Part One. The City in History -- Introduction : Urban Development in Imperial China / G. William Skinner -- The Cosmology of the Chinese City / Arthur F. Wright -- The Morphology of Walled Capitals / Sen-dou Chang -- The Transformation of Nanking, 1350-1400 / F.W. Mote -- The Formation of Cities : Initiative and Motivation in Building Three Walled Cities in Taiwan / Harry J. Lamley -- Regional Urbanization in Nineteenth-Century China / G. William Skinner.

Part Two. The City in Space -- Introduction : Urban and Rural in Chinese Society / G. William Skinner -- Cities and the Hierarchy of Local Systems / G. William Skinner -- The Yamen and Urban Administration / John R. Watt -- Ningpo and Its Hinterland / Yoshinobu Shiba -- Market Towns and Waterways : The County of Shang-hai from 1480 to 1910 / Mark Elvin -- Academies and Urban Systems in Kwangtung / Tilemann Grimm -- Extended Kinship in the Traditional City / Hugh D.R. Baker

Part Three. The City as a Social System -- Introduction : Urban Social Structure in Ch'ing China / G. William Skinner -- Early Ch'ing Guilds / Peter J. Golas -- School-Temple and City God / Stephen Feuchtwang -- Urban Social Control / Sybille van der Sprenkel -- Social Structure in a Nineteenth-Century Taiwanese Port City / Donald R. Deglopper -- Neighborhood Cult Associations in Traditional Tainan / Kristofer M. Schipper.