Acknowledgement
We are indebted to those who have paved the way for the publication of this book. In particular, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Chinese Academic Translation Project of the National Social Science Foundation, without whose support we could not have the opportunity to translate such a masterpiece in the field. Then, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Social Sciences Academic Press (China) and the Brill Press (Holland) for giving us such a valuable opportunity to translate this book. Mrs. Peng Yuan and Lü Qiucha of Social Sciences Academic Press (China) helped us a lot during the whole process of project application, translation and publication.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the author of the book, Zhang Qing, Professor of the Department of History at Fudan University. He placed his trust in our translation team. We are grateful to him for his insightful suggestions on how to translate classical Chinese and terminology, and for his kind help with some invaluable resources.
We are also grateful to those colleagues and friends who provided us with materials and offered their comments and assistance in translation. Professor Tian Junwu of Beihang University, with his profound academic background, provided invaluable guidance on the handling of Chinese references and the addition of an index. Professor Cao Nanping, Ph.D. candidates Li Zhe (now Lecturer at Shaanxi Normal University) and Lu Sixian from Fudan University were of great help in translating the classical Chinese. They not only helped us translate classical Chinese into modern Chinese, but also added a wealth of knowledge about modern Chinese history, which further improved the quality of the translation and is reflected in the translator’s notes at the bottom of the page. Jonathan Lock Hart, Foreign Member of the Academia Europaea, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, provided his insightful suggestions on the revision of the translation and also guided us in the search for useful information with his interdisciplinary academic expertise.
The translation of this book is a collaborative effort. Liang Yuan is in charge of the introduction, Chapters 1 and 5 (Sections 1 and 2) and the conclusion, with contributions from her ma students Zhang Hao, Liu Fan, Gu Xinyang and Yao Hejing; Jia Wenfeng is in charge of Chapters 2, 3 and 5 (Sections 3 and 4), with contributions from his ma students Zhang Wei, Lü Jie, Wang Miaoxin, Shao Meiqi and Wang Li; Li Hailong is in charge of Chapters 4 and 6. Toby Lincoln does the revision and language polishing. The final compilation and editing is done by Liang Yuan.