Contents

Contents : to the reader; enter the dragon [symbol of imperial power, as lucky as the number nine, what colours mean in China]; First Emperor of all China [a terracotta army, book bonfires, a travelling corpse and the start of the Great Wall]; Founding Dynasty : The Han [early trade along the Silk Road, a cruel Empress, a heavenly horse, the invention of paper]; Age of Disunion [bandits and warlords fighting it out, Buddhist caves and carvings]; Golden Dynasty : The Tang [building the Grand Canal, three quarrelling princes, China’s only woman Emperor, a love-struck ruler]; Divided Dynasty : the Song [a soldier enthroned, defeat in the north, the six evil men, flying money and foot-binding]; Mongol Dynasty : The Yuan [wild horsemen from the north, the marble palace of Kublai Khan, a giant catapult]; Eunuch’s Dynasty : The Ming [a treasure fleet that blocked the sun, bankruptcy and famine, China walls herself in]; Crippled Dynasty : The Qing [pigtails for all loyal citizens, tea but no travel, the Opium War against the West, the last baby Emperor, the Chinese language]; No More Emperors [two different paths, a great leap forward that wasn’t, a chairman with green teeth, superpower rising]; timeline; where to find out more; acknowledgements; index;