Machine generated contents note: Early History, to 1027 BCE -- Land and Settlement -- Early Mankind -- Agricultural Revolution in the Neolithic Era -- Xia: The First Dynasty? -- The Shang and the Origins of Chinese Civilization -- Oracle Bones -- Ritual Objects as Historical Sources -- Shang Society -- Note -- Further Reading -- Classical China, 1027-256 BCE -- "Feudalism"? -- Changes in Social Structure -- Political Instability in the Eastern Zhou -- Transformations in the Economy -- Hundred Schools of Thought -- Daoism -- Popular Religions -- Confucianism -- Mohism -- Legalism -- Book of Odes and Book of Documents -- Secularization of Arts -- Note -- Further Reading -- The First Chinese Empires, 221 BCE-220 CE -- Development of the Qin State -- Qin Achievements -- Failures of the Qin -- Han and New Institutions -- Han Foreign Relations -- Emperor Wu's Domestic Policies and Their Ramifications -- Wang Mang: Reformer or Usurper? -- Restoration of a Weaker Han Dynasty -- Spiritual and Philosophical Developments in the Han -- Han Literature and Art -- Further Reading -- Chaos and Religious and Political Responses, 220-581 -- Three Kingdoms -- Rise of South China -- Foreigners and North China -- Northern Wei -- Spiritual Developments, Post-Han -- Buddhism Enters China -- Literature, Science, and the Arts in a Period of Division -- Note -- Further Reading -- Restoration of Empire under Sui and Tang, 581-907 -- Sui: First Step in Restoration -- Disastrous Foreign Campaigns -- Origins of the Tang -- Taizong: The Greatest Tang Emperor -- Tang Expansionism -- Irregular Successions and the Empress Wu -- Tang Cosmopolitanism -- Arrival of Foreign Religions -- Glorious Tang Arts -- Decline of the Tang -- Tang Faces Rebellions -- Uyghur Empire and Tang -- Tang's Continuing Decline -- Suppression of Buddhism -- Final Collapse -- Efflorescence of Tang Culture -- Notes -- Further Reading -- Post-Tang Society and the Glorious Song, 907-1279 -- Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms -- Song: A Lesser Empire -- A New Song Elite -- Neo-Confucianism: A New Philosophy -- Attempts at Reform -- Women and the Song -- The Khitans and the Liao Dynasty -- Expansion of Khitan Territory -- Preservation of Khitan Identity -- Fall of the Liao -- Xia and Jin: Two Foreign Dynasties -- Song Arts -- Southern Song Economic and Cultural Sophistication and Political Instability -- Note -- Further Reading -- Mongol Rule in China, 1234-1368 -- Rise of Chinggis Khan -- Legacy of Chinggis Khan -- Expansion and Early Rule of Empire -- Sorghaghtani Beki, Mongke, and Khubilai -- Unification of China -- Khubilai's Policies -- Multiethnic and Multireligious China -- Khubilai and Chinese Culture -- Decline of the Yuan -- Legacy of the Mongols -- Note -- Further Reading -- Ming: Isolationism and Involvement in the World, 1368-1644 -- A More Powerful State -- Opening to the Outside World -- A Costly Failure -- Conspicuous Consumption -- Arts in the Ming -- Neo-Confucianism: School of the Mind -- A Few Unorthodox Thinkers -- Ming Literature -- Buddhism: New Developments -- Social Development and Material Culture -- Violence in the Sixteenth Century -- Fall of the Ming Dynasty -- Further Reading -- Early Qing: A Manchu Dynasty, 1644-1860 -- Preserving Manchu Identity -- Kangxi and the Height of the Qing -- Western Arrival -- Jesuits in China -- Expansion of China -- Qing Cultural Developments -- Qing Faces Economic Problems -- Stirrings of Discontent -- The Western Challenge -- Opium Wars -- Explanations for the Decline of the Qing -- Further Reading -- Late Qing, 1860-1911 -- Nian and Other Minor Rebellions -- Taiping Rebellion -- Other Rebellions -- Foreign Threats -- Differing Court Responses to Challenges -- Antiforeign Acts and Foreign Reactions -- Losses in Southwest China -- Japan Emerges -- Sino-Japanese Conflict -- Scramble for Concessions and US Response -- China Humiliated and the Reformers -- Boxer Movement -- Court Reforms -- Fall of the Qing -- Note -- Further Reading -- The Republican Period, 1911-1949 -- The -- Revolution and Its Aftermath -- Warlords in Power -- The May Fourth Movement and Intellectuals in the Post-First World War Period -- Communist Party -- Rise of Chiang Kai-shek -- Guomindang Dominance -- Communist Party Revival -- Long March and Aftermath -- The Sino-Japanese War -- The Pacific War, the Communists, and the Guomindang -- Civil War in China -- Further Reading -- The Communist Era in China, 1949 Onwards -- Early Pacification of Border Areas -- Early Foreign Relations -- Recovery from Wars -- Cracks in the Communist World -- Great Leap Forward -- Return to Pragmatism -- An Isolated China -- Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution -- China Reopens Its Doors -- Dramatic Changes and Modernization -- Tiananmen Disturbance of 1989 and Its Aftermath -- The Present Status of China -- Further Reading.