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Cho-yun Hsu is an internationally recognized authority on ancient Chinese history and comparative civilizations. He was Professor Emeritus of History and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, and elected Academician of Academia Sinica in Taiwan. As one of the founding members of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, Hsu was instrumental in supporting and encouraging global research in Chinese Studies. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Tang Prize for his exceptional contributions to the field of Sinology. He has authored or coauthored numerous publications, including American Life: A Chinese Historian’s Perspective (2021), The Transcendental and the Mundane: Chinese Cultural Values in Everyday Life (2021), China: A New Cultural History (2012), Western Chou Civilization (1988), Han Agriculture: The Formation of the Early Chinese Agrarian Economy (1980), and Ancient China in Transition: An Analysis of Social Mobility (1965).
David Ownby was a Professor of History at the Université de Montréal. His research focus is intellectual life in contemporary China, and his recent publications include Rethinking China’s Rise by Xu Jilin (as editor and translator), Voices from the Chinese Century (co-edited with Timothy Cheek and Joshua A. Fogel), The Transcendental and the Mundane by Cho-yun Hsu, and Globalization after the Pandemic by Qin Hui (both as translator).
Translator’s Foreword
To the Readers
Chronology of Chinese Dynasties
Introduction: The Value of Chinese Culture to the World
I. An Agricultural Society: Geography and Ethnicity in China
II. The Age of Legends: The Integration of Regional Cultures
III. The Central Plains as the First Core Area of Ancient China
IV. The Second Core Area in the South
V. Region Three, the Coastal Core
VI. Merging through Confrontation
VII. Two Thousand Years of Nomads and Farmers
VIII. The Construction and Evolution of an Intellectual System
IX. The Rise and Fall of the Confucian Ideal
X. The Medieval Transformation,Part 1: Wealth Trickles Down
XI. The Medieval Transformation,Part 2: Knowledge Spreads to Local Society
XII. The World under the Mongol Horses’ Hooves
XIII. China under the Shroud of Imperial Absolutism
XIV. The Shadow of the “Age of Prosperity”
XV. From Compromise to Total Resistance
XVI. Rebuilding China
Epilogue: My Hopes for Future China
Afterword
Appendix: My Intellectual Journey