Gaining an understanding of China's long and sometimes bloody history can help to shed light on China's ascent to global power. Many of China's imperial dynasties were established as the result of battle, from the chariot warfare of ancient times to the battles of the Guomindang (KMT) and Communist regimes of the twentieth century. China's ability to sustain complex warfare on a very large scale was not emulated in other parts of the world until the Industrial Age, despite the fact that the country is only now rising to economic dominance. In A Military History of China, Updated Edition, David A. Graff and Robin Higham bring together leading scholars to offer a basic introduction to the military history of China from first millennium B.C.E. to the present. Focusing on recurring patterns of conflict rather than traditional campaign narratives, this volume reaches farther back into China's military history than similar studies. It also offers insightful comparisons between Chinese and Western approaches to war. This edition brings the volume up to date, including discussions of the Chinese military's latest developments and the country's most recent foreign conflicts.

Includes maps of: China; Relative Size of China and the Forty-eight Contiguous U.S. States; China's Provinces in the Second Half of the Twentiety Century; Strong Dynasty - Han, Circa 100 B.C.E.; Weak Dynasty - Ming, Circa 1640 C.E.; China's Physiographic Macroregions; Eurasian Steppelands; Taiping Rebellion, Showing Main Area of Taiping Control in Early 1854; China during the Warlord Period, 1916-1928; China during the War of Resistance, 1937-1945, Showing Major Railway Lines and Maximum Extent of Japanese Occupation; Long March, 1934-1935, Showing the Route of the First Front Army; China's Military Regions in the 1970s; China's Military Regions in the 1990s; China and Its Neighbors.

1. Introduction / Robert Higham and David A. Graff -- 2. Continuity and change / Edward L. Dreyer -- 3. State making and state breaking / David A. Graff -- 4. The northern frontier / David Wright -- 5. Water forces and naval operations / Peter Lorge -- 6. Military writings / Ralph D. Sawyer -- 7. The Qing empire / Paul Lococo Jr. -- 8. The Taiping rebellion : a military assessment of revolution and counterrevolution / Maochun Yu -- 9. Beyond the marble boat : the transformation of the Chinese military, 1850-1911 / Richard S. Horowitz -- 10. Warlordism in early republican China / Edward A. McCord -- 11. The national army from Whampoa to 1949 / Chang Jui-te -- 12. The Sino-Japanese conflict, 1931-1945 / Stephen R. MacKinnon -- 13. "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" : Mao and the Red Army / William Wei -- 14. Always faithful : the PLA from 1949 to 1989 / Dennis J. Blasko -- 15. China's foreign conflicts since 1949 / Larry M. Wortzel -- 16. Recent developments in the Chinese military / June Teufel Dreyer.