本书语言优美，风格清新。即使在此之前，对中国文化一无所知的人，通过阅读本书也可以很容易地走进中国文化所经历的五千年，从而从古老的历史中读懂今天中国的一点一滴。
本书对于外国朋友来说，是轻松了解中国文化的一条捷径。而本书英语平易流畅，对于希望提高英语水平和翻译能力的大、中学生来说，也不失为一个优秀的读本。

丁往道，北京外国语大学英语系教授。参加编写的主要著作有：《当代英文散文选读》《英语文体学引论》《英语写作手册》《英语写作基础教程》《英诗入门》《中国神话及志怪小说一百篇》《孔子新评》《孔子语录一百则》《攀登》《中国历史文化掠影》等。

01 Beginnings of Chinese Culture
02 Confucius: The First Private Teacher in Chinese History
03 Lao Zi: The Founder of Taoism
04 The Warring States Period: The Contention of a Hundred Schools
05 Ancient Historians: Uninterrupted Recording of Chinese History
06 Dong Zhongshu and Wang Chong: Two Contradictory Great Philosophers of the Han Dynasties
07 The Coming of Buddhism to China
08 Pure Talk and Mysterious Learning
09 Chan (Zen) Buddhism
10 Tang Poetry and Major Tang Poets
11 Tang Prose and Fiction: The Literary Reform Movement of the Tang Dynasty and the Development of Fiction
12 Wang Anshi, Sima Guang and Su Shi: Three Great Figures of the Northern Song Dynasty
13 Zhu Xi: The Synthesizer of the Philosophy of Principle
14 Ci-Poems in Irregular Meter
15 The Four Great Inventions
16 Yuan Drama: One of the Three Peaks in the History of Drama in the World
17 The Rebuilding of Beijing and Zheng He’s Voyages
18 Ming Novels and Its Three Masterpieces
19 The Rise of Southern Drama and Great Advance of Short Fictions in the Ming Dynasty
20 Ming and Early Qing Thinkers: the Yangming School and Outstanding Progressive Scholars
21 Early Qing Fiction and Drama
22 Cao Xueqin and Dream of the Red Mansions
23 Traditional Chinese Painting
24 The Opium War and Changes in Cultural Trends After It
25 Causes of the Long Feudal Period

全球一体化的趋势，让中国与其他国家的距离越来越近。而随着近年来中外交流日益频繁，越来越多的外国朋友迫切渴望探知中国的文化。为此，编者呈献上这本英文版《中国历史文化掠影》。
本书没有厚重的中国历史，没有繁复的文化全景。它只是用随笔的形式，为读者在悠久漫长的中国历史长河中撷取最为精彩、最为耀眼的片断。