In this enlarged 4th edition Fairbank includes a new Preface and an Epilogue that bring the book up to date through 1982. He has also updated the bibliography and indexes. This book stands almost alone as a history of China, an analysis of Chinese society, and an account of Sino–American relations.

Foreword by Edwin o. Reischauer Preface, 1983, by John K. Fairbank Introduction 1. The Chinese Scene The Contrast of North and South China's Origins The Harmony of Man and Nature PART 1: THE OLD ORDER 2. The Nature of Chinese Society Social Structure The Peasant: Family and Kinship The Market Community Early China as an "Oriental" Society The Medieval Flowering The Gentry Class The Chinese Written Language--The Scholar Chinese Writing The Scholar Class Nondevelopment of Capitalism--The Merchant 3. The Confucian Pattern Confucian Principles Government by Moral Prestige Early Achievements in Bureaucratic Administration The Classical Orthodoxy Neo-Confucianism Chinese Militarism Individualism, Chinese Style The Nondevelopment of Science 4. Alien Rule and Dynastic Cycles Nomad Conquest The First Sino-Foreign Empires The Manchu Achievement The Nature of Chinese Nationalism The Dynastic Cycle 5. The Political Tradition Bureaucracy Central Controls Government as Organized "Corruption" Law Religion Taoism Buddhism Chinese Humanism Folk Sects and Peasant Rebellion PART 2: THE REVOLUTIONARY PROCESSS 6. The Western Invasion European versus Chinese Expansion The Arab Role The Ming Explorations Early Maritime Contact The Jesuit Success China's Impact on Europe The Tribute System The Canton System and Its Collapse The Treaty System Extraterritoriality The Demographic Disaster 7. Rebellion and restoration The White Lotus as a Prototype The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom The Taiping Religion Taiping Communism The Nien and Other Rebels The Restoration of Confucian Government "China's Response to the West" in Retrospect 8. Reform and revolution The Self-Strengthening Movement Imperialism and Reform in 1898 Revolutionaries versus Reformers Sun Yat-sen Liang Ch'i-ch'ao Dynastic Reform and Republican Revolution The New Nationalism The Revolutionary Leadership 9. The rise of the Kuomintang The Search for a New Order The Collapse of Parliamentary Democracy The Republic's Decline into Warlordism The Growth of Urban Nationalism The May Fourth Movement The Student Movement and New Literature The Nationalist Revolution The Kuomintang-Communist Alliance The Nationalist Accession to Power 10. The nanking goverment Political Development Party Dictatorship Rights Recovery The Rise of Chiang Kai-shek Echoes of Confucianism Roots of Totalitarianism Progress toward Industrialization Transportation Industry Banking and Fiscal Policy Public Finance Local Government The Rural Problem 11. The Rise of the Communist Party Vicissitudes of the First Decade The Attractions of Communism The Comintern's Difficulties The Rise of Mao Tse-tung The Maoist Strategy Yenan and Wartime Expansion Organization of Popular Support Wartime Ideological Development The New Democracy Liberation PART 3:THE UNITED STATES AND THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC 12. Our Inherited China Policy American Expansion and Britain's Empire America's Role within Britain's Informal Empire The American Ambivalence about China The Evolution of the Open Door The Integrity of China The Nature of the American Interest America's Contribution and the Fate of Liberalism 13. United States Policy and the Nationalist Defeat American Aid and Mediation The Nationalist Debacle The "Loss of China" in America Our Ally Taiwan 14. The People's Republic: Establishing the New Order Political Control Coalition Government The Party, Government, and Army Structures The Mass Organizations Law and Security Economic Reconstruction Land Reform Social Reorganization Thought Reform Communism and Confucianism Criticism, Literary and Political The Korean War and Soviet Aid 15. The Struggle for Socialist Transformation Collectivization of Agriculture The First Five-Year Plan The Struggles with Intellectuals and with Cadres China in the World Scene The Great Leap Forward The Communes 16. The Second Revolution Mao and His Opponents The Two Approaches to China's Revolution The Sino-Soviet Split The Growth of Bureaucratic Evils Cadre Life Mao Revives the Revolution: The Socialist Education Movement Repoliticizing the Army The Cultural Revolution The Aftermath Mao Tse-tung's Monument 17. Perspectives: China and Ourselves Our China Policy and the Wars in Korea and Vietnam New Perspectives of the 1970s China Today in the Light of Her Past Echoes of the Dynastic Cycle Processes of Modernization Problems of the New Order Epilogue, 1983 Suggested Reading 1983 Addenda to Suggested Reading Index to Suggested Reading General Index Credits for Illustrations