An essential and very readable resource for conlangers and writers who want to create a non-European world, and anyone who wants to know more about our planet's leading civilization. A concise but meaty overview of the history, philosophy, and literature of China, and much more: clothing, architecture, technology, cosmology, medicine, cuisine, and more. Plus grammatical sketches of both Mandarin and Old Chinese, and a discussion of the writing system. The history and literature sections are written for people interested in the Chinese languages, with key terms in both pinyin and hanzi.