Ancestral Leaves follows one family through six hundred years of Chinese history and brings to life the epic narrative of the nation, from the fourteenth century through the Cultural Revolution. The lives of the Ye family—“Ye” means “leaf” in Chinese—reveal the human side of the large-scale events that shaped modern China: the vast and destructive rebellions of the nineteenth century, the economic growth and social transformation of the republican era, the Japanese invasion during World War II, and the Cultural Revolution under the Chinese Communists. Joseph W. Esherick draws from rare manuscripts and archival and oral history sources to provide an uncommonly personal and intimate glimpse into Chinese family history, illuminating the changing patterns of everyday life during rebellion, war, and revolution.

周锡瑞（Joseph W. Esherick）

加州大学圣地亚哥分校教授。师从于费正清、列文森和魏斐德。1966年在加州大学伯克利校区毕业。当今美国中国近代史研究领域中最有成就的学者之一。

著作有《义和团运动的起源》《现代中国：一部革命的历史》、《中国的改良与革命：辛亥革命在两湖》、《中国地方精神与主导形式》等。

曾获得美国中国学研究的两个最高奖——费正清奖和列文森奖，以及加州大学伯克莱奖等。