Books on China

[frogbeastegg]

I'm looking for some books on ancient and medieval China so can anyone recommend some? I am practically a beginner in this area so if you can put forward some good introductory books as well as some mid level ones I would be happy.

The period I am most interested in is 1500BC - 1500AD.

My current library on this subject consists of:
Ancient Chinese armies 1500-200 BC
Imperial Chinese armies 1 200BC - 589AD
Imperial Chinese armies 2 590 - 1260
All of these books are from Osprey and are written by Chris Peers.
I also have Emperor: Rise of the middle kingdom if that counts (For those who don't know it is the latest city building game from Sierra and it covers this period of history)

[redrooster]

you can try to look for an english translation(if there is one) of "Shi Ji" by Sima Qian. I think he was the only credible source for Pre-Han dynasty history although some consider him to be too harsh on Qin Shih Huang for personal reasons.
There is another detailing several campaigns by chinese emperors against Hunnic and mongolian tribes which seemed rather interesting, try to find the title for you

[Red Peasant]

I'm no expert on Chinese history, but I found this book informative and readable:

Medieval Chinese Warfare: 300-900, by David Graff (Routledge, 2001), a well regarded tome by all accounts and Routledge have record of publishing decent historical material.

[frogbeastegg]

Thanks for the recommendations, I looked them up on Amazon.uk with mixed results. I found a copy of Shi Ji but it was a French translation of the Chinese original I could translate the title but I think I would find the rest of the book a struggle. Medieval Chinese Warfare was quite promising but it was out of stock, I shall look back in a few days and see if it is back in stock.