Acknowledgements
This book took its initial form as a PhD dissertation in western Eurasia and has come to its final shape on the eastern side of the continent. On the journey towards completing this book, I am greatly indebted to a number of people who have helped me along the way.
First and foremost, my heartfelt thanks go to my doctoral supervisor Prof. Luuk de Ligt and co-supervisor Dr. Kim Beerden. They prepared me for the academic challenges and helped me grow up during my five-year stay in Leiden. This book would not have been possible without their patient guidance, great inspiration, continuous support and unfailing encouragement. I am equally grateful to the Institute for History of Leiden University and all my gifted colleagues, especially Pieter Houten, Karolien Pazmany, Frida Pellegrino, Damjan Donev, Stefan Penders, Paul Kloeg, Rinse Willet, Matthew Hobson and Zhongxiao Wang. They generously provided me with valuable intellectual and personal support. Thanks also to the ERC project, ‘An Empire of 2000 Cities’, from which I benefited greatly. Special thanks go to Bart Noordervliet for his friendly technical assistance and Rens Tacoma for his constant encouragement and timely help whenever needed.
I would especially like to express my gratitude to Prof. Onno van Nijf, Prof. Marlou Schrover, Prof. Arjan Zuiderhoek and Dr. Liesbeth Claes, for their priceless comments and advice; to Prof. Emily Hemelrijk and Prof. Jinyu Liu, for being sources of intellectual inspiration and role models; to the anonymous reader for Brill, for his/her detailed remarks and constructive suggestions which greatly helped in improving the quality of this book; to Giulia Moriconi, for her expert guidance at every stage of the publication process; to Rosemary Robson and Millie Gall, for patiently correcting the English text and proofreading the entire manuscript.
My sincere thanks are extended to the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for sponsoring my studies in the Netherlands. The research support provided by the Shanghai Pujiang Program (No. 2019PJC082) is also gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to my colleagues at the Department of World History of Shanghai Normal University. In particular, I should like to thank Prof. Zhaoyin Yi and Prof. Heng Chen for their continuous support throughout the years.
Finally, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my family and close friends. Without their unwavering love and support I could not have accomplished this work. Mum and Dad, thank you for invariably backing me up in my efforts to live the way I want. This book is dedicated to you.