For four decades Sources of Chinese Tradition has served to introduce Western readers to Chinese civilization as it has been seen through basic writings and historical documents of the Chinese themselves. Now in its second edition, expanded and extended through the era of Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin, this classic volume remains unrivaled for its wide selection of source readings on history, society, and thought in the world's largest nation. Award-winning China scholar Wm. Theodore de Bary -- who edited the first edition in 1960 -- and his coeditor, Richard Lufrano, have revised and updated the second volume of Sources to reflect the interactions of ideas, institutions, and historical events from 1600 through the twentieth century.

Beginning with Qing civilization and continuing to contemporary times, volume II brings together key source texts from more than three centuries of Chinese history, with opening essays by noted China authorities providing context for readers not familiar with the period in question.