Early medieval China : a sourcebook /

This excellent resource provides students and researchers with a fresh understanding of China's early medieval period (220-589) through its innovative selections and creative arrangements of critical historical, literary, religious, and foundational texts. Early Medieval China is organized around six themes: "The North and the South," "Governing Mechanisms and Social Reality," "Cultural Capital," "Imaging Self and Other," "Everyday Life," and last, "Relations with the Unseen World," which focuses on "relations between human beings and the denizens of the unseen world of spirits, gods, and buddhas." The editors state that these themes were chosen to best capture the "dynamic developments" of the medieval period. This resource does an excellent job of addressing new scholarly advances in critical areas of study, highlighting future research areas, and providing students with cultural and historical contexts for the period. It offers many foundational texts and new sources that have not been translated before. The "further reading" sections, supporting introductions, and works cited will be very valuable to all researchers. This sourcebook likely will be selected as a core text for many undergraduate and graduate level courses in Chinese history. --Lynn Denise Lampert, California State University--Northridge