EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA
(221 B.C. – A.D. 581)

Introduction

Welcome to the Early Imperial China Website.

The goal of this site is to facilitate access to primary and secondary materials pertaining to approximately the first eight centuries of the Chinese empire. While many of the materials might be of interest to the general reader, the target reader is undergraduate to advanced researcher.

The site is divided into two major sections: Early Empire and Early Medieval China. These sections are in turn subdivided according to dynasty. Thus "Early Empire" encompasses "Qin/Western Han/Wang Mang" and "Later Han/Sanguo." Early Medieval China [Six Dynasties] is subdivided by dynasty. Under each major section there is also a "General" division for materials pertaining to the entire period. Each division is further divided by subject: Reference, History, Literature, Thought, Society, Economy, Art and Archeology and so forth. Each section is divided loosely between print materials and on-line materials, and organized alphabetically by author's last name or the title where no author is given. In some cases a reference to a review or review article is included; an effort has been made to cite only substantive reviews. Titles relevant to more than one period or topic may be listed more than once. Please Note: Entries for historical works, such as the standard histories (zheng shi) are generally found under the dynasty to which they pertain rather than that in which they were compiled. The site's organizers are under no illusion that the site is comprehensive; our aim is to introduce users to the more important works in the field and to the range of interests and studies that exist.  We do hope that this will prove useful, especially to those in the initial stages of preparing a research topic.

Users are particularly asked to note that at the end of each dynastic division there is a subsection for primary source materials available on-line. There is a surprising amount of material available electronically that once would have been considered arcane. Some of it is material that smaller libraries or institutions coming late to the field might not have readily available. On-line availability is now helping to overcome that obstacle. Because these databases are generally searchable, they greatly facilitate locating references to persons, places and special terms. Unfortunately, the stability of the sites offering this material is not consistent, and links may occasionally become inoperable. We encourage users to to notify us of such cases. We hope that users will also inform us of new materials or links that ought to be included on the site. Please send comments to: easia@uoregon.edu.

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