By all accounts, the Chinese civilization is one of the great achievements of humanity, with numerous contributions to the arts and sciences over several millennia. However, a century and half ago, with foreign gun boats pointed at her cities and opium sapping her strength, China was falling to the edge of total disintegration. Yet miraculously, having weathered the worst ravages a civilization can endure over many dark decades, the Chinese people have risen again, from an abyss of humiliation, and are still rising. In looking at these people, one cannot but wonder who they were, where they came from, and what their cultural roots were. What were the Ancient Chinese like?

These were the thoughts that led me to write this book. I am not formally trained in all of the diverse topics discussed here, but have learned them only as an amateur in sporadic fashion, prompted by a sense of curiosity, and an abiding love for my native heritage. The subjects are so intrinsically interesting that I am eager to share them, in spite of how little I know. The joy I derive from telling the story here is not unlike that radiating from the face of the man with a drum in Figure 1 (p. 4).

I have tried to make these pages accessible to the general public, with no special expertise required, not even any training in the Chinese language. Chinese writing, what I call “sinograms” here, is put in footnotes at the bottom of each page so as not to intimidate readers not familiar with it. Putonghua and Hanyu Pinyin, as well as Sinogram traditional and simplified, are discussed in the Introduction. At the same time, however, I have supplied an extensive set of endnotes in the end of each chapter, presented at a more specialized level. Readers who wish to explore any of the topics covered here more deeply will find these endnotes helpful.

Several friends much more expert than I were gracious enough to look at earlier drafts of these pages, and offered valuable advice. These include Matthew Chen 陳淵泉 of the University of California at San Diego, Ho Dah’an 何大安 of Academia Sinica, Geoffrey Sampson 散復生 of the University of South Africa, Sun Jingtao 孫景濤 of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Takashima Kenichi 高嶋謙一 of the University of British Columbia. The suggestions from David Buckley 卜大偉 of the Oregon Health and Science University are invaluable for providing the viewpoint
of a reader from another field. Edmund Chan 陳家揚 of the City University of Hong Kong Press has been an unfailing source of editorial support, as he has been for several other books I have been involved with. Finally, I am particularly fortunate to have much expert advice from Ed Shaughnessy 夏含夷 of the University of Chicago during the final stage of the manuscript, saving me from many embarrassing errors. I regret that it was too late in the book production to follow all his wise counsel.

Above all, to Tsai Yaching 蔡雅菁 I owe not only the initial inspiration for this labor of love to explore our common heritage, but also the day-to-day intellectual and practical support over the many long months to see the project through. Many of the insights and observations gathered here actually came from her. All in all, one could not ask for a better muse!

Despite much help I have received from them, and from many other generous friends, surely there are numerous inadequacies which remain. I can only hope that kind readers will point these out to me so that I can continue to learn.