China is the most populous country on earth, and has the longest history ofany modem nation. Its cultural and scientific achievements are well documented; its script has been in use for more than three millennia. But who were the people who created this enduring civilization and what were they like?
The story of China is told here through short biographies of ninety six men and women from all walks of life. It includes a colorful array of individuds from over 3,000 years of China's history, from an early warrior lady of the thirteenth century BC, Fu Hao, to the late twentieth-century Communist leader Deng Xiaoping. There are emperors and empresses, concubines, officials and political figures, rebels, exiles, philosophers, writers and poets, artists, musicians, scientists, military leaders and committed pacifists: their careers, achievements, misdeeds, disastcrs, punishments, ideas and love stories make this an unforgettable read.
The authors have drawn on a wide range of sources to assemble information about people from all periods and parts of China. The book is arranged in four chronological sections, each with a briefhistorical introduction, to help place the biographies in context in the vast span of China's tumultuous history.
Illustrated with numerous portraits, paintings, written documents, bronzes and sculptures, as well as location maps, Chinese Lives provides the perfect introduction to China's past and her peoples for the twenty-first century.