Morris Rossabi - A History of China

In the decade since I completed the original edition, a number of close friends and colleagues have died. I miss their wise counsel which was always leavened with humor. I dedicate this work to them.

1.1 Ceramic urn, Gansu province, Neolithic period. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, USA/The Bridgeman Art Library

1.2 Ting tripod bowl, Longshan culture (third or early second millennium bce) from Shandong province. The Art Archive/ Genius of China Exhibition

1.3 Tortoise shell with divinatory text of the reign of Geng Ding, Shang dynasty, fourteenth/thirteenth century bce. The ArtArchive/Musée Guimet Paris/Gianni Dagli Orti

1.4 Bronze vessel bearing the taotie design, Shang dynasty. Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library

1.5 Cong (jade tube), Neolithic culture, 3300–2250 bce. Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, USA/Gift of Charles Lang Freer/The Bridgeman Art Library

3.1 Terracotta Warriors, Xian, Shaanxi, China. © Jon Arnold Images Ltd/Alamy

3.2 Horse, terracotta figure from tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, 221–210 bce, emperor of China, Qin dynasty, 221–207 bce, from Lintong, Shaanxi province, China. Discovered 1974. © The Art Archive/Alamy

3.3 Belt buckle, Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce), China, third–second century bce, gilt bronze, H. 2¼” (5.7 cm),W. 1½” (3.8 cm). New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1918. Acc.no. 18.33.1. © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence

3.4 Flying or galloping horse, western or “celestial” breed, standing on a swallow, bronze, Eastern Han dynasty, second century ce, from Wuwei, Gansu province, China, 34.5 cm. © The Art Archive/Alamy

3.5 Funeral suit of Princess Tou Wan, wife of prince Liu Sheng, jade, Western Han dynasty, late second century bce, from her tomb at Mancheng, Hebei province, China, 172 cm, seen from side. © The Art Archive/Alamy

3.6 Han-dynasty animal pen. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber, 1994. Inv. no. 1994.605.21. © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Art Resource/Scala, Florence

3.7 Female dancer, Western Han dynasty (206 bce–9 ce), second century bce, earthenware with slip and pigments, H. 21” (53.3 cm). New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Charlotte C. and John C. Weber Collection, Gift of Charlotte C. and John C. Weber, 1992. Acc.no.: 1992.165.19. Photo: Seth Joel. © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/ Art Resource/Scala, Florence

4.1 Ancient stone carvings of bodhisattvas at the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, China. © Michael Gray/iStockphoto

4.2 Leaves seven and eight from Wang Xizhi Book One, “Calligraphy of Ancient Masters of Various Periods,” Section V of the “Calligraphy Compendium of the Chunhua Era,” 1616, ink rubbing and yellow ink on paper, Chinese School, Ming dynasty (1368–1644). © FuZhai Archive/The Bridgeman Art Library

5.1 Tomb figure of a Bactrian camel, Tang dynasty. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, PA, USA/Gift of Mrs. John Wintersteen/The Bridgeman Art Library

6.1 Fan Kuan (ca. 990–1030), Travelling among Streams and Mountains . Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk. China, Northern Song, eleventh century. 206.3 × 103.3 cm. This painting is among the most famous of all Chinese paintings,and is one of the best examples of the Northern Song “monumental” landscape style. Photo: akg-images/Erich Lessing

7.1 Liu Guandao, Khubilai Khan , ink and color on silk. National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan/The Bridgeman Art Library 223

7.2 Zhao Mengfu (1254–1322), Sheep and Goat. Washington DC, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art. © 2013. Photo Scala, Florence

7.3 Yamantaka-Vajrabhairava with imperial portraits, ca. 1330–1332, silk and metallic thread tapestry (kesi), 96 7/ 8” (245.5) × 82¼” (209 cm). New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1992. Acc. no.: 1992.54 © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence

7.4 Khubilai gives the Polo brothers a golden passport. Image from Le livre du Grand Caan , France, after 1333, Royal 19” D. I, f.59 v. © British Library Board/Robana 230

8.1 Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven, one of the grandiose structures built by Yongle in Beijing. © eye35.pix/Alamy

8.2 Jar, porcelain painted in underglaze blue, H. 19” (48.3 cm), Diam. 19” (48.3 cm). New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Robert E. Tod, 1937. Inv. 37.191.1. © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/ Scala, Florence

8.3 Humble Administrators Garden, Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China. © Henry Westheim Photography/Alamy

8.4 Dong Qichang (1555–1636), Reminiscence of Jian River , ca. 1621, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, without mounting: 49 5/ 16× 18 9/ 16” (125.3 × 47.1 cm); with mounting: 102 × 24 9/ 16” (259.1 × 62.4 cm). New Haven (CT), Yale University Art Gallery. Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., B.A. 1913, Mrs. Paul Moore, and Anonymous Oriental Purchase Funds. Acc. no.: 1982.19.2. © 2013. Yale University Art Gallery/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence

9.1 Plate, eighteenth century (ca. 1715–1720), hard-paste porcelain, Gr. H. 1 3/ 8(3.5 cm), Diam. 9 1/ 8(23.2 cm). New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Lucile and Robert H. Gries Charity Fund, 1970. Acc. no.: 1970.220.1. © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence

10.1 Empress dowager Ci Xi. © Mary Evans Picture Library/ Alamy

10.2 Too Many Shylocks , 1901, color litho, Pughe, John S. (1870–1909). Private Collection/© Look and Learn/The Bridgeman Art Library

10.3 A group of Chinese Boxers. Artist: Ogden’s Guinea Gold Cigarettes. London, The Print Collector. © 2013. Photo: The Print Collector/Heritage-Images/Scala, Florence

11.1 Sun Yat-sen in 1912. Photo: akg-images/Interfoto

11.2 Chiang Kai-shek. © Bettmann/CORBIS

11.3 Invading Japanese forces moving into Nanjing, 1937. © Bettmann/CORBIS

11.4 Mao Zedong (left) and Zhou Enlai (right) in Yan’an in northwest China, 1945. Photo: akg-images

12.1 A dam built with little mechanical equipment in the Great Leap Forward era. Photo: Keystone-France/ Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

12.2 Chinese Red Guards publicly parade their victims, wearing dunce caps and signs proclaiming their crimes, through the streets of Beijing. Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s unleashed radicalized youth against so-called antirevolutionary groups. 1970. Courtesy Everett Collection/ Rex Features

12.3 Nixon in China. President Nixon meets with China’s Communist Party leader Mao Zedong. 21 February 1972. © Everett Collection Historical/Alamy

12.4 June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square riot. The June Fourth movement, or the 1989 Movement for Democracy, consisted of a series of demonstrations led by labor activists, students, and intellectuals between 15 April and 4 June 1989. © Durand-Langevin/Sygma/Corbis

2.1 Warring States-era divisions

3.1 Western (or Former) Han Dynasty

4.1 The Three Kingdoms

5.1 Silk and sea routes in traditional times

6.1 Song dynasty and its neighbors, ca. 1005

6.2 Jin dynasty and its neighbors, ca. 1127

7.1 Mongol Empire, 1279

8.1 Ming China

9.1 Qing dynasty, ca. 1760

11.1 China after Japanese attack, 1938

12.1 China, 2020

I studied the Chinese language when the Wade-Giles system of Romanization was standard. Around 1980, books and articles about China started to use the pinyin system, although a few stayed with Wade-Giles. I am not entirely satisfied with the pinyin scheme, but I have used it for the convenience of the reader because nearly all publications he or she will encounter will employ it.