Shaoyang Xian Zhi. A Gazetteer / Chronicle of Shaoyang County, Hunan Province, China.

Printed by Da Zhan Letterpress, printing bureau of Shaoyang, 1875 (1st year of Guang Xu, Qing Dynasty). First edition. TEXT in CHINESE.

Six volumes, wrappers, 5.25x8.5 inches (13.5x21 cm). Four of the volumes have several sections, each paginated separately. Pagination: Volume One: 2, 46, 20, 30, 26 pp; Volume Two: 34, 37, 26, 36 pp; Volume Three: 76, 47 pp.; Volume Four: 120 pp.; Volume Five: 108 pp.; Volume 6: 96, 5 pp.

The previous owner left a couple typed notes (with some handwritten additions) that describe the contents of the volume as follows:

Vol. 1: Tome 1: Harvest; Tome 2: Landscape; Tome 3: Construction; Tome 4: School.

Vol. 2: Tome 5: Ancestral Temple; Tome 6: Finance; Tome 7: Officials; Tome 8: Election.

Vol. 3. Political, Academic, and Meritorious Personages.

Vol. 4: Moral Personages.

Vol. 5: Examples, women.

Vol. 6: Miscellaneous.

FAIR Condition: the wrappers are chipped, worn along the edges, and have tears of various lengths; many of the wrappers are disbound, the rest tenderly attached; the front cover of Volume One has been replaced with a blank (same paper as the other wrappers but no printed title), has a long tear, and is detached along with a few of its initial leaves; the spine covering of all the volumes has perished; overall the wrappers are weary and tender but present. Internally, the pages are age toned, have some edgewear, edge chips, tears, and faint dampstaining; some of the early and latter pages of various volumes are disbound but present; the paper is fragile and chips easily, so small fragments come off with handling. Please handle this treasure with care. Despite the flaws, this is a complete and very rare set of these six volumes.

SCARCE original source documents. This is the only 19th century chronicle of Shaoyang County that I have ever seen.

MODERN UTOPIAN: COMMUNES, JAPAN. By Richard Fairfield, with Photographs by Consuelo Sandoval, Sankichi Nomoto & Mamo Kato.

"Material on Japanese communes was compiled from personal experience and interviews in the communes themselves with added material and insights from other writers and visitors, including Meyer Steinbach, M.D.; Noboyoshi Tezuka, Michael Howden, and staff of the Japan Kibbutz Association."

Japanese Communes in this book include: Itto-en Community; New Village; Ohoyamato Ajisai; Shinkyo Commune; Yamagishi-kai Association; Hokkaido Yamagishi-ism; The Tribe; and more. (I wonder if Haruki Murakami based the commune in his book 1Q84 on one of these?)

Published by Alternative Foundation, San Francisco, 1972. First Edition. ISBN: 0912976020

GOOD condition, the covers have some light toning and corner creases; internally just lightly used, tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked. A solid, presentable copy.

RARE and interesting look at the Japanese Utopian Communes of the early 1970s.

SUNG-LIAO DIPLOMACY in ELEVENTH and TWELFTH CENTURY CHINA: A STUDY of the SOCIAL and POLITICAL, by Melvin Thlick-Len Ang.

This is an "authorized facsimile" printed in 1983 by University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan, of the ORIGINAL DOCTORAL / PhD THESIS presented to the UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA in the same year, 1983.

Softcovers, 6.5x8.5 inches, xii + 316 pages. NEAR FINE condition, sunning to the spine, otherwise looks and feels unused, tight, bright, clean, clear and unmarked.

Abstract of the Thesis: ****** In the early eleventh-century, geopolitical considerations caused the Chinese government to initiate a system of regular embassies of exchange with the Liao. The inauguration of permanent diplomatic relations between the two Courts represented a significant departure from the Sinocentric model of a China at the center of the social and political order.

This study seeks to determine whether this alteration in the pattern of traditional Sino-barbarian relations led to a permanent institutional change or whether it was treated by the Chinese merely as a temporary if necessary expedient. The investigation moves from the general and theoretical to the specific and quantitative.

The first chapter surveys the major theories of Sino-barbarian relations and traditional Chinese relations with Koryo, Annam, the Hsi Hsia, and the Chin.

The second chapter presents an historical survey of Sung-Liao relations, including in particular the process by which decades of war were replaced by a century of peaceful diplomatic interchange.

The third chapter details the actual process of Sung-Liao diplomacy: The selection of ambassadors; the ranks of appointees; the types of missions; the gifts exchanged; the nature of travel and hospitality.

The fourth chapter presents a number of case studies of Sung ambassadors. An attempt is made to develop profiles of ambassadorial types.

The fifth chapter presents the results of a prosopographical study of the careers of 608 ambassadors to the Liao and 341 military intendants who served in Liao-sensitive circuits. The effects of elite status, educational attainment, regional origin, and experience on the subsequent careers of ambassadors are analyzed. The data suggest that the Liao threat was taken seriously. Significant numbers of men in top policy making positions could boast ambassadorial experience. But these "experienced" bureaucrats did not become "specialists." Nor was any permanent bureau for foreign policy established as a result of the Sung-Liao diplomatic experience.******