This comprehensive history of the northern frontier of China through the first millennium B.C. details the formation of two increasingly distinct cultural areas: the sedentary Chinese and the northern nomads. Nicola Di Cosmo explores the tensions existing between these two worlds as they became progressively more polarized, with the eventual creation of the nomadic Hsiung-nu empire in the north, and of the Chinese empire in the south. Di Cosmo investigates the origins of the antagonism between early China and its "barbarian" neighbors. Table of contents Introduction Part I: 1. The Steppe Highway: the rise of Pastoral Nomadism as a Eurasian phenomenon; 2. Bronze, Iron and Gold: the evolution of nomadic cultures on the Northern frontier of China Part II: 3. Beasts and birds: the historical context of early Chinese perceptions of northern peoples; 4. Walls and horses: the beginning of historical contacts between horse-riding Nomads and Chinese states Part III: 5. Those who draw the bow: the rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the political unification of the Nomads; 6. >From peace to war: China's shift from appeasement to military engagement Part IV. 7. In search of grass and water: ethnography and history of the North in the Historian's Records; 8. Taming the North: the rationalization of the nomads in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's historical thought; Conclusion.