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A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.

The Blacks of Premodern China - Don J. Wyatt For Athena and IsisONEFrom History's Mists I3TWOThe Slaves of Guangzhou 43THREETo the End of the Western Sea 8oConclusion I27NOTES I37G L 0 S SA R Y I69B I B L I 0 G R A P H Y I77INDEX I87ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I95Opening: WITHIN THE SPAN of the nearly three centuries of China's illustrious Tang Dynasty (6I8-907), the year 684 is conspicuous mainly for two infamously related events. In the second month of that year the notorious Wu Zhao, or Empress Wu (Wu Hou) (ca. 625-705), initiated her successful bid to become the Middle Kingdom's only female aspirant to emperorship in its fourmillenniaagainst the state inmore than sixty decades. Empress Wu (Wu Hou)A disgraced aristocratic bravo named Li or, sometimes in the histories, Xu Jingye (d. 685). In the ninth month, proclaiming eitherhis real or his fictitious intent of restoring the rightful emperor to power, Li Jingye initiated the first internal rebellion actually directed against the state in more than sixty decades.These distinct but related events of 684 precipitated bloodshed on an unimaginably massive scale.One has to buy-into the idea that Kunlan specifically means African. I am of the opinion that Kunlan means generically a dark-skinned foriegner. Wasn't persuaded by the arguments but a fair read all the same.