A History of Chinese Civilization

A revised and updated version of Gernet's masterful survey of the history and culture of China.

When published in 1982, this translation of Professor Jacques Gernet's masterly survey of the history and culture of China was immediately welcomed by critics and readers. This revised and updated edition makes it more useful for students and for the general reader concerned with the broad sweep of China's past.

List of plates; List of maps; List of tables; List of figures; Acknowledgements; Translator's preface; Introduction; Part I. From the Archaic Monarchy to the Centralized State: 1. The archaic monarchy; 2. The age of the principalities; 3. The formation of the centralized state; 4. The heritage of antiquity; Part II. Rise, evolution, and decline of the first centralized state: 5. The conquering empire; 6. Causes and consequences of the expansion; 7. The rise of the gentry and the crisis in political institutions; 8. The civilization of the Han age; Part III. The Middle Ages: 9. Barbarians and aristocrats; 10. Medieval civilization; Part IV. From the Middle Ages to Modern Times: 11. The aristocratic empire; 12. The transition to the Mandarin empire; 13. From the opening-up to the world to the return to the sources of the classical tradition; Part V. The Chinese 'Renaissance': 14. The new world; 15. The civilization of the Chinese 'renaissance'; Part VI. From the Sinicized Empires to the Mongol Occupation: 16. The sinicized empires; 17. The Mongol invasion and occupation; Part VII. The Reign of the Autocrats and Eunuchs: 18. Reconstruction and expansion; 19. Political, social, and economic changes; 20. The beginnings of modern China and the crisis of the end of the Ming dynasty; 21. Intellectual life in the Ming age; Part VIII. Authoritarian Paternalism: 22. The conquest and the foundation of the Manchu regime; 23. The enlightened despots; 24. Intellectual life from the middle of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century; Part IX. From Decline to Takeover: 25. The great recession; 26. The social explosion and its consequences; 27. The failure of modernization and the advance of foreign intrusion; 28. Intellectual currents in the nineteenth century; Part X. China Crucified: 29. The disintegration of the traditional economy and society; 30. Political developments in the first half of the twentieth century; 31. Philosophical and literary developments; Part XI. A New Chapter in Chinese History: The People's Republic of China; Chronological tables; Bibliography; Index.

When published in 1982, this translation of Professor Jacques Gernet's masterly survey of the history and culture of China was immediately welcomed by critics and readers. This revised and updated edition makes it more useful for students and for the general reader concerned with the broad sweep of China's past.