The Center for East Asian Studies, Western Washington University, published scholarly works on topics relating to China, Japan, Korea, and Mongolia under the banner of East Asian Studies Press.
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In Response to the Howling Monkeys along the Yangtze: An American Eco-Critic’s Translation of Three Hundred and Eleven Tang Poems
Ning Yu
In Response to the Howling Monkeys along the Yangtze: An American Eco-Critic’s Translation of Three Hundred and Eleven Tang Poems by Ning Yu: If you have read Tang poetry, you have probably encountered its ubiquitous monkeys, especially along the narrow, rapid waterway of the Three Gorges. Sometimes, they cry sadly, sometimes they howl with excitement. Sometimes, hand in hand, they form a “monkey ladder,” taking turns descending to quench their thirst from the stream that rushes by a rocky cliff. Sometimes they approach a traveler, a poet, their one-time master, who, urged by his conscience the year before, broke the gold chains around their necks and set them free. They howl to the poet, as if sending a message to humanity through their master-friend.
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The Price of Rice: Market Integration in Eighteenth-Century China
Sui-wai Cheung
The Price of Rice by Sui-wai Cheung investigates the grain tax, canal transportation, and market integration, to give a complete picture of the long-distance rice trade in China during the eighteenth century.
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Subjects and Masters: Uyghurs in the Mongol Empire
Michael C. Brose
Subjects and Masters by Michael C. Brose answers the question, “Who really ran the Mongol empire?” The common stereotype of "leadership" during that period of world history most likely consists of a band of savage horse mounted nomads, led by the fearless and powerful Chinggis Qan, sweeping down from the steppe to conquer and rule with brutal force over the most powerful Eurasian empires of the time. But while the Mongol tribesmen were certainly effective in conquest and empire building, they could not have succeeded alone. In fact, the rapid conquests of Chinggis and his heirs, and the empire that they constructed across Eurasia, were achieved through the skills and efforts of many different peoples who collaborated (willingly or unwillingly) with the Mongol lords. Not only were the nomadic Mongol tribesmen few in number (especially relative to the large agrarian states they would ultimately conquer, China and Persia), but they also lacked the skills and experience needed to hold power over the long term.
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Mongolian Culture and Society in the Age of Globalization
Henry G. Schwarz
Mongolian Culture and Society in the Age of Globalization, edited by Henry G. Schwarz: One of the most ubiquitous terms used over the past dozen years or more has been globalization, but there is no consensus as to its precise meaning. Instead we have been witnessing an ever growing number of definitions and descriptions offered by experts in such fields as economics, politics, anthropology and sociology. If they agree on anything at all, it seems that globalization has come about largely as the result of three factors: the end of the so-called cold war, the emergence of a new economic world order, and the ubiquitous use of electronic communications. As a result, what we have seen so far is that most studies of globalization have focused primarily on the phenomenon’s political and economic modalities in general and almost always within the framework of “country studies.” It was this dual emphasis both on political and economic events and on states that peaked my curiosity
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Mongolian Historical Writing from 1200-1700
Sh. (Shagdaryn) Bira
Mongolian Historical Writing from 1200-1700, by Bira Shagdaryn and translated by John R. Krueger: From the time that Russian scholars began the study of Mongolian sources, about a century and a half has gone past (see Bibliography. During this time, through the efforts of Mongolists of different countries much work has been performed in collecting, publishing and studying the monuments of Mongolian historical literature.
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Democracy Betrayed: Okinawa Under U.S. Occupation
Kensei Yoshida
Kensei Yoshida's Democracy Betrayed: The U.S. Occupation of Okinawa is easily the best history, analysis, and commentary we have on the United States's domination from 1945 to 1972 over the unlucky people of Okinawa. It is written from an Okinawan perspective. Yoshida is of course aware that when the United States's formal dominion over Okinawa ended in 1972 and it condoned a pro forma "reversion" of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty, the semicolonial conditions he describes did not end. In fact, they continued and persist to the present day in an often exacerbated form. For the past fifty-six years, and with no end in sight, the American military has dominated the territory and 1.3 million people of the islands in total disregard of the values and wishes of the Okinawans themselves.
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The Last Mongol Prince: The Life and Times of Demchugdongrob, 1902-1966
Jaġcidsecen, 1917-2009
The Last Mongol Prince by Sechin Jagchid: The sixty-four years of the life of Prince Demchugdongrob saw the devastation of two world wars. Invasion of Asia by imperialists was gradually checked by the rise of nationalism. Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 restored Asian self- confidence. But this victory also created strife within. The founding of the Republic of China in 1912, which ended monarchical rule, and the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 marked the beginning of a new era. The Mongols, roused by these great changes, struggled to establish their own national identity. By the conclusion of World War 11, half of the Mongol people had achieved their independence, at least nominally, but the other half faced harsh and rigorous trials.
Prince Demchugdongrob, born to a highly prestigious Chinggisid family, for a time assumed the position of national leader, but died in the custody of the Chinese Communists. His heroic but tragic life was entwined with the fate of his fellow countrymen, especially those Inner Mongols who struggled for the existence of their nation.
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Son of Heaven and Heavenly Qaghan: Sui-Tang China and its Neighbors
Yihong Pan
Son of Heaven and Heavenly Qaghan: Sui-Tang China and its Neighbors by Pan Yihong: The conquest of the last of the Southern Dynasties by Sui in 589 brought to an end the Period of Disunion which had started with the collapse of Han in 220 C.E. The Sui dynasty was short-lived but laid the foundation for the Tang (618-907), an age of outstanding political and cultural achievement to which later generations looked back with nostalgia.
The Sui-Tang period of over three centuries stands as a high point in the development of Chinese civilization. It not only restored the unity of the Chinese empire, it enlarged this concept which had been born in early Zhou, idealized by the Confucian thinkers of the Warring States and given definite form in Qin and Han. At the end of Tang the pattern of unity was again challenged, but the ideal persisted and has remained very much alive to the present day.
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Through the Ocean Waves: The Autobiography of Bazaryn Shirendev
B. (Bazaryn) Shirėndėv
The translation of Shirendev’s Through the Ocean Waves is a significant event for the historical understanding of modem Mongolia. This is the first personal biography by a central figure in the communist government that dominated the entire central part of the twentieth century. Shirendev is a remarkable statesman. The peaks and troughs of his career, alluded to in his title, reveal the inner turbulence of the history of his country, which was largely hidden until recently. Since 1990 Mongolia has changed direction politically, turning towards democracy, market relations and openness in public life. The publication of Shirendev s book in Mongolian is part of this process. However, although his career is usually identified with the high socialism of the 1940s-80s, Shirendev's book reveals that he really stands for a “Mongolianness” that spans virtually the whole of this century in all of its political guises. It is clear from Shirendev’s account that even a beacon of party activism such as himself remains in many ways attached to the traditional culture in which he grew up. His account contains a mixture of admiration for the experience of the herders with a determination to improve the social conditions of their lives.
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Opuscula Altaica : Essays Presented in Honor of Henry Schwarz
Edward H. Kaplan and Donald W. Whisenhunt
Opuscula Altaica : Essays Presented in Honor of Henry Schwarz, edited by Edward H. Kaplan and Donald W. Whisenhunt: We are pleased to present herewith a largely Mongol miscellany in honor of a most remarkable man, Henry Schwarz. I first met Henry Schwarz in the winter of 1967 at a meeting of the Inner Asia Colloquium of the then Far Eastern and Russian Institute at the University of Washington. Attending were the bright lights of Inner Asian Studies including, in addition to Henry himself, the late Nicholas Poppe, the late T.V. Wylie, Herbert Franke, Lao Yan-shuan, and a host of graduate students, most of whom have now gone on to distinguished careers as scholars and teachers. That period was in many ways a high water mark for Inner Asian Studies, one we have not seen the likes of since, though Henry Schwarz has done his best to recreate it.
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A Monetary History of China, Volumes One and Two (Zhongguo Huobi Shi)
Hsin-wei Pʻeng
A Monetary History of China, Volumes One and Two by Peng Xinwei, translated by Edward H. Kaplan. Translating this long, complex work, touching as it does on so many aspects of Chinese life, ranging from ancient philosophers to late Qing picaresque novels, has proven a daunting but rewarding task. I have learned a great deal about much more than Chinese money in the course of doing the translation. Nevertheless, I can hardly claim to have done justice to what is one of the great monuments of modem Chinese scholarship, and to its martyred author. Still, as Chesterton wisely observed, "If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly."
Not the least of the virtues of making a translation of Zhongguo huobi shi available to the English- reading world is to celebrate a scholarly career which managed to transcend the limits of a regime which could have had no sympathy for the objects —the money-commodities and manufactured moneys— which were the focus of that career, and which, as this book went through its second and third versions, came perilously close to abolishing altogether the market, the only place within which those objects can find their meaning.
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An Uyghur-English Dictionary
Henry G. Schwarz
An Uyghur-English Dictionaryby Henry G. Schwarz: As the initial foundation of my dictionary I chose the Uyg̃urçä-xänzuçä lug̃ät which, in its manuscript form and after 1982 in published form, had been my steady companion in Xinjiang. If I ever considered doing nothing more than translating it into English, I rejected this option almost from the start. For one thing, I often found the dictionary to be inaccurate in many respects, both large and small. More importantly, a direct translation from Uyghur to English reduces the number and the degree of infelicities that smudge the interface between two languages. My course of action thus lay before me: after an initial translation of the Uyg̃urçä-xänzuçä lug̃ät into English, a task completed by the time my Tokyo apartment had turned pleasantly warm in the spring of 1985, I went to work to hunt down every Uyghur word, phrase, sentence, and saying in a large number of Uyghur sources published between 1954 and 1985. If I could not find it, I dropped it. If I could not verify a usage contained in the Chinese dictionary, I dropped it. On the other hand, if I could verify a usage but not in identical language, I kept the language used in the Chinese dictionary. If I discovered a new word, phrase, or saying, I added it to my collection. This stage of my labors took most of my spare time between March 1985 and the summer of 1991.
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Mongolia and the Mongols: holdings at Western Washington University
Henry G. Schwarz and Western Washington University
Western Libraries at Western Washington University began collecting Mongolian materials in earnest in 1975, when the University's Center for East Asian Studies created a Mongolian Program unique in North America. Most of the books and journals have been acquired through the efforts of Professor Henry Schwarz, who made many of the purchases during his frequent trips to Mongolia. He was also instrumental in obtaining the important collection of Mongolian and related materials acquired by the noted scholar Nicholas Poppe.
The Bibliotheca Mongolica, published in 1978, and Mongolian Publications at Western Washington University, published in 1984, represent the Center’s first efforts to enable worldwide access to the collection. In 1990, the range and importance of this collection received national recognition, when the United States Department of Education awarded the Libraries a Strengthening Research Library Resources Program grant to complete the cataloging of the Mongolian-language materials. Our Asian languages cataloger and bibliographer, Mr. Wayne V. Richter, carried out the project in consultation with Professor Schwarz.
The focus of the collection is in the social sciences and humanities, but the library has an abundance of collateral material in other fields and in many languages other than Mongolian. This Mongolian Studies collection is intended not only as a resource for the scholarly activities of the Center's faculty and students, but as a resource for Mongolists throughout the world. Professor Schwarz and Mr. Richter, with the support and encouragement of the Libraries, have made this volume possible.
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A Change in Dynasties: Loyalism in Thirteenth-century China
Jennifer W. Jay
A Change in Dynasties: Jennifer W. Jay’s book challenges standard Chinese historiography which sees Song loyalists as totally uncompromising to the new Mongol government. Professor Jay’s book marshals an impressive range of evidence to prove that after the defeat of loyalist resistance in 1279, even among the exemplars accommodation was more often the case than resistance. This important new study demonstrates that Song loyalism can best be understood in terms of a spectrum of relative rather than absolute values.
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Buddhist Art of East Asia
Dietrich Seckel and Ulrich Mammitzsch
Buddhist Art of East Asia by Dietrich Seckel, translated by Ulrich Mammitzsch: The publication of an English translation of a work which was originally published thirty years ago requires some explanation. Professor Seckel’s work has not only stood the test of time remarkably well, it has also remained the only attempt to date to provide a systematic survey of East Asian Buddhist art. This emphasis on the basic principles of this art constitutes the value of this study and ensures at the same time its relevance for years to come. To be sure, many individual works of Buddhist art have become better known to us during the thirty years which have elapsed since the German original appeared in 1957. Many particular details have been uncovered by students as part of the rapidly expanding scholarship in Buddhist art. Mention should also be made of the advances in color photography and reproduction which has also contributed in a significant manner towards acquainting us with the Buddhist art of East Asia.
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The Minorities of Northern China: A Survey
Henry G. Schwarz
The Minorities of Northern China: a survey, by Henry G. Schwarz. This book contains a survey of the twenty-one minorities of Northern China. Northern China comprises the provinces or autonomous regions of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu. The survey also takes into account small groups of minorities living in Southern China but whose majorities are resident in the North, such as Mongols, Manchus, and Hui. Conversely, Tibetans living in Qinghai, Gansu, and other parts of Northern China are not considered here because most Tibetans live in Tibet which, by our definition, is included in Southern China.
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Reminiscences
N. N. (Nikolaĭ Nikolaevich) Poppe
Reminiscences by Nicholas Poppe: The idea of writing down my reminiscences has come from my friends in the United States, Europe and Japan. Listening to some episodes of my life, such as my travels in Siberia and Mongolia and my activities in the Soviet Union and war-time Germany, they urged me to write everything down so that it could be read by people. I agree that this is a good idea, especially in view of the fact that 1 have met many interesting people and witnessed events not experienced by people outside places where these events took place. I am aware of the fact that I know some details of generally known events which are unknown to most persons and which are not found in the literature.
I finally agreed to record my reminiscences about people and events I witnessed or learned about from reliable sources. Of course, 1 had to inform the readers in brief about myself and my family. I have omitted details concerning life in our family, my everyday routine activities, birthday celebrations, and vacations. I have confined myself to the most essential. The result is a rather thin book, quite different from the multi-volume biographies of great celebrities in whose company I certainly do not belong.
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The Korean Peasant at the Crossroads: A Study in Attitudes
Willard D. Keim
The Korean Peasant at the Crossroads, by Willard D. Keim: Since the advent of written history at least some four millennia ago, the world has been to a large degree a peasant world. There are still nations among those newly independent since World War II with 80 percent of their populations living in the countryside. And it has not been so many decades ago that the major nations of Europe were composed predominantly of a peasantry and its concomitant technology. The United States crossed the rural-urban divide of 50 percent living in rural areas in about 1920, Italy in the 1940s, and Korea in the early 1970s. Were it not for the industrial revolution, which originated in Europe and has extended its impact around the globe, the world would still consist of urban centers surrounded by vast oceans of countryside, villages, and peasant-tillers. It is certainly no news to persons living in the United States, where less than ten percent of the population is at present actively engaged in raising the crops needed to feed its expanded population, and to some of the rest of the world that the age of the peasant, the even pace of life in semi-isolated villages, is gone forever.
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Studies on Mongolia: Proceedings of the First North American Conference on Mongolian Studies
Henry G. Schwarz
Studies of Mongolia, edited by Henry G. Schwarz. It is my pleasure to present to Mongolists and other interested readers the proceedings of the first North American Conference on Mongolian Studies, held in Bellingham on November 25-26, 1978.
The idea for such a conference occurred to me about two years ago. As I recall, it was not some specific event that prompted my decision to organize the conference; rather, it probably was disappointment, slowly accumulating over the years, at seeing North American studies on Mongolia lagging behind those on China, Japan, and Korea in this respect. True, larger conferences, like those sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies and the American Oriental Society, have often included panels dealing at least partially with Mongolia, and the Mongolia Society has done a signal service by holding its annual meetings in conjunction with those conferences. Yet I felt that the time had come to give Mongolists their own conference. The experiences of our colleagues in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean studies clearly pointed out the main advantage of holding a conference devoted to a single country or culture. It could provide a setting in which Mongolists felt "at home," undisturbed by the clamor of the bazaar-like atmosphere often prevailing at the larger all-Asian conferences.
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Wu Tse-T’ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T’ang China
R. W. L. Guisso
Wu Tse-t’ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China by R.W.L. Guisso is an attempt to examine and to describe the career of China's only female "emperor" and an attempt also, by using a particular frame of reference, to place in perspective her very controversial regime. The author did not set out consciously to write a biography but could not avoid, of course, the inclusion of a good deal of biographical detail. In general, the life of the Empress Wu has been subordinated to larger themes, and it is for this reason that we can see her remarkable force of character and virtuosity of mind only through the darkest of glasses.
This study has three emphases. The first is the question of legitimation, the nature of the Empress Wu's position and power. How did she win recognition as the legitimate sovereign of a state and a culture which had never before permitted a woman to be Son of Heaven? And why, after this unique achievement, did she fail to preserve her position until her death? What influence did her unorthodox rise and her anomalous position have upon her times, and what does her career tell us of the process of legitimation in T'ang China?
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Bibliotheca Mongolica
Henry G. Schwarz
The field of Mongolian Studies in North America has had its ups and downs over the past decade. While some universities, like Indiana and Brigham Young, have expanded their offerings and others, like Saskatchewan and Western Washington, have entered the field, there has also been some contraction. In several ways, the most regrettable casualty of the budget axe was the fine program at the University of Washington which had been founded and guided by Nicholas Poppe but which was eliminated soon after his retirement.
I believe it is incumbent upon all who are interested in Mongolian Studies to strengthen the field by creating a comprehensive bibliography that in a single set of volumes encompasses most if not all that has been written in various languages about most aspects of Mongolia. It is unfortunately true that unlike studies on China, Japan, and Korea, nothing quite like this has ever been published on Mongolia. The closest we have, in a Western language is Denis Sinor's fine Introduction à l'étude de l'Eurasie centrale which includes Mongolia but which is rapidly becoming outdated and excludes entire fields such as science and technology.
I began in December of 1975 to lay the groundwork for the Bibliotheca Mongolica which will ultimately consist of four parts. Part II, edited by Professor Man-kam Leung of the University of Saskatchewan, will include works written in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Part III, edited by Mr. Michael Underdown of the University of Melbourne, will contain works in Mongolian, Russian, and East European languages. When these two parts are completed, I will compile Part IV which will contain works written in all other languages, additions to the first three parts, and a combined index.
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A Discourse on Government: Nakae Chōmin and his Sansuijin keirin mondō: An Essay and Introduction
Nakae Tokusuke
The Meiji period (1868-1912) was an exciting and cataclysmic era of Japanese history. In 1854 after two hundred and fifty years of self-imposed isolation, Japan was opened to diplomatic contact with the outside world and by 1868 the old political and social order had been overthrown. A new government was created with the promise that in the words of the Charter Oath, knowledge would be sought throughout the world and the evil customs of the past would be broken off. Once the restraints of the preceding Tokugawa state were removed, a new environment receptive to rapid change and innovation was ushered in. New ideas from the West inundated Japan, and institutions modeled on those of the West replaced the structure that had existed for centuries.
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Han River Chulmuntogi: A Study of Early Neolithic Korea
Sarah M. Nelson
Han River Chulmuntogi: A Study of Early Neolithic Korea by Sarah M. Nelson: Scattered throughout the Korean peninsula are about 100 known sites which contain handmade pottery decorated with parallel incised lines. First described by Japanese archaeologists in the early part of this century, the pottery was thought to resemble Central European ceramics decorated with a multiple toothed tool, and so was designated in Japanese Kushimemon Doki, a translation of Kammkeramik (comb-pattern pottery). Translated into Korean, the same characters are pronounced Chulmuntogi, and sites with such pottery are known collectively in Korea as the Chulmuntogi Munhwa, the "comb-pattern pottery culture." Although not descriptive of a majority of the pottery called Chulmun, this term will nevertheless be retained here since it has become established in Korea. It is well understood to cover a variety of other decorative techniques as well as possible comb markings on prehistory pottery in Korea.
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Ten Great Years: Statistics of the Economic and Cultural Achievements of the People’s Republic of China
China. Guo jia tong ji ju
Ten Great Years: Statistics of the Economic and Cultural Achievements of the People’s Republic of China by the State Statistical Bureau: The aim of this book is to describe, through extensive statistical data presented systematically, the great economic and cultural achievements of the People's Republic of China during the past decade, 1949 – 1958.
