Chinas Mongols At University

Download Chinas Mongols At University full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Chinas Mongols At University ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

China's Mongols at University

Author : Zhenzhou Zhao
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1461633117
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (616 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis China's Mongols at University by : Zhenzhou Zhao

Download or read book China's Mongols at University written by Zhenzhou Zhao and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2010-04-09 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minority students in China often receive preferential treatment for access to universities. However, very little is known about minority student experiences and perceptions on campus after they are accorded what's called "meaningful access" to university. The Mongols emerged as a distinct ethnic group in China starting in the 11th century and, in the centuries that followed, conquered a large part of the world. However, in modern times this nomadic people's influence has declined, and even their survival in China has been threatened. This decline is evidenced by the fact that increasing numbers of Mongols have abandoned their native language and traditional customs, especially those who live in cities. How do Mongol university students, who form the backbone of the Mongol intellectual community, identify themselves in a modern Chinese context? How do they react as university students to the way in which their culture is recognized and represented? Do Mongol students suffer from injustice in the cultural dimension of campus life? China's Mongols at University: Contesting Cultural Recognition seeks to answer these questions. Zhenzhou Zhao addresses these issues by comparing the university discourse (on minority culture policy, institutional structure and daily life) and the Mongol student discourse (concerning their experiences, perceptions of recognition, and dedication to self-representation on campus) Additionally, Gao compares three universities in China. Located in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Beijing, and Hubei Province, respectively, each of these universities represents one of three types of higher education accessible to minority students in China: universities located in ethnic areas, standard universities, and universities for nationalities. China's Mongols at University explores and discusses an intrinsic connection between marketization and globalization and the disadvantages faced by minority groups. This book argues that China must move from a policy of preferential tre

The Mongols at China's Edge

Author : Uradyn Erden Bulag
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742511446
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (114 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Mongols at China's Edge by : Uradyn Erden Bulag

Download or read book The Mongols at China's Edge written by Uradyn Erden Bulag and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2002 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important study explores the multifaceted Mongol experience in China, past and present. Combining insights from anthropology, history, and postcolonial criticism, Uradyn Bulag avoids romanticizing Mongols either as pacified primitive Other or as gallant resistance fighters. Rather, he portrays them as a people whose communist background and standing in China's northern borderlands has informed their political efforts to harness or confront Chinese nationalistic and political hegemony. Breaking new ground in the study of Chinese and Mongol history and ethnicity, the author offers a fresh interpretation of China viewed from the perspective of its peripheries, and of minority nationalities in relation to the study of Chinese representation and minority self-representation. The author interrogates received wisdom about Chinese and minority nationalism by unraveling the Chinese discourse and practice of 'national unity.' He shows how the discourse was constructed over time through political rituals and sexuality in relation to Mongols and other non-Chinese peoples that hark back to Chinese-Xiongnu confrontations two millennia ago and Manchu conquest in the 17th and 18th centuries. Titular rulers of an autonomous region in which they constitute a minority, Mongols face enormous barriers in building and maintaining a socialist Mongolian nationality and a Mongolian language and culture. Acknowledging these difficulties, Bulag discusses a range of sensitive issues including the imbrication of nation, class, and ethnicity in the context of Mongol-Chinese relations, tensions inherent in writing a postrevolutionary history for a socialist nationality, and the moral dilemma of building a socialist model with Mongol characteristics. Charting the interface between a state-centered multinational Chinese polity and a primordial nationalist multiculturalism that aims to manage minority nationalities as 'cultures,' he explores Mongol ethnopolitical strategies to preserve their heritage.

China Under Mongol Rule

Author : John D. Langlois Jr.
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400854091
Total Pages : 516 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis China Under Mongol Rule by : John D. Langlois Jr.

Download or read book China Under Mongol Rule written by John D. Langlois Jr. and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encompassing history, politics, religion, and art, this collection of essays on Chinese civilization under the Mongols challenges the previously held views that Mongol rule had only negative consequences. Originally published in 1981. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Mongol Century

Author : Shane McCausland
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824851453
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (514 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Mongol Century by : Shane McCausland

Download or read book The Mongol Century written by Shane McCausland and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2015-02-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mongol Century explores the visual world of China's Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), the spectacular but relatively short-lived regime founded by Khubilai Khan, regarded as the pre-eminent khanate of the Mongol empire. This book illuminates the Yuan era – full of conflicts and complex interactions between Mongol power and Chinese heritage – by delving into the visual history of its culture, considering how Mongol governance and values imposed a new order on China's culture and how a sedentary, agrarian China posed specific challenges to the Mongols' militarist and nomadic lifestyle. Shane McCausland explores how an unusual range of expectations and pressures were placed on Yuan culture: the idea that visual culture could create cohesion across a diverse yet hierarchical society, while balancing Mongol desires for novelty and display with Chinese concerns about posterity. Although in recent years exhibitions have begun to open up the inherent paradoxes of Yuan culture, this is the first book in English to adopt a comprehensive approach. It incorporates a broad range of visual media of the East Asia region to reconsider the impact Mongol culture had in China, from urban architecture and design to tomb murals and porcelain, and from calligraphy and printed paper money to stone sculpture. Fresh and invigorating, The Mongol Century explores, in fascinating detail, the visual culture of this brief but captivating era of East Asian history.

The Rise of the Mongols

Author :
Publisher : Hackett Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1647920035
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (479 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Rise of the Mongols by :

Download or read book The Rise of the Mongols written by and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-06 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rise of the Mongols offers readers a selection of five important works that detail the rise of the Mongol Empire through Chinese eyes. Three of these works were written by officials of South China's Southern Song dynasty and two are from officials from North China writing in the service of the Mongol rulers. Together, these accounts offer a view of the early Mongol Empire very different not just from those of Muslim and Christian travelers and chroniclers, but also from the Mongol tradition embodied in The Secret History of Mongols. The five Chinese source texts (in English translation, each with their own preface): Selections from Random Notes from Court and Country since the Jianyan Years, vol.2, by Li Xinchuan"A Memorandum on the Mong-Tatars," by Zhao Gong"A Sketch of the Black Tatars," by Peng Daya and Xu Ting"Spirit-Path Stele for His Honor Yelü, Director of the Secretariat," by Song Zizhen"Notes on a Journey," by Zhang Dehui Also included are an introduction, index, bibliography, and appendices covering notes on the texts, tables and charts, and a glossary of Chinese and transcribed terms.

Chinese Legal Tradition Under the Mongols

Author : Paul Heng-chao Ch'en
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 140086772X
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Chinese Legal Tradition Under the Mongols by : Paul Heng-chao Ch'en

Download or read book Chinese Legal Tradition Under the Mongols written by Paul Heng-chao Ch'en and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-08 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evolution of China's legal tradition was one of the most striking aspects of the transformation of Chinese civilization under Mongolian domination. Paul Ch'en's exploration of the legal system of the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and its first substantial legal code (the Chih-yuan hsin-ko, or Chih-yiian New Code) provides a key to our understanding of the impact of the Mongols on traditional Chinese law and society. Originally published in 1979. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Did Marco Polo Go To China?

Author : Frances Wood
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0429980620
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Did Marco Polo Go To China? by : Frances Wood

Download or read book Did Marco Polo Go To China? written by Frances Wood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-19 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all ?know? that Marco Polo went to China, served Ghengis Khan for many years, and returned to Italy with the recipes for pasta and ice cream. But Frances Wood, head of the Chinese Department at the British Library, argues that Marco Polo not only never went to China, he probably never even made it past the Black Sea, where his family conducted business as merchants.Marco Polo's travels from Venice to the exotic and distant East, and his epic book describing his extraordinary adventures, A Description of the World, ranks among the most famous and influential books ever published. In this fascinating piece of historical detection, marking the 700th anniversary of Polo's journey, Frances Wood questions whether Marco Polo ever reached the country he so vividly described. Why, in his romantic and seemingly detailed account, is there no mention of such fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or even the Great Wall? Did he really bring back pasta and ice cream to Italy? And why, given China's extensive and even obsessive record-keeping, is there no mention of Marco Polo anywhere in the archives?Sure to spark controversy, Did Marco Polo Go to China? tries to solve these and other inconsistencies by carefully examining the Polo family history, Marco Polo's activities as a merchant, the preparation of his book, and the imperial Chinese records. The result is a lucid and readable look at medieval European and Chinese history, and the characters and events that shaped this extraordinary and enduring myth.

Reins of Liberation

Author : Xiaoyuan Liu
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804754262
Total Pages : 524 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (542 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Reins of Liberation by : Xiaoyuan Liu

Download or read book Reins of Liberation written by Xiaoyuan Liu and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author's purpose in writing this book is to use the Mongolian question to illuminate much larger issues of twentieth-century Asian history: how war, revolution, and great-power rivalries induced or restrained the formation of nationhood and territoriality. He thus continues the argument he made in Frontier Passages that on its way to building a communist state, the CCP was confronted by a series of fundamental issues pertinent to China's transition to nation-statehood. The book's focus is on the Mongolian question, which ran through Chinese politics in the first half of the twentieth century. Between the Revolution of 1911 and the Communists' triumph in 1949, the course of the Mongolian question best illustrates the genesis, clashes, and convergence of Chinese and Mongolian national identities and geopolitical visions.

In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire

Author : David M. Robinson
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108482449
Total Pages : 387 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire by : David M. Robinson

Download or read book In the Shadow of the Mongol Empire written by David M. Robinson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-21 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memories of the Mongol Empire loomed large in fourteenth-century Eurasia. Robinson explores how Ming China exploited these memories for its own purposes.

Mongolian Rule in China

Author : Elizabeth Endicott-West
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 1684170052
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (841 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Mongolian Rule in China by : Elizabeth Endicott-West

Download or read book Mongolian Rule in China written by Elizabeth Endicott-West and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mongolian Yuan dynasty, 1272-1368, is a short but interesting chapter in the long history of Sino-Mongolian relations. Faced with the challenge of governing a huge sedentary empire, the traditionally nomadic Mongols acceded to some Chinese institutional precedents, but, in large part, adhered to their own Inner Asian practices of staffing and administering the government apparatus.Yuan administrative documents provide information that permits a fairly accurate reconstruction of the day-to-day functioning of the local government bureaucracy. From these materials, Elizabeth Endicott-West has put together a detailed picture of the Mongols' methods of selecting local officials, the ethnic backgrounds of officials, and policy formation and implementation at the local level.

Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276

Author : Jacques Gernet
Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804707206
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (72 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276 by : Jacques Gernet

Download or read book Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276 written by Jacques Gernet and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1962 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the occupations, pleasures, clothes, food, art, and social and civic life of the people in the city of Hangchow.

In the Wake of the Mongols

Author : Jinping Wang
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 1684171008
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (841 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis In the Wake of the Mongols by : Jinping Wang

Download or read book In the Wake of the Mongols written by Jinping Wang and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Mongol conquest of north China between 1211 and 1234 inflicted terrible wartime destruction, wiping out more than one-third of the population and dismantling the existing social order. In the Wake of the Mongols recounts the riveting story of how northern Chinese men and women adapted to these trying circumstances and interacted with their alien Mongol conquerors to create a drastically new social order. To construct this story, the book uses a previously unknown source of inscriptions recorded on stone tablets.Jinping Wang explores a north China where Mongol patrons, Daoist priests, Buddhist monks, and sometimes single women—rather than Confucian gentry—exercised power and shaped events, a portrait that upends the conventional view of imperial Chinese society. Setting the stage by portraying the late Jin and closing by tracing the Mongol period’s legacy during the Ming dynasty, she delineates the changing social dynamics over four centuries in the northern province of Shanxi, still a poorly understood region."

Eurasian Influences on Yuan China

Author : Morris Rossabi
Publisher : Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
ISBN 13 : 9814459720
Total Pages : 254 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (144 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Eurasian Influences on Yuan China by : Morris Rossabi

Download or read book Eurasian Influences on Yuan China written by Morris Rossabi and published by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. This book was released on 2013-05-23 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book documents the extraordinarily significant transfers and cultural diffusion between the Mongol Yuan Dynasty of China and Central and West Asia, which had a broad impact on Eurasian history in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Yuan era witnessed perhaps the greatest inter-civilisational contacts in world history and has thus begun to attract the attention of both scholars and the general public. This volume offers tangible evidence of the Western and Central Asian influences, via the Mongols, on Chinese, and to a certain extent Korean, medicine, astronomy, navigation, and even foreign relations. Turkic peoples and other Muslims played particularly vital roles in such transmissions. These inter-civilisational relations led to the first precise Western knowledge of East and South Asia and stimulated Europeans to discover new routes to the East. The authors of these essays, specialists in their respective fields, shine a light on these vital exchanges, which anyone interested in the origins of global history will find fascinating. “In this volume of wide-ranging essays, scholars from the United States, China and Europe present new insights into how the close relationship between Mongol China and Ilkhanid Persia, and the Mongol employment of Eurasians (many Muslims) of diverse origins, shaped Yuan politics, foreign trade, and culture (scientific knowledge, architecture, medicine), as well as the life of East Asia in the 13th to 14th centuries and beyond. Not surprisingly, in addressing the nature of cultural influence, and how it should or can be identified, measured, and assessed, these authors do not reach a consensus, but do shed light on issues of agency - Mongol, Chinese, and other - and in so doing offer up a wealth of fascinating detail about an era of broad interest to comparative historians of the premodern world as well as specialists on China.” - Ruth W. Dunnell, James P. Storer Professor of Asian History, Kenyon College “A central aim of this volume is to stimulate scholarly interest in the Yuan Dynasty, the ‘step-sister in the study of China.’ By providing a fascinating array of articles - ranging from Muslim maritime semi-colonialism to Chinese resistance of Islamic architectural and astronomical innovation, juxtaposed with medical and cartographical exchanges from West to East, as well as the political influence of Qip?aq Turks in Beijing and neo-Confucian Uyghurs in Chos?n Korea - it has thereby succeeded admirably.” - Johan Elverskog, Altshuler University Distinguished Professor, Southern Methodist University

Defending Heaven

Author : James Waterson
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1783469439
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (834 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Defending Heaven by : James Waterson

Download or read book Defending Heaven written by James Waterson and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2013-06-19 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A very readable account of the protracted and ultimately unsuccessful efforts of the Song, Xia, and Jin dynasties to defend China from the Mongols.”—StrategyPage Defending Heaven brings together, for the first time in one volume, the complete histories of the wars the Jin, Song, Xia, and Ming dynasties fought against the Mongols. Lasting nearly two centuries, these wars, fought to defend Chinese civilization against a brutal and unrelenting foe, pitted personal heroics against the inexorable Mongol war machine and involved every part of the Chinese state. The resistance of the Chinese dynasties to the Khans is a complex and rich story of shifting alliances and political scheming, vast armies and navies, bloody battles and an astonishing technological revolution. The great events of China’s Mongol war are described and analyzed, detailing their immediate and later implications for Chinese history. In this excellent new book, James Waterson tackles this fascinating subject with characteristic verve and skill. Setting the Mongol war in the wider context of China’s ancient and almost perpetual conflict with the northern nomads, it sheds light on the evolution of China’s military society and the management, command, and control of the army by the Chinese state. “An excellent contribution not only to the study of the Mongol Empire but also to military history . . . Anyone interested in medieval warfare will find Defending Heaven of interest.”—Professor Timothy May, in De Re Militari

The Politics of Chinese Medicine Under Mongol Rule

Author : Reiko Shinno
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317671600
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (176 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Politics of Chinese Medicine Under Mongol Rule by : Reiko Shinno

Download or read book The Politics of Chinese Medicine Under Mongol Rule written by Reiko Shinno and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-22 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under the rule of the descendants of Chinggis Khan (1167-1227), China saw the development of a new culture in which medical practice came to be considered a highly respected occupation for elite men. During this period, further major steps were also taken towards the codification of medical knowledge and promotion of physicians’ social status. This book traces the history of the politics, institutions, and culture of medicine of China under Mongol rule, through the eyes of a successful South Chinese official Yuan Jue (1266-1327). As the first comprehensive monograph on history of medicine in China under the Mongols, it argues that this period was a separate moment in Chinese history, when a configuration of power different from that of previous and succeeding periods created its own medical culture. The Politics of Chinese Medicine under Mongol Rule emphasizes the impact of the political and institutional changes caused by the Mongols and their collaborators on the social and cultural history of medicine, which culminated in the medical theory of Zhu Zhenheng (1282–1358), still influential in East Asian medicine. Using a variety of Chinese-language sources including gazetteers, legal texts, biographies, poems, and medical texts, it analyses the roles of the Mongols and West and Central Asians as cultural brokers and also as unifiers of China. Further, it views North and South Chinese elites as agents of historical change rather than as victims of Mongol oppression. Underlining the complexity of the history of China under the Mongols and the significance of time and geography for the study of this history, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese medical history, Chinese social and cultural history, and medieval global history.

China Marches West

Author : Peter C Perdue
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674042026
Total Pages : 748 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis China Marches West by : Peter C Perdue

Download or read book China Marches West written by Peter C Perdue and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From about 1600 to 1800, the Qing empire of China expanded to unprecedented size. Through astute diplomacy, economic investment, and a series of ambitious military campaigns into the heart of Central Eurasia, the Manchu rulers defeated the Zunghar Mongols, and brought all of modern Xinjiang and Mongolia under their control, while gaining dominant influence in Tibet. The China we know is a product of these vast conquests. Peter C. Perdue chronicles this little-known story of China's expansion into the northwestern frontier. Unlike previous Chinese dynasties, the Qing achieved lasting domination over the eastern half of the Eurasian continent. Rulers used forcible repression when faced with resistance, but also aimed to win over subject peoples by peaceful means. They invested heavily in the economic and administrative development of the frontier, promoted trade networks, and adapted ceremonies to the distinct regional cultures. Perdue thus illuminates how China came to rule Central Eurasia and how it justifies that control, what holds the Chinese nation together, and how its relations with the Islamic world and Mongolia developed. He offers valuable comparisons to other colonial empires and discusses the legacy left by China's frontier expansion. The Beijing government today faces unrest on its frontiers from peoples who reject its autocratic rule. At the same time, China has launched an ambitious development program in its interior that in many ways echoes the old Qing policies. China Marches West is a tour de force that will fundamentally alter the way we understand Central Eurasia.

The Troubled Empire

Author : Timothy Brook
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674072537
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Troubled Empire by : Timothy Brook

Download or read book The Troubled Empire written by Timothy Brook and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-03-11 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mongol takeover in the 1270s changed the course of Chinese history. The Confucian empireÑa millennium and a half in the makingÑwas suddenly thrust under foreign occupation. What China had been before its reunification as the Yuan dynasty in 1279 was no longer what it would be in the future. Four centuries later, another wave of steppe invaders would replace the Ming dynasty with yet another foreign occupation. The Troubled Empire explores what happened to China between these two dramatic invasions. If anything defined the complex dynamics of this period, it was changes in the weather. Asia, like Europe, experienced a Little Ice Age, and as temperatures fell in the thirteenth century, Kublai Khan moved south into China. His Yuan dynasty collapsed in less than a century, but Mongol values lived on in Ming institutions. A second blast of cold in the 1630s, combined with drought, was more than the dynasty could stand, and the Ming fell to Manchu invaders. Against this backgroundÑthe first coherent ecological history of China in this periodÑTimothy Brook explores the growth of autocracy, social complexity, and commercialization, paying special attention to ChinaÕs incorporation into the larger South China Sea economy. These changes not only shaped what China would become but contributed to the formation of the early modern world.