Introduction Chapter One: Chinese and Western Civilizations: Concentric Circles and Jigsaws 1.1 Division vs. Unification 1.2 The West: Oceans and Centrifugal Forces 1.3 China: Farming and Centripetal Forces 1.4 Concentric Circles vs. Jigsaws Chapter Two: From the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty: Retreat of Shangdi and Prominence of “Virtues” 2.1 Yin Shang: The Rapid Demise of a Powerful Dynasty 2.2 Shangdi: Sources of Shang’s Destiny of Heaven 2.3 Virtue: Discovery of the Zhou Dynasty 2.4 People-oriented: Essence of the Rule by Virtue 2.5 The Patriarchal Clan System: Maintaining Stability of the Political Community 2.6 Feudalism: Initial Construction of a Large Country 2.7 The Tianxia System and Civilization of Rituals and Music 2.8 The Tianxia System vs. Greek City-State Politics Chapter Three: From the Zhou Dynasty to the Qin and Han Dynasties: Failure of Feudalism and Establishment of Counties 3.1 Total Collapse of Feudal Order 3.2 Background of Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought: Centralization of Power and Escalation of War 3.3 Confucius: The Restoration of Rituals and Music, and Cultivation of Scholars (I) 3.4 Confucius: The Concentric Circles Structure of Benevolence (II) 3.5 Mozi: Equal Love and Organizational Building 3.6 Laozi: Self-control of Power 3.7 Legalism: Strict “Performance Management” 3.8 The Qin Dynasty: The First Unified State with a System of Prefectures and Counties 3.9 The Systematic Process of “Great Unification” 3.10 The Han Dynasty: Dong Zhongshu and Prevalence of Confucianism 3.11 Development of Enlightenment and Cultivation of Customs 3.12 Integration Degree: Qin and Han Dynasties vs. the Roman Empire Chapter Four: Changes between the Tang and Song Dynasties: End of In?uential Clan Society and Rise of Civilian Society 4.1 Rise of Influential Clan Society and Its Influence 4.2 Wei, Jin, Southern, and Northern Dynasties: Era of Great Division 4.3 Sui and Tang Dynasties: Integrating Grassland and Farming 4.4 The “Terminator” of Influential Clan Society: The Imperial Examination System 4.5 Scholar-officials and Emperor Ruling Country Together 4.6 Third-party Observations on the Imperial Examination System 4.7 Neo-Confucianism in the Song Dynasty and Reorganization of Civilian Society 4.8 The Ming Dynasty under the Early Modern World System Chapter Five: From the Yuan to Qing Dynasties: An Era into “Great China” 5.1 South-North Relations: Farming and Nomadism 5.2 Great Contribution of Nomadic People 5.3 The Yuan Dynasty: The “Great China” Era Opened in Full Swing 5.4 The Ming Dynasty: Maintenance and Deepening of “Great China” 5.5 The Qing Dynasty: Full Integration of “Great China” 5.6 Different Fates of the Qing Dynasty and Two Cotemporaneous Empires Summary Postscript