The Han Dynasty created a Chinese empire that endures to this day.

In 221 bc the First Emperor of Qin unified the lands that would become the heart of a Chinese empire. Though forged by conquest, this vast domain depended for i

After the collapse of the Han dynasty in the third century CE, China divided along a north-south line. This book traces the changes that both underlay and resul

In a brisk revisionist history, William Rowe challenges the standard narrative of Qing China as a decadent, inward-looking state that failed to keep pace with t

Transcending ethnic, linguistic, and religious boundaries, early empires shaped thousands of years of world history. Yet despite the global prominence of empire