China is emerging as a new superpower in science and technology, reflected in the success of its spacecraft and high-velocity Maglev trains. While many seek to understand the rise of China as a technologically-based power, the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s may seem an unlikely era to explore for these insights. Despite the widespread verdict of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as an unmitigated disaster for China, a number of recent scholars have called for re-examining Maoist ...

The Art of War is a classic of military strategy. It is ascribed to Sun Tzu, also called Sunzi or Sun Wu, a quasi-legendary figure. The work has been dated from between the 6th to the 3rd century BCE. It is known worldwide and is considered required reading for students of political and military science.As with other classics, many of its themes are timeless. Quotations from the work can be meaningful apart from the thousands of years which separate us from the time and place of it...

This is an incredible collection of all of Mao's great military works. This book was originally published by the Foreign Language Press in Peking in 1967. This is all of Mao's military writings from 1928 to 1949. Including such important works as "On Protracted War" and "Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War." These are the source documents from which all of the military thought and quotes attributed to Mao originates. This is an absolute must read for anyone interested in mili...

Rocket pioneer, occultist, and counterculture icon—Jack Parsons and the explosive intersection of science, sex, and magic. Sex and Rockets by John Carter is the definitive biography of John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons—rocket-fuel innovator, co-founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and one of the most controversial figures in twentieth-century American science. By day, Parsons helped develop the solid rocket technology that powered early U.S. missile programs and made space travel possible...

Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the “Six Great Tea Mountains” of Yunnan Province, and in imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing. In the 1990s, as the tea’s noble lineage and unique process of aging and fermentation were rediscovered, it achieved cult status both in China and internationally. The tea became a favorite among urban connoisseurs who analyzed ...

Cambodia, 1975, Pol Pot succeeds in military vistory and ascends to a four year ablolute dictatorship. After victory, he plunges Cambodia into total isolation and inflicts genocide on 25% of his citizens, a per capita rate exceeding that of any other country in history including Germany. Pol dreams that counterrevolutionary forces will take control, thus ousting him from power. This must be stopped at all costs.To assure it never happens, a list of executable infractions (inflicted on enti...

Master Sheng-yen, a dharma descendant from the founders of Buddhism in China, considers the concepts of suffering, enlightenment, and compassion; provides a glossary of key terms; and briefly recaps the history of Buddhism in China. But he goes beyond these issues to discuss contemporary matters and questions he has encountered in his years of teaching in the United States. Sometimes personal and always instructive, Sheng-yen's introductory work is perfect for those just coming to Buddhism...

Deng Xiaoping joined the Chinese Communist movement as a youth and rose in its ranks to become an important lieutenant of Mao's from the 1930s onward. Two years after Mao's death in 1976, Deng became the de facto leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the prime architect of China's post-Mao reforms. Abandoning the Maoist socio-economic policies he had long fervently supported, he set in motion changes that would dramatically transform China's economy, society, and position in the world....

China and the Legacy of Deng Xiaoping documents a turning point in the Chinese communist revolution that elevates Deng to a role equal to that of Mao. Dr. Marti explores post-Tiananmen domestic political wrangling and offers the first documentation of Dengs efforts to link all the major elements of societythe PLA, the Party, the revolutionary elders, and the regional governorsinto a coalition whose survival depends on the success of his economic policies.Understanding this sense of commitment...

Lo Jung-pang argues that during each of the three periods when imperial China embarked on maritime enterprises (the Qin and Han dynasties, the Sui and early Tang dynasties, and Song, Yuan, and early Ming dynasties), coastal states took the initiative at a time when China was divided, maritime trade and exploration subsequently peaked when China was strong and unified, and declined as Chinese power weakened. At such times, China's people became absorbed by internal affairs, and state policy...

Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295806570Xinjiang and the Modern Chinese State views modern Chinese political history from the perspective of Han officials who were tasked with governing Xinjiang. This region, inhabited by Uighurs, Kazaks, Hui, Mongols, Kirgiz, and Tajiks, is also the last significant “colony” of the former Qing empire to remain under continuous Chinese rule throughout the twentieth century. By foregrounding the responses of Chinese and other imperial...

Masculinities in Chinese History is the first historical survey of the many ways men have acted, thought, and behaved throughout China’s long past. Bret Hinsch introduces readers to the basic characteristics of historical Chinese masculinity while highlighting the dynamic changes in male identity over the centuries. He covers the full span of Chinese history, from the Zhou dynasty in distant antiquity up to the current era of disorienting rapid change. Each chapter, focused on a specific t...