Chinese History: A New Manual, Fourth Edition (Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series) 4th Edition

Not only is this a fantastic reference book, but at less than $35 and clocking in at over 1000 pages, Endymion Wilkinson's magisterial opus is also an incredible bargain. Updated in 2015, the fourth edition is for any academic student of Chinese History, but it is equally of value to those of us who just have a keen interest in China. This is a dense book, with short essays on virtually every topic imaginable (how to kowtow, the history of tea, the organization of the army in each dynasty, treaty port weights and maeasures, and the list goes on). No subject is too trivial or obscure to not merit attention. Highly useful are the bibliographic references, lists of ancient Chinese texts and books and internet resources.This is not a book that you read from beginning to end. It is fun to open at random and delve into the use of calendars or the alcoholic beverages consumed during Chinese history. Or, if you have a specific question about anything in China's past, the answer will not only be here, but it will be a gateway to other writers and information to further explore to your heart's content.

As the selection of the book for the Prix Stanislas Julien indicates, this is one of the masterpieces of its field. The sheer amount of material, in the excruciating detail in which it is offered, is just about incomprehensible. It offers (and the author's estimate of its equivalent in regular monographs is on the modest side) a library's worth of studies of topics that are fundamental to the study of Chinese history, as for instance about the handling of names, of time statements and measures, and of the documentation in historiography. It will be difficult to represent all that material in digital form, and people who commit to this, apparently the last, printed version will have a handy starting point for their electronic searches. That said, to call this massive work, for which one cannot congratulate the author enough, a handbook, is taking it a bit far, and for some a "stripped down" version excluding some uneven accretions of minute detail would be helpful (one senses a need for a guide to the manual). In no way, though, should this note detract from the sheer magnitude of its achievement.

Have given away several copies

This new 4th edition is enormous! It has just about every sort of information one would ever need for basic and advanced research into all fields of pre-modern China. The only problem is that it has so much content that, even with thin paper, large format, and over 1,100 pages, the type is almost too small to read. The next edition will have to be split into several volumes.

It is indeed a massive,comprehensive, informative text---BUT the print is not very dark sothat the contrast with the white page makes reading a bit difficult and in particular thechinese characters are small making multi-stroke characters almost impossible to readwithout a magnifier.

This is an immensely useful reference for Sinologists and for anyone who has to deal with Chinese texts, history, culture, etc., even if only sporadically. It's most certainly worth having in your personal library, as it's quite affordable, especially in the light of the Gargantuan size of its most recent incarnation.

For anyone interested in Chinese history or want to learn about it systematically, I highly recommend this book! It covers Chinese history in every aspect possible. Marvelous! Mighty book!

If you are interested in Chinese history, then this is a perfect book to start with. This book is extremely well researched, and can be used extensively as a reference for most Chinese history studies.

Arrived earlier than expected, good quality!

Arrived completely as promised and in great condition

A necessary addition to one's library.

This history manual more or less stops in 1949. Although there are a couple of pages on Mao's China, most of the text is devoted to China up to the Quing Dynasty and early 20th Century.I expected it to be up-to-date But it is not. There are over 60 years of history missing.