This book contains the proceedings of two international conferences: a satellite meeting of the IUPAP Statphys-19 Conference and the Seventh Nankai Workshop, held in Tianjin, China in August 1995. The central theme of the two conferences, which drew participants from 18 countries, was the Yang-Baxter equation and its development and applications. With topics ranging from quantum groups, vertex and spin models, to applications in condensed matter physics, this book reflects the current research interest of integrable systems in statistical mechanics.