A Course in Early Chinese History

Abstract

This collection of course readings was prepared as a text for an upper-level college course on early China, covering the period from the Neolithic through the early Han Dynasty, effectively ending with the reign of Han Wu-di (r. 141-87 BCE). The materials combine textbook presentation with a wide variety of translated primary texts. The order of presentation is unusual: it begins with the Spring and Autumn (722-453 BCE) and Warring States (453-221 BCE) eras, introducing students first to the engaging narratives of the late pre-Imperial, or "Classical" era. The course mobilizes questions from the study of the Classical era to add focus and meaning to explorations, in turn, of the pre-Classical "past" and the post-Classical early Imperial eras. This text is intended to provide open-access online teaching materials, to be freely used or modified by individuals or by teachers employing them in a not-for-profit context.