President Nixon's visit to China has excited hopes in the United States that a new era of good relations may emerge between our two nations. Five weeks ago China's leaders accorded the President a formally correct but cool reception when he arrived in Peking on “The Spirit of '76.” This exhibition of nonchalance seemed designed to impress on the expectant world that in foreign relations China is its own master. Having established this point, Chairman Mao and Premier Chou turned about to display the classic Chinese hospitality for which their culture is justly famous.

Cities and towns first developed in the Philippines as a product of Spanish rule and Roman Catholic mission activity. In this context a new three tiered hierarchy of settlements was established above the preexisting village level. Elements of social and spatial segregation derived from Mexico were imposed in these settlements. Due to a lack of economic base, the towns set up to serve as regional centers soon declined. Substantial provincial urbanism appeared only with the rise of commerce and commercial agriculture during the nineteenth century. Manila achieved early predominance as a combined result of its ecclesiastical-administrative position and its role as the principal entrepot in the trade of Mexican silver for Chinese goods. Despite the collapse of that trade, Manila retained its primate position by becoming the chief point of import and distribution for Western manufacturers as well as a major collecting area for the export of agricultural commodities

Post-Restoration Japan faced a number of serious problems in its relations with East Asia and the West, all of which came to a head in seikan ronsō, the clash in the Council of State, October 1873, over sending a punitive expedition to Korea. Essentially this was a struggle to define the nature of the Meiji Restoration—how radical would it be—and to decide who would control the politics of Japan's renovation, but intermixed with these domestic issues were several questions of foreign policy. To Japan's leaders, the Ryukyus, Taiwan, and Sakhalin were as important as Korea; security of the frontier in East Asia as significant as equal treaties with China and the West. And for historians with the advantage of a century of hindsight, the debate is important evidence in assessing the strength and sophistication of expansionist sentiment in early Meiji Japan. Does modern Japanese imperialism date from this period as consistent and persistent government policy or simply as a set of commonly held aspirations and desires, stronger in some than others or more evident outside of government than within it? To assist in answering these questions there is a wealth of Western and Japanese language diplomatic correspondence and numerous memoirs, letters, and diaries. The clash pitted die returning members of the Iwakura embassy and their allies at home against prominent officials in the caretaker government. The envoys, who had gained from their journey to die West a better understanding of international politics and the instability of the world order as well as a clearer perception of the gigantic transformation Japan must undergo, won with the argument of restraint abroad and rapid reform at home. But were the differences primarily in methods and timing and not ultimate intentions? Were Japan's leaders only biding their time until domestic strength made foreign adventurism possible, as is often charged? There is little evidence that Iwakura's group had such ulterior motives. In the grosser sense of the existence of an elaborate plan of conquest, there was no imperialist conspiracy. In the more complex sense of consistency of dreams, aims, or ambitions, there was more continentalism among public critics than officials. The victors in the debate wished to create a strong and enlightened state capable of taking whatever measures seemed necessary, whether at home or abroad. Expansion into frontier regions therefore was always a possibility but even then for security and prestige rather than overseas dominion. Such thinking guided the government for the next twenty years. However more research is needed on the basic character of Meiji Japan's political and economic institutions, the expansionist sentiments of the government's critics, changing concepts of security, and Japan's response to Western imperialism.

This essay deals with the concept of “political economism” (keiseisaimin) as expressed by Dazai Shundai, one of the leading practical thinkers in the school of “ancient studies” in early eighteenth century Japan. It argues for the need to look seriously at “traditional” schemes of political conceptualization. Exploring Dazai's analytical perception of political structure and of how political structure should perform in concrete historical situations, the essay shows how Dazai takes the logic of “ancient studies” beyond agrarianism and status quo economics toward die possibility of permitting maximum economic development as a function of politics.

In Japan, as in most modern, industrial societies, medical care has become highly politicized. Doctors and patients are part of a network of relationships which include politicians, bureaucrats, and leaders of organized interest groups. The politicization of medical care is reflected in the objectives and activities of the Japan Medical Association which claims to represent the medical profession. Roughly seventy-five percent of Japanese doctors are members of the JMA. Even though it is organized along democratic lines, the national leadership under President Takemi Taro exercises considerable control over the affairs of the Association. JMA leaders accept the fact of extensive governmental involvement in medical care and die principle of compulsory, national health insurance. However, they strongly oppose the present system of health insurance and demand fundamental revision which would lead to a single, unified, community based system. They insist that such a system would be best for both doctors and patients. While the organization and activities of the JMA have a peculiar Japanese flavor, students of western politics will find much that is familiar and characteristic of associational interest groups in general.

Modern religious movements together with their saintly leaders in Hinduism constitute an area where-from little scholarly research appears, yet, in print. This study of the Sāi Bābā Movement attempts to show on the one hand that, regarding the saints in question (Sāi Bābā, Upasani Baba, Mata Godavari, and Sathya Sāi Bābā), one can trace their origins to ancient forms of religious life in India and on the odier that they display the effects of influences stemming from Muslim and later Hindu practices. Moreover, the interrelations of the members of the Movement appear to harmonize on the basis of common motifs whose origins are capable of the kind of reconstruction suggested above. The scholarly task in describing the phenomena of India's modern saints should focus on the relationship that obtains between the structural elements of Demonstration, Organization and Intention for the task of communicating one's understanding of the religious expression; hence, while this study provides substantive material concerning some modern Indian saints, it also proposes issues of a methodological nature in their regard.

To perceive more fully the particular meaning and aesthetic power of the Hsi-yu chi, it is necessary to examine more closely certain of its features hitherto ignored in criticism. One such feature is the vast amount of poetic “insertions” within the narrative. Though the mixture of prose and poetry is common in classic Chinese fiction, and has its antecedents in the pien-wen texts and in the popular stories and dramas of earlier periods, the poetry of the Hsi-yu chi has its own significant function. By its descriptive realism, its encyclopedic range, and its peculiar technique of versification, the poems serve to heighten both scenic situations and character developments. The narrative effect thus achieved may best be appreciated when it is compared with epic songs and heroic sagas of other cultures. Another means with which the novel is endowed with epic magnitude is the greatness of its theme, the sacred mission of Tripitaka. To understand the crucial importance of this mission, it is necessary to discern how it functions to create in both plot and characters a sense of heroic grandeur and epic immensity.

In a 1926 article Wada Sei criticized the chronology of early Ming history given in the Ming T'ai-tsu shih-lu and other official sources. His conclusions have won general acceptance. Wada based his revisions on the Chi-shih-lu of Yu Pen, a lost work surviving only in fragmentary quotation. Recently, a more extensive text of the latter has come to light, and internal analysis of the longer text shows that its chronology is too confused for any of the Chi-shih-lu to be reliable as a corrective to the official sources. This removes the evidential basis for Wada's revised chronology, and requires the substitution for it of the order of events given in the Ming T'ai-tsu shih-lu.

Since the appearance of Hulbert's The History of Korea in 1905 there has been no really new history of Korea in English based on twentieth century research until the publication of a translation from the Japanese of Chōsen no shirube (1963) based on research done in the early years of the Japanese occupation of Korea. In the following year Wagner's and Choc's A Syllabus of Korean History (1964) appeared. Five years later a translation of Hatada's History of Korea (1969) appeared. The Japanese edition was published in 1951. Since 1969 four new histories of Korea in English have been published. From the standpoint of readability W. E. Henthorn's A History of Korea (1971) is the best of the four, but it is choppy in organization. It covers Korea from its prehistory to the opening years of the twentieth century. The Koryŏ period and the Yi dynasty to 1800 are well done, but the post-1800 material is too sketchy to be adequate. Sohn Kim and Hong's The History of Korea (1970), except for the sections written by Dr. Sohn, was translated from the Korean. It is a sound history with emphasis on political and social institutions and has the best coverage of prehistoric Korea to date. It shares with Han's The History of Korea (East West Center edition, 1972, first printing in Korea, 1971) their common fault of treating the history of the Republic of Korea with such brevity as to be devoid of any depth. Han's work, also a translation, complements the other two with its slightly different emphasis on political history. B. Y. Choy's Korea: A History does not compare in scholarship with the other three histories. Its treatment of traditional Korea is shallow and sketchy. Choy does, however, devote more than half of the book to the post-1945 period, but the treatment can not be termed adequate.

Selections from three of the four main lines of collecting Japanese folk literature in Japan are reviewed. Four volumes are by Mizusawa Ken'ichi, the foremost collector: Robata no tonto mukashi, Ojiya no mukashibanashi (1971); Mukashi attatte, Aramachi no mukashibanashi (1969); Miruna no hanazashiki, Haha to ko no mukashibanashi (1969); and Mukashibanashi nōto Saishū to kenkyū (1969). Mizusawa collects talcs in Niigata. The last mentioned book gathers together his reports, articles, and notes published between 1958 and 1969. He records in dialect with standard Japanese in parallel where necessary, preserving the musical flow of the tale. The next three volumes are in the Mukashibanashi kenkyū shiryō sōsho series published by a committee of university men: Daisen hokuroku no mukashibanashi (1970), Sado kininaka no mukashibanashi (1970), and Kogane no uma (1971). The first follows the format of the series, including recordings by narrators on 33⅓ rpm discs. Mukashibanashi wa ikite iru by Inada Koji, a member of the series committee, gives a hopeful view of the survival of folk tales. Hagino Saihei mukashibanshi shū (1970), a collection by Nomura Jun'ichi of Kokugakuin University and Nomura Keiko is a one-narrator volume showing the folk tale rooted in family legends

The present is a suitable moment to reconsider the 1947 partition of the Indian sub-continent: on the one hand South Asia has experienced a fresh partition with the creation of Bangladesh; on the other, there is a pause before the recent opening of the London war-time records leads to a series of studies drawing out the significance of the documents on the Transfer of Power currently appearing. For this interim review two volumes are selected: The Partition of India edited by C. H. Philips and Mary Wainwright and H. V. Hodson's The Great Divide. The former book contains several useful studies along with other pieces which are disappointingly thin; the latter is especially true of some written by men intimately associated with the events. There is also an interesting unevenness in the editorial introduction: while the British role is treated rather blandly and diat of the League is approached in quizzical vein, that of Congress is handled severely. Hodson's work is an elegant and rounded composition. If it is centered on Mountbatten—to whose archive he had access—t is yet not uncritical. It presents a coherent and consistent picture. It probably shows the British more continuously helpless than they were. It at least conveys something of the tragic quality of the political triangle.