China enjoys a long and magnificent history and a splendid and colorful traditional culture. The book presents the brightest crystals of Chinese culture and history, which occupy only a fraction of the whole, with the purpose of providing our readers with a general but initial understanding of Chinese civilization. As early as the middle 16th century BC China entered the earliest recorded written history and developed the earliest art of writing - inscriptions on oracle bones, and made grand bro

China enjoys a long and magnificent history and a splendid and colorful traditional culture. Therefore, it presents a great challenge to cover such a wide array of rich and colorful content in so thin a book. The best solution is to present the brightest crystals of Chinese culture and history, which occupy only a fraction of the whole, with the purpose of providing our readers with a general but initial understanding of Chinese civilization.
Following a long and eventful prehistoric age, as early as in the middle of the 16th century BC China entered the earliest recorded written history and developed the earliest art of writing, i.e., inscriptions on oracle bones, and made grand bronze ware and pottery of excellent workmanship. In the following years, Chinese civilization has surprised the whole world with her great inventions and innovations one after the other. Although pottery is universal, porcelain is a Chinese invention from which people can get a glimpse of the exquisiteness of this Asian civilization. Moreover, the invention and spread of the Four Great Inventions from ancient China, i.e. the technology of papermaking, printing, the compass and gunpowder, had played a decisive role in promoting the development of the civilization of the whole world.However, the above only reflect Chinese civilization from the perspective of the material; what's more splendid lies in its spiritual contributions. As early as in the fourth or fifth century BC an unprecedented prosperity in the ideological and cultural fields of China along with the profound changes and reforms in politics and economy started to appear. Many schools of philosophy and thought came into being, and the representatives of Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, Moism, the School of Yin and Yang, the School of the Political Strategists and others contributed books or delivered lectures to popularize their ideas, which led to a flourishing academic atmosphere and literally hundreds of schools of thought. None of the thought was superficial in any sense and each school distinguished itself and was worshiped as a classic by later generations with profound study, analyses, and interpretations. Confucianism was considerd the highest standard to reach for by the ruling classes and became the philosophy ruling ancient China for around 2,000 years. Acting as an efficient coagulant, Confucianism had guaranteed the harmony and stability of this patriarchal society, and delayed considerably the destruction and collapse of the feudal system. However, it had also slowed down China's move to become a more advanced society so that China still lingered on as an agricultural society when any other countries in the world had been already industrialized.In addition to developing its philosophies, ancient China spared no effort in perfecting and developing a fairly complete set of administrative systems, among which, the imperial examination system, i.e. to choose talented people for civil service through imperial examination, has always been dwelt upon by Westerners with greatrelish. All of these have become important components of traditional Chinese culture and laid an essential foundation for the solidity of the system. However, this patriarchal clan system had its inherent disadvantages and unavoidable limitations. The system of"a wise emperor being assisted by virtuous ministers" the core ofChinese patriarchal clan system, kept being destroyed by the increasing centralization of emperor's power. The imperial examination system was full of defects because of increasingly serious fraud. All these were fatal roots threatening the development and existence of a dynasty which would have to rely on the power of others to overturn the former one, or was replaced by more advanced systems. As China steps into the 21 st century, the rich cultural heritage spanning thousands of years still possesses great value for our reference. Some will come to an end with old systems, while some others will flourish under new historical conditions, becoming even more splendid with more sparkling colors. Maybe this is where the meaning of our reevaluation of the 5,000-year Chinese history and civilization lies.

Chapter One: Legends and Historical Facts from Remote Antiquity
Part One: Pangu, Fuxi and Nuwa
Part Two: Information about Ancient China Gleaned from Archeological Finds
Part Three: Chinese Remote Antiquity in Ancient Documents
Part Four: The Common Ancestors of the Chinese Nation - Yandi and Huangdi

Chapter Two: Countries in Embryonic Form: The Xia and Shang Dynasties
Part One: The Xia Dynasty: First Country with Written Records in China
Part Two: The Shang Dynasty: A Period of Great Prosperity in a Slave Society

Chapter Three: The Period When Oriental Civilization Rose above the
Horizon: The Zhou Dynasty
Part One: The Western Zhou Dynasty
Part Two: The Spring and Autumn Period
Part Three: The Warring States Period
Part Four: The Culture of the Zhou Dynasty

Chapter Four: The First Great Unification of China: The Qin Dynasty
Part One: Systems of the Qin Dynasty
Part Two: The Tyrannical Rule of the First Emperor
Part Three: Peasant Uprisings in the Late Qin Dynasty

Chapter Five: The Development of a Great National Unity: The Han Dynasty
Part One: The Western Han Dynasty
Part Two: The Eastern Han Dynasty
Part Three: The Culture of the Qin and Han Dynasties

Chapter Six: The Trend of Reconciliation during a Period of Disunity: The
Three Kingdoms, Jin, the Northern and Southern Dynasties
Part One: The Period of the Three Kingdoms
Part Two: The Eastern and Western Jin Dynasties and the Sixteen Kingdoms of Five Ethnic Groups
Part Three: The Period of the Northern Dynasty
Part Four: The Southern Dynasty
Part Five: The Culture in the Period ofWei, Jin and Northern & Southern Dynasties

Chapter Seven：Extreme Prosperity in the Chinese Empire：Sui，Tang，and
the Five Dynasties
Part One：A Shon-lived Union：The Sui Dynasty
Part Two：The Prosperity ofZhenguan
PartThree：Enthronemen tofWuZetian and Prosperity oftheKaiyuanYears
Part Four：The Rebellion ofAn and Shi and the Upcoming Collapse of the Tang Dynasty
Part Five：Culture in the Sui and Tang Dynasties
Part Six：Five Dynasties and Ten States

Chapter Eight：A Civil-led Empire：The Northern and Southern Song Dynasties
PartOne：The Northern Song Dynasty
Part TwO：The Southern Song Dynasty
Part Three：The Economy and Culture of the Song Dynasty

Chapter Nine：An Empire on Horseback：The Yruan Dynasty
Part One：“Yellow Perils”SpreadAll Over Eurasia
Part Tw0：The Political Situation ofthe Yuan Dynasty
PartThree：TheEconomy andCultureintheYuanDynasty

Chapter Ten：An Empire Stuck in Absolutism：The Ming Dynasty
Part 0ne：Political Govemance ofthe Ming Dynasty
Part TwO：The Economy and Culture ofthe Ming Dynasty

Chapter Eleven：The Last Empire：The Qing Dynasty
Part One：The Political Situation Just After the Establishment of the Qing Dynasty
Part Two：The Economic Development ofthe Qing Dynasty
Part Three：The Culture of the Qing Dynasty．．

Chapter Twelve：Rebirth Under the Baptism of Blood and Fire：The
Republic of China
Part One：The Early Period of the Republic of China
Part Two：Ten Years of Civil War
Part Three：The War of Resistance Against Japan r1937-1945)
Part Four：The War of Liberation
Part Five：The Economy of the Republic Of China
Part Six：The Culture in the Era ofthe Republic of China
……