Di Cosmo Nicola. Ancient China and its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History

Cambridge University Press, 2004. — 380 p.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. Relations between Inner Asian nomads and Chinese are a continuous theme throughout Chinese history. By investigating the formation of nomadic cultures, by analyzing the evolution of patterns of interaction along China's frontiers, and by exploring how this interaction was recorded in historiography, this looks at the origins of the cultural and political tensions between these two civilizations through the first millennium BC. The main purpose of the book is to analyze ethnic, cultural, and political frontiers between nomads and Chinese in the historical contexts that led to their formation, and to look at cultural perceptions of 'others' as a function of the same historical process. Based on both archaeological and textual sources, this 2002 book also introduces a new methodological approach to Chinese frontier history, which combines extensive factual data with a careful scrutiny of the motives, methods, and general conception of history that informed the Chinese historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien.
The Steppe Highway: The Rise of Pastoral Nomadism as a Eurasian Phenomenon.
Bronze, Iron, and Gold: The Evolution of Nomadic Cultures on the Northern Frontier of China.
Beasts and Birds: The Historical Context of Early Chinese Perceptions of the Northern Peoples.
Walls and Horses: The Beginning of Historical Contacts between Horse-Riding Nomads and Chinese States.
Those Who Draw the Bow: The Rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the Political Unification of the Nomads.
From Peace to War: China’s Shift from Appeasement to Military Engagement.
In Search of Grass and Water: Ethnography and History of the North in the Historian’s Records.
Taming the North: The Rationalization of the Nomads in Ssu-ma Ch’ien’s Historical Thought.