Introduction: Approaches to Understanding China's History 1
The Variety of Historical Perspectives 1
Geography: The Contrast of North and South 4
Humankind in Nature 14
The Village: Family and Lineage 17
Inner Asia and China: The Steppe and the Sown 23
PART ONE Rise and Decline of the Imperial Autocracy 27
1. Origins: The Discoveries of Archaeology 29
Paleolithic China 29
Neolithic China 31
Excavation of Shang and Xia 33
The Rise of Central Authority 37
Western Zhou 39
Implications of the New Archaeological Record 40
2. The First Unification: Imperial Confucianism 46
The Utility of Dynasties 46
Princes and Philosophers 49
The Confucian Code 51
Daoism 53
Unification by Qin 54
Consolidation and Expansion under the Han 57
Imperial Confucianism 62
Correlative Cosmology 64
Emperor and Scholars 66
3. Reunification in the Buddhist Age 72
Disunion 72
The Buddhist Teaching 73
Sui-Tang Reunification 76
Buddhism and the State 79
Decline of the Tang Dynasty 81
Social Change: The Tang-Song Transition 83
4. China's Greatest Age: Northern and Southern Song 88
Efflorescence of Material Growth 88
Education and the Examination System 93
The Creation of Neo-Confucianism 96
Formation of Gentry Society 101
5. The Paradox of Song China and Inner Asia 108
The Symbiosis of Wen and Wu 108
The Rise of Non-Chinese Rule over China 112
China in the Mongol Empire 119
Interpreting the Song Era 126
6. Government in the Ming Dynasty 128
Legacies of the Hongwu Emperor 128
Fiscal Problems 132
China Turns Inward 137
Factional Politics 140
7. The Qing Success Story 143
The Manchu Conquest 143
Institutional Adaptation 146
The Jesuit Interlude 151
Growth of Qing Control in Inner Asia 152
The Attempted Integration of Polity and Culture 154
PART TWO Late Imperial China, 1600-1911 163
8. The Paradox of Growth without Development 167
The Rise in Population 167
Diminishing Returns of Farm Labor 170
The Subjection of Women 173
Domestic Trade and Commercial Organization 176
Merchant-Official Symbiosis 179
Limitations of the Law 183
9. Frontier Unrest and the Opening of China 187
The Weakness of State Leadership 187
The White Lotus Rebellion, 1796-1804 189
Maritime China: Origins of the Overseas Chinese 191
European Trading Companies and the Canton Trade 195
Rebellion on the Turkestan Frontier, 1826-1835 197
Opium and the Struggle for a New Order at Guangzhou, 1834-1842 198
Inauguration of the Treaty Century after 1842 201
10. Rebellion and Restoration 206
The Great Taiping Rebellion, 1851-1864 206
Civil War 209
The Qing Restoration of the 1860s 212
Suppression of Other Rebellions 214
11. Early Modernization and the Decline of Qing Power 217
Self-Strengthening and Its Failure 217
The Christian-Confucian Struggle 221
The Reform Movement 224
The Boxer Rising, 1898-1901 230
Demoralization 232
12. The Republican Revolution, 1901-1916 235
A New Domestic Balance of Power 235
Suppressing Rebellion by Militarization 236
Elite Activism in the Public Sphere 238
The Japanese Influence 240
The Qing Reform Effort 241
Constitutionalism and Self-Government 244
Insoluble Systemic Problems 247
The Revolution of 1911 and Yuan Shikai's Dictatorship 250
PART THREE The Republic of China, 1912-1949 255
13. The Quest for a Chinese Civil Society 257
The Limits of Chinese Liberalism 257
The Limits of Christian Reformism 260
The Tardy Rise of a Political Press 262
Academic Development 263
The New Culture Movement 266
The May Fourth Movement 267
Rise of the Chinese Bourgeoisie 269
Origins of the Chinese Communist Party 275
14. The Nationalist Revolution and the Nanjing Government 279
Sun Yatsen and the United Front 279
The Accession to Power of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kaishek) 283
The Nature of the Nanjing Government 286
Systemic Weaknesses 289
15. The Second Coming of the Chinese Communist Party 294
Problems of Life on the Land 294
Rural Reconstruction 299
The Rise of Mao Zedong 301
The Long March, 1934-1935 305
The Role of Zhou Enlai 307
The Second United Front 310
16. China's War of Resistance, 1937-1945 312
Nationalist Difficulties 312
Mao's Sinification of Marxism 316
Mao Zedong Thought 321
The Rectification Campaign of 1942-1944 323
American Support of Coalition Government 326
17. The Civil War and the Nationalists on Taiwan 331
Why the Nationalists Failed 331
Nationalist Attack and Communist Counterattack 334
Taiwan as a Japanese Colony 337
Taiwan as the Republic of China 339
PART FOUR The People's Republic of China 343
18. Establishing Control of State and Countryside 345
Creating the New State, 1949-1953 345
Collectivizing Agriculture 352
Collective Agriculture in Practice 354
Beginning Industrialization 357
Education and the Intellectuals 359
The Anti-Rightist Campaign, 1957-1958 365
19. The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960 368
Background Factors 368
The Disaster of 1959-1960 372
Revival: Seizing Control of Industrial Labor 374
Party Rectification and Education 376
The Sino-Soviet Split 378
The Great Leap Forward as a Social Movement 380
20. The Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 383
Underpinnings 383
Mao's Aims and Resources 385
Role of the People's Liberation Army 387
How the Cultural Revolution Unfolded 389
The Red Guards 391
The Seizure of Power 393
Foreign Affairs 395
Decentralization and the Third Front 397
The Succession Struggle 400
The Cultural Revolution in Retrospect 401
Aftermath 404
21. The Post-Mao Reform Era&by Merle Goldman 406
Epilogue: China at the Close of the Century&by Merle Goldman 451
Note on Romanization and Citation 458
Suggested Reading 459
Publisher's Note 515
Illustration Credits 517
Author Index 521
General Index 531