Download PDF | Sui_Tang China And Its Turko Mongol Neighbors Culture, Power And Connections, 580 - 800 (Oxford Studies in Early Empires) , By Skaff, Jonathan Karam, Oxford University Press 2012.
421 Pages
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
Th e long gestation of this work of history has allowed me to accumulate numerous debts of gratitude. Part III of the book had its genesis as a dissertation at the University of Michigan, where Chun-shu Chang and Rudi Paul Lindner grounded me in Chinese and Inner Asian history, respectively. Any new insights contained in the pages below were built upon the foundations of knowledge they generously imparted. Dissertation research in China involved a happy and productive year at the Center for Research on Ancient Chinese History at Peking University.
My advisers and friends, Professors Rong Xinjiang and Wang Xiaofu, magnanimously volunteered their time to teach me the nuances of Tang documents. Professors Li Xiaocong and Zang Jian went to great lengths to make my stay comfortable and productive. What I wish I had known before writing my dissertation is contained in Parts I and II. Most of the research and much of the writing was done while on a sabbatical and leave of absence from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.
I spent a highly productive term at the Institute for Advanced Study, School of Historical Studies, where Nicola Di Cosmo’s East Asia group and Carolyn Bynum’s Medieval Table provided arenas of convivial academic exchange that stimulated some of my deepest insights. Fellow members Richard Abels, Cynthia Talbot, Margherita Zanasi, and others provided helpful comments that confi rmed the value of a comparative approach. Particularly pivotal was Bryan Cuevas’s suggestion to pay more att ention to ritual and religion, which sparked chapters 4 and 5. In addition to several talks at the Institute, portions of this research were presented at invited lectures to the Harvard University Inner Asia and Altaic Studies Program, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Anthropology, and University of Pennsylvania East Asia Humanities Colloquium.
I also presented papers at the following scholarly gatherings: American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship Conference, Andre Gunder Frank’s Legacy of Critical Social Science Conference at the University of Pitt sburgh, Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting; Global Asias Conference at Pennsylvania State University, the Southeast Early China Roundtable Conference at the University of North Florida, and a workshop at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. While I received too many helpful remarks to acknowledge here, I am indebted to Mark Elliott , William Honeychurch, and Victor Mair for arranging speaking invitations and providing valuable feedback.
Th is book also benefi tt ed tremendously from the following individuals who read and commented on various chapters: Peter Brown, Andrew Chitt ick, Andrew Eisenberg, Peter Golden, Th omas Hall, Victor Mair, N. Harry Rothschild, Naomi Standen, and two anonymous reviewers. Friends and mentors—Tom Allsen, Al Dien, and Valerie Hansen—have provided me with recommendations and other assistance through the years. Th e latt er’s serendipitous invitation to serve as a discussant at the Textiles as Money Workshop at Yale University deepened my knowledge of the silks discussed in chapter 8.
A number of individuals have provided support at various stages of the writing and editorial process. At Oxford University Press, Stefan Vranka, Sarah Pirovitz, Ryan Sarver, and Sagayaraj have been models of helpful professionalism. At Shippensburg University, I am grateful for the cheerful assistance of Janice Reed. Most dramatically, Janice and my former chair, David Godshalk, came to the rescue during my sabbatical when my offi ce computer died. Due to their quick action, I was writing again the next day. I also owe thanks to the following students who helped to proofread and index: Bradley Barlow, Daniel Benfer, Sarah Conrad, Elizabeth Garlick, Megan Gray, Jack Grigsby, Jason Kleese, Erik Lesniak, Timothy Miller, Victor Ordonez, and John Tsambiras.
I am grateful for financial support from a number of sources. At the dissertation stage, I received funding from a U.S. Department of Education Javits Fellowship, Committ ee on Scholarly Communication Graduate Fellowship for Research in China, Peking University Tuition Scholarship, and the University of Michigan’s History Department Bockman-Mayer Fellowship, Center for Chinese Studies Endowment Award, and Rackham Dissertation Grant. Th e next stage of research, revision, and writing was supported by an American Philosophical Society-Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sabbatical Fellowship, an Institute for Advanced Study School of Historical Studies Felix Gilbert Membership, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, award number FB - 53191 - 07, and a Shippensburg University sabbatical.
Th is book has benefi tt ed from the support of various libraries. At Shippensburg University Diane Kalathas of the interlibrary loan department has patiently helped me locate scholarship in multiple languages and tolerated my propensity to hold onto books long past the due date. Th e Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium deserves thanks for creating the E-Z Borrow system, which provided quick delivery of books from world-class East Asian collections at the universities of Pitt sburgh and Pennsylvania. I still marvel that the Penn library generously sent all ten volumes of the Tang ritual code. Brenda Mathenia of the University of Michigan Map Library and Tsering Wangyal Shawa of the Princeton University Geosciences and Map Library spent many hours assisting me in creating the maps using ArcView GIS Soft ware, ESRI, Inc. My wife, Kassiani, and children, Nicholas and Sophia, generally indulged my propensity to disappear into the offi ce, and also provided happy diversions from books and computer.
I owe special thanks to Kassiani for help with digital image preparation and Nicholas for creating the schematic diagram of Eurasia in the book’s introduction. My parents, Karam and Donna, have been extremely supportive of my academic pursuits. My father is a late blooming afi cionado of Chinese history who proofread draft s of each chapter, while vigilantly advocating for the concerns of the general reader. Appendix E was created at his urging. Figures are reproduced courtesy of the following: 5.1: Palace Museum, Beijing; 5.2: Zhang Jianlin; 5.4: Penn Museum, image #194252. I am grateful to Xiuqin Zhou, who helped me obtain two photographs of statuary, and Bill Smith who assisted me with scanning.
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