The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century China: "My Service in the Army", by Dzengseo (Routledge Studies in the Early History of Asia)

Providing original insights into Chinese military history, Nicola Di Cosmo gives an annotated translation of the only known military diary in pre-modern Chinese history, providing fresh and extensive information on the inner workings of the Ch'ing army. The personal experience of the author, a young Manchu officer fighting in inhospitable South-Western China, take us close to the 'face of the battle' in seventeenth-century China, and enriches our general knowledge of military history.

The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century China (Routledge Studies in the Early History of Asia)

Di Cosmo, Nicola

Reference

Routledge

Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History

This comprehensive history of the northern frontier of China through the first millennium B.C. details the formation of two increasingly distinct cultural areas: the sedentary Chinese and the northern nomads. Nicola Di Cosmo explores the tensions existing between these two worlds as they became progressively more polarized, with the eventual creation of the nomadic Hsiung-nu empire in the north, and of the Chinese empire in the south. Di Cosmo investigates the origins of the antagonism between early China and its "barbarian" neighbors.

History

Asia

Cambridge University Press

Ancient Civilizations

This volume explores the relationship between culture and the military in Chinese society from early China to the Qing empire, with contributions by eminent scholars aiming to reexamine the relationship between military matters and law, government, historiography, art, philosophy, literature, and politics. 
The book critically investigates the perception that, due to the influence of Confucianism, Chinese culture has systematically devalued military matters. There was nothing inherently pacifist about the Chinese governments’ views of war, and pragmatic approaches―even aggressive and expansionist projects―often prevailed. 
Though it has changed in form, a military elite has existed in China from the beginning of its history, and military service included a large proportion of the population at any given time. Popular literature praised the martial ethos of fighting men. Civil officials attended constantly to military matters on the administrative and financial ends. The seven military classics produced in antiquity continued to be read even into the modern period.
These original essays explore the ways in which intellectual, civilian, and literary elements helped shape the nature of military institutions, theory, and the culture of war. This important contribution bridges two literatures, military and cultural, that seldom appear together in the study of China, and deepens our understanding of war and society in Chinese history.

Military Culture in Imperial China

Harvard University Press

This volume centres on the history and legacy of the Mongol World Empire founded by Chinggis Khan and his sons, including its impact upon the modern world. An international team of scholars examines the political and cultural history of the Mongol empire, its Chinggisid successor states, and the non-Chinggisid dynasties that came to dominate Inner Asia in its wake. Geographically, it focuses on the continental region from East Asia to Eastern Europe. Beginning in the twelfth century, the volume moves through to the establishment of Chinese and Russian political hegemony in Inner Asia from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Contributors use recent research and new approaches that have revitalized Inner Asian studies to highlight the world-historical importance of the regimes and states formed during and after the Mongol conquest. Their conclusions testify to the importance of a region whose modern fate has been overshadowed by Russia and China.

The Cambridge History of Inner Asia

Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-Century C

China at the Court of the Emperors presents almost two hundred masterpieces, various in form and rich in beauty, coming from thirty-two museums and institutes in Shaanxi, Henan, Gansu, and Jiangsu provinces, many of them never seen in the West before. It examines the vast period from the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220) through the Tang (618–907), during which Chinese civilization underwent radical transformation. As a matter of fact, Tang China synthesized foreign and indigenous elements that had been present for centuries, thus creating a new, distinctive, and extraordinary cosmopolitan civilization, made possible by tolerance―a message as important today as it was 1,500 years ago. The book includes essays by some of the foremost experts in the field, including Roderick Whitfield (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Felix Schoeber (University of Westminster, London), Lillian Lan-ying Tseng (Yale University), Nicola di Cosmo (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Stefano Zacchetti (Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice), and Chao-Hui Jenny Liu (New York University).

China at the Court of the Emperors: Unknown Masterpieces from Han Tradition to Tang Elegance (25-907)

Whitfield, Roderick

Schoeber, Felix

Lan-Ying, Lillian

Skira

In the seventeenth century the Manchu conquered the whole of China, replacing the Ming dynasty. The original Manchu and Mongol documents selected for the this publication, translated and amply annotated, provide fascinating new information about the relations between Manchus and Mongols before the Manchu conquest of China.They include diplomatic correspondence, military liaisons, legal cases, and records of tribute missions and present a detailed picture of the relative position of the various Mongol tribes vis-à-vis the future emperors of China.

Manchu-Mongol Relations on the Eve of the Qing Conquest: A Documentary History (Brill's Inner Asian Library)

Bao, Dalizhabu

BRILL

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Books by Di Cosmo, Nicola