The Cambridge History of China is one of the most far-reaching
works of inteational scholarship ever undertaken, exploring the
main developments in political, social, economic and intellectual
life from the Ch'in empire to the present day. The contributors are
specialists from the inteational community of sinological
scholars. Many of the accounts break new ground; all are based on
fresh research. The works are written not only with students and
scholars but also with the general reader in mind. No knowledge of
Chinese is assumed, though for readers of Chinese, proper and other
names are identified with their characters in the index. Numerous
maps and tables illustrate the text. Volume 3, covers the second
great period of unified imperial power, 589-906, when China
established herself as the centre of a wider cultural sphere,
embracing Japan, Korea and Vietnam. It was an era in which there
was a great deal of rapid social and economic change, and in which
literature and the arts reached new heights of attainment.