Previous edition: 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-253) and index.

Includes web resources.

Art in the tomb. Neolithic to Bronze Age: 2500-200 BCE -- The first empires: 221 BCE- 220 CE -- North and South: 220 CE -- 589 CE -- Tomb sculpture: 400- 650 CE -- Art at court. Tang to early Song: 618-960 CE -- Northern Song court art: 960-1127 CE -- Southern Song court art: 1127-1279 CE -- Yuan court art: 1279-1368 CE -- Ming court art: 1368-1644 CE -- Early Qing court art: 1644-c.1735 CE -- The Qinglong reign: 1736-1795 CE -- Late Qing court art: 1796-1911 CE -- Art in the temple. Early Buddhist art -- Buddhist art: c.450-c.580 -- Religious art of the Sui (581-618) and Tang (618-906) dynasties -- Religious art of the Northern Song Dynasty: 960-1127 -- Southern Song religious art: 1127-1279 -- Buddhist monks and the Élite in the southern Song -- Buddhist art in the Yuan dynasty: 1279-1368 -- Religious painting of the fourteenth-fifteenth centuries -- Religious art of the Ming dynasty: 1368-1644 -- Religious art of the Qing dynasty:1644-1911 -- Art in the life of the élite. Calligraphy as an élite art -- Art and theory in the northern Song -- The southern Song (1127-1279) and Yuan (1279-1368) -- The Ming dynasty: 1368-1644 -- The art and theory of the Dong Qichang: 1555-1636 -- The seventeenth century and the Ming-Qing transition -- The Qing dynasty: 1644-1911 -- The nineteenth century -- Art in the market place. The Song and the Yuan dynasties: 960-1368 -- The Ming dynasty (1368-1644): painting -- The Ming dynasty (1368-1644): printing -- The Ming dynasty (1368-1644): textiles and crafts -- The amateur/professional problem in late Ming painting -- The Qing dynasty: 1644-1911 -- Prints and perspective -- Shanghai in the nineteenth century -- The republic of China -- Art in the people's Republic of China -- Art in China since the 1970s.