A History of Chinese Civilisation

Gernet's survey of China runs from Neolithic cultures and the early dynasties to the twentieth century, treating political order together with economy, thought, religion, and material life. He follows the formation of the imperial state, the roles of scholars and peasants, Buddhism's arrival, commercial growth, and contacts with Central Asia and later with Europe. Later chapters cover the Ming and Qing, the shocks of the nineteenth century, and the collapse of the old system. The book is synthetic history: less a chronicle of emperors than an account of how institutions, writing, agriculture, and belief organised a long-lived civilisation and then came under modern strain.

Bound in dark brown buckram blocked with a gilt design on cover and spine. Colour photo on front of brown slipcase.