Zi Zhi Tong Jian (Chinese: 资治通鉴;English: "Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance") is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 in the form of a chronicle. In 1065 AD, Emperor Yingzong of Songordered the great historian Sima Guang (1019–1086 AD) to lead with other scholars such as his chief assistants Liu Shu, Liu Ban and Fan Zuyu,[1] the compilation of a universal history of China. The task took 19 years to be completed,and, in 1084 AD, it was presented to his successor Emperor Shenzong of Song. The Zizhi Tongjian records Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning across almost 1,400 years,and contains 294 volumes (巻) and about 3 million Chinese characters. The principal text of the Zizhi Tongjian was recorded on 294 Juan, or Volume (Chinese: 卷), which are scrolls corresponding to a volume, chapter, or section of the work. The text is a chronological narrative of the history of China from the Warring States to the Five Dynasties. Sima Guang left the traditional usage in Chinese historiography. For almost 1,000 years since the Shiji was written, standard Chinese dynastic histories had primarily divided chapters between annals (紀) of rulers, and biographies (傳) of officials. In Chinese terms, the book changed the format of histories from biographical style (紀傳體) to chronological style (編年體), which is better suited for analysis, activism and criticism. According to Wilkinson: "It had an enormous influence on later Chinese historical writing, either directly or through its many abbreviations, continuations, and adaptations. The 294 Juan sweep through 11 Chinese historical periods (Warring States, Qin, Western Han, Eastern Han, Three Kingdoms, Jin and the Sixteen Kingdoms, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, and Five Dynasties). It was one of the largest historical magna opera in history. The book consisted of 294 chapters, of which the following number describe each respective dynastic era: 1.5 chapters - Zhou (1046-256 BC) 2.3 chapters - Qin (221-207 BC) 3.60 chapters - Han (206 BC-220 AD) 4.10 chapters - Wei (220-265) 5.40 chapters - Jin (265-420) 6.16 chapters - Liu Song (420-479) 7.10 chapters - Qi (479-502) 8.22 chapters - Liang (502-557) 9.10 chapters - Chen (557-589) 10.8 chapters - Sui (589-618 AD) 11.81 chapters - Tang (618-907) 12.6 chapters - Later Liang (907-923) 13.8 chapters - Later Tang (923-936) 14.6 chapters - Later Jin (936-947) 15.4 chapters - Later Han (947-951) 16.5 chapters - Later Zhou (951-960) The book includes volume 1 to 5 covering Zhou Dynasty among a series of books of Zi Zhi Tong Jian.

Zhou History Unearthed offers both a novel understanding of early Chinese historiography and a fully annotated translation of Xinian (String of Years), the most notable historical manuscript from the state of Chu. Yuri Pines details the importance of Xinian and other recently discovered texts for our understanding of history writing in Zhou China.

Sima Qian (145?-90? BCE) was the first major Chinese historian. His Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian, documents the history of China and its neighboring countries from the ancient past to his own time. These three volumes cover the Qin and Han dynasties.

The thousands of ritual bronze vessels discovered by China's archaeologists serve as the major documentary source for the Western Zhou dynasty (1045-771 B.C.). These vessels contain long inscriptions full of detail on subjects as diverse as the military history of the period, the bureaucratic structure of the royal court, and lawsuits among the gentry. Moreover, being cast in bronze, the inscriptions preserve exactly the contemporary script and language. Shaughnessy has written a meticulous and detailed work on the historiography and interpretation of these objects. By demonstrating how the inscriptions are read and interpreted, Shaughnessy makes accessible in English some of the most important evidence about life in ancient China.

The Cambridge History of Ancient China provides a survey of the institutional and cultural history of pre-imperial China.

Kao Gong Ji: The World’s Oldest Encyclopaedia of Technologies by Guan Zengjian and Konrad Herrmann offers an English translation of China’s first technological encyclopaedia. Commentaries show the extent to which the descriptions of the technologies correspond to archaeological findings.

Millions upon millions of salmon and steelhead once filled California streams, providing a plentiful and sustainable food resource for the original peoples of the region. But over the years, dams and irrigation diversions have reduced natural spawning habitat from an estimated 6,000 miles to fewer than 300. River pollution has also hit hard at fish populations, which within recent decades have diminished by 80 percent. One species, the San Joaquin River spring chinook, became extinct soon after World War II. Other species are nearly extinct. This volume documents the reasons for the decline; it also offers practical suggestions about how the decline might be reversed. The California salmon story is presented here in human perspective: its broad historical, economic, cultural, and political facets, as well as the biological, are all treated. No comparable work has ever been published, although some of the material has been available for half a century. In the richly varied contributions in this volume, the reader meets Indians whose history is tied to the history of the salmon and steelhead upon which they depend; commercial trollers who see their livelihood and unique lifestyle vanishing; biologists and fishery managers alarmed at the loss of river water habitable by fish and at the effects of hatcheries on native gene pools. Women who fish, conservation-minded citizens, foresters, economists, outdoor writers, engineers, politicians, city youth restoring streambeds—all are represented. Their lives—and the lives of all Californians—are affected in myriad ways by the fate of California's salmon and steelhead. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.