| List of Maps | xv |
| List of Tables | xvii |
| Preface | xix |
| Acknowledgments | xxiii |
| The Use of Pinyin | xxv |
| I | Conquest and Consolidation | 1 |
| 1 | The Late Ming | 7 |
| The Glory of the Ming | 7 |
| Town and Farm | 12 |
| Corruption and Hardship | 16 |
| The Ming Collapse | 21 |
| 2 | The Manchu Conquest | 26 |
| The Rise of the Qing | 26 |
| Conquering the Ming | 32 |
| Adapting to China | 38 |
| Class and Resistance | 44 |
| 3 | Kangxi's Consolidation | 49 |
| The War of the Three Feudatories, 1673-1681 | 49 |
| Taiwan and Maritime China | 53 |
| Wooing the Intellectuals | 58 |
| Defining the Borders | 64 |
| A Mixed Legacy | 69 |
| 4 | Yongzheng's Authority | 74 |
| Qing Power and Taxation in the Countryside | 74 |
| The Center and Channels of Power | 79 |
| Moral Authority | 84 |
| 5 | Chinese Society and the Reign of Qianlong | 90 |
| Social Pressures and Population Growth | 90 |
| "Like the sun at Midday" | 97 |
| Eighteenth-Century Confucianism | 102 |
| The Dream of the Red Chamber | 106 |
| Qianlong's Later Years | 110 |
| 6 | China and the Eighteenth-Century World | 117 |
| Managing the Foreigners | 117 |
| Aliens and Chinese Law | 123 |
| Opium | 128 |
| Western Images of China | 132 |
| II | Fragmentation and Reform | 137 |
| 7 | The First Clash with the West | 143 |
| The Response of China's Scholars | 143 |
| China's Political Response | 147 |
| Britain's Military Response | 152 |
| The New Treaty System | 158 |
| 8 | The Crisis Within | 165 |
| Social Dislocation North and South | 165 |
| The Taiping | 170 |
| Foreign Pressures and Marx's Views | 179 |
| The Nian Rebellion | 184 |
| Muslim Revolts | 189 |
| 9 | Restoration through Reform | 194 |
| Confucian Reform | 194 |
| Defining Foreign Policy | 199 |
| The Missionary Presence | 204 |
| Overseas Chinese | 210 |
| 10 | New Tensions in the Late Qing | 216 |
| Self-Strengthening and the Japanese War | 216 |
| The Reform Movement of 1898 | 224 |
| Three Sides of Nationalism | 230 |
| Emerging Forces | 238 |
| 11 | The End of the Dynasty | 245 |
| The Qing Constitution | 245 |
| New Railways, New Army | 249 |
| Nationalists and Socialists | 256 |
| Qing Fall | 262 |
| III | Envisioning State and Society | 269 |
| 12 | The New Republic | 275 |
| Experiment in Democracy | 275 |
| The Rule of Yuan Shikai | 281 |
| Militarists in China and Chinese in France | 288 |
| The Political Thinking of Sun Yat-Sen | 294 |
| 13 | "A Road Is Made" | 300 |
| The Warning Voice of Social Darwinism | 300 |
| The Promise of Marxism | 305 |
| The Facets of May Fourth | 310 |
| The Comintern and the Birth of the Ccp | 319 |
| The Industrial Sector | 325 |
| 14 | The Clash | 334 |
| The Initial Alliance | 334 |
| Launching the Northern Expedition | 341 |
| Shanghai Spring | 348 |
| Wuhan Summer, Canton Winter | 354 |
| 15 | Experiments in Government | 361 |
| The Power Base of Chiang Kai-Shek | 361 |
| Mao Zedong and the Rural Soviets | 370 |
| China and the United States | 379 |
| China and Japan | 388 |
| China and Germany | 396 |
| 16 | The Drift to War | 403 |
| The Long March | 403 |
| The National Mood and Guomindang Ideology | 410 |
| Crisis at Xi'an | 418 |
| The Chinese Poor | 424 |
| IV | War and Revolution | 435 |
| 17 | World War II | 443 |
| The Loss of East China | 443 |
| China Divided | 450 |
| Chongqing and Yan'an, 1938-1941 | 456 |
| Chongqing and Yan'an in the Widening War | 466 |
| War's End | 474 |
| 18 | The Fall of the Guomindang State | 484 |
| The Japanese Surrender and the Marshall Mission | 484 |
| Land Reform and the Manchurian Base | 491 |
| The Losing Battle with Inflation | 498 |
| Defeat of the Guomindang Armies | 504 |
| 19 | The Birth of the People's Republic | 514 |
| Countryside and Town, 1949-1950 | 514 |
| The Structure of the New Government | 519 |
| The Korean War | 524 |
| Mass Party, Mass Campaigns | 533 |
| 20 | Planning the New Society | 541 |
| The First Five-Year Plan | 541 |
| Foreign Policy and the National Minorities | 551 |
| Army Reform | 557 |
| The Hundred Flowers | 563 |
| 21 | Deepening the Revolution | 574 |
| The Great Leap Forward | 574 |
| The Sino-Soviet Rift | 583 |
| Political Investigation and "Socialist Education" | 590 |
| The Cult of Mao and the Critics | 596 |
| Launching the Cultural Revolution | 602 |
| Party Retrenchment and the Death of Lin Biao | 609 |
| V | Living in the World | 619 |
| 22 | Reopening the Doors | 627 |
| The United States and the Nixon Visit | 627 |
| Attacking Confucius and Lin Biao | 633 |
| Defining the Economy, 1974-1975 | 639 |
| 1976: the Old Guard Dies | 645 |
| 23 | Redefining Revolution | 653 |
| The Four Modernizations | 653 |
| The Fifth Modernization | 659 |
| Taiwan and the Special Economic Zones | 667 |
| "Truth From Facts" | 675 |
| 24 | Levels of Power | 683 |
| One Billion People | 683 |
| Governing China in the 1980s | 690 |
| The Problems of Prosperity, 1983-1984 | 696 |
| Rebuilding the Law | 704 |
| 25 | Testing the Limits | 712 |
| Emerging Tensions in 1985 | 712 |
| Democracy's Chorus | 719 |
| Broadening the Base | 727 |
| Social Strains | 733 |
| The Breaking Point | 738 |
| Notes and Permissions | 749 |
| Further Readings | 769 |
| Glossary | 789 |
| About the Color Illustrations | 813 |
| Illustration Credits | 817 |
| A Note on the Calligraphy | 823 |
| Index | 825 |
| Map: China During the Late Ming | 878 |
| Map: Contemporary China | 880 |
