Government and society
General surveys include Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China, 2nd ed. (2004); John K. Fairbank, The United States and China, 4th enlarged ed. (1983); and Marc Blecher, China, Politics, Economics, and Society (1986). Franz Schurmann, Ideology and Organization in Communist China, 2nd enlarged ed. (1968), is a sociological analysis of ideas that led to the Great Leap Forward and also contains insights into many other periods. Ping-ti Ho and Tang Tsou (eds.), China’s Heritage and the Communist Political System in China in Crisis, vol. 1 (1968), interprets Chinese ideology during the early phase of the Cultural Revolution. Kenneth Lieberthal and Michel Oksenberg, Policy Making in China (1988), analyzes fragmented authoritarianism and its implications for various sectors of society. Emily Hannum and Albert Park (eds.), Education and Reform in China (2007), surveys the current state of education in the country.
The role of women and the consequences of the limits placed on their full participation have been the topic of Delia Davin, Woman-Work: Women and the Party in Revolutionary China (1976); Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (1983); Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China (1985); and Pun Ngai, Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace (2005).
Among the many periodicals that give current information on social, political, cultural, and economic affairs are The China Journal (biannual), published in Canberra, Australia; The China Quarterly; The Journal of Contemporary China (quarterly); Journal of Chinese Political Science (quarterly); The China Business Review (bimonthly); Modern China (quarterly); and China Information (3 issues annually). In addition, more broadly based publications such as Journal of Asian Studies (quarterly) and Asian Survey (bimonthly) publish a wide variety of China-related articles.
Cultural life
General overviews are provided by Caroline Blunden and Mark Elvin, Cultural Atlas of China, rev. ed. (1998); and Wm. Theodore De Bary and Irene Bloom (compilers), Sources of Chinese Tradition, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (1999–2000). Studies of contemporary issues include Claire Huot, China’s New Cultural Scene: A Handbook of Changes (2000; originally published in French, 1994); Julia F. Andrews, Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China, 1949–1979 (1994); Andrew F. Jones, Like a Knife: Ideology and Genre in Contemporary Chinese Popular Music (1992); and James Riordan and Robin Jones (eds.), Sport and Physical Education in China (1999). Lynn White Benjamin Elman
History
General works
Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (eds.), The Cambridge History of China (1978– ), is the standard multivolume reference for Chinese history. The following are comprehensive works in their fields: John K. Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China: A New History, 2nd enlarged ed. (2006), a magisterial survey, offering new ideas from many of the dissertations Fairbanks advised; Jacques Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization, 2nd ed. (1999; originally published in French, 1972), a detailed survey of China’s intellectual, social, and economic history from the neolithic cultures up to the late 20th century; Charles O. Hucker, China’s Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture (1975), to 1850; and F.W. Mote, Imperial China, 900–1800 (1999), covering nearly a millennium. Also useful are Edwin Pak-wah Leung (ed.), Historical Dictionary of Revolutionary China, 1839–1976 (1992); and Lawrence R. Sullivan, Historical Dictionary of the People’s Republic of China, 2nd ed. (2007).
Prehistory
Scholarly analyses include Kwang-chih Chang, The Archaeology of Ancient China, 4th ed., rev. and enlarged (1986), a pioneering, comprehensive synthesis based on excavations; David N. Keightley (ed.), The Origins of Chinese Civilization (1983), a collection of articles about environment and agriculture, cultures and peoples, and the genesis of the state; Jessica Rawson, Ancient China: Art and Archeology (1980), a study of the artistic significance of Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts; William Watson, Cultural Frontiers in Ancient East Asia (1971), an illustrated analysis of cultural interaction; and Rukang Wu and John W. Olsen (eds.), Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology in the People’s Republic of China (1985), an account of Chinese research on early humans.
The first historical dynasty: the Shang
In addition to the works of Chang, Watson, and Rawson mentioned in the previous paragraph, the following works are also informative: Kwang-chih Chang, Early Chinese Civilization: Anthropological Perspectives (1976), and Shang Civilization (1980), on Shang archaeology and culture; David N. Keightley, Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-Bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China (1978, reprinted 1985); Wen Fong (ed.), The Great Bronze Age of China (1980), an analytic catalog of an exhibition from the People’s Republic of China; and Paul Wheatley, The Pivot of the Four Quarters (1971), a comparative study of the origins of urban society.
The Zhou and Qin dynasties
Useful works on the period include Nicola Di Cosmo, Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History (2002); Cho-yun Hsu (Zhouyun Xu) and Katheryn M. Linduff, Western Chou Civilization (1988); Mark Edward Lewis, Sanctioned Violence in Early China (1990); and Yu-ning Li, The First Emperor of China (1975); Xueqin Li, Eastern Zhou and Qin Civilizations (1986). Benjamin Elman
The Han dynasty
There are several translations of Shiji (“Historical Records”), the great work of Han historian Sima Qian that covers the periods of Chinese history up to the 1st century bce. Notable among these is William H. Nienhauser, Jr. (ed.), The Grand Scribe’s Records: Ssu-ma Ch’ien (1994– ), a multivolume project. Other sources include Homer H. Dubs (ed. and trans.), The History of the Former Han Dynasty, 3 vol. (1938–55); Esson M. Gale (ed. and trans.), Discourses on Salt and Iron (1931, reprinted 1973); and A.F.P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Ch’in Law (1985). Works on specific topics of Han history include Hans Bielenstein, The Restoration of the Han Dynasty, 4 vol. (1953–79); Michael Loewe, Records of Han Administration, 2 vol. (1967), Everyday Life in Early Imperial China During the Han Period 202 B.C.–A.D. 220 (1968, reissued 1973), and Crisis and Conflict in Han China 104 B.C. to A.D. 9 (1974); T’ung-tsu Ch’u, Han Social Structure (1972); A.F.P. Hulsewé, Remnants of Han Law (1955); Cho-yun Hsu, Han Agriculture: The Formation of Early Chinese Agrarian Economy, 206 B.C.–A.D. 220 (1980); and Ying-shih Yu, Trade and Expansion in Han China (1967). Jack L. Dull Benjamin Elman