A memory of empire: the new past of old China -- The Yuan Dynasty and the Pax Mongolica -- The Ming Dynasty and the Pax Sinica -- The Qing Dynasty and the Pax Manjurica -- The proletarian dynasty of Chairman Mao -- The history of the world as China's own -- China's continent and the world city -- A peaceful rise and memories of violence -- The strange death of the Soviet empire -- The Chinese people are a heap of loose sand -- Rising China's grand design.