Ancient Chinese Dynasties

by Eleanor J. Hall

Discusses the history, culture, material artifacts, and society of six ancient Chinese dynasties from about 2000 B.C. to 221 A.D. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1560066245
• ISBN13: 9781560066248
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Greenhaven Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.8" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 10 to 13 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 8

Customer Reviews

An excellent overview of ancient China

I read three or four similar ones, but they just weren't as comprehensive as this one. For such a short book it packs a lot of information. I would recommend this one to adults who want a good overview as opposed to a tome. It has lots of photos, but they are all black and white. I have just a few complaints and suggestions. The author uses the pinyin and Wade-Giles romanizations interchangeably, without explanation, and it was a bit confusing. I can imagine it would be even more confusing to someone unfamiliar with Chinese. Chinese put the surname first, but in some instances they are reversed in this book. I would suggest that when dealing with a non-romanized language authors include the names in the original script. The author gives a timeline of the dynasties. I think it would have been more helpful if it had been juxtaposed with a timeline Westerners could relate to such as Biblical prophets and Roman emperors. There was one instance where the author describes and artifact, but doesn't provide a photo, which would have been helpful. Still, I think it's a terrific book.

Very Helpful

For a school research project I researched on the ancient beginnings of China. This book helped me tremendously in writing it. I found great information on the ancient dynasties in China and a lot of information I could not find any where else. If you are doing any type of reasearch project or essay on the dynasties of China I would select this book for you right off the bat.