Asserting that litigation in late imperial China was a form of documentary warfare, this book offers a social analysis of the men who composed legal documents for commoners and elites alike. Litigation masters—a broad category of legal facilitators ranging from professional plaintmasters to simple but literate men to whom people turned for assistance—emerge in this study as cen...(展开全部)

罗友枝（Evelyn S. Rawski），匹兹堡大学历史系教授，研究方向为近代东亚和中国近代史，着重于大众史、大众文化和社会礼俗史的研究，著有《中国南方的农业变化与农业经济》《清代中国的教育与大众文化》及《十八世纪的中国社会》(合著)等。 黎安友（Andrew J. Nathan），哥伦比亚大学政治学系教授、东亚研究所主任，研究方向为中国政治与外交政策、比较政治等，著有《中国的民主》《中国政治变迁之路》《长城与空城计：中国寻求安全的战略》等。 姜士彬（David G. Johnson），加州大学伯克利分校中国研究中心教授，早年专注中古中国士族研究，近年关注明清大众文化研究，著有《中古中国的寡头政治》《景观与祭祀：中国北方乡村生活的仪式基础》等。

Despite the importance of books and the written word in Chinese society, the history of the book in China is a topic that has been little explored. This pioneering volume of essays, written by historians, art historians, and literary scholars, introduces the major issues in the social and cultural history of the book in late imperial China. Informed by many insights from the ri...(展开全部)

白馥兰(Francesca Bray)英国剑桥大学社会人类学博士，研究兴趣集中于农业体系、日常技术、社会性别、医疗与身体等方面，并专攻东亚及东南亚地区。曾居住在马来西亚乡村参加稻田种植。现任美国圣巴巴拉加州大学人类学系教授。其主要著作除本书外，尚有李约瑟主编《中国的科学与文明》之第六卷第二分册(农业)(1984)、《稻米经济：亚洲社会的技术与发展》(1994)、《明代中国的技术与社会，1368—1644年》(2000)。本书于1997年出版后，曾于1999年获美国技术史学会所颁发的德克斯特奖(DxterPrize)。

In this feminist history of eight centuries of private life in China, Francesca Bray inserts women into the history of technology and adds technology to the history of women. Bray takes issue with the Orientalist image that traditional Chinese women were imprisoned in the inner quarters, deprived of freedom and dignity, and so physically and morally deformed by footbinding and ...(展开全部)

In this feminist history of eight centuries of private life in China, Francesca Bray inserts women into the history of technology and adds technology to the history of women. Bray takes issue with the Orientalist image that traditional Chinese women were imprisoned in the inner quarters, deprived of freedom and dignity, and so physically and morally deformed by footbinding and ...(展开全部)

During the late imperial era (1500-1911), China, though divided by ethnic, linguistic, and regional differences at least as great as those prevailing in Europe, enjoyed a remarkable solidarity. What held Chinese society together for so many centuries? Some scholars have pointed to the institutional control over the written word as instrumental in promoting cultural homogenizati...(展开全部)