Reference for History

Asian History

This is a brief guide to material at BC providing reference (dictionaries, encyclopedia, biographies, bibliographies, indices, and more) on historical topics.

Reference Shelf

This page provides access points to BC's subscriptions to reference material on Asian history. Here, you can find resources for finding definitions (e.g., dictionaries); suggested scholarly material (e.g., bibliographies); as well as background material and explanations written by experts in their fields (e.g., encyclopedia and handbooks).

What's on This Page

This page has a lot on it. You can use the following anchors (links down the page) to jump straight to a relevant box.

For country/area specific sources, see BC Libraries' references shelves for Chinese History; Indian History; Japanese History; or Korean History.

Find Definitions

Oxford Reference Online
This is a quick go-to for high-quality, short, dictionary style descriptions, definitions, facts, and figures. Great for date and name checking.

A dictionary of Asian mythology by David Leeming
Publication Date: 2001
This dictionary features stories of revered deities, sacred places, key events and epics, with many recurring themes and traditions. Entries address the key mythologies of the regions we now call India, China, Tibet, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and Japan, and broad overviews of specific cultures and their mythic traditions round out the coverage.
Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (DDB or CJKV-English Dictionary) by A. Charles Muller (ed.)
A compilation of Chinese logograph-based terms, texts, temple, schools, persons, etc. found in Buddhist canonical sources. Since much of what East Asian Buddhists have written about is the Buddhism of India, Central Asia, and Tibet, the content of this reference work is pan-Buddhist in character.

Find Maps/Geography/Atlases

Asian Maps Collection at USC
Digital facsimiles of maps from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
China Historical GIS
A database of populated places and historical administrative units for the period of Chinese history between 222 BCE and 1911 CE. CHGIS provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use in spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps. [A Harvard project]
E-Kyujanggak: Old Maps 규장각 고지도
You can see at a glance by classifying 6,000 pieces of ancient maps of 220 species by type and region.
East Asia - Images of Early Maps on the Web -- Map History / History of Cartography: THE Gateway to the Subject
Harvard-Yenching Library Digital Maps
View hundreds of maps of China, Japan, Korea, and other regions in East Asia.
Harvard Geo-Spatial Library
Data sets are available from around the world at various scales, from global to local. Each data set is delivered with complete metadata, making it easier to add to a GIS (geographic information system) and compare to other data sets about the same place. Includes multiple sets from across Asia.

Find Biographical Information (Who's Who)

Biography in Context This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on thousands of people throughout history and from around the world.
Marquis Biography Online This link opens in a new window
International in scope, this database includes biographies of people in business, law, science, medicine, the arts, government, and entertainment. Updated daily, this source also includes biographies that have appeared in 24 Marquis Who's Who print titles since 1985, plus historical biographies from our Who Was Who in America volumes from 1607-1985.

Find Recommendations for Scholarly Material

Bibliography of Asian Studies | 亚洲研究文献目录 | Ya Zhou Yan Jiu Wen Xian Mu Lu This link opens in a new window
Contains titles on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present. Please note, since 1992, newly published individual monographs are no longer being added to the database.

Bibliography of Asian Studies™ (BAS)是研究东亚、东南亚和南亚（尤其是文学科和社会科学）最全面的西方语言书目数据库。数据库有超过900,000条引文信息，可追溯至1971年，其中包括40万多条引文信息可追溯至1992年所有条目均可按作者、标题、出版年份、出版地点、出版语言、期刊名称、国家/地区、主题、关键字、ISSN和ISBN轻松搜索涵盖许多重要期刊以及在编辑卷中的章节，包括未被其他资源编入索引的亚洲出版物利用独特的索引可访问已编辑卷、会议论文集、选集、节日主题和类似出版物资源
Supported Languages: Chinese and other languages

Oxford Bibliographies Online
Access to Boston College's subscriptions to Oxford's bibliographies on subjects including Chinese Studies, Buddhism, and Islamic Studies, and more.

Find Background Information

Oxford Handbooks Online
Contains in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field. BC's subscriptions include archeology, history, political science, religion, and more.
Cambridge Companions Online
Cambridge Companions are a series of authoritative guides, written by leading experts, offering lively, accessible introductions to major writers, artists, philosophers, topics, and periods.

Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa by Andrea L. Stanton; Peter J. Seybolt; Edward Ramsamy; Carolyn M Elliott (eds.)
Call Number: SAGE Knowledge Complete
Publication Date: 2012
The volumes convey what daily life is like for people in these selected regions. Entries will aid readers in understanding the importance of cultural sociology, to appreciate the effects of cultural forces around the world, and to learn the history of countries and cultures within these important regions.
Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Asian History.
Call Number: Oxford Research Encyclopedias
Publication Date: 2016+
"Substantive, peer-reviewed, and regularly updated, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History combines the speed and flexibility of digital with the rigorous standards of academic publishing." Emphasizes modern history but does include premodern content.

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Reference for History

Asian History

Reference Shelf

What's on This Page

Find Definitions

Find Maps/Geography/Atlases

Find Biographical Information (Who's Who)

Find Recommendations for Scholarly Material

Find Background Information