In recent years, scholars have successfully challenged the perception that Chinese civilization, especially in its early phase, existed in isolation with little or no influence from other regions of the world. Similarly, the passive role of Chinese dynasties in their interactions with neighboring societies, emphasized in earlier studies, also has come under serious scrutiny. Taking these recent analyses into account, this book offers a radically revised view of China's past, demonstrating the importance of cross-cultural interactions in shaping Chinese history form the earliest times to the middle of the fifteenth century. It shows how the cross-cultural linkages established by traders, missionaries, immigrants, military and diplomatic missions, and other travelers transformed Chinese society in fundamental ways. It also illustrates the important role of Chinese dynasties in cross-regional and cross-continental networks and their role in influencing societies far distant from the Central Plains, the area around the Yellow River that would later become the nucleus of China.