Political Frontiers, Ethnic Boundaries and Human Geographies in Chinese History

Download or read book Political Frontiers, Ethnic Boundaries and Human Geographies in Chinese History written by Nicola Di Cosmo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-16 with total page 611 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Boundaries - demanding physical space, enclosing political entities, and distinguishing social or ethnic groups - constitute an essential aspect of historical investigation. It is especially with regard to disciplinary pluralism and historical breadth that this book most clearly departs and distinguishes itself from other works on Chinese boundaries and ethnicity. In addition to history, the disciplines represented in this book include anthropology (particularly ethnography), religion, art history, and literary studies. Each of the authors focuses on a distinct period, beginning with the Zhou dynasty (c. 1100 BCE) and ending with the early centuries after the Manchu conquest (c. CE 1800) - resulting in a chronological sweep of nearly three millennia.