I. B. Tauris & Company China and the Roman Orient: Researches into their Ancient and Medieval Relations as Represented in Early Chinese Records

Similar in size and in duration, the Chinese and the Roman empires ruled half the worlds population at the time of their co-existence. But what did they know about each other? In China and the Roman Orient Friedrich Hirth uses linguistic, geographical and historical analysis of ancient Chinese records to reconstruct the ancient trade routes used by the Chinese and to show what knowledge they had of the Roman Empire. His careful research on the original Chinese sources also tells us much about the geography, history and commerce of the period. China and the Roman Orient quickly established itself as a landmark work. It remains an important and much cited work but is now scarce. This new edition contains a new introduction by leading contemporary scholar Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, USA About the Author Friedrich Hirth (1845-1927) was a German-American Sinologist. Educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin and Greifswald he was a member of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service before taking up the post of Professor of Chinese at Columbia University. Victor Mair is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, USA. He is founder and editor of Sino-Platonic Papers and his books include The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West (2000).