Starting in pre-history and ending just after 1945 this relatively slim three hundred page book covers all main events in between trying to grasp what makes China China. No small feat in either researching or making that research comprehensible to the general reader. \Certainly, I feel, this book will, or should, be on the history and international politics syllabus for a long time. As a primer on the subject this is the gold standard.
With a history as long and rich as China's it is surprising that in the West we know so little about it. All the warriors, emperors, philosophers, poets and inventors' stories haven't travelled very well, which is a great shame as there are plenty to draw inspiration from here.
Take one of my favourite stories in this book, about the Daoist philosopher Zhuang Zi, which I will re-print in full:
'One day the ruler of Chu sent two high officals to ask Zhuang Zi to assume control of the government. They found Zhuang Zi fishing. Intent on what he was doing, he listened without turning his head. At last he said: "I have been told there is in the capital a sacred tortoise which has been dead for three thousand years. And that the king keeps this tortoise carefully enclosed in a casket on the altar of the ancestral temple. Now would this tortoise rather be dead but honoured, or alive and wagging its tail in the mud?" The two officials answered that it would prefer to be alive and wagging it's tail in the mud. "Clear off, then!" shouted Zhuang Zi. "I, too, will wag my tail in the mud here."
The Daoists believed in non-engagement, relinquishing control to be better able to understand the world around them. But China isn't all wise sages handing down ancient wisdom. There are also foolish rulers like Di Xin on whom the fall of the Shang dynasty is blamed. The following anecdote, about lusting after the beauty of Dan Ji, demonstrates this:
'Around her ornate chamber, decked out with the precious stones from the royal treasury, he heaped up mounds of meat, hanging dried joints on all the trees, filled a pond with wine until they could row a boat on it, while naked men and women would appear at the beat of a drum and drink up the liquor like cattle.'
This is just a sample of what is in this book and only a particle of what must have really happened in that fascinating country's history. There is so much more to explore.
In this book I think I have found a motto for my life that comes from Confucius:
'Love of humanity without love of learning soon becomes silliness. Love of wisdom without love of learning soon becomes lack of principle. Love of rectitude without love of learning soon becomes harshness. Love of courage without love of learning soon becomes chaos.'
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