History of China

"I have deliberately titled this book A History of China. It is not The History of China. In fact, such an all-encompassing book has not been and probably will never be written. Chinese history is beyond the scope of a single volume. In this work, much in the history of China has been omitted, partly due to size restrictions. I have tried to replicate the course on Chinese history I have taught at a variety of universities. However, I have left out some anecdotes and have eschewed documentary overkill. I have had to select from a vast array of political, economic, social, and cultural developments. Yet this work offers a survey of Chinese history, with one innovation. The basic events and trends are described, but I have emphasized China as part of a larger world, starting with its contacts with its neighbors in early times and stretching to west, south, and southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan in later eras. From the Mongol age in the thirteenth century onward, I portray China in the context of global developments and history. Specific Chinese policies and practices can be understood as, in part, responses to foreign influences. Indeed, non-Chinese peoples have ruled China for almost half of its history since 1279, the date the Mongols crushed the Southern Song dynasty. In the past, some histories depicted the Mongol and Manchu rulers who governed China during that time as typical Chinese potentates and their people as highly sinicized. This history and many recent scholarly studies have challenged that interpretation, and I devote more space than most texts to describing Mongol and Manchu societies and analyzing their impact on China. In addition, since 1279, China has had a significant non-Chinese population, mostly along strategic frontier areas. Again, I have emphasized these peoples' histories in this book, often devoting more space to the subject than almost all other histories of China"