Newly revised and updated edition of this award-winning book.This winner of the National Art Book Prize is a richly detailed and fully illustrated survey of Chinese art, ideal for students and all those interested in China.Chinese silks and porcelains, unsurpassed for over a thousand years, have been prized around the world for their fine textures and brilliant colours. Paradoxically, the arts valued most in China have been calligraphy, ink painting, jade carving andbronze casting. The authors explain why, describing the origins of these diverse achievements and setting them in their historical context alongside decorative arts such as lacquer, cloisonne and glass.Drawn from the rich collections of the British Museum, the illustrations include well-known blue-and-white Ming ceramics as well as less familiar jades of the Neolithic period and priceless world-famous paintings on silk from the Buddhist Silk Roadcaves at Dunhuang.

Dame Professor Jessica Rawson DBE, FBA, Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Dame Jessica Rawson is Warden of Merton College, Oxford and chairs the Oxford University Committee on links with China which is currently working to build a research and teaching programme in modern Chinese society.

Dame Jessica has not carried out any political activity in the last five years. This appointment is covered by the Commissioner for Public Appointments Code of Practice.