This work by Oleg E. Nepomnin, a distinguished Sinologist, historian, theoretician and economist, looks at the way traditional Chinese ontological principles of social and state organisation were combined with modern “capitalist” growth principles and presents the author’s theory about the way traditional Chinese empire developed in a cyclical, dynastic fashion. Inscribing China into the global context, the author splits the Middle Kingdom’s continuous, multi-century history into eight basic cycles: Early Han, Late Han, then, some four centuries later, Tang, Sung, Ming, Qing, then Taiping and, finally, the eighth Maoist cycle which began in 1950 and is still unfolding. Addressing questions posed by generations of researchers before him, Dr Nepomnin convincingly argues in favour of his central tenet: that the linear forward movement, widely accepted as the core historical dynamic of Western Europe, does not quite apply to China.