Table of Contents

Xi'an and the Loess Land; the Second Sage and the First Emperor; Soil, Wind, and Water; Behind the Terracotta Army; The First Empire: Establishing the Standard; Literati Turned Warlords; Prolonged Disunity; When Historical Components Sprawled Far and Wide; On the Road to Reunification; The Second Empire: A Breakthrough That Failed to Materialize; The Northern Song: A Daring Experiment; West Lake and the Southern Song; The Mongolian Interlude; The Ming: An Introverted and Noncompetitive State; The Late Ming; The Role of the Manchus; 1800: A Point for Reflection; From the Opium War to the Self-Strengthening Movement; The "Hundred Days", the Republic, and May Fourth; Contemporary China and Its Place in the World; Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao Epilogue: Reflections on Tiananmen. (Part contents).