Part 1 Basic National Conditions and History 3
Chapter 1 Geography of China&Xiaoxia Mao 3
Section 1 Area and Position 3
Section 2 Physical Features 4
Section 3 Climatic Characteristics 5
Section 4 General Introduction of Rivers 6
Chapter 2 Chinese Culture's Formation and Development&Xiaoxia Mao 8
Section 1 Prehistoric Culture 8
Section 2 The Xia,the Shang and the Western Zhou Dynasties 8
Section 3 The Spring and the Autumn Period,the Warring States Period 9
Section 4 The Qin and the Han Dynasties 9
Section 5 The Wei and the Jin,the Northern and the Southern Dynasties 10
Section 6 The Sui and Tang Dynasties 11
Section 7 The Song,Liao,Xia,Jin and Yuan Dynasties 11
Section 8 The Ming and the Qing Dynasties 12
Part 2 Ancient Capital Cities—Epitome of the History 17
Chapter 3 Beijing—an Ancient and Modern Capital City&Xiaoxia Mao,Xuefei Yang,and Frits Buijs 17
Section 1 Beijing as an Ancient Capital 17
Section 2 Beijing as a Modern City 19
Section 3 Beijing's World Cultural Heritage 24
Section 4 Beijing's Hutong and Siheyuan 31
Section 5 Museums 37
Chapter 4 Xi'an—an Ancient Capital City,the World's 8th Wonder&Xuefei Yang,Xiaoxia Mao and Frits Buijs 46
Section 1 Ancient Capital Xian'yang 46
Section 2 Ancient Capital Chang'an(present Xi'an) 47
Section 3 Qin Mausoleum 49
Section 4 the World's 8th Wonder 52
Section 5 Secret of Famen Temple 55
Part 3 Philosophy and Religion 59
Chapter 5 Great Thinkers in the Warring States Period&Xuefei Yang,Xiaoxia Mao and Frits Buijs 59
Section 1 Confucius Confucianism(551—479 B.C.) 59
Section 2 Mencius(372—289 B.C.) 64
Section 3 Mo-tse(468—376 B.C.) 65
Section 4 Xun Zi(about 313—238 B.C.) 65
Section 5 Han Fei Zi(280—233 B.C.) 66
Section 6 Sun Zi(Sun Wu) 67
Chapter 6 Lao Zi,Zhuang Zi and Taoism&Xuefei Yang,Xiaoxia Mao and Frits Buijs 68
Section 1 Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi 68
Section 2 Taoism 72
Chapter 7 Buddhism&Xuefei Yang,Xiaoxia Mao and Frits Buijs 76
Section 1 Origin 76
Section 2 Main Teachings 77
Section 3 Schools in China 78
Section 4 Evolution and Development of Chinese Buddhism 79
Section 5 Influence of Buddhism in Chinese Culture 80
Section 6 Spreading in Asian Countries 81
Part 4 Civilization and Culture 85
Chapter 8 Chinese Characters&Xiaoxia Mao 85
Chapter 9 Chinese Calligraphy&Xiaoxia Mao and Helen Yang 87
Section 1 Important Part of Traditional Chinese Culture 87
Section 2 Long History 89
Section 3 Master Pieces of Calligraphy 91
Chapter 10 Chinese Painting and It's Component Parts&Xiaoxia Mao and Helen Yang 93
Section 1 Traditional Chinese Painting 93
Section 2 Calligraphy's Relationship with Chinese Painting 96
Section 3 Engraving(Seal)and Chinese Painting 97
Chapter 11 Traditional Chinese Medicine&Frits Buijs and Xiaoxia Mao 98
Section 1 A Brief History of TCM and Its Development 98
Section 2 Basic Fundamental Theories 99
Section 3 Health Preservation 101
Section 4 Cultural Features and Practical Ways of Health Preservation 102
Section 5 Acupuncture and Moxibustion 104
Section 6 Qi Gong（气功） 104
Section 7 Herb Study and Bone-Setting 105
Section 8 A Brief Review of the Ancient TCM Books 106
Section 9 Differences between Chinese and Western Medicine 107
Chapter 12 Education&Xiaoxia Mao and Catherine Gu 110
Section 1 Imperial System in Ancient Times 110
Section 2 Testing in Modern China 112
Section 3 History of Traditional Chinese Education 115
Section 4 Approach to Education Today 118
Chapter 13 Traditional Chinese Architecture Art&Xiaoxia Mao,Catherine Gu and Min Li 121
Section 1 Palace 121
Section 2 Gardening 124
Section 3 Temple 130
Section 4 Typical Representatives 133
Part 5 Science and Technology 139
Chapter 14 Ancient Contribution to the World&Xiaoxia Mao 139
Section 1 Astronomy 139
Section 2 Mathematics 140
Section 3 Shipbuilding and Invention of Compass 141
Section 4 Paper-making and Printing Technology 141
Section 5 Gunpowder 142
Section 6 Water Conservancy Project 142
Section 7 Bridges 143
Section 8 Earliest Exploration of Flying 143
Section 9 Metallurgy 144
Section 10 Bell Culture—Representative of Metallurgy Technique 144
Part 6 Literature and Art 151
Chapter 15 Poetry&Xiaoxia Mao and Min Li 151
Section 1 The Spring-Autumn Period(the 6th and 7th century B.C.) 151
Section 2 Poetry of the South and"Fu"in the Han Dynasty 153
Section 3 Poetry in the Wei and the Jin Dynasties 155
Section 4 Radiant Poetry in the Tang Dynasty:the five-character poetry 155
Section 5 Splendid Song Poems 162
Section 6 Poetry in the Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties 163
Section 7 Contemporary Poetry 165
Chapter 16 Fiction&Xiaoxia Mao and Min Li 166
Section 1 Famous Novels in the Ming Dynasty 167
Section 2 Novels of the Qing Dynasty 169
Section 3 Contemporary Novels 171
Chapter 17 Chinese Mythology and Legend&Xiaoxia Mao and Catherine Gu 174
Section 1 Main Features 174
Section 2 Myths of Heroes 175
Section 3 Mythological Storied Related with the Sun and the Moon 177
Section 4 Ancestors:Yandi and Huangdi 178
Chapter 18 Drama&Xiaoxia Mao and Catherine Gu 181
Section 1 the Origin and Development of the Traditional Chinese Drama 181
Section 2 History of Beijing Opera 182
Section 3 Major Features of Beijing Opera 183
Section 4 Different Types of Beijing Opera 184
Section 5 Four Main Roles of Beijing Opera 184
Section 6 Beijing Opera Today 186
Chapter 19 Industrial Arts&Xiaoxia Mao and Helen Yang 187
Section 1 Pottery and Porcelain 187
Section 2 Jade 189
Section 3 Cloisonné("Jingtai Blue") 192
Section 4 Silk and Embroidery 193
Section 5 Paper-cutting 195
Chapter 20 Martial Arts&Frits Buijs and Xiaoxia Mao 197
Section 1 Origin and Development 198
Section 2 Moral Character Cultivation and Chinese Philosophy 200
Section 3 Qi Gong 202
Section 4 Martial Arts and the Stage Art of Drama 202
Part 7 Tradition and Customs 205
Chapter 21 Chinese Culinary Culture&Xiaoxia Mao and Helen Yang 205
Section 1 Origin 205
Section 2 Northern Schools 208
Section 3 Sichuan School 211
Section 4 Jiang-Zhe School 212
Section 5 Southern School 212
Section 6 Daily Dishes 213
Chapter 22 Tea Culture&Xiaoxia Mao and Catherine Gu 215
Section 1 Long History 215
Section 2 Chinese Tea Culture 216
Section 3 the Custom of Drinking Tea 217
Section 4 Kinds of Tea 218
Section 5 Spread of Chinese Tea 219
Chapter 23 Wine Culture&Xiaoxia Mao and Catherine Gu 221
Section 1 Origin and Development 221
Section 2 Influence of Wine on Politics,Literature and Art 222
Section 3 Wine as Social Custom 223
Section 4 Kinds of Wine 224
Chapter 24 Major Traditional Festivals and Their Tales&Xuefei Yang,Xiaoxia Mao and Frits Buijs 227
Section 1 Spring Festival 227
Section 2 Lantern Festival(Yuan Xiao Festival,Shangyuan Festival) 231
Section 3 Pure Brightness Festival(Tomb-sweeping Day,Spring Outing Day) 233
Section 4 Dragon Boat Festival 234
Section 5 Mid-Autumn Festival(Family Reunion Festival) 236
Section 6 Double Ninth Day(Chong Yang Festival) 237
Chapter 25 Different Dragon Cultures&Xiaoxia Mao Miao,Zhang Miao,Jonathan Hoddinott and Adam A.Marx 239
Section 1 The Origin of the Chinese Dragon 240
Section 2 Dragon Image and the Royal Class 241
Section 3 Dragon and Folk Customs 241
Section 4 Dragon and the Confucian Temple 242
Part 8 China—a Big Family of 56 Nationalities 245
Chapter 26 Minority&Xiaoxia Mao,Miao Zhang and Xuefei Yang 245
Section 1 History of Their Development 245
Section 2 Policy of the Central Government 246
Section 3 Some Minorities 248
Chapter 27 Mysterious Tibet&Xuefei Yang,Xiaoxia Mao and Frits Bujis 257
Section 1 World Eave 257
Section 2 Lhasa 260
Section 3 Tibetan History 263
Section 4 Religion 265
Section 5 The Local Residents and Their Lives 266
Chapter 28 Traditional Chinese Minority Festivals&Xuefei Yang,Xiaoxia Mao and Frits Buijs 268
Section 1 Nadamu Festival 268
Section 2 Aobao-Worshipping Festival(Ebo-Worshipping Festival,the Takele'en Festival) 269
Section 3 Lesser Bairam(Ruz Festival,the Festival of Feast-breaking) 270
Section 4 Corban Festival(Zai Sheng Jie,Xian Sheng Jie) 270
Section 5 Hua'er Festival(Flower Festival) 271
Section 6 Tibetan New Year 272
Section 7 Water-Splashing Festival 273
Reference 276