By Jonathan Porter

List of Illustrations
Preface
Introduction

Part I: The Classical Legacy, 1000-1350
Chapter 1 Song: The Great Divide
Chapter 2 The Barbarian Ascendancy
Chapter 3 The Imperial Myth: The Mandate Of Heaven
Part II: The Imperial Way, 1350-1650
Chapter 4 The Rise of the Ming
Chapter 5 Autocrat, Bureaucrat, Empress, Eunuch
Chapter 6 The Ming and the World
Chapter 7 Luan: Disintegration of Order
Part III: The High Qing, 1650-1800
Chapter 8 The Manchu Revolution
Chapter 9 Style and Substance: Imperial Culture
Chapter 10 Imperial Absolutism: The Monarch and the Minister
Part IV: Ming and Qing Foundations, 1368-1900
Chapter 11 The Good Earth
Chapter 12 Merchants and Markets
Chapter 13 Official Life and literati Culture
Chapter 14 Images in the Heavens, Pattern on the Earth
Chapter 15 The Spiritual World
Chapter 16 The Relevance of Confucius
Part V: When Worlds Collide, 1500-1870
Chapter 17 The Empire and the Garden
Chapter 18 Opium
Chapter 19 The Heavenly Kingdom
Part VI: Continuity in Change, 1870-1890
Chapter 20 Self-strengthening and its Fate
Epilogue The Twilight of Imperial China

Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author