A History of China | Page 4

by means of examples how the man of high
character should behave or not behave. We have to go deeper, and try
to extract the historic truth from these records. Many specialized
studies by Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars on problems of
Chinese history are now available and of assistance in this task.

However, some Chinese writers still imagine that they are serving their
country by yet again dishing up the old fables for the foreigner as
history; and some Europeans, knowing no better or aiming at setting
alongside the unedifying history of Europe the shining example of the
conventional story of China, continue in the old groove. To this day, of
course, we are far from having really worked through every period of
Chinese history; there are long periods on which scarcely any work has
yet been done. Thus the picture we are able to give today has no finality
about it and will need many modifications. But the time has come for a
new synthesis, so that criticism may proceed along the broadest
possible front and push our knowledge further forward.
The present work is intended for the general reader and not for the
specialist, who will devote his attention to particular studies and to the
original texts. In view of the wide scope of the work, I have had to
confine myself to placing certain lines of thought in the foreground and
paying less attention to others. I have devoted myself mainly to
showing the main lines of China's social and cultural development
down to the present day. But I have also been concerned not to leave
out of account China's relations with her neighbours. Now that we have
a better knowledge of China's neighbours, the Turks, Mongols,
Tibetans, Tunguses, Tai, not confined to the narratives of Chinese, who
always speak only of "barbarians", we are better able to realize how
closely China has been associated with her neighbours from the first
day of her history to the present time; how greatly she is indebted to
them, and how much she has given them. We no longer see China as a
great civilization surrounded by barbarians, but we study the Chinese
coming to terms with their neighbours, who had civilizations of quite
different types but nevertheless developed ones.
It is usual to split up Chinese history under the various dynasties that
have ruled China or parts thereof. The beginning or end of a dynasty
does not always indicate the beginning or the end of a definite period of
China's social or cultural development. We have tried to break China's
history down into the three large periods--"Antiquity", "The Middle
Ages", and "Modern Times". This does not mean that we compare
these periods with periods of the same name in Western history

although, naturally, we find some similarities with the development of
society and culture in the West. Every attempt towards periodization is
to some degree arbitrary: the beginning and end of the Middle Ages, for
instance, cannot be fixed to a year, because development is a
continuous process. To some degree any periodization is a matter of
convenience, and it should be accepted as such.
The account of Chinese history here given is based on a study of the
original documents and excavations, and on a study of recent research
done by Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars, including my own
research. In many cases, these recent studies produced new data or
arranged new data in a new way without an attempt to draw general
conclusions. By putting such studies together, by fitting them into the
pattern that already existed, new insights into social and cultural
processes have been gained. The specialist in the field will, I hope,
easily recognize the sources, primary or secondary, on which such new
insights represented in this book are based. Brief notes are appended
for each chapter; they indicate the most important works in English and
provide the general reader with an opportunity of finding further
information on the problems touched on. For the specialist brief hints to
international research are given, mainly in cases in which different
interpretations have been proposed.
Chinese words are transcribed according to the Wade-Giles system
with the exception of names for which already a popular way of
transcription exists (such as Peking). Place names are written without
hyphen, if they remain readable.

THE EARLIEST TIMES
Chapter One
PREHISTORY
1 Sources for the earliest history

Until recently we were dependent for the beginnings of Chinese history
on the written Chinese tradition. According to these sources China's
history began either about 4000 B.C. or about 2700 B.C. with a
succession of wise emperors who "invented" the elements of a
civilization, such as clothing, the preparation of food, marriage, and a
state system; they instructed their people in these things, and so