Edited by Denise M. Glover, Stevan Harrell, Charles F. Mckhann, Margaret Byrne Swain.

This book profiled in this engaging study of pioneering Euro-American exploration of late imperial and Republican China range from botanists to ethographers to missioinaries. Although a diverse lot, all believed in objective, progressive, and universally valid science, a close association between scientific and humanistic knowledge; a lack of conflict between science and faith; and the union of the natural world and the world of "nature people". The book examines their cultural and personal assumptions while emphasizing their remarkable lives; it also considers their contributions to a body of knowledge that has important contemporary significance.

Essay are devoted to D. C. Graham, Joseph Rock, Reginald Farrer and George Forrest, Ernest Henry Wilson, Paul Vial, Johan Gunnar Andersson and Ding Wenjiang, and Friedrich Weiss and Hedwig Weiss-Sonnenburg. RIchly illustrated with historic photographs, this collection of essays reveals the extraordinary lives and times of these remarkable people.

Illustrated with b/w photos, Gazetteer, References, Index