Table of Contents

Preface 
Reader's Guide 
Index of Pictures 
Chapter 1 The Geographical Environment and Chinese Culture 
The Main Characteristics of China's Geographical Environment 
The Influences of Geographical Environment over China's Agricultural Civilisation 
Confucianism and Ancient Agricultural Civilisation 
Agriculture and Changes in Population and Language 
Activities 
Chapter 2 The History and Society of China 
The Early History and Civilisation of China 
Confucius and His Influence 
The Rise and Fall of Ancient China 
China's Transition to a Modern Society 
Activities 
Chapter 3 Chinese Tradidonal Thoughts 
Pre-Qin Times:The Making and Prosperity of Chinese Thought 
Integration and Vibrancy of Thought in the Han Dynasty 
Great Boom of Thought and Wei-Jin Style 
Creative Efforts in Thought in the Tang Dynasty 
Neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasties:Recreation of Confucianism 
Enlightenment of Three Great Philosophers of the Early Qing Dynasty 
Activities 
Chapter 4 The Lives of the Ancient Chinese 
Basic Necessities of Ancient Chinese 
Language and Characters ofAncient China 
The Glamour of Chinese Traditional Arts 
Customs and Ceremonies of Ancient Chinese Society 
Activities 
Chapter 5 China's Contribution to the World's Science and Technology 
The Papermaking and Printing Technology of Ancient China 
The Silk and Porcelain of China 
The Unique Traditional Chinese Medicine 
The Achievements of Mathematics and Astronomy of Ancient China 
Activities 
Chapter 6 Migration and China's Social changes 
The Major Migrations in Chinese History 
Influence of the Migrations on Chinese Language 
Migrations in Modern China 
Overseas Chinese and the Spread of Culture 
Activities 
Chapter 7 Awareness and Collision Between China and the West 
Marco Polo and The Travels of Marco Polo 
Matteo Riccj and the Spread of Western Civilisation in China 
Ming and Qing Emperors'Promotion of the Western 
Culture Spreading in China 
The Controversy over the Etiquette Rite and the End of Catholicism in China 
Activities 
Chapter 8 China in Modern Times and Western Civilisation 
Modern China's First Batch of Figures Learning from the Outside World and Their Works 
The Complication and Turns of Learning from the West in Modern China 
Influence of Western Civilisation on the Chinese After the May-4th Movement 
Activities 
Chapter 9 The Life of Contemporary Chinese People 
Food，Clothing，Housing and Transportation of Contemporary Chinese People 
Cultural Life of Contemporary Chinese People 
The World in the Eyes of Contemporary Chinese People 
Activities 
Chapter 10 Political System and Basic Policies of China in the Present Age 
The Election System ofChinaand Its Nature 
The PoliticaI Party System and Democratic Parties of China 
The Administrative System of China 
The Situation of Resources and Population Policy in China
ChinaIS Environmental Protection Policy 
Activities 
Chapter 11 China Gradually Integrating into the International CommuniW 
The Main Characteristics of China's Foreign Policy 
The Contributions Made by China for Maintaining the Peace of the World 
China's Influences in the Global Economy 
Activities 
Appendkes A Brief Chronology of Chinese History

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Chinese is truly an ancient language and is one of the longest livedlanguages in the world,with the most number of speakers of any language inthe world today,Chinese is thus starting to become one of the most studiedforeign languages.The changes undergone by the Chinese language is afascinating question and not one that has a simple answer.The language used inChina today,is the modem version of ancient Chinese that evolved throughoutthe ages.The clearest change to the Chinese language came about during theMay-4th Movement of 1919 which was a watershed in language reform,bringing about many simplifications to Chinese grammar.Older versions ofChinese employed a written language known as the classical style of writing,a form that differed significantly from how people actually spoke.This writtenform remained fairly standardized throughout much of Chinese history for thewriting of official documents.Nowadays,people find this form quite difficultto read.since the modern Chinese written form has been altered to reflect howChinese is actually spoken. 
According to legend,several thousand years ago during the time of theYellow Emperor what is now China consisted of some 10 000 separate clans.Bythe time of the Xia the figure was around 3 000 and by the time of Zhou therewere 800 independent nation states.As one can imagine,each nation spoke theirown distinct dialect and SO with such variety in the spoken language the onlyway to maintain any open form of communication was to develop a commonwritten form.During the Zhou period some semblance of uniformity wascreated under the Zhou hegemony system and the first unified Chinese script,or"elegant language",was invented which was used up until the time of the Qinempire and thus formed the basis of the written language.After Qinshihuangunified China,in order to maintain unity and prevent separatism,he promulgatedthe very first full set of uniform characters to be used throughout China.