史景遷（Jonathan D.Spence），世界著名漢學傢，現任美國曆史學會主席。1936年生於英國。曾受教於溫切斯特大學和劍橋大學。1965年獲美國耶魯大學博士學位，現為耶魯大學教授。史氏以研究中國曆史見長，他以獨特的視角觀察悠久的中國曆史，並以不同一般的“講故事”的方式嚮讀者介紹他的觀察與研究結果。他的作品敏銳、深邃、獨特而又“好看”，使他在成為蜚聲國際的漢學傢的同時，也成為學術暢銷書的寫作高手。代錶作有《康熙》、《王氏之死》、《太平天國》、《追尋現代中國》等。

"Like everything else written by Jonathan Spence, The Chan's Great Continent is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in China. Spence is one of the greatest Sinologists of our time, and his work is both authoritative and highly readable." — Los Angeles Times Book Review China has transfixed the West since the earliest contacts between these civilizations. With his characteristic elegance and insight, Jonathan Spence explores how the West has understood China over seven centuries. Ranging from Marco Polo's own depiction of China and the mighty Khan, Kublai, in the 1270s to the China sightings of three twentieth-century writers of acknowledged genius-Kafka, Borges, and Calvino-Spence conveys Western thought on China through a remarkable array of expression. Peopling Spence's account are Iberian adventurers, Enlightenment thinkers, spinners of the dreamy cult of Chinoiserie, and American observers such as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Ezra Pound, and Eugene O'Neill. Taken together, these China sightings tell us as much about the self-image of the West as about China. "Wonderful. . . . Spence brilliantly demonstrates [how] generation after generation of Westerners [have] asked themselves, 'What is it . . . that held this astonishing, diverse, and immensely populous land together?' "-- New York Times Book Review