Splendors of Imperial China

"The collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei is made up largely of the personal holdings of the Ch’ien-lung emperor (reigned 1736-95). Representing the artistic legacy of imperial China, the collection offers an unsurpassed view of Chinese civilization. The objects lavishly illustrated and described in this book are among the finest ever created, and include magnificent ritual bronzes, precious jades, monumental landscape paintings, and exquisite ceramics. This volume takes the reader through the most significant periods of Chinese culture: its foundations in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, its flowering in the sophisticated world of the Sung dynasty, its exuberance during the Ming, and its technical brilliance under the Manchus. 144 pages, 122 full-color illustrations, 9 in. x 12 in. Paper." (text taken from metmuseum.org)