the sources 3is an impressive achievement. China among Equals is a splendid work,
edited by Morris Rossabi. Special respect is due to the works of Her-
bert Franke, and Michael Rogers, and Edward Schafer’s charming
The Golden Peaches of Samarkand.
I follow my usual habit of working from the sources up and not from
my imagination down. This means that I rarely find it necessary to
quote secondary literature. I prefer not to engage in needless polemics.
Let my interpretation of the sources speak for itself. If others agree
with me, so much the better. Should we differ, let future generations
of scholars decide the rights and wrongs. I see no need to refer to all
available literature just because it is there, including the host of works
in Chinese and Japanese. I restrict myself therefore intentionally to
giving a list of quoted literature. Those, who are interested in com-
prehensive bibliographies, are refered to the Cambridge History of China
and the above-mentioned work of Rossaby.