preface
Part 1: The Formation and Development of Chinese Civilization
Chapter 1: The Origins of Chinese Civilization
Chapter 2: Politics and Society of the Sang and Ju
Chapter 3: Social Change and Ideology in the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period
Chapter 4: The Emergence and Development of the Jin and Han Unified Empires
Chapter 5: The Migration of Northern Peoples and the Northern and Southern Dynasties
Chapter 6: Sui-Tang Unification and the East Asian World
Chapter 7: The Trend of Tang and Song Reforms
Chapter 8: Song's Social Development and the Establishment of the Aristocrat Society
Chapter 9: The Rise of the Conqueror Dynasty and the Yuan's Rule of China
Chapter 10: The Ming and Qing Dynasties: The Perfection of Imperial Order

Part 2: The Development of Chinese History Since the Modern Era
Chapter 11: The First and Second Sino-Anglo-Sino Wars and the Collapse of the Chinese Imperial Order
Chapter 12: Exploring Modern China
Chapter 13: The Republican Revolution and the May Fourth Movement
Chapter 14: The Warlord Era and National-Communist Cooperation
Chapter 15: The Establishment and Development of the People's Republic of China
Chapter 16: The Shock of the West and Chinese Life
Appendix: Dynasty Flow Chart

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and China in 1992, many people have traveled to China for academic, travel, and business purposes.
Chinese has also emerged as the most important foreign language, comparable to English.
As the general public's interest in China exploded, a steady stream of travel stories about China and books on China introducing Chinese culture and history were published.
However, China is still a country that is close yet distant to us, a country that is difficult to understand due to the cultural diversity it has cultivated through the complex integration of over 50 ethnic minorities, including the Han Chinese, and the fact that it has lived under a different system from ours for half a century.


1.
Why Chinese history?

Reading Chinese history means understanding East Asia, and understanding ourselves, who have maintained a close relationship with China over half a millennium of history.
Recently, the issue of China's distortion of Goguryeo history has become a hot topic in the field of historical studies.
The problem of China's distortion of the history of the Korean Peninsula, as well as Goguryeo history, is not something that has just happened today or tomorrow, but has been going on for a long time.
To counter this kind of historical distortion, it is necessary to first correctly understand Chinese history.
Also, from a Korean perspective, understanding Chinese history objectively and accurately based on historical materials is the starting point for responding to historical distortion.
This book is written to help readers understand Korea through Chinese history and encounter the lives of the Chinese people that have flowed seamlessly within the vast fabric of Chinese history.
China, which first invented printing, the compass, and gunpowder, three inventions that changed the world.
China, the country of fire that dominates the world economy.
China, which is emerging as a global economic power through openness and is considered the only country capable of restraining the future dominance of the United States, can be found in "A History of China for Koreans."

2.
Why You Should Read "Chinese History for Koreans"

In order to understand today's China, the publication of a history book that faithfully records China's past must be a priority.
However, most of the Chinese history books currently published in bookstores are translations and introductions of Chinese, Japanese, or Western books.
However, these books often fall short of the level of Korean readers, who have a keen interest in China due to the close historical relationship with China compared to the West or Japan.
This book began with this awareness of the problem and the desire to write a popular history book that could be widely read by Korean readers, written from the perspective of a Korean author rather than a foreign author.

3.
Contains everything you need to know about Chinese history.

This book is a popular history book that faithfully records the entire history of China from the origins of Chinese civilization to the People's Republic of China.
Looking at the Chinese history books currently available, there are many that are either excerpts that are too brief or books that focus on topics that stimulate curiosity, making it difficult to gain a comprehensive understanding of China.
Conscious of this point, this book covers all the important events that cannot be omitted throughout Chinese history, while also breaking away from the monotonous description of events and encompassing culture, literature, philosophy, politics, economics, and even life history.

Moreover, unlike most introductory books on Chinese history that are aimed at specialized readers such as university students majoring in Chinese studies, this book was written as a popular textbook for the general public interested in China and history.
This is a book that Koreans should read, and as a Korean history of China, it is an easy and enjoyable read for any general reader interested in China.

4.
Features of the content and structure of this book

1) This book describes the full history of China, starting from an introduction to the Paleolithic era of China and continuing through the mythical era in which Shennong and Fuxi appeared.

2) And, reflecting the research results on culture and lifestyle that have been neglected in historical descriptions so far, it devotes a lot of space to how the Chinese people lived, introducing the life and culture of the Chinese people in more detail.

3) In addition, many pages were enhanced with color pages, which is rare for a Chinese history book, and by utilizing over 300 rich visual materials such as photographs, illustrations, maps, and flow charts, it went beyond a “history book to read” to a “history book to see.”
In particular, it contains a wealth of photographic material, which was a disappointment in previous Chinese history books.
This book was created by meticulously researching each and every photo, making it a rich source of Chinese history.
4) And many explanatory notes were added to help readers understand.
We carefully selected the content to be included in the book, and mainly included materials and content that would help with understanding the text and make it fun to read.

5) As for the content characteristics, it boldly included the history of the People's Republic of China, which had not been covered in detail in our country's history books, and introduced in detail the development process of the first and second Kuomintang-Communist cooperation until the establishment of the People's Republic of China, and the course of the Sino-Japanese War. It also objectively covered the development process of the Cultural Revolution that swept the Chinese mainland after the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the two Tiananmen Square incidents, enabling an understanding of modern Chinese history.