Contents: The earliest records -- The book of songs -- The Confucian analects and the book of Lao-tsŭ -- The Ch'u elegies -- The Confucian classics -- Three late Chou philosophers - Ch'in literature -- The Fu -- Han literature exsclusive of the Fu -- Wei and Tsin -- Medieval literature -- The age of disunion -- The songs of the T'ang dynasty -- The dawn of Chinese fiction -- The literary reform -- T'ang popular literature -- The five dynasties - Sung literature: classical prose -- Sung literature: traditional poetry -- The golden period of the Tz'ŭ -- Metamorphosis and decline of the Tz'ŭ -- Liao and Chin -- The rise of drama in China -- Early fiction in the vernacular -- From Hua-Pên to novel -- Ming prose and poetry -- Ming drama -- Early Ch'ing poetry -- Early Ch'ing prose -- Ch'ing fiction -- The impact of the west -- The literary revolution.

Title: A historical introduction.