An Urban History of China New Approaches to Asian History Series

In this accessible new study, Toby Lincoln offers the first history of Chinese cities from their origins to the present. Despite being an agricultural society for thousands of years, China had an imperial urban civilization. Over the last century, this urban civilization has been transformed into the world's largest modern urban society. Throughout their long history, Chinese cities have been shaped by interactions with those around the world, and the story of urban China is a crucial part of the history of how the world has become an urban society. Exploring the global connections of Chinese cities, the urban system, urban governance, and daily life alongside introductions to major historical debates and extracts from primary sources, this is essential reading for all those interested in China and in urban history.

1. Introduction; 2. The emergence of China's imperial urban civilization (antiquity to 220 CE); 3. Expansion of China's imperial urban civilization to the south (220–755); 4. The Tang-Song transition and its effects on China's imperial urban civilization (907–1402); 5. The flowering of Chinese imperial urban civilization (1402–1799); 6. The seeds of urban modernity (1800–1895); 7. Urban modernity in Republican China (1895–1949); 8. The Maoist period (1949–1976); 9. The Reform Era and the present; 10. Conclusion.

Toby Lincoln is Associate Professor of Chinese Urban History at the University of Leicester.