A history of China

Machine generated contents note: 1.Early history, to 1027 BCE

Land and settlement

Early mankind

Agricultural revolution in the Neolithic Era

Xia: The first dynasty?

The Shang and the origins of Chinese civilization

Oracle bones

Ritual objects as historical sources

Shang society

Notes

Further reading

2.Classical China, 1027-256 BCE

"Feudalism"?

Changes in social structure

Political instability in the Eastern Zhou

Transformations in the economy

Hundred schools of thought

Daoism

Popular religions

Confucianism

Mohism

Legalism

Book of Odes and Book of documents

Secularization of arts

Notes

Further reading

3.The first Chinese empires, 221 BCE-220 CE

Development of the Qin State

Qin achievements

Failures of the Qin

Han and new institutions

Han foreign relations

Emperor Wu's domestic policies and their ramifications

Wang Mang: Reformer or usurper?

Restoration of a weaker Han dynasty

Spiritual and philosophical developments in the Han

Han literature and art

Further reading

4.Chaos and religious and political responses, 220-581

Three Kingdoms

Rise of South China

Foreigners and North China

Northern Wei

Spiritual developments, post-Han

Buddhism enters China

Literature, science, and the arts in a period of division

Notes

Further reading

5.Restoration of Empire under Sui and Tang, 581-907

Sui: First step in restoration

Disastrous foreign campaigns

Origins of the Tang

Taizong: The Greatest Tang Emperor

Tang expansionism

Irregular successions and the Empress Wu

Tang cosmopolitanism

Arrival of foreign religions

Glorious Tang arts

Decline of the Tang

Tang faces rebellions

Uyghur Empire and Tang

Tang's continuing decline

Suppression of Buddhism

Final collapse

Efflorescence of Tang culture

Notes

Further reading

6.Post-Tang society and the Glorious Song, 907-1279

Five dynasties and ten Kingdoms

Song: A lesser Empire

A new Song elite

Neo-Confucianism: A new philosophy

Attempts at reform

Women and the Song

The Khitans and the Liao dynasty

Expansion of Khitan territory

Preservation of Khitan identity

Fall of the Liao

Xia and Jin: Two foreign dynasties

Song arts

Southern Song economic and cultural sophistication and political instability

Notes

Further reading

7.Mongol rule in China, 1234-1368

Rise of Chinggis Khan

Legacy of Chinggis Khan

Expansion and early rule of empire

Sorghaghtani Beki, Möngke, and Khubilai

Unification of China

Khubilai's policies

Multiethnic and multireligious China

Khubilai and Chinese culture

Decline of the Yuan

Legacy of the Mongols

Notes

Further reading

8.Ming: Isolationism and involvement in the world, 1368-1644

A more powerful state

Opening to the outside world

A costly failure

Conspicuous consumption

Arts in the Ming

Neo-Confucianism: School of the mind

A few unorthodox thinkers

Ming literature

Buddhism: New developments

Social development and material culture

Violence in the sixteenth century

Fall of the Ming dynasty

Further reading

9.Early Qing: A Manchu dynasty, 1644-1860

Preserving Manchu identity

Kangxi and the height of the Qing

Western arrival

Jesuits in China

Expansion of China

Qing cultural developments

Qing faces economic problems

Stirrings of discontent

The Western challenge

Opium wars

Explanations for the decline of the Qing

Further reading

10.Late Qing, 1860-1911

Nian and other minor rebellions

Taiping rebellion

Other rebellions

Foreign threats

Differing court responses to challenges

Antiforeign acts and foreign reactions

Losses in Southwest China

Japan emerges

Sino-Japanese conflict

Scramble for concessions and US response

China humiliated and the reformers

Boxer movement

Court reforms

Fall of the Qing

Notes

Further reading

11.The Republican period, 1911-1949

The 1911 Revolution and its aftermath

Warlords in power

The May Fourth movement and intellectuals in the post-First World War period

Communist party

Rise of Chiang Kai-shek

Guomindang dominance

Communist party revival

Long March and aftermath

The Sino-Japanese War

The Pacific War, the Communists, and the Guomindang

Civil War in China

Further reading

12.The Communist era in China, 1949 onwards

Early pacification of border areas

Early foreign relations

Recovery from wars

Cracks in the Communist world

Great Leap forward

Return to pragmatism

An isolated China

Great proletarian cultural revolution

China reopens its doors

Dramatic changes and modernization

Tiananmen disturbance of 1989 and its aftermath

The present status of China

Further reading.