This is a masterly book. The author was born and educated in China and obtained advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin. He has an intimate and detailed knowledge of the history of his own country, but the real virtue of his book rests in his recognition of how to communicate his knowledge to an alien audience. He goes through the long and complicated story of four thousand years of Chinese history with full awareness of how to convey such a strange society and such alien events to Americans. The arrangement is strictly chronological, but the emphasis is on changing patterns of social organization rather than on political or dynastic history.
The author begins with an adequate explication of Chinese geographic and climate conditions as elements which have exerted a permanent influence on Chinese history. Each successive period is then explained, chiefly in terms of social structure, ideology, and general culture. When the story is finished, the reader can see which cultural elements persisted and which changed from period to period, until all them were destroyed in the cataclysm of the last 60 years. Until this final collapse, Chinese culture persisted for millennia in what is surely one of the most successful societies ever developed by man.
— Carroll Quigley, The Washington Sunday Star, November 18, 1963.
Author(s): Dun Jen Li
Edition: 3
Publisher: Charles Scribner’s Sons
Year: 1978
Language: English
Pages: xvi+629
City: New York
PREFACE, v
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xii
LIST OF MAPS, xiii
INTRODUCTION. The Geographical Setting, 1
Landforms - Drainage - Climate - Geographical Regions - Economic Resources and Industrial Prospects
CHAPTER I. The Formative Period, 31
The Beginning - Shang - Chou - The Turbulent Age of War - The Rise of Ch’in - Social and Economic Changes
CHAPTER II. The Philosophers, 66
The Ideological Pattern - Confucianism - The Basic Works of Confucianism - Taoism +: “A Hundred Schools Contend
Science
CHAPTER III. The Grand Unifications, 97
The Chin Regime + The Han Regime - Military Expansion - Economic Policies and Wang Mang’s Reform - The Later Han - Cultural Activities
CHAPTER IV. Disintegration and Amalgamation, 129
Disintegration - Barbarian Invasions - Sinicization: The Southern and Northern Dynasties - Personal Loyalty and the Family Elite - Reactions Against Confucianism - Taoist Religion and Buddhism
CHAPTER V. Sui and Tang, 162
The Sui Regime - The T’ang Regime - Tang Institutions Religion and Culture
CHAPTER VI. The Two Sungs (1), 191
A Centralized Administration - Peace and War - Problems and Reform - Decline and Fall
CHAPTER VII. The Two Sungs (2), 219
The Sung Spirit - The Intellectuals - Neo-Confucianism History, Literature, and the Fine Arts - Printing
CHAPTER VIII. Yiian, 246
The Mongols - The Conquest of South Sung - China Under Mongol Rule - Mongol Achievement - The Fall of the Yiian Regime
CHAPTER IX. Ming, 273
Chu Yiian-chang - Maritime Expeditions - Japanese Pirates Internal Decline - The Downfall - Intellectual and Cultural Activities
CHAPTER X. Ch’ing, 307
The Manchus - Consolidation and Expansion - The Ch’ing Emperors - Cultural Activities - Popular Literature - Dynastic Cycle
CHAPTER XI. Traditional Chinese Society, 338
The Coming of the West - The Economic Scene - The Political Scene - The Social Scene - The Family Scene - The Intellectual and Moral Scene - Summary
CHAPTER XII. The Western Impact (1), 370
The Early Intercourwsieth the Non-Chinese World - The Missionaries - The Traders - The Opium War and Its Aftermath - The Taiping Rebellion
CHAPTER XIII. The Western Impact (2), 407
The Imitation of the West - Territorial Losses - China’s Struggle to Survive - The Boxer Rebellion, the Open Door, and the Russo-Japanese War - The Downfall of the Manchu Regime
CHAPTER XIV. The Republic (1), 442
The Warlords - Foreign Pressure - China Reawakened Sun Yat-sen and His Philosophy - Chiang Kai-shek - The Nationalist Regime
CHAPTER XV. The Republic (2), 476
The Communists - Japanese Invasions - The Undeclared War Communist Ascendency - The Defeat of the Nationalists The Nationalist Regime on Taiwan
CHAPTER XVI. The People’s Republic (1), 511
The Power Structure - Leftists, Rightists, and the Purges - Industrial Development - Agriculture
CHAPTER xvii The People’s Republic (2), 546
Class and Class Struggle - Education - New Man; New Society - Foreign Relations - The Past and the Present
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY, 591
ROMANIZATION OF CHINESE NAMES, 595
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART, 598
INDEX, 607
