Foundations of Chinese Civilization: The Yellow Emperor to the Han Dynasty (2697 BCE - 220 CE) (Understanding China Through Comics, 1)

Not very detailed of course but interesting information about the foundation of China. Can't wait to read the rest!

I confess, I'm no expert in Chinese history. Not even remotely. I'm not even that into comics, and this is clearly a product of the world-wide manga era. However, what I am a fan of is Larry Gonick's work; I even used his  Cartoon History of the Universe  as a reference for a paper in college. Therefore, I fully approve of what Jing Liu's doing here, and Liu certainly does the tradition justice.What do you need to know about the origins of? There's a decent treatment of Chinese philosophy -- Confucianism, Taoism, The Art of War, and a number of others. The origins of the Han Chinese as a culture are of course given the bulk of the attention here, describing how they coalesced from independent groups into one of the world's early super powers. (And there's quite a lot of family drama among rulers -- some of it makes Egyptian history look calm and orderly.) Even food figures into it, fittingly as the Chinese are justifiably proud of their cuisines and their international reach.This looks to be an excellent series overall and China in general is a subject we in the west should understand much more completely. Grab this one and get started.

Seemed a bit dry to me, but my comic-obsessed 9-year-old absolutely inhaled this series. As someone who has no background, it seemed like a very thorough introductory book; I particularly liked the side topics into non-government/non-war subjects on things like important philosophical movements and arts. But as I had been familiar with Larry Gonick's history series (to say nothing of the Crash Course series), I had been expecting at least a little humor, of which there is little.On the other hand though, there was a lot of contextualization of numbers and data, which was super helpful and interesting.So, as a comic I think it fails, but as an introductory history, it succeeds. And it def. reached it's target audience, a history-obsessed 9-year-old. He made sure I pre-ordered the next in the series.. like, a couple of times.

I purchased this book for reading at work when it gets slow. It rarely gets slow enough at work for a more comprehensive history text to be practical to use, but this is broken down in to easy to digest chunks.It is great for an adult to use as casual/light reading, but I would imagine it even better a tool for someone in their early teens to understand Chinese history. The illustrations are cute and fun, the text and information is not too dense or inaccessible and it is easy to just pick up and put down as needed.

An excellent intro to the basics of ancient Chinese history. For anyone who wants a basic outline for themselves with visuals this makes a great first read and is excellent for introducing kids to what can be a dense subject. For graphics though expect more along the lines of individual characters saying things rather than a more traditional paneled comic. This is more like heavily illustrated history book for kids than it is a true comic but it achieves it's goal of making what could be a dry subject to children much more palatable.

I like this book because I can't read. The pictures help explain the history of China in an easy to understand format though, so I get the idea even despite my illiteracy.

A quick and picturesque scan of the history of China. I like it.

The history of early China in broad strokes, done in easy to read manner. My only grouse was that was too short.

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