The Jiankang Empire in Chinese and World History by Andrew Chittick (review)

Abstract

Published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute HJAS 82.1 (2022): 151–158 Considering the above, I find the book to be somewhat of a mixed bag. Coming from the perspective of a scholar who is not a specialist on local religion in Hunan, I can readily appreciate all the research that has gone into this book and commend the author for his valuable contribution to scholarship. At the same time, I cannot help but wish that more thought had gone into the overall organizational structure of the book. Providing other researchers with a wealth of objective data is laudable. But can this objective not also be done within a larger interpretative framework that tells the story of the statues and the communities linked with them in a manner that is both engaging and edifying?