Readable Chinese history books

[PaoYu]

Perhaps this should go in the History forum; although, it is enquiring about "resources" .

Basically, I want to find a decent introduction to Chinese history. I have "A History of Chinese Civilization" by Jacques Gernet which I often see praised, but without a basic, overall grasp of Chinese history, such detailed facts, dates and names all blur into an overwhelmingly dry read. There's just too much detail; it's impossible to discern the important bits.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? I can't seem to soak up much useful information without having something to "slot" it into. I have to see the big picture first, then start filling in the intricate details.

What I'm after, then, is an elementary introduction to Chinese history. A real starter book. One that can be read cover to cover, and isn't too much of a dry read.

Well, any suggestions appreciated. Thanks a lot.

[Pravit]

I feel your pain. I have "A Complete History of China" and haven't gotten past the Zhou dynasty.

[gato]

I would recommend these two books for the big picture.

-China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture by Charles O. Hucker

-China: A Macro History by Ray Huang

They are both theme-oriented rather than strictly chronological.

I've also seen The Cambridge Illustrated History of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey in bookstores. I've browsed through it. It looks a bit thin in content, but it might be just what you're looking for at this point.

[Xiao Kui]

Check out http://condensedchina.com/

The author's intro seems to fit what you're looking for:

Condensed China is an introduction to Chinese history. It exists to inform, enlighten, and attract netizens interested in China. It is not a complete history of China; I deliberately skipped over and left out a lot of information. This is more like ''Chinese History: the Cliff Notes version" or "Chinese History's Greatest Hits" than a full-fledged history. . .

I haven't gotten around to really checking it out. (I fully intend to get cracking on the history after I've mastered the language )I've seen this site recommended several times by other students of China - probably on this forum.

[kudra]

This one is is not exactly history, more "social studies".

I think it's set as an intro level, like for a college survey course. I'd call it readable.

It has a chapter or two on history per se.

Understanding Contemporary China

ISBN: 1588260453

(Understanding : Introductions to the States and Regions of the Contemporary World) (Paperback)

There is 1 review on Amazon (not mine, so your sample size is 2)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588260453

[Laska]

Ray Huang's book is great. It's really a good read. He bursts with passion about the subject and has a lot of interesting insights you won't get anywhere else.

[PaoYu]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I've started Patricia Ebrey's Illustrated History of China and it looks very promising. After that it looks like I'll be reading Ray Huang's Macro China.

Also, i'm quite interested in a light introduction to classical Chinese literature. Perhaps a book that just covers the real classics? Again, I am totally open to suggestions.

Thanks a lot. I'll report back in, umm, a few months, when I've tackled a few of these history books .

[gato]

For classical literature, I don't know of any good overview, but there are a few good anthologies. They are bulky. Better look through them first in a library or a bookstore instead of making a blind purchase online.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/103-0801809-2152604?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=stripbooks%3Arelevance-above&field-keywords=chinese%20literature

"Source of Chinese Tradition" is a very good anthology of Chinese philosophical and historical writing:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0231109393/ref=pd_sr_ec_ir_b/103-0801809-2152604?s=books&st=%2A&v=glance&n=283155

Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

by William Theodore De Bary

If you want to read online, you can try this Chinese poetry website for translations of some classical poetry (change your browser's encoding to GB to view the Chinese text):

http://www.lingshidao.com/hanshi/index.htm

Classical Chinese Poetry

[bhchao]

I would also recommend Gato's suggestion of Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol.1.

A good book that goes into enough detail without boring you like Gernet's book is Bai Shouyi's An Outline History of China. http://www.chinabooks.com/cart/product.php?productid=18196

Another outstanding book in my opinion is F.W. Mote's Imperial China (900-1800)

Also anything from Jonathan Spence makes interesting reading.

[Lu]

Jonathan Spence has a book called 'The Search for Modern China' (or something similar, I tend to misremember this title), it's not bedside reading but it's a very good basic history book. For history up to 1600, you can try Valerie Hansen's 'The Open Empire'.

[wushijiao]

The first book I ever read on China was John King Fairbank’s China: A New History. As far as I know, this is probably the best one volume introduction to Chinese history.

Fairbank was one of the most preeminent Sinologists ever, and certainly of his generation. After he turned in the manuscript for this book, he died two days later.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674018281/sr=8-1/qid=1151426779/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8359901-7834357?ie=UTF8

Also, like Lu, I would also highly recommend Valerie Hansen's 'The Open Empire', but I think it might be better suited to people who are accustomed to the general outline of Chinese history.