Structures of the Earth

“Fascinating… A pleasure to read. It is meticulously researched, consistently engaging, and always thought-provoking without being stridently iconoclastic or tendentious. I highly recommend it.”—Charles Holcombe, Journal of Chinese Studies

“This is a brilliant study of fundamental geographic ideas in China’s history. It is extensive and intensive in its research, generous in its acknowledgment of others, compelling in its arguments, and illuminating in its conceptualizations. Bibliographies in the dynastic histories indicate that this period (after Han before Tang) had seen the first blossoming of local historical writing and a surge in geographic writing, but the surviving material seemed unlikely to support significant research on the topic. Felt understood the centrality of Li Daoyuan’s massive commentary on the Classic of Rivers (Shuijing zhu), and his in-depth analysis of the text has established its importance. A mark of great work may be that it all seems obvious after one has read it, until one recalls that prior to that it was not obvious at all. This study should be the point of reference for future writing on the intellectual history of historical geography.”—Peter Bol, Harvard University