China, history

This article covers the History of China from 2000 BC to the present. On China today see China.

Early dynasties

Although archaeologists have found settlements in China dating to 5000 BCE, the earliest nation that can be dated in the area of modern China is the Shang Dynasty, approximately 2000 BCE.

Dynasty followed dynasty, as old regimes lost the "mandate of heaven;" it was believed that each emperor ruled only with the approval of heaven, and a ruler who was unfit to rule would curse the nation until replaced. In addition, the Chinese capital was occasionally overrun by "barbarians," who invariably would start a new dynasty in the Chinese capital, integrating their nations into the former dynasty.

see Great Wall of China

Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD)

see Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD)

Qing (Manchu) Dynasty: 1644-1912

Chinese had an advanced artistic culture and well-developed science and technology. However, its science and technology stood still after 1700 and in the 21st century very little survives outside museums, except in for the popular forms of traditional medicine.

In the late Qing era (19th and early 20th centuries), the country was beset by large-scale civil wars, major famines, military defeats by Britain and Japan, regional control by powerful warlords and foreign intervention such as the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.

Republic: 1912-1949

In 1912 the revolution deposed the Qing Dynasty and a republic was proclaimed. Under the leadership of the KMT (Kuomintang), headed by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), the central government finally suppressed the local warlords who effectively controlled many provinces. The KMT tried to destroy the Communists under Mao Zedong (1893-1976), but they escaped in the "Long March" of 1934-35. Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, and in 1937 invaded all of China, defeating the government armies, seizing the coast, the major cities, and setting up a puppet government that controlled most of the population. China's resistance was ineffective.

China suffered the second highest amount of casualties of the entire war. Civilians in the occupied territories had to endure many large-scale slaughters. In a few areas Japanese forces also unleashed newly developed biological weapons on Chinese civilians leading to an estimated 200,000 dead . Tens of thousands are thought be have died when Nationalist troops broke the levees of the Yangtze to stop the Japanese advance after the loss of the capital, Nanking. Millions more Chinese died because of famine during the war.

However it was allied with the U.S. and Britain against Japan, and at war's end joined the United Nations as a permanent member of the 5-nation Security Council, with a veto. The Americans attempted to force a negotiated settlement between the KMT and the Communists, but failed.

People's Republic of China: 1949 - present

In the face of economic collapse the Communists won the civil war in 1949 under Mao Zedong (1893-1976) established a dictatorship, driving the KMT to Taiwan. Taiwan is recognized as an integral part of China in theory, but in practice has been independent since 1949. Mao liquidated millions of opponents, fought the United States in the bloody Korean War (1950-53), and broke with the Soviet Union over the issue of who best represented the Marxist orthodoxy. Mao's regime imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. The Cultural Revolution of the 1960s was inspired by Mao and devastated the intellectual class.

After 1978, Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping focused on market-oriented economic development, and by 2000 output had quadrupled, population growth ended (by imposing a one-child policy), and good relations were secured with the West. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls and Internet censorship remain tight.

China's economy during the last quarter century has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade, to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy.

See also

• China
• Beijing

Bibliography

For a long scholarly bibliography through 2001 see "Modern Chinese History: A Basic Bibliography".

surveys

• Fairbank, John King and Goldman, Merle. China: A New History. Harvard U. Press, 1998. 546 pp.
• Eberharad, Wolfram. A History of China (2005), 380 pages' full text online free
• Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The Development of China (1917) 273 pages; full text online
• Perkins, Dorothy. Encyclopedia of China: The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture. Facts on File, 1999. 662 pp.
• Roberts, J. A. G. A Concise History of China. Harvard U. Press, 1999. 341 pp.
• Schoppa, R. Keith. The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History. Columbia U. Press, 2000. 356 pp. online edition
• Ven, Hans van de, ed. Warfare in Chinese History. E. J. Brill, 2000. 456 pp. online edition
• Wang, Ke-wen, ed. Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism. Garland, 1998. 442 pp.
• Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History, A Manual, Revised and Enlarged. Harvard U. Asia Center, 2000. 1181 pp. Standard research guide to all major topics.
• full text of older histories (pre 1923)

Ming

• Brook, Timothy. The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. U. of California Press, 1998.
• Dardess, John W. A Ming Society: T'ai-ho County, Kiangsi, Fourteenth to Seventeenth Centuries. U. of California Press, 1983.
• Farmer, Edward. Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation: The Reordering of Chinese Society Following the Era of Mongol Rule. E.J. Brill, 1995.
• Goodrich, L. Carrington, and Chaoying Fang. Dictionary of Ming Biography. Columbia U. Press, 1976.
• Huang, Ray. 1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline. Yale U. Press, 1981.
• Mote, Frederick W. and Twitchett, Denis, eds. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part 1. Cambridge U. Press, 1988. 976 pp.
• Schneewind, Sarah. A Tale of Two Melons: Emperor and Subject in Ming China. Hackett, 2006.
• Tsai, Shih-shan Henry. Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle. U. of Washington Press, 2001.
• Twitchett, Denis and Mote, Frederick W., ed. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 8: The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, Part 2. Cambridge U. Press, 1998. 1203 pp.

Qing

• Fairbank, John K. and Liu, Kwang-Ching, ed. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 2: Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, Part 2. Cambridge U. Press, 1980. 754 pp.
• Peterson, Willard J., ed. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 9, Part 1: The Ch'ing Dynasty to 1800. Cambridge U. Press, 2002. 753 pp.
• Rawski, Evelyn S. The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions (2001) excerpt and text search
• Struve, Lynn A., ed. The Qing Formation in World-Historical Time. Harvard U. Press, 2004. 412 pp.
• Struve, Lynn A., ed. Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tigers' Jaws (1998) excerpt and text search

Republican Era

• Dreyer, Edward L. China at War, 1901-1949. Longman, 1995. 422 pp.
• Eastman Lloyd. Seeds of Destruction: Nationalist China in War and Revolution, 1937- 1945. Stanford University Press, 1984
• Fairbank, John K., ed. The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 12, Republican China 1912-1949. Part 1. Cambridge U. Press, 1983. 1001 pp.
• Fairbank, John K. and Feuerwerker, Albert, eds. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 13: Republican China, 1912-1949, Part 2. Cambridge U. Press, 1986. 1092 pp.
• Hsiung, James C., and Steven I. Levine, eds. China's Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945 (1992) excerpt and text search
• Hsi-sheng, Ch'i. Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937–1945 University of Michigan Press, 1982
• Hung, Chang-tai. War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937-1945 (1994) excerpt and text search

Communist era, 1949- present

• Chang, Jung and Jon Halliday. Mao: The Unknown Story, Knopf (2005), 814 pages, ISBN 0-679-42271-4
• Dittmer, Lowell. China's Continuous Revolution: The Post-Liberation Epoch, 1949-1981 University of California Press, 1989 online free
• Esherick, Joseph W.; Pickowicz, Paul G.; and Walder, Andrew G., eds. The Chinese Cultural Revolution as History. Stanford U. Press, 2006. 382 pp. excerpt and text search
• Kirby, William C., ed. Realms of Freedom in Modern China. Stanford U. Press, 2004. 416 pp.
• Kirby, William C.; Ross, Robert S.; and Gong, Li, eds. Normalization of U.S.-China Relations: An International History. Harvard U. Asia Cen., 2005. 376 pp.
• MacFarquhar, Roderick and Fairbank, John K., eds. The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 15: The People's Republic, Part 2: Revolutions within the Chinese Revolution, 1966-1982. Cambridge U. Press, 1992. 1108 pp.
• MacFarquhar, Roderick and Michael Schoenhals. Mao's Last Revolution. Harvard University Press, 2006.

Economy and environment

• Chow, Gregory C. China's Economic Transformation (2nd ed. 2007) excerpt and text search
• Elvin, Mark. Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China. Yale U. Press, 2004. 564 pp.
• Elvin, Mark and Liu, Ts'ui-jung, eds. Sediments of Time: Environment and Society in Chinese History. Cambridge U. Pr., 1998. 820 pp.
• Ji, Zhaojin. A History of Modern Shanghai Banking: The Rise and Decline of China's Finance Capitalism. M. E. Sharpe, 2003. 325 pp.
• Naughton, Barry. The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth (2007)
• Rawski, Thomas G. and Lillian M. Li, eds. Chinese History in Economic Perspective, University of California Press, 1992 online free
• Sheehan, Jackie. Chinese Workers: A New History. Routledge, 1998. 269 pp.
• Stuart-Fox, Martin. A Short History of China and Southeast Asia: Tribute, Trade and Influence. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2003. 278 pp.

Intellectual, social and cultural history

• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. Women and the Family in Chinese History (2002) online edition
• Gernet, Jacques, J. R. Foster, and Charles Hartman. A History of Chinese Civilization (1996) excerpt and text search
• Goldman, Merle and Lee, Leo Ou-fan, ed. An Intellectual History of Modern China. Cambridge U. Press, 2002. 607 pp. excerpt and text search
• Mair, Victor H., ed. The Columbia History of Chinese Literature. Columbia U. Press, 2001. 800 pp. online edition
• Needham, Joseph; Robinson, Kenneth Girdwood; and Huang, Ray. Science and Civilisation in China: V. 7, Part 2: General Conclusions and Reflections. Cambridge U. Press, 2004. 283 pp. the last volume of a monumental series
• Seiwert, Hubert. Popular Religious Movements and Heterodox Sects in Chinese History. Brill, 2003. 548 pp.
• Temple, Robert, and Joseph Needham. The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery, and Invention, (2007)
• Watson, William. The Arts of China, 900-1620. Yale U. Press, 2000. 304 pp.
• Xinian, Fu, Guo Daiheng, Liu Xujie, and Pan Guxi. Chinese Architecture (2002) excerpt and text search
• Xu, Guoqi, and William C. Kirby. Olympic Dreams: China and Sports, 1895-2008 (2008)

Historiography

• Braester, Yomi. Witness against History: Literature, Film, and Public Discourse in Twentieth-Century China. Stanford U. Press, 2003. 264 pp.
• Crossley, Pamela Kyle. A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology (2002) excerpt and text search
• Duara, Prasenjit. Rescuing History from the Nation: Questioning Narratives of Modern China. U. of Chicago Press, 1995. 275 pp. excerpt and text search
• Huang, Ray. Broadening the Horizons of Chinese History: Discourses, Syntheses and Comparisons. M. E. Sharpe, 1999. 274 pp. online edition
• Huters, Theodore; Wong, R. Bin; and Yu, Pauline, eds. Culture and State in Chinese History: Convention, Accommodations, and Critiques. Stanford U. Press, 1997. 500 pp.
• Johnston, Alastair Iain. Cultural Realism: Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History. Princeton U. Press, 1995. 307 pp. excerpt and text search
• Lach, Donald F. "China in Western Thought and Culture," in Philip P. Wiener, ed. The Dictionary of the History of Ideas (1974) online edition
• Ng, On-Cho and Wang, Q. Edward. Mirroring the Past: The Writing and Use of History in Imperial China. U. of Hawai`i Press, 2005. 306 pp.
• Van Kley, Edwin J. "Europe's 'Discovery' of China and the Writing of World History," The American Historical Review, 76 (1971), 358-85. in JSTOR
• Wang, Ben. Illuminations from the Past: Trauma, Memory, and History in Modern China. Stanford U. Press, 2004. 311 pp.
• Wang, David Der-wei. The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China. U. of California Press, 2004. 402 pp. excerpt and text search
• Wang, Q. Edward. Inventing China Through History: The May Fourth Approach to Historiography. State U. of New York Press, 2001. 304 pp.
• Studies of Modern Chinese History: Reviews and Historiographical Essays

External links

• Chinese History Research Site at U of California San Diego]