China's role in world history has been controversial, especially as seen through an economic lens. This book presents an alternative interpretation of that role, less exclusively economic, more broadly based, and focused on the T'ang period, one of China's acknowledged golden ages. It shows how a different China, Buddhist or Taoist rather than Confucian, aristocratic as much as meritocratic, achieved, through openness to the outside world and partnership with its elites, a multiple preeminence in politics, economics, society and the intellect, not unlike that enjoyed by the United States today. Within a looser web of globalization, the T'ang period and its dynamics offers a distant mirror of our own time, casting a new light on issues in contemporary politics.

Introduction Polemic: Before the Rise of the East * Andrbliogé Gunder Frank's Concept of the World Order * A Critique of Andrbliogé Gunder Frank's Concept of the World Order * The Preponderance of the West Politics: The Genius of T'ang * The Sui-T'ang Refoundation * The Silver T'ang Restoration * The Sung Counter-Revolution * Contrast with the West Economy: China takes Centre Stage * The Milieu of Chinese Economic Growth 500-1000 * The Motors of Chinese Economic Growth 500-1000 * The Management of Chinese Economic Growth 500-1000 * Cross-Economic Comparison 500-1000 * Society: A Multiple China * The Interface Between the Economy and Society * The Matrix of Social Activity: Family and Friends * An Anthropology of Chinese Marriage * Non-Kinship Institutions: A Multiple Associationism * Cross-Social Comparisons 500-1000 * Intellect: China's Complex Pluralism * China's Intellectual Complexity * China's Intellectual Pluralism * Eurasian Intellectual Comparisons 500-1000 * Return to the West: Reflux and Prognosis Politics 500-1000 * Economy 1000-1500 * Society 1000-1500 * Intellect 1000-1500 * Prognosis