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The module offers an introduction to the history of China that begins with the Mongols, and the ways in which the descendants of Khubilai Khan ruled over Chinese territories in the fourteenth century and ends with the invasion of the British in China and the outbreak of the Opium Wars in the early nineteenth. It assumes no prior knowledge of China (or Chinese!) and draws on a wide range of sources and disciplines to offer an insight into the politics, society, and culture of China before it embarked on the path to becoming the industrial powerhouse it is today. And while it doesn’t cover modern China (my colleague teaches Modern Chinese History in Year 2), this module will help you make sense of how China came to be the way it is today.

Module aims and outcomes

• To familiarize students with the history of the Chinese empire, in the centuries before it industrialized
• To help students understand the history of the Chinese empire through a variety of disciplinary approaches, including politics, literature, anthropology, art, material culture and food
• To help students see how the history of China forms part of a globally connected world
• To bring new scholarship into the discussions and debates about the Chinese empire

Indicative readings and materials

• The Cambridge illustrated history of China by Patricia Buckley Ebrey. 2023, Third edition. Hard copy and eBook
• OR
• A Youtube intro to early modern China: (or the one before: )
• A Kahn academy intro to Chinese dynasties