Sources in Chinese History Diverse Perspectives from 1644 to the Present

Preface
A Note on Romanization, Names, and Dates
Acknowledgments

　PART 1 : LATE IMPERIAL CHINA (1644–1911)

CHAPTER 1 – Early to Mid-Qing

VISUAL SOURCE: Imperial Examination Halls

1. Shunzhi’s Head-Shaving Decree (1645)
2. Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor (1670)
3. Kangxi’s Edict Regarding Wu Sangui (1674)
4. Qing Rulers Promoting and Preserving Manchu Identity (1635–1850)
5. Qing’s 29 Regulations for Reorganizing Tibet (1792)

　

Qing China and Relations With Europe

6. Kangxi’s Edict of Toleration (March 20, 1692)
7. Open Letter From Kangxi to Pope Clement XI (October 31, 1716)
8. Letter From King George III to the Emperor of China (1792)
9. Journal Entries of Lord Macartney During his Journey to China (1793–1794)
10. Qianlong’s Edict to King George III of England (September 23, 1793)

　

Education, Examinations, and Literature

11. Pu Songling‘s "Three Genii" (c.1679)
12. Eight-Legged Essay Civil Service Examination (1818)
13. Description of Provincial Examination (c. 1845)
14. Lan Dingyuan on Female Education (1712)

1. Description of European Factories in Guangzhou (1825–1844)
2. Deqing’s Memorial on the Responsibilities of the Gonghang (March 23, 1813)
3. Rules Regulating Foreign Trading in Guangzhou (1832–1835)

　

Opium in Early Nineteenth-Century Guangzhou

4. Opium and Tea Trade with China
5. Huang Juezi on the Evil of Opium (june 2, 1838)
6. The Opium Question Among Westerners in China (1836–1837)

　

Commissioner Lin Zexu and the Opium War

7. Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu’s Pronouncement to the Foreigners (March 18, 1839)
8. Charles Elliot’s Public Notice to British Subjects (March 27, 1839)
9. Letter From Lin Zexu to his Wife (1839)
10. Letter From Lin Zexu to Queen Victoria (July 19, 1839)

　

Popular Responses and Diplomatic Resolutions to the Opium War

11. Guangdong Residents’ Denunciation of the British (1841)
12. British Parliamentary Discussion of the Resolution on the "Suppression of the Opium Trade" (April 4, 1843)
13. Treaty of Nanjing (1842)

1. Taiping Anti-Manchu Proclamation (1852)
2. Brief Record of the Taiping’s Arrival in Nanjing (March 1853)
3. Taiping Ten Commandments (1852)
4. Taiping Plan for Reorganizing Chinese Society (1853)
5. Land System of the Heavenly Dynasty (1853)

　

　

Muslim Rebellions

6. Panthay Rebellion Summons to Arms (1868)
7. Rumors of a Tungan Massacre (1864)
8. Robert Shaw’s Visit to Yarkand and Kashgar (March 3, 1870)

Self-Strengthening Movement

9. Feng Guifen on the Adoption of Western Learning (1860)
10. Zeng Guofan on Founding the Shanghai Arsenal (1868)
11. Li Hongzhang’s Memorial Advocating Foreign Language Training (March 11, 1863)
12. Woren’s Memorial Objecting to Western Learning (1867)

　CHAPTER 4 –The Deepening Crisis of Imperialism in China (1856–1890)

VISUAL SOURCE: Mapping Imperialism through Treaty Ports

1. Harry Parkes' Letter to Commissioner Ye Mingchen (October 8, 1856)
2. Reflections of Lord Elgin on the Treaty of Tianjin (June 29, 1858)
3. Treaty of Tianjin (June 26, 1858)
4. A Narrative on the Looting and Prize Money at the Yuanming Yuan (October 7, 1860)

Sino-Japanese War

5. China’s Declaration of War (1894)
6. Japan’s Declaration of War (1894)
7. The Treaty of Shimonoseki (April 17, 1895)
8. Li Hongzhang, "Afterthoughts of the Japanese War" (June 30, 1895)
9. John Hay’s Open Door Note (September 6, 1899)
10. Description of Chinese Family Life (1883)
11. Legal Case Study: Fraudulent Sale of Land (1889)
12. Legal Case Study: Marriage (1882)

1. Kang Youwei’s Memorial on Institutional Reform (January 29, 1898)
2. China Mail Interview with Kang Youwei (October 7, 1898)
3. Guangxu’s Three Secret Decrees (1898)
4. Cixi and the Trial of the Reformers (1898)

　

Boxer Uprising

5. Malan Boxer Proclamations (1900)
6. Spirit Boxer Possession (1900)
7. Imperial Edict to "Declare War" (June 21, 1900)
8. Boxer Protocol (September 7, 1901)

Post-Boxer Reform and the Push for Revolution

9. Qing Officials’ Joint Proposals for Post-Boxer Reform (1901)
10. Qiu Jin’s Address to 200 Million Fellow Countrywomen (1904)
11. Abolition of the Competitive Examinations in China (1905)

　PART 2: REPUBLICAN CHINA (1911–-1949)

CHAPTER 6 – Revolution, Warlordism, and Intellectual Transformation

VISUAL SOURCE: The Making of a Movement: 1919 Demonstrations in Tiananmen

1. Three People’s Principles and the Future of the Chinese People (1906)
2. Demands of the National Assembly, Submitted in a Memorial to the Throne (November 3, 1911)
3. First Provisional President’s Inaugural Address (January 2, 1912)
4. Last Emperor’s Abdication Edict (February 12, 1912)
5. Sun Yat-sen’s Reply to Yuan Shikai and Resignation (February 12, 1912)

May Fourth Movement

6. Japan’s 21 Demands (January 18, 1915)
7. May Fourth Manifesto (May 4, 1919)
8. Chen Duxiu’s "New Youth" Manifesto (December 1, 1919)
9. Hu Shi’s Literary Revolution and Renaissance in China (1926)

Warlord Era

10. Zhang Xun’s Reasons for Restoring the Monarchy (1917)
11. Warlord Politics: The Game of Playing One Against the Other (1925)
12. Remembering the Brutal and Corrupt Warlord Zhang Zongchang (1936)

VISUAL SOURCE: Selling a New Image of 1920s China: Chinese Advertisements

1. The Three Principles of the People (March 6, 1921)
2. Manifesto on the Northern Expedition (September 18, 1924)
3. Sun Yat-sen’s Last Wills and Testament (March 11, 1925)

　

Rise of the Kuomindang

4. "Qingdang": Purging the Party of all Undesirable Elements (April 1927)
5. KMT’s Purge the Party Slogans (May 1927)
6. Proclamation From the Headquarters of the 26th Army (April 22, 1927)
7. Chiang Kai-shek’s Marriage Proposal to Song Meiling (1927)

Origins of the CCP

8. First Manifesto of the CCP on the Current Situation (June 15, 1922)
9. Mao Zedong’s Reports on an Investigation of Peasant Movement in Hunan (March 1927)
10. Land Law of the Jiangxi Soviet (1932)
11. Three Main Rules of Discipline and Six Points for Attention (1928)

Literary Currents in 1920s China

12. Yang Zhihua’s "Love and Socializing Between Men and Women" (July 1922)
13. Ding Ling’s "Miss Sophie’s Diary" (1928)
14. Ba Jin’s "Family" (1931)

1. British Consulate Report on the Death of Zhang Zuolin (June 15, 1928)
2. Principles for the Organization of the "Manchukuo" Government (1932)
3. Lytton Commission Report (October 2, 1932)
4. Japanese Declaration and Withdrawal from the League (March 27, 1933)

　

The Nanjing Decade

5. Emergency Law for the Suppression of Crimes Against the Safety of the Republic (1931)
6. Song Meiling on the New Life Movement (1934)
7. FILM: Plunder of Peach and Plum (1934)

　

CCP: From a Long March to the United Front

8. The Long March and Ethnic Borderlands: Two Perspectives (1935)
9. Zhang Xueliang’s Xi’an Incident Speech (December 13, 1936)
10. Mao Zedong’s Statement on Chiang Kai-shek’s Statement (December 28, 1936)
11. Communist Co-operation by the Central Committee of the CCP (July 15, 1937)

　CHAPTER 9 – China at War (1937–1949)

VISUAL SOURCE: Drawing People’s Attention to Politics: Political cartoons in 1930s and 1940s

1. Letter to the Japanese Embassy From Nanjing Safety Zone (December 18, 1937)
2. Song Meiling’s "Only the Sword is Left" (July 17, 1938)
3. FILM: Devils on the Doorstep (2000)

Occupied China

4. Wang Jingwei’s Telegraph to Chiang Kai-shek Indicating His Collaboration With the Japanese (1938)
5. [Occupied] China–Japan: Treaty Concerning Basic Relations—Annexed Protocol (November 30, 1940)
6. Chiang Kai-shek, "China’s War, a World War" (July 7, 1942)

　

Life in Yan’an

7. Ding Ling’ s "Thoughts on March 8, Women’s Day" (1942)
8. Wang Shiwei’s "Wild Lilies" (1942)
9. Mao "Talk at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art" (May 1942)

The KMT’s Road to Defeat and Taiwan

10. Wen Yiduo’s "Last Speech" (July 15, 1946)
11. Republic of China’s Declaration of Martial Law in Taiwan (May 20, 1949)
12. FILM: Crows and Sparrows (1949)

VISUAL SOURCE: Great Expectations: Examining the Propaganda of the Great Leap Forward

1. Proclamation of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China (October 1, 1949)
2. Two Telegrams Relating to the Korean War (1950)
3. US Imperialism Is a Paper Tiger (July 14, 1956)
4. Seventeen-Point Plan for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (1951)

A New Society in a New China: Farther, Further, Faster

5. Marriage Law (1950)
6. Birth Control and Planned Families (March 7, 1957)
7. Lu Dingyi, "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend!" (May 26, 1956)
8. FILM: Blue Kite (1993)

　

Great Leap Forward

9. Liu Shaoqi’s Blueprint for the Great Leap Forward (1958)
10. People’s Daily "Red-flag Commune Dining Halls" (November 6, 1958)
11. Close Planting (1950s)
12. Peng Dehuai’s Letter to Chairman Mao (July 14, 1959)

1. The Khrushchev Revisionists Are Betrayers of People’s War (September 3, 1965)
2. Lei Feng, Chairman Mao’s Good Solider (1963)
3. What Is Dazhai Spirit? (1969)
   
   The Great Proletariat Revolution
4. Song Binbin, "I Put a Red Guard Army Band on Chairman Mao" (August 1966)
5. Mao’s Bombard the Headquarters—My Big Character Poster (August 5, 1966)
6. The Sixteen Points: Decision of the Central Committee of the CCP Concerning the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution (August 8, 1966)
7. Chairman Mao Joins a Million People to Celebrate the Great Cultural Revolution (August 18, 1966)
8. The Road for China’s School Graduates (1976)
9. Mao’s Statement in Support of Black Americans' Struggle Against Violent Repression! (April 16, 1968)

　

Music, Operas, and Plays—Creating a Culture Befitting a Revolution

10. Jiang Qing Discussing Peking Operas Revolution (July 1964)
11. Revolutionary Song Lyrics
12. FILM: Pine Ridge (1973)

1. Resolution on the Restoration of the Lawful Rights of the People’s Republic of China in the United Nations (October 25, 1971)
2. Chiang Kai-shek’s Declaration to Compatriots Regarding the Republic of China’s Withdrawal From the United Nations (October 26, 1971)
3. Joint Communiqué of the United States of American and the People’s Republic of China (Shanghai Communiqué) (February 28, 1972)
4. Transcripts of First Meeting Between Nixon, Mao, Kissinger, and Zhou (1972)

Who’s Next?: Choosing a Successor

5. Official Announcement of Mao's Death (September 1976)
6. Editorial in Support of Hua Guofeng’s "Two Whatevers" Policy (February 7, 1977)
7. Deng Xiaoping on the Four Modernizations (May 7, 1978)
8. Wei Jingsheng’s Fifth Modernization: Democracy (December 5, 1978)
9. Trial of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing Cliques (November 1980)

　

Life in the 1970s

10. University Entrance Examinations (1977)
11. FILM: At Middle Age (1983)
12. Zhang Jie’s "Love Must Not Be Forgotten" (1979)

1. Deng Xiaoping’s Building Socialism With a Specifically Chinese Character (June 30, 1984)
2. Jiang Zemin’s Three Represents (July 1, 2001)
3. Hu Jintao Proposes Scientific Outlook on Development for Tackling China's Immediate Woes, Challenges (October 15, 2007)

Shifting Roles and Representation of Women in Policy, Cinema, and Literature

4. One Couple, One Child (1980)
5. FILM: The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)
6. Fudan University Relaxes Sex Rules for Students (July 19, 2005)
7. The "Two Children" Dilemma (2018)

Tiananmen

8. Seven-Point Petition (April 18, 1989)
9. Transcript of May 18 Meeting Between Premier Li Peng and Students (May 18, 1989)
10. The Truth About the Beijing Turmoil (1989)
11. Songs and Tiananmen (1989)

Hong Kong Handover

12. Sino-British Joint Declaration (December 19, 1984)
13. Christopher Patten’s Handover Speech (June 30, 1997)
14. Jiang Zemin’s Speech at Handover Ceremony (1997)

1. Xi Jinping’s Socialist Core Values (2012)
2. Xi Jinping’s Speech at Opening of Belt and Road Forum (May 14, 2017)
3. Xi Jinping’s Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC (2019)

　

Developmental, Social, and Environmental Issues in Contemporary China

4. A Roundtable Discussion: Why Is There Still Flooding in the Yangtze River Basin With the Three Gorges Dam? (July 20, 2020)
5. China’s Hydropower Moving West (2020)
6. FILM: Still Life (2006)
7. FILM: The Wandering Earth (2019)
8. Why Are Chinese High-Speed Trains Leading the World? (2019)

　

Movements and Challenges to the State

9. Open Letter Protesting the Decision on Freezing Point Weekly (January 25, 2006)
10. Ma Ying-jeou’s Speech at the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) (June 15, 2016)
11. Hong Kong Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance Legislation (2020)
12. COVID-19: Li Wenliang’s Letter of Admonition (2020)

Biography

David G. Atwill teaches Asian History at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of two monographs, The Chinese Sultanate (2005) and Islamic Shangri-la (2018), and has been the recipient of several fellowships, including two Fulbright fellowships and an Andrew W. Mellon New Directions Fellowship.

Yurong Y. Atwill is the Asian Studies Librarian at Pennsylvania State University and received her PhD from Yunnan University. She is the author of Yunnan Knowledge and Outsiders' Impressions: Culture, Transportation and Botantical Resources (in Chinese) and has published numerous articles on Chinese librarianship.

Praise for the previous edition:

"This book, in a word, is excellent. The image and commentary feature is appealing; it is an extraordinarily effective device for 'hooking' students and making the past much 'closer.' Chapter introductions are cogent, as the authors have selected new or infrequently-utilized people and events. There is nothing humdrum here: the documents are compelling and important; and the commentary crackles with fresh and acute insights and analysis."

R. Keith Schoppa, Loyola College, USA

"This is the most up-to-date and comprehensive Chinese history sourcebook currently available. What's most valuable about this book is its extensive use of Chinese sources which helps users to understand Chinese perspectives in a fresh way."

Yufeng Mao, Washington University, USA