A History of China

1 Sources for the earliest history 2 The Peking Man 3 The Palaeolithic Age 4 The Neolithic Age 5 The eight principal prehistoric cultures 6 The Yang-shao culture 7 The Lung-shan...

1 Cultural origin of the Chou and end of the Shang dynasty 2 Feudalism in the new empire 3 Fusion of Chou and Shang 4 Limitation of the imperial power 5 Changes in the relative...

1 Development of the gentry-state 2 Situation of the Hsiung-nu empire; its relation to the Han empire. Incorporation of South China 3 Brief feudal reaction. Consolidation of the...

(A) _The three kingdoms_ (A.D. 220-265) 1 Social, intellectual, and economic problems during the period of the first division 2 Status of the two southern Kingdoms 3 The norther...

(B) _The T'ang dynasty_ (A.D. 618-906) 1 Reforms and decentralization 2 Turkish policy 3 Conquest of Turkestan and Korea. Summit of power 4 The reign of the empress Wu: Buddhism...

(A) _The period of the Five Dynasties_ (906-960) 1 Beginning of a new epoch 2 Political situation in the tenth century 3 Monopolistic trade in South China. Printing and paper mo...

(B) _The Ming Epoch_ (1368-1644) 1 Start. National feeling 2 Wars against Mongols and Japanese 3 Social legislation within the existing order 4 Colonization and agricultural dev...

There are indeed enough Histories of China already: why yet another one? Because the time has come for new departures; because we need to clear away the false notions with which...

Until recently we were dependent for the beginnings of Chinese history on the written Chinese tradition. According to these sources China's history began either about 4000 B.C....

About 1600 B.C. we come at last into the realm of history. Of the Shang dynasty, which now followed, we have knowledge both from later texts and from excavations and the documen...

The Shang culture still lacked certain things that were to become typical of "Chinese" civilization. The family system was not yet the strong patriarchal system of the later Chi...

The period following that of the Chou dictatorships is known as that of the Contending States. Out of over a thousand states, fourteen remained, of which, in the period that now...

In 256 B.C. the last ruler of the Chou dynasty abdicated in favour of the feudal lord of the state of Ch'in. Some people place the beginning of the Ch'in dynasty in that year, 2...

In 206 B.C. Liu Chi assumed the title of Emperor and gave his dynasty the name of the Han Dynasty. After his death he was given as emperor the name of Kao Tsu.[4] The period of...

The end of the Han period was followed by the three and a half centuries of the first division of China into several kingdoms, each with its own dynasty. In fact, once before du...

The last of the northern dynasties, the Northern Chou, had been brought to an end by Yang Chien: rapid campaigns had made an end of the remaining petty states, and thus the Sui...

The rebellion of Huang Ch'ao in fact meant the end of the T'ang dynasty and the division of China into a number of independent states. Only for reasons of convenience we keep th...

During more than half of the third period of "Modern Times" which now began, China was under alien rule. Of the 631 years from 1280 to 1911, China was under national rulers for...

In order to understand the period that now followed, let us first consider the social and intellectual position in China in the period between 1911 and 1927. The Manchu dynasty...

In order to understand today's China, we have to go back in time to report events which were cut short or left out of our earlier discussion in order to present them in the cont...