Chronological tables -- Note on transcription and pronunciation -- Preface -- pt. 1 Space -- The Land and its peoples -- pt. 2 Time -- The Archaic world -- The Foundation of a culture -- Neolithic art -- Kinship and kingship -- Bronze age art -- The Empire of Qin -- The Underground army -- The Imperial age -- Politics and power -- Grand canals -- Art of the Imperial age -- The Evolution of society -- Art of the late empire -- The Modern age -- Prospect and retrospect -- The FIlm of events -- Art of the modern age -- Contemporary painting -- pt. 3 Symbols and society -- Language, writing, and calligraphy -- Voices in poetry -- From Confucius to Confucianism -- Religion -- Temple and palace architecture -- Medicine and geomancy -- Principles of mathematics -- Chinese ingenuity -- Ceramics -- Music in society -- Theater -- Farming and food -- Family life -- China and the West -- List of Illustrations -- Bibliography -- Gazetteer -- Index
Summary
China is the world's oldest living civilization, in terms of a continuity of culture, and also one of the great international powers of today. A sharply focused understanding of its past is essential for making sense of its complex present, and archaic China is visible now with a clarity that would hardly have been thinkable a lifetime ago. The purpose of this Atlas is to make this strange and recently discovered world-both past and present-accessible to the genereal reader.--Page 2 of cover
