Introduction : problems and perspectives -- China's natural environment and early human settlement to 1000 BCE -- States, wars, and farms : environmental change in ancient and early imperial China, 1000 BCE-300 CE -- Deforesting the north and colonizing the south in the middle imperial period, 300-1300 CE -- Empire and environment : China's borderlands, islands, and inner peripheries in the late imperial period, 1300-1800 CE -- Environmental degradation in modern China, 1800-1949 -- "Controlling" nature in the People's Republic of China, 1949-present -- Conclusion : China and its environment in world historical perspective.