All Under Heaven: A Complete History of China

The history of China has been one in which beauty and cruelty, sexual and political power have been inexorably intertwined. This ancient and highly sophisticated civilization developed largely in isolation from the West for many thousands of years. It is a civilization that:

• developed the compass 1000 years before Europe
• invented paper 1500 years before Europe
• invented printing 600 years before Europe
• developed a calendar 1000 years before the Ancient Greeks

to name just a few of its many achievements. It valued poetry, scholarship and art, produced some of the most notorious tyrants, cruellest warriors and dangerous femmes fatales in history