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.
Table of contents
Introduction
Part I:
1. The Steppe Highway: the rise of Pastoral Nomadism as a Eurasian phenomenon;
2. Bronze, Iron and Gold: the evolution of nomadic cultures on the Northern frontier of China
Part II:
3. Beasts and birds: the historical context of early Chinese perceptions of northern peoples;
4. Walls and horses: the beginning of historical contacts between horse-riding Nomads and Chinese states
Part III:
5. Those who draw the bow: the rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the political unification of the Nomads;
6. >From peace to war: China's shift from appeasement to military engagement
Part IV.
7. In search of grass and water: ethnography and history of the North in the Historian's Records;
8. Taming the North: the rationalization of the nomads in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's historical thought;
Conclusion.

Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, Qing rulers, officials, and scholars fused diverse, fragmented perceptions of foreign territory into one integrated worldview. In the same period, a single "foreign" policy emerged as an alternative to the many localized "frontier" policies hitherto pursued on the coast, in Xinjiang, and in Tibet. By unraveling Chinese, Manchu, and British sources to reveal the information networks used by the Qing empire to gather intelligence about its emerging rival, British India, this book explores China's altered understanding of its place in a global context. Far from being hobbled by a Sinocentric worldview, Qing China's officials and scholars paid close attention to foreign affairs. To meet the growing British threat, they adapted institutional practices and geopolitical assumptions to coordinate a response across their maritime and inland borderlands. In time, the new and more active response to Western imperialism built on this foundation reshaped not only China's diplomacy but also the internal relationship between Beijing and its frontiers.

本书通过藏汉佛教徒的经历探索佛教在现代中国的形成及其与西藏的关系中扮演的角色。在过去一个世纪里，中国一直试图将西藏合并入现代中华民族国家，并取得不同程度的成功。
在清王朝于一九一一年崩溃后，中国政治家在失去满清皇帝传统宗教权威的情况下，求助于共同的佛教传统以赢得藏人支持。另一方面，宣传共同的佛教传统也使中国佛教徒和西藏政教领袖追求各自的目标成为可能。在二十世纪三四十年代，藏传佛教在中国内地极受欢迎。在汉藏领导层之间的关系削弱后，宗教和文化的联系依然密切。共产党取得控制权后，在五十年代继续利用这种联系加强对西藏的管治。本书有助于读者理解继续存在的西藏问题和寻找佛教徒与藏族喇嘛间关系之根源。

本书对中亚地区的历史进行了综合的叙述，包括：游牧帝国与佛教的传播、伊斯兰帝国的崛起、俄国的征服及其对突厥斯坦的管理等15章。