Politics and Conservatism in Northern Song China

[On the basis of] a meticulous and comprehensive re-examination and analysis of all the available sources, Dr. Xiao-bin Ji has succeeded in reconstructing, very convincingly to the best of my judgment, the power structure and power relations uniquely characteristic of the Northern Song dynasty... [and his examinations] contribute very significantly to our understanding of the immensely complicated political world, at its various levels, in 11th-century China. Ying-shih Yu, Princeton University