The goal of this "visual sourcebook" is to add to the material teachers can use to help theirstudents understand Chinese history, culture, and society. It was not designed to standalone; we assume that teachers who use it will also assign a textbook with basic informationabout Chinese history.Several pedagogical concerns shaped the design of this website. Although some topics (e.g.philosophy, religion, social distinctions, historiography) are best taught through written texts,many facets of Chinese civilization are more easily conveyed through images (materialculture, technology, visual and performing arts, and so on). We have therefore not attemptedto illustrate all the major themes of a course on China. Moreover, rather than give a fewpictures of many topics, as illustrated histories often do, we have instead preparedsubstantial units on ten important subject areas spanning the length of Chinese history:geography, archaeology, religion, calligraphy, military technology, painting, homes, gardens,clothing, and the graphic arts. Students should be able to view these units before coming toclass, much as they would read texts in a sourcebook of primary sources . This out-of-classpreparation can provide the basis for classroom discussion, on-line discussion, or writtenassignments. To facilitate such discussion and analysis, we have included questionsdesigned to make students think about the images they are viewing. To help keep thechronology and geography straight, we have included many maps and a timeline.