A historian of Song-Yuan China, Professor Tomoyasu IIYAMA deserves commendation for a myriad of reasons. First of all, his innovative work on stone stele inscriptions provides keen insight into what traditional sources do not convey about Yuan North China. Iiyama’s findings on lineage, patronage, and political power reveal key differences between northern and southern China, and identify new patterns of negotiation between dynastic authority and local elites at a time of deep political change. These have all made exciting contributions to his field. Iiyama has garnered international attention through leading journals, edited volumes, and international conferences where he, in thewords of one top specialist, “has made us rethink north China during the twelfth-fourteenth century.”Just as importantly, Iiyama’s efforts to share his research internationally by publishing in Japanese, English, and Chinese are admired and appreciated by colleagues around the globe. Sinologists every