The first full-length study in English on T'an Ssu-t'ung, a well-known scholar-reformer in late-Ch'ing China. Based on a rich variety of primary sources, it traces T'an's progress from his early years to his summary execution during the palace coup in 1898. The Introduction explains the premises and sources pertinent to this study, while the Epilogue provides an overall interpretation of T'an's life. The remaining eight chapters are organized in such a way as to allow a chronological and thematic appreciation of the book's subject matter. This is more than a biography of a remarkable individual. By placing T'an's personal experience in the larger social and political contexts, it also sheds light on an emergent intellectual community in modern China.

This is the story of a power-hungry woman who almost brought down a country destined to become a superpower. Tzu-hsithe empress dowager of the Manchu dynastymanipulated her way into the heart of the palace almost a century and a half ago, using her charm, looks, and intellect to get what she wanted. It wasnt long before she was hiding in the Summer Palace in Peking, running the government behind the curtain and scheming to grow her power at the emperors expense. But when foreign intervention and internal strife combined to threaten her empire, she enlisted the help of a devious eunuch and resorted to extreme tactics to deal with the crisis. The emperor sought help from the intelligentsia in a bid to stay in charge and reform the government, but he made a critical mistake by placing his trust in an ambitious general who had the power to ruin everything. Filled with colorful imagery, forbidden liaisons, sneaky maneuverings, heroes, and villains, this novel tells how one woman sought to rise to the pinnacle of power in a male-dominated societyand how a dedicated emperor tried to stop her.

This book is a revised version of the doctoral thesis I presented to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1977. It is basically an attempt to study the religious, cultural and political significance of Buddhism in late Ch'ing intellectual thought through an examination of the writings of a few influential figures like liang Ch'i-ch'ao, K'ang Yu-wei, Chang Ping-lin, and particularly T'an Ssu-t'ung. My findings reveal that Buddhism came to play a part in these reformers' thought as a result of several factors: the rekindled interest in Buddhism brought about through the efforts of laymen such as Yang Wen-hui, the need to find a counter-balance to Christianity, the search for a new unifying ideology for China as Confucianism crumbled before the challenge from the West, and the immense potentiality of Buddhism to cater for the intellectuals' diverse cultural and political purposes. The masterpiece of T'an Ssu-t'ung, entitled An Exposition of Benevolence (Jen-hsiieh), is chosen here to exemplify the use of Buddhism in late Ch'ing political thought. Buddhism not only served as the all-embracing school of his eclectic synthesis, it also formed the foundation of the major concepts in the treatise, and was closely related to his radical thinking.