The Heritage of Chinese Civilization

by Craig, Albert M.

• ISBN13: 9780205790548
• ISBN10: 0205790542
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-22
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

The Heritage of Chinese Civilization, Third Edition, offers students a clear and concise single-volume narrative covering all of the major periods of Chinese history.The text is organized chronologically and features brief yet penetrating analysis to provide a comprehensive introductory overview of Chinese history from its origins through the present.For survey courses in the History of Asia and the History of China.

Author Biography

Albert M. Craig is the Harvard-Yenching Research Professor of History Emeritus at Harvard University, where he has taught since 1959. A graduate of Northwestern University, he received his Ph.D. at Harvard University. He has studied at Strasbourg University and at Kyoto, Keio, and Tokyo universities in Japan. He is the author of Choshu in the Meiji Restoration  (1961), The Heritage of Japanese Civilization (2011), and, with others, of East Asia , Tradition and Transformation (1989). He is the editor of Japan , A Comparative View (1973) and co-editor of Personality in Japanese History (1970), Civilization and

Enlightnment: the Early Thought of Fukuzawa Yukichi  (2009). He was the director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. He has also been a visiting professor at Kyoto and Tokyo universities. He has received Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Japan Foundation Fellowships. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government.

Table of Contents

Maps
Documents
Preface

CHAPTER ONE: EARLY CHINA
Origins: Old and New Stone Ages
Early Bronze Age: Shang
Later Bronze Age: Western Zhou
Iron Age: Eastern Zhou
Iron Age: Birth of Chinese Philosophy
    Confucianism    
    Daoism    
    Legalism   
Early Chinese Thought in Historical Perspective

 

CHAPTER TWO: CHINA’S FIRST EMPIRE (221 BC–220 AD) AND ITS AFTERMATH (220—589 AD)
Qin Unification of China   
Former Han Dynasty (206 B.C.—8 A.D.)    
    The Dynastic Cycle    
    Early Years of the Former Han Dynasty    
    Han Wudi    
    Xiongnu    
    Government During the Former Han    
    The Silk Road    
    Decline and Usurpation    
Later Han (25—220 A.D.) and Its Aftermath (220—589 A.D.)    
    First Century    
    Decline During the Second Century    
    Aftermath of Empire   
Han Thought and Religion    
    Han Confucianism    
    History    
    Neo-Daoism    
    Buddhism   
China’s First Empire in Historical Perspective   

 

CHAPTER THREE: HIGH IMPERIAL CHINA (589—1368)
Reestablishment of Empire: Sui (589—618) and Tang (618—907) Dynasties    
    The Sui Dynasty    
    The Tang Dynasty (618—907)    
        Government    
        The Empress Wu    
        The Chang’an of Emperor Xuan Zong    
        The Tang Empire    
        Rebellion and Decline    
        Tang Culture    
Song Dynasty (960—1279)    
    Agricultural Revolution: From Serfs to Free Farmers    
    Commercial Revolution    
        Technology and Money    
        Trade    
    Government: From Aristocracy to Autocracy    
    Song Culture    
        Philosophy    
        Poetry    
        Painting   
Yuan Dynasty (1279—1368): China in the Mongol World Empire
    Rise of the Mongol Empire    
    Mongol Rule in China    
    Foreign Contacts and Chinese Culture    
    Last Years of the Yuan   
Imperial China in Historical Perspective   

 

CHAPTER FOUR: LATE IMPERIAL CHINA: THE MING (1368—1644) AND QING (1644—1912) DYNASTIES
Economic Regions   
People   
China’s Third Commercial Revolution    
    Women in the Commercial Revolution   
The Pattern of Ming Rule
    Emperors    
    Officials    
    Eunuchs
    Gentry   
Ming Foreign Relations   
The Pattern of Qing Rule
    Kangxi and Qianlong
    New Institutions
Qing Foreign Relations
    Contacts with the West
Ming-Qing Culture   
Late Imperial China in Historical Perspective   

 

CHAPTER FIVE: MODERN CHINA (1839—1949) 
Close of Manchu Rule    
    The Opium War and Its Aftermath (1839—1860)    
    Rebellions Against the Dynasty (1850—1873)
        The Court at Beijing
        Regional Governments
        Treaty Ports
    The Borderlands    
        The Northwest
        Vietnam
        Korea
From Dynasty to Warlordism (1895—1926)   
Cultural and Ideological Ferment: The May Fourth Movement (1914—1920s)   
Nationalist China    
    Guomindang Unification of China and the Nanjing Decade (1927—1937)    
    War and Revolution (1937—1949)   
Modern China in Historical Perspective   

 

CHAPTER SIX: CHINA, THE LAST HALF CENTURY 

Mao’s China    
    Consolidation    
    The Soviet Model    
    The Great Leap Forward    
    The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1965—1976)   
From Deng Xiaoping to the Present    
    Political Development    
    Economic Growth    
    Social Change    
    China and the World   
Taiwan   
Modern China in Historical Perspective  

 

Index