A collection of essays on Tang and pre-Tang China. The first item is an abbreviated version of the author's inaugural lecture as Professor of Chinese at Cambridge. Other essays cover the registration of population in China in the Sui and T'ang periods, the An Lu-shan Rebellion, and more.

This first volume of studies by Professor Pulleyblank opens with an abridged version of his inaugural lecture at Cambridge, on Chinese history and world history. The next pieces look at the historiography of Tang China, and more broadly at Chinese attitudes to the writing of history and the critical methods that were employed. The An Lushan rebellion (755CE) forms an important focal point in the book, with studies on the racial background of the rebel and the impact of the rebellion on governmental systems, as well as on the intellectual history of the period. A further article examines the system of population registration in Tang China and its bearing on the interpretation of population statistics, while the final item goes outside the Tang to discuss the origins and role of slavery as a legal institution in China.