China’s Ancient Lifeline

Ian Johnson
National Geographic
Over time, the Grand Canal did more than move grain—it was a potent political symbol in being the country’s unifying feature and acted as a cultural conduit connecting North and South. Johnson deatils his journey with one barge on a southbound coal...

Specters of a Chinese Master

Jonathan D. Spence from New York Review of Books
1.Luo Ping, who lived from 1733 to 1799, was perfectly placed by time and circumstance to view the shifts in fortune that were so prominent in China at that period. He grew up in Yangzhou, a prosperous city on the Grand Canal, just north of the...