This publication is the long-awaited complement to Michael Loewe's acclaimed Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (2000). With more than 8,000 entries, based upon historical records and surviving inscriptions, the comprehensive Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23-220 AD) now provides information on men and women of the Chinese world who lived at the time of Later (or Eastern) Han, from Liu Xiu, founding Emperor Guangwu (reg. 24-57), to the celebrated warlord Cao Cao (155-220) at the end of the dynasty.
The entries, including surnames, personal names, styles and dates, are accompanied by maps, genealogical tables and indexes, with lists of books and special accounts of women. These features, together with the convenient surveys of the history and the administrative structure of the dynasty, will make Rafe de Crespigny's work an indispensable tool for any further serious study of a significant but comparatively neglected period of imperial China.
Rafe de Crespigny, Ph.D. (1968) in Far Eastern History, Australian National University, is Professor of Asian Studies at that same university. He has published monographs, translations and many articles on Later Han and the Three Kingdoms, including Northern Frontier, and Generals of the South, on the empire of Wu.
All scholars of traditional China and its imperial tradition. The work will also be useful as a reference for research in social and economic history, literature and philosophy.