual historical events, and that Jimmu Tenno, the founder of Japan as a country and of its ruling dynasty, was a historical figure who lived in the later third century of our era. Other mirrors, paintings, and rock-carvings of the Kofun Period (250-600) also depict Jimmu's deeds and myths: The Goroyama paintings record Jimmu's victory at Tomi, the Takaida drawings his Yamato campaign, and the "Sea-Dance" mirrors reflect the help he got from the sea gods. Works of art of this period even portray Amaterasu as Jimmu's main goddess, they show Jimmu's journey as Hikohohodemi to the palace of the sea god, his woman-shaman Sarume, his Wani sea steed, and the monkey god Sarutahiko. Some hitherto missing parts of ancient Japanese myth are thereby recovered and for the first time early Shinto religion is richly illustrated. As for military history, these works of art offer wealth of information and illustration about Japanese warfare from a time long before that of the Samurai. Altogether, this study (120 pages, 47 figures in the text, 16 color plates) greatly contributes to our knowledge of Japanese history, art, and religion by revealing that the previously nebulous, legendary beginnings of Japan, are historical events, firmly set in time and place, and colorfully recorded by images from those times. Published by the German Archaeological Institute, this is a scholarly, archaeological work. It deliberately sidesteps the political issue, that nevertheless will arise: Jimmu Tenno is the idol of Japan's rightwingers. His rule was a point of faith until 1945, when he was "massacred." German description: In einer reich illustrierten Arbeit untersuchen die Verfasser Darstellungen von Jimmu Tenno, Japans erstem Kaiser, auf Bronzespiegeln seiner Zeit. Sie zeigen, dass trotz mythologischer Einkleidung diese Spiegel Jimmu's Taten nahezu genau so berichten wie die im "Kojiki" und "Nihon shoki" erhaltenen Legenden des 8. Jahrhunderts. Die Legenden stammen also aus Jimmus eigener Zeit, dem 3. Jahrhundert unserer Zeitrechnung. Jimmu, der Grunder Japans und seiner regierenden Dynastie war somit eine echte historische Personlichkeit - eine Tatsache von entscheidender Bedeutung fur die Geschichte des Landes.
Mirror of Morality takes an interdisciplinary look at an important form of pictorial art produced during two millennia of Chinese imperial rule. Ideas about individual morality and state ideology were based on the ancient teachings of Confucius with modifications by later interpreters and government institutions. Throughout the imperial period, members of the elite made, sponsored, and inscribed or used illustrations of themes taken from history, literature, and recent events to promote desired conduct among various social groups. This dimension of Chinese art history has never before been broadly covered or investigated in historical context. The first half of the study examines the nature of narrative illustration in China and traces the evolution of its functions, conventions, and rhetorical strategies from the second century BCE through the eleventh century. Under the stimulus of Buddhism, sophisticated techniques developed for representing stories in visual form. While tracing changes in the social functions and cultural positions of narrative illustration, the second half of the book argues that narrative illustration continued to play a vital role in elite visual culture.
The Japanese emperors, a peculiar and unique phenomenon in modern times, are the subject of this important handbook edited by Ben-Ami Shillony. An international team of leading scholars looks at these emperors - Meiji (Mutsuhito), Taishō (Yoshihito), Shōwa (Hirohito), and the present emperor Akihito – both as personalities, and as a constantly developing institution. It becomes clear that both the personalities, and the periods in which they reign(ed) have shaped Japanese monarchy, and our image of it. The essays thoroughly deal with topics such as the ideology behind the institution, the roles of the emperors and their wives, their visual representation, their links to Christianity, the antagonism they called forth in right-wing circles, Hirohito’s much-debated war responsibility, and the controversy over amending the succession rules.
Rethinking Visual Narratives covers topics from the first millennium B.C.E. through the present day, testifying to the enduring significance of visual stories in shaping and affirming cultural practices in Asia. Contributors analyze how visual narratives function in different Asian cultures and reveal the multiplicity of ways that images can be narrated beyond temporal progression through a particular space. The study of local art forms advances our knowledge of regional iterations and theoretical boundaries, illustrating the enduring importance of pictorial stories to the cultural traditions of Asia. Contributors include Dominik Bonatz (Archaeologist Free University of Berlin), Sandra Cate (San Jose State University), Yonca Kösebay Erkan (Kadir Has University), Charlotte Galloway (Australian National University), Mary Beth Heston (College of Charleston), Yeewan Koon (The University of Hong Kong), Sonya S. Lee (University of Southern California), Leedom Lefferts (Drew University), Dore J. Levy (Brown University), Shane McCausland (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Julia K. Murray (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Catherine Stuer (Denison University), Greg M. Thomas (The University of Hong Kong), Sarah E. Thompson (Rochester Institute of Technology), and Mary-Louise Totton (Western Michigan University).
From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers, this commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese American incarceration camps that is both a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and a resonant lesson for our times. On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her home, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family's possessions. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens and are about to be uprooted from their home and sent to a dusty incarceration camp in the Utah desert. In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells their story from five flawlessly realized points of view and conveys the exact emotional texture of their experience: the thin-walled barracks and barbed-wire fences, the omnipresent fear and loneliness, the unheralded feats of heroism. When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today's headlines.