Lessons from History Series: The Complete Five-Book Set

A Guide to Chinese History

Between 1963 and 1965, Wu Han organized a group of experts and scholars, including renowned historians Wang Jian, Bai Shouyi, Deng Guangming, Zheng Tianting, Weng Dujian, Hu Houxuan, Yin Falu, He Ziquan, and Dai Yi. Together, they compiled this volume, A Guide to Chinese History. Spanning from Peking Man to the Northern Expedition, it covers almost all the major events, historical and literary knowledge, institutions, and systems in Chinese history. It is a classic introduction to Chinese history and traditional culture.

A Guide to Chinese Architecture

This book carefully selects Lin Huiyin’s writings on architecture, including detailed discussions of traditional Chinese architecture and its historical development, as well as reports on her fieldwork investigating ancient buildings. These pieces can be read both as academic work by an experienced architect and as beautiful essays on architecture by a renowned essayist. The book also includes professional diagrams and illustrations. It explores its subject in depth while explaining it clearly, making it a valuable reference for architectural researchers and an accessible introduction for general readers.

A Guide to Chinese Literature

This classic work has been in circulation for nearly a century and continues to exert its influence. It discusses poetry, rhapsodies, novels, and drama, while also devoting considerable attention to the works of historians and philosophers who “have enduring literary value and exerted a profound influence.” It also covers books on literary criticism and renowned critics, systematically surveying literature from every era in China. A Guide to Chinese Literature is an ideal way to deepen your literary knowledge and cultivate your appreciation of literature.

A Guide to Chinese Culture

Using the past to illuminate the present, this book offers a clear and accessible overview of eighteen aspects of Chinese life across several thousand years: marriage, family and clan systems, forms of government, social classes, property, officialdom, examinations and appointments, taxation, military systems, criminal law, industry, currency, clothing and food, housing and transportation, education, language, scholarship, and religion. It is a rare classic on the history of Chinese culture.

A Guide to Chinese Artifacts

This book covers everyday objects, modes of transportation, cultural life, and arts and crafts in ancient times. It traces the development of jade, ceramics, glass, mirrors, lacquerware, palanquins, carriages, fans, embroidery, clothing, and motifs of lions, dragons, phoenixes, and fish. Shen Congwen brings a literary sensibility to the study of artifacts, introducing them from an appreciative perspective and filling a gap in the history of Chinese artifacts.

A Guide to Chinese Philosophy

Covering philosophical thought from ancient times through the modern era, this book follows the major sages Laozi, Zhuangzi, Confucius, Mencius, and Zhu Xi. Drawing on the classic works of these philosophers, it distills the essence of their ideas. Readers can use this book to gain a systematic understanding of classical Chinese philosophy and a clear sense of Hu Shi’s rigorous scholarly approach.

A Guide to Chinese Learning

In clear, accessible prose, Cao Bohan provides a comprehensive introduction to Chinese language and writing, the study of inscriptions and antiquities, the Four Books and Five Classics, history and geography, the pre-Qin philosophers, Buddhist thought, schools of Neo-Confucianism, poetry and prose, the natural sciences, and the arts.

This book lays the foundation for a structured understanding of traditional Chinese learning and is essential reading for anyone interested in the field.