This book is part of an initiative in cooperation with renowned Chinese publishers to make fundamental, formative, and influential Chinese thinkers available to a western readership, providing absorbing insights into Chinese reflections of late.

Haipeng Zhang and Jinyi Zhai provide us with a history of China's struggle for national independence and prosperity, reflecting the "humiliation" in the "sinking" period and the "struggle" during the "rising" period. After the Japanese aggressions against China had caused more damage to China than all previous invasions, Chinese society not only avoided the continued "sinking", but also laid the foundation for China's modernization and the recent success story to the present day.