This book is a publishing landmark, which for the first time tells China's story with the western reader being its primary audience. The intricate tapestry of Chinese history is portrayed, describing its cultural, artistic, technological, philosophical and political contributions and challenges over thousands of years.

This book is a must for those readers who areeager to learn more about the people, places and stories that make the Middle Kingdom, a magical kingdom which has aroused the imagination and the curiosity of so many over thousands of years.

China, as a country, has one of the world's most ancient civilizations. If one begins with the Paleolithic culture of prehistoric times, China has passed through such stages of development as the Neolithic culture,the Bronze culture, the cultures of various-imperial dynasties, and, finally, the modern and contemporary cultures. China: Images of a Civilization, through its brief, systematic introduction to Chinese civilization,especially its presentation of visual materials, unfolds the splendid richness and variety of Chinese national culture and gives one the feeling of reliving those historical and contemporary times.

The recorded history of Chinese civilization of 5,000 years is the true treasure of the Chinese nation. However,the several thousand years of centralized feudal rule had also left a profound mark on Chinese civilization.Today and into the foreseeable future, conflict between traditional customs and new ideas, contradictions between Chinese indigenous culture and foreign influence, will find expression in every field of Chinese society. Nevertheless,we have every reason to expect that China, amidst the clashes of the old and the new, will make the most of the strong points of its traditional civilization, learn from the best of the world's cultures, and will steadfastly advance in its reform. These developments will add a new chapter to Chinese civilization and contribute to world peace and progress.

A Timeline of Other Histories is included, at the bottom of each page, to facilitate the audience to compare the events happened simultaneously in Chinese history with that in the histories of other nations.

Our hope is that this book, China: Images of a Civilization,will provoke more people to understand and appreciate Chinese civilization.

Introduction

Ancient China (c.l.7m. years ago-475 B.C.)

Primitive Society (c.l.7m. years ago-4,000 B.C.)

2 The Earliest Chinese · 6 The Matriarchal Age · 12 The Patriarchal Age

Slave Society (c.2000-476 B.C.)

18 The Xia Dynasty · 20 The Shang Dynasty · 24 The Western Zhou Dynasty · 30 The

Spring and Autumn Period

Feudal China (475 B.C.-1840)

The Warring States (475-221 B.C.)

38 Wars · 44 The Iron Age · 48 Schools of Thought

The Qin and Han Dynasties (221-202 B.C.)

54 The Qin Dynasty · 63 The Western Han Dynasty · 67 The Eastern Han Dy nasty

70 Economy and Science · 74 The Silk Road · 75 Great Writers and Thinkers

The Three Kingdoms, Jin Dynasty, Southern and Northern Dynasties

(420-589)

79 The Three Kingdoms · 85 The Jin Dynasty · 88 The Southern and Northern Dynasties

93 Science

The Sui and Tang Dynasties (581-960)

98 The Sui Dynasty · 102 The Tang Dynasty · 110 Economy and Commerce · 112 Science and

Technology · 114 The Golden Age of Buddhism · 117 Art and Literature

The Song and Yuan Dynasties (960-1368)

122 The Northern Sony Dynasty · 127 The Rise of"Barbarian" Regimes · 129 The South-

ern Song Dynasty · 132 The Rise of the Mongol Kingdom · 134 The Yuan Dynasty · 138

Economy · 141 Gold Age of Science · 145 Art and Literature

The Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1840)

148 The Ming Dynasty · 155 The Qing Dynasty Before the Opium War · 161 Economy ·

164 Science · 166 Art and Literature

Modern China (1840-1949)

The Late Qing Dynasty (1840-1911)

172 The Opium Wars · 178 The Taiping Rebellion · 180 Official Modernization Attempts

· 182 China Carved Up · 185 The Hundred Days' Reform · 187 The Boxer Movement · 190

Reforms and Revolutions

The Republic Period (1911-1949)

195 The Rise ofYuan Shikai · 198 China During the World War I · 201 The May 4th Move-

ment · 204 Introduction of Marxism · 206 The Founding of the Communist Party · 208

Early Activities of the Communists · 211 The First Kuomintang-Communist United Front

· 214 The May 30th Movement · 216 The Northern Expedition · 219 Chiang Turns Against

the Revolution · 221 To Resist the Counter-revolution · 223 Chiang Consolidated His

Political Power · 226 The Revolutionary Base Areas · 228 Chiang Attempts to Wipe Out

the Base Areas · 230 Japanese Aggression in World War II · 232 The Communists' Policy

Toward Japanese Aggression · 233 The Long March · 237 The December 9th Movement ·

239 The Xfan Incident · 241 The Second Kuomintang-Communist United Front · 243 Jap-

  anese Massive Invasion of China · 245 Rift in the United Front · 24,8 Life in Communist-

  controlled Areas · 251 Life in Kuomintang-controlled Areas · 254, After World War II ·

  256 The Civil War · 260 The War of Liberation

Contemporary China (1949-)

The People's Republic (1949-)

264 The Founding of the People's Republic · 269 The First Five-year Plan · 271 Lessons

from the First Five-year Plan · 272 The Socialist Transformation · 275 The Great Leap For-

ward · 280 Building Socialism by Self-reliance · 282 The "Cultural Revolution"

Reform and Opening-up (1978-)

297 Black Cat, White Cat · 298 Economic Reform · 304 Opening to the Outside World · 307

"Develop the West" Campaign · 309 Three Important Theories · 311 One Country, Two

Systems · :314 An Independent Foreign Policy of Peace · 316 Literature and Art · :320 Edu-

cation · :322 Olympic Dreams · :325 A Better Life · 328 Sustainable Development

A Brief Chronology of Chinese Histroy

Index