In this penultimate issue, Rion and Tair find themselves separated, trapped, and without hope just as the Suns begin to align.

This ambitious book looks into the reasons for the exceptional durability of the Chinese empire, which lasted for more than two millennia (221 B.C.E.-1911 C.E.). Yuri Pines identifies the roots of the empire's longevity in the activities of thinkers of the Warring States period (453-221 B.C.E.), who, in their search for solutions to an ongoing political crisis, developed ideals, values, and perceptions that would become essential for the future imperial polity. In marked distinction to similar empires worldwide, the Chinese empire was envisioned and to a certain extent "preplanned" long before it came into being. As a result, it was not only a military and administrative construct, but also an intellectual one. Pines makes the argument that it was precisely its ideological appeal that allowed the survival and regeneration of the empire after repeated periods of turmoil. Envisioning Eternal Empire presents a panoptic survey of philosophical and social conflicts in Warring States political culture. By examining the extant corpus of preimperial literature, including transmitted texts and manuscripts uncovered at archaeological sites, Pines locates the common ideas of competing thinkers that underlie their ideological controversies. This bold approach allows him to transcend the once fashionable perspective of competing "schools of thought" and show that beneath the immense pluralism of Warring States thought one may identify common ideological choices that eventually shaped traditional Chinese political culture

Established in 221 BCE, the Chinese empire lasted for 2,132 years before being replaced by the Republic of China in 1912. During its two millennia, the empire endured internal wars, foreign incursions, alien occupations, and devastating rebellions--yet fundamental institutional, sociopolitical, and cultural features of the empire remained intact. The Everlasting Empire traces the roots of the Chinese empire's exceptional longevity and unparalleled political durability, and shows how lessons from the imperial past are relevant for China today. Yuri Pines demonstrates that the empire survived and adjusted to a variety of domestic and external challenges through a peculiar combination of rigid ideological premises and their flexible implementation. The empire's major political actors and neighbors shared its fundamental ideological principles, such as unity under a single monarch--hence, even the empire's strongest domestic and foreign foes adopted the system of imperial rule. Yet details of this rule were constantly negotiated and adjusted. Pines shows how deep tensions between political actors including the emperor, the literati, local elites, and rebellious commoners actually enabled the empire's basic institutional framework to remain critically vital and adaptable to ever-changing sociopolitical circumstances. As contemporary China moves toward a new period of prosperity and power in the twenty-first century, Pines argues that the legacy of the empire may become an increasingly important force in shaping the nation's future trajectory.

Long live the Eternal Emperor! Two thousand years from today, the planet has been transformed by science, technology?and war. The centuries have not been kind to the Earth?s own undying warrior, but a battle that could change everything is only just beginning for the Eternal Emperor and the tattered remnant of humanity under his protection. Will this be a new dawn for the age of heroes ? or its death knell? And what uncanny confluence of science, myth, and magic has rendered the world ? and its own Eternal Warrior ? into war-ravaged remnants of their former selves? Collecting ETERNAL WARRIOR #5-8, the Fist and Steel?s battle continues right here as New York Times best-selling writer Greg Pak (Batman/Superman) and rising star Robert Gill (Batgirl) build a bridge to the year 4001?and unearth a brand-new era for the heroes of the Valiant Universe.

The rise of China, along with problems of governance in democratic countries, has reinvigorated the theory of political meritocracy. But what is the theory of political meritocracy and how can it set standards for evaluating political progress (and regress)? To help answer these questions, this volume gathers a series of commissioned research papers from an interdisciplinary group of leading philosophers, historians and social scientists. The result is the first book in decades to examine the rise (or revival) of political meritocracy and what it will mean for political developments in China and the rest of the world. Despite its limitations, meritocracy has contributed much to human flourishing in East Asia and beyond and will continue to do so in the future. This book is essential reading for those who wish to further the debate and perhaps even help to implement desirable forms of political change.

To serve God and Christ faithfully in the midst of a pagan society that exalts power, wealth, and pleasure is the tenor of the prophetic summons to the church in the book of Revelation. Unfortunately, this simple message, as potent today as it was at the end of the first century, is often obscured by misguided, if sincere, interpreters. The present book explores the background issues and lays out the principles that inform a sound approach to this enigmatic writing: its historical and cultural setting, its literary structure, its symbolic code, its core theological concepts, its scheme of last things, and its preachable and teachable points. In dialogue with dispensationalism on the one hand and with the skeptical criticism of it on the other, The Pith of the Apocalypse derives clues for cracking the Apocalypse from the book itself, viewed against the sweep of the biblical prophetic tradition that flowed into it, through the lens of methods widely accepted in mainstream New Testament scholarship. Readers will return to the book of Revelation itself with enhanced confidence, penetration, and understanding.

"WYTCHES: THE BAD EGG," Part Seven STORY: SCOTT SNYDER ART: JOCK and MATT HOLLINGSWORTH Volume two of the Diamond Gem Award-winning comics magazine IMAGE+ continues with all the hard-hitting content you love! This issue features 80 pages of interviews, previews, and in-depth features, plus exclusive comics content. IMAGE+ remains your number-one source for news and information about Image Comics, and now's the perfect time to get in on the ground floor. IMAGE+ is once again available for the low, low price of FREE for anyone already purchasing a copy of DiamondÕs Previews.