A History of China

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A History of China

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A History of China, by Wolfram Eberhard This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: A History of China
Author: Wolfram Eberhard
Release Date: February 28, 2004 [EBook #11367]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Transcriber's Note: The following text contains numerous non-English words containing diacritical marks not contained in the ASCII character set. Characters accented by those marks, and the corresponding text representations are as follows (where x represents the character being accented). All such symbols in this text above the character being accented:
breve (u-shaped symbol): [)x] caron (v-shaped symbol): [vx] macron (straight line): [=x] acute (égu) accent: ['x]
Additionally, the author has spelled certain words inconsistently. Those have been adjusted to be consistent where possible. Examples of such adjustments are as follows:
From To Northwestern North-western Southwards Southward Programme Program re-introduced reintroduced practise practice Lotos Lotus Ju-Chên Juchên cooperate co-operate life-time lifetime man-power manpower favor favour etc.
In general such changes are made to be consistent with the predominate usage in the text, or if there was not a predominate spelling, to the more modern.]

A HISTORY OF CHINA
by
WOLFRAM EBERHARD

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE EARLIEST TIMES



Chapter I
: PREHISTORY
1 Sources for the earliest history 2 The Peking Man 3 The Palaeolithic Age 4 The Neolithic Age 5 The eight principal prehistoric cultures 6 The Yang-shao culture 7 The Lung-shan culture 8 The first petty States in Shansi




Chapter II
: THE SHANG DYNASTY (c. 1600-1028 B.C.)
1 Period, origin, material culture 2 Writing and Religion 3 Transition to feudalism
ANTIQUITY



Chapter III
: THE CHOU DYNASTY (c. 1028-257 B.C.)
1 Cultural origin of the Chou and end of the Shang dynasty 2 Feudalism in the new empire 3 Fusion of Chou and Shang 4 Limitation of the imperial power 5 Changes in the relative strength of the feudal states 6 Confucius 7 Lao Tz[)u]




Chapter IV
: THE CONTENDING STATES (481-256 B.C.): DISSOLUTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
1 Social and military changes 2 Economic changes 3 Cultural changes




Chapter V
: THE CH'IN DYNASTY (256-207 B.C.)
1 Towards the unitary State 2 Centralization in every field 3 Frontier Defence. Internal collapse
THE MIDDLE AGES



Chapter VI
: THE HAN DYNASTY (206 B.C.-A.D. 220)
1 Development of the gentry-state 2 Situation of the Hsiung-nu empire; its relation to the Han empire. Incorporation of South China 3 Brief feudal reaction. Consolidation of the gentry 4 Turkestan policy. End of the Hsiung-nu empire 5 Impoverishment. Cliques. End of the Dynasty 6 The pseudo-socialistic dictatorship. Revolt of the "Red Eyebrows" 7 Reaction and Restoration: the Later Han dynasty 8 Hsiung-nu policy 9 Economic situation. Rebellion of the "Yellow Turbans". Collapse of the Han dynasty 10 Literature and Art




Chapter VII
: THE EPOCH OF THE FIRST DIVISION OF CHINA (A.D. 220-580)
(A) The three kingdoms (A.D. 220-265) 1 Social, intellectual, and economic problems during the period of the first division 2 Status of the two southern Kingdoms 3 The northern State of Wei
(B) The Western Chin dynasty (265-317) 1 Internal situation in the Chin empire 2 Effect on the frontier peoples 3 Struggles for the throne 4 Migration of Chinese 5 Victory of the Huns. The Hun Han dynasty (later renamed the Earlier Chao dynasty)
(C) _The alien empires in North China, down to the Toba_ (A.D. 317-385) 1 The Later Chao dynasty in eastern North China (Hun; 329-352) 2 Earlier Yen dynasty in the north-east (proto-Mongol; 352-370), and the Earlier Ch'in dynasty in all north China (Tibetan; 351-394) 3 The fragmentation of north China 4 Sociological analysis of the two great alien empires 5 Sociological analysis of the petty States 6 Spread of Buddhism
(D) The Toba empire in North China (A.D. 385-550) 1 The rise of the Toba State 2 The Hun kingdom of the Hsia (407-431) 3 Rise of the Toba to a great power 4 Economic and social conditions 5 Victory and retreat of Buddhism
(E) Succession States of the Toba (A.D. 550-580): _Northern Ch'i dynasty, Northern Chou dynasty_ 1 Reasons for the splitting of the Toba empire 2 Appearance of the (G?k) Turks 3 The Northern Ch'i dynasty; the Northern Chou dynasty
(F) The southern empires 1 Economic and social situation in the south 2 Struggles between cliques under the Eastern Chin dynasty (A.D. 317-419) 3 The Liu-Sung dynasty (A.D. 420-478) and the Southern Ch'i dynasty (A.D. 479-501) 4 The Liang dynasty (A.D. 502-556) 5 The Ch'en dynasty (A.D. 557-588) and its ending by the Sui 6 Cultural achievements of the south




Chapter VIII
: THE EMPIRES OF THE SUI AND THE T'ANG
(A) The Sui dynasty (A.D. 580-618) 1 Internal situation in the newly unified empire 2 Relations with Turks and with Korea