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| List of Illustrations | |
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| List of Maps and Diagrams | |
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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Rewriting the past | |
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| Spadework | |
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| Cradle, core and beyond | |
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| The dynastic dynamic | |
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| The triumph of Pinyin | |
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| A matter of scale | |
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| Rites To Writing, Pre c. 1050 BC | |
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| The Great Beginning | |
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| Glint of bronze | |
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| Finding family | |
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| In the oracular | |
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| Sages and Heroes, c. 1050-c. 250 BC | |
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| Footprints of Zhou | |
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| Less spring than autumn | |
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| The Confucian conveyance | |
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| Warring states and statist wars | |
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| The First Empire, c. 250-210 BC | |
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| Stone Cattle Road | |
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| Qin's cultural revolution | |
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| Crumbling wall, hidden tomb | |
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| Han Ascendant, 210-141 BC | |
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| Qin implodes | |
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| Pawn to king | |
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| Jaded monarchs | |
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| Within and Beyond, 141 BC-AD 1 | |
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| Han and Hun | |
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| Explorer Zhang and the Western Regions | |
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| Administering an empire | |
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| Confucian fundamentalism | |
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| Wang Mang and the Han Reprise, AD 1-189 | |
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| A one-man dynasty | |
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| Across the watershed | |
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| Decline and fall | |
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| Four Hundred Years of Vicissitude, 189-550 | |
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| Three Kingdoms and the Red Cliffs | |
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| Dao and the Celestial Masters | |
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| Enter the Enlightened One | |
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| Into the abyss | |
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| Luoyang again | |
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| Sui, Tang and the Second Empire, 550-650 | |
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| Intercalary conjunction | |
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| Sui-cide | |
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| Sons of the sunset and the sunrise | |
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| Beyond the Jade Gate | |
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| High Tang, 650-755 | |
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| Wanton, not wayward | |
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| The greatest power in Asia | |
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| Like a breath of spring | |
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| A turning point | |
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| Reconfiguring the Empire, 755-1005 | |
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| Low Tang | |
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| Five Dynasties or Ten Kingdoms | |
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| Song and Liao | |
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| Caving In, 1005-1235 | |
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| The Great State of White and High | |
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| Reform and reappraisal | |
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| In Singing-girl Towers | |
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| Jin and Song | |
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| By Land and Sea, 1235-1405 | |
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| Sunset of the Song | |
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| Mongol reunification | |
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| Mongol misadventures | |
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| Triumph of the Ming | |
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| The Rites of Ming, 1405-1620 | |
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| From the edge of the sky to the ends of the earth | |
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| Misadventures and misfortunes | |
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| The Great Rites Controversy | |
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| Landmarks and inroads | |
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| The Manchu Conquest, 1620-1760 | |
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| Overwhelming Ming | |
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| From Jurchen to Manchu | |
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| Much in demand | |
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| Zungharia, Xinjiang and Tibet | |
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| Death Throes of Empire, 1760-1880 | |
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| Self-evident truths | |
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| Insults and opium | |
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| Taiping and Tianjin | |
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| Republicans and Nationalists, 1880-1950 | |
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| Brush to pen | |
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| From empire to republic | |
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| War and more war | |
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| Long March, long war | |
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| Epilogue | |
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| Notes | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |