This page brings together free online books, topic searches, audiobooks, and Open Access resources related to Chinese history, including dynasties, government, philosophy, warfare, trade, culture, and modern China. The materials range from older public domain works to modern scholarly studies.
The Topics section below helps readers find books and documents within the huge Internet Archive collection, which includes periodicals and other materials, from older historical works to recent publications. Each topic link generates an Internet Archive search focused on that subject. Browsing the topics and selecting those of interest is usually easier and more effective than searching Internet Archive directly.
Sections below Topics provide links to related audiobooks and modern Open Access books. See those sections for more information.
Topics – China and Chinese History Topics
The topic links below lead to Internet Archive search results related to the history and culture of China. Each link opens a books-and-documents search focused on a particular topic.
Search results generally include fully readable books, periodicals, and other documents. For some subjects, Internet Archive also contains other media, such as images, audio, or video files. These can be selected from the media options above the search results. Filters on the left side of Internet Archive pages can help narrow search results by year, language, or related subjects.
- China
- Africa
- Agriculture
- Antiquities
- Archaeology
- Art
- Asia
- Banking
- Beijing
- Belt and Road Initiative
- Bibliography
- Biography
- Buddhism
- Chinese
- Chinese Language
- Christianity
- Civilization
- Cold War
- Colonialism
- Commerce
- Communism
- Communist Party of China
- Confucianism
- Cooking
- Crime
- Culture
- Deng, Xiaoping, 1904-1997
- Description and Travel
- East Asia
- East China Sea
- Economic Conditions
- Economic Development
- Economic Policy
- Economics
- Education
- Europe
- Fairy Tales
- Families
- Fiction
- Folklore
- Foreign Policy
- Geography
- Geopolitics
- Great Wall
- Heads of State – Biography
- Historical Materialism
- History
- History – 1861-1912
- History – 1937-1945
- History – 1949-
- History – 1949-1976
- History – 1976-2002
- History – 19th Century
- History – 20th Century
- History – 221 B.C.-960 A.D.
- History – Boxer Rebellion, 1899-1901
- History – Chinese Literature
- History – Civil War, 1945-1949
- History – Civilization
- History – Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976
- History – Economic Conditions – 2000-
- History – Economic Policy – 1976-2000
- History – Economic Policy – 2000-
- History – Han Dynasty, 202 B.C-220 A.D.
- History – Long March – 1934-1935
- History – Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644
- History – Mongols
- History – Opium War, 1840-1842
- History – Politics and Government – 1912-1949
- History – Politics and Government – 1949-1976
- History – Politics and Government – 19th Century
- History – Politics and Government – 2002-
- History – Politics and Government – 20th Century
- History – Politics and Government – 21st Century
- History – Qin Dynasty, 221-207 B.C.
- History – Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912
- History – Republic, 1912-1949
- History – Revolution, 1911-1912
- History – Social Conditions
- History – Song Dynasty, 960-1279
- History – Taiping Rebellion, 1850-1864
- History – Tang Dynasty, 618-907
- History – Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989
- History – To 221 B.C.
- History – Warring States, 403-221 B.C.
- Hong Kong
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- Iran
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- Philosophers
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- Political Economy
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- Religion
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- Russia
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- Social Conditions
- Social Conditions – 1976-2000
- Social Life and Customs
- Social Policy
- Socialism
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- Taiwan
- Taoism
- Tibet
- Tourism
- Transportation
- Travel
- United States
- Voyages and Travels
- Warfare
- Women
- World War, 1914-1918
- World War, 1939-1945
- Yuan
China Audio Books Free Online
These audiobook links lead to public domain recordings from LibriVox at Internet Archive. The books recorded by Librivox volunteers were nearly all published before 1930. Recordings include Chinese history, novels and stories set in China, books about philosophy and politics, and books in Chinese languages.
All Librivox audiobooks are free and can be streamed online or downloaded for offline listening.
Open Access China History and Society Books PDF Free Download
The Open Access books and other materials below are modern works made freely available online by universities, academic publishers, the Library of Congress, and other organizations. Many reflect current scholarship and research.
Some works may only be read online, but many can also be downloaded as PDF or EPUB files.
- Books on China Politics and Government at OAPEN
- China Sociology Culture and Society Books at OAPEN
- China History Books at OAPEN
- China Culture and Education Books at OAPEN
- China Social and Culture History Books at OAPEN
- China Politics and International Relations Books at OAPEN
- China Political Science and Politics Books at OAPEN
- China Society and Social Sciences Books at OAPEN
- China Economic Growth Books at OAPEN
- China Language and Linguistics Books at OAPEN
- China Politics and Political Economy Books at OAPEN
- Chinese Environmental Science, Engineering and Technology Books at OAPEN
- Chinese Higher Education, Tertiary Education Books at OAPEN
- China Economy Business and Management Books at OAPEN
Related Pages on Century Past
See our Century Past directories for hundreds of webpages of Books; Magazines; Articles, maps, & photos; and Newspapers. You’ll find the same directories on the top Menu. Here are a few suggested pages: