John King Fairbank was the West's doyen on China, and this book is the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient civilization. It remains a masterwork without parallel. The distinguished historian Merle Goldman brings the book up to date, covering reforms in the post-Mao period through the early years of the twenty-first century, including the leadership of Hu Jintao. She also provides an epilogue discussing the changes in contemporary China that will shape the nation in the years to come. John King Fairbank was the West's doyen on China, and this book is the full and final expression of his lifelong engagement with this vast ancient civilization. The distinguished historian Merle Goldman brings the book up to date and provides an epilogue discussing the changes in contemporary China that will shape the nation in the years to come. Preface to the Enlarged Edition xv Preface to the Original Edition xvii Introduction: Approaches to Understanding China's History 1(1) The Variety of Historical Perspectives 1(3) Geography: The Contrast of North and South 4(10) Humankind in Nature 14(3) The Village: Family and Lineage 17(6) Inner Asia and China: The Steppe and the Sown 23(4) PART ONE Rise and Decline of the Imperial Autocracy 27(136) Origins: The Discoveries of Archaeology 29(17) Paleolithic China 29(2) Neolithic China 31(2) Excavation of Shang and Xia 33(4) The Rise of Central Authority 37(2) Western Zhou 39(1) Implications of the New Archaeological Record 40(6) The First Unification: Imperial Confucianism 46(26) The Utility of Dynasties 46(3) Princes and Philosophers 49(2) The Confucian Code 51(2) Daoism 53(1) Unification by Qin 54(3) Consolidation and Expansion under the Han 57(5) Imperial Confucianism 62(2) Correlative Cosmology 64(2) Emperor and Scholars 66(6) Reunification in the Buddhist Age 72(16) Disunion 72(1) The Buddhist Teaching 73(3) Sui-Tang Reunification 76(3) Buddhism and the State 79(2) Decline of the Tang Dynasty 81(2) Social Change: The Tang-Song Transition 83(5) China's Greatest Age: Northern and Southern Song 88(20) Efflorescence of Material Growth 88(5) Education and the Examination System 93(3) The Creation of Neo-Confucianism 96(5) Formation of Gentry Society 101(7) The Paradox of Song China and Inner Asia 108(20) The Symbiosis of Wen and Wu 108(4) The Rise of Non-Chinese Rule over China 112(7) China in the Mongol Empire 119(7) Interpreting the Song Era 126(2) Government in the Ming Dynasty 128(15) Legacies of the Hongwu Emperor 128(4) Fiscal Problems 132(5) China Turns Inward 137(3) Factional Politics 140(3) The Qing Success Story 143(20) The Manchu Conquest 143(3) Institutional Adaptation 146(5) The Jesuit Interlude 151(1) Growth of Qing Control in Inner Asia 152(2) The Attempted Integration of Polity and Culture 154(9) PART TWO Late Imperial China, 1600-1911 163(92) The Paradox of Growth without Development 167(20) The Rise in Population 167(3) Diminishing Returns of Farm Labor 170(3) The Subjection of Women 173(3) Domestic Trade and Commercial Organization 176(3) Merchant-Official Symbiosis 179(4) Limitations of the Law 183(4) Frontier Unrest and the Opening of China 187(19) The Weakness of State Leadership 187(2) The White Lotus Rebellion, 1796-1804 189(2) Maritime China: Origins of the Overseas Chinese 191(4) European Trading Companies and the Canton Trade 195(2) Rebellion on the Turkestan Frontier, 1826-1835 197(1) Opium and the Struggle for a New Order at Guangzhou, 1834-1842 198(3) Inauguration of the Treaty Century after 1842 201(5) Rebellion and Restoration 206(11) The Great Taiping Rebellion, 1851-1864 206(3) Civil War 209(3) The Qing Restoration of the 1860s 212(2) Suppression of Other Rebellions 214(3) Early Modernization and the Decline of Qing Power 217(18) Self-Strengthening and Its Failure 217(4) The Christian-Confucian Struggle 221(3) The Reform Movement 224(6) The Boxer Rising, 1898-1901 230(2) Demoralization 232(3) The Republican Revolution, 1901-1916 235(20) A New Domestic Balance of Power 235(1) Suppressing Rebellion by Militarization 236(2) Elite Activism in the Public Sphere 238(2) The Japanese Influence 240(1) The Qing Reform Effort 241(3) Constitutionalism and Self-Government 244(3) Insoluble Systemic Problems 247(3) The Revolution of 1911 and Yuan Shikai's Dictatorship 250(5) PART THREE The Republic of China, 1912-1949 255(88) The Quest for a Chinese Civil Society 257(22) The Limits of Chinese Liberalism 257(3) The Limits of Christian Reformism 260(2) The Tardy Rise of a Political Press 262(1) Academic Development 263(3) The New Culture Movement 266(1) The May Fourth Movement 267(2) Rise of the Chinese Bourgeoisie 269(6) Origins of the Chinese Communist Party 275(4) The Nationalist Revolution and the Nanjing Government 279(15) Sun Yatsen and the United Front 279(4) The Accession to Power of Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kaishek) 283(3) The Nature of the Nanjing Government 286(3) Systemic Weaknesses 289(5) The Second Coming of the Chinese Communist Party 294(18) Problems of Life on the Land 294(5) Rural Reconstruction 299(2) The Rise of Mao Zedong 301(4) The Long March, 1934-1935 305(2) The Role of Zhou Enlai 307(3) The Second United Front 310(2) China's War of Resistance, 1937-1945 312(19) Nationalist Difficulties 312(4) Mao's Sinification of Marxism 316(5) Mao Zedong Though 321(2) The Rectification Campaign of 1942-1944 323(3) American Support of Coalition Government 326(5) The Civil War and the Nationalists on Taiwan 331(12) Why the Nationalists Failed 331(3) Nationalist Attack and Communist Counterattack 334(3) Taiwan as a Japanese Colony 337(2) Taiwan as the Republic of China 339(4) PART FOUR The People's Republic of China 343(114) Establishing Control of State and Countryside 345(23) Creating the New State, 1949-1953 345(7) Collectivizing Agriculture 352(2) Collective Agriculture in Practice 354(3) Beginning Industrialization 357(2) Education and the Intellectuals 359(6) The Anti-Rightist Campaign, 1957-1958 365(3) The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960 368(15) Background Factors 368(4) The Disaster of 1959-1960 372(2) Revival: Seizing Control of Industrial Labor 374(2) Party Rectification and Education 376(2) The Sino-Soviet Split 378(2) The Great Leap Forward as a Social Movement 380(3) The Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 383(23) Underpinnings 383(2) Mao's Aims and Resources 385(2) Role of the People's Liberation Army 387(2) How the Cultural Revolution Unfolded 389(3) The Red Guards 392(1) The Seizure of Power 393(2) Foreign Affairs 395(2) Decentralization and the Third Front 397(3) The Succession Struggle 400(1) The Cultural Revolution in Retrospect 401(3) Aftermath 404(2) The Post-Mao Reform Era 406(51) Merle Goldman Epilogue: China at the Close of the Century 457(15) Merle Goldman Note on Romanization and Citation 472(1) Suggested Reading 473 Publisher's Note 429(102) Illustration Credits 531(4) Author Index 535(10) General Index 545