Chinese Maps: Images of "All Under Heaven" (Images of Asia) [Hardcover]

Richard J. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Images of Asia | Publication Date: August 1, 1996

For nearly two thousand years the Chinese emperor, ruler of "All under heaven", demanded the obedience not only of his subjects in China but also of tributary peoples throughout the known world. This work explores the history of Chinese map-making, giving special emphasis to the political, military, and administrative uses of maps, the images of foreign "barbarians" seen in maps and encyclopaedias, and the role of these materials in the maintenance of China's image of itself as the Middle Kingdom.

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About the Author

Richard J. Smith is Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies at Rice University, Houston, Texas.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195859499
• ISBN-13: 978-0195859492
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,620,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard J. Smith is George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University in Houston, Texas. A specialist in modern Chinese history and traditional Chinese culture, with a strong interest in transnational, global and comparative studies, Smith has won twelve teaching awards while at Rice, including the Piper Professorship (1987), the George R. Brown Certificate of Highest Merit (1992), the Sarofim Distinguished Teaching Professorship (1994), the Nicholas Salgo Distinguished Teaching Award (1996), and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching "Texas Professor of the Year" Award (1998). Smith's books include Mercenaries and Mandarins: The Ever-Victorious Army in Nineteenth Century China (1978); Traditional Chinese Culture: A Brief Introduction (1978); Fortune-tellers and Philosophers: Divination in Traditional Chinese Society (1991); Chinese Almanacs (1992); China's Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912 (1994); Chinese Maps: Images of "All Under Heaven" (1996); Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World: The Yijing (I Ching or Book of Changes) and Its Evolution in China (2008) and The I Ching: A Biography (forthcoming with the Princeton University Press). He has also co-edited or co-authored six volumes: Chinese Walled Cities (1979); Entering China's Service (1986); Robert Hart and China's Early Modernization (1991); Cosmology, Ontology, and Human Efficacy: Essays in Chinese Thought (1993); H. B. Morse, Customs Commissioner and Historian of China (1995); and Different Worlds of Discourse: Transformations of Gender and Genre in Late Qing and Early Republican China (2008). Smith is presently working on several articles and book chapters, as well as three books: (1) a thematically organized collection of some of his essays for a volume titled Mapping China and Managing the World: Cosmology, Cartography and Culture in Late Imperial Times); (2) a companion volume to Fathoming the Cosmos and Ordering the World, titled Eternal Writ: The Globalization of the Yijing (I Ching or Book of Changes); and (3) a revised edition of China's Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912. Born in Sacramento, California in 1944, Smith had a brief flirtation with professional baseball before coming to his senses. He has been married to the long-suffering Lisa Smith for 43 years, and they have a delightful and talented son named Tyler.