Encyclopaedia of Historiography

The Encyclopaedia of Historiography by French academic publisher INALCO is freely available on-line (but not off-line) here.

It features many articles about East Asia of interest to referees and players of The Celestial Empire, inter alia:

• East Asian Monetary History
• Biographies of Buddhist Monks and Nuns
• Sources for the History of Taoism
• Chinese Imperial Capitals (The)
• Codes and Legal Works in China
• Historical and Institutional Encyclopaedias (zhengshu)
• Travel Books (The) (China)
• Chinese Cartography
• Matteo Ricci’s World Map (The) (1602)
• “Accounts of the Eastern Barbarians” in Chinese Official Dynastic Histories
• Koryŏsa 高麗史 고려사 : the Official History of the Koryŏ Kingdom
• Yongjae Ch’onghwa 慵齋叢話 (Yongjae Narratives)
• Chronicle of the Voyage of Nosongdang to Japan
• Instructions of the Keian Era (The)
• Japanese Documents from the Edo Period relating to the Imjin War
• Cao Bằng: Sources for the History of a Borderland in Vietnam before the 20th Century

Tetsubō News

Tetsubō is one of those games that “almost happened”. Time and time again, it was on the brink of publication, and then for various reason it got cancelled. First in the 80s as a Japanese-flavoured Warhammer supplement, then putatively as a Dragon Warriors supplement, then two years ago it went back to its original scope and again almost got published as a Japanese-flavoured Zweihänder supplement (so much that it even got its cover that was circulated on Twitter; it’s the picture I am showing here), and now its authors are revealing that they may eventually publish it as a stand-alone role-playing game powered by the same engine as Paul Mason’s Outlaws of the Water Margin – which would be über cool since I really like the latter.

What can I say at the moment? Be patient as a Zen monk; wait and see!