孔乙己 and 歷史

I'm working my way through 魯迅 Lu Xun's 孔乙己 Kong Yiji. It's a short story written in 1919, well before 普通話 Putonghua had been standardised, so the going is a little tough sometimes. Here's the text if anyone's interested in reading. Here's a translation, and here's the Chinese-Forums discussion of the story from a few months ago when it was "Story of the month."

In other news, I've begun to get serious about reading Chinese History, so I'm amassing a collection of standard books to read through. I'm currently reading Treason by the Book by Jonathan D. Spence. It's my first Spence book and I'm enjoying it tremendously. I highly recommend it. Once I'm done with that (should finish this weekend), I'm going to start with the serious business of getting a good grasp of Chinese History. I'll be more or less following the order of books recommended in this thread at China History Forum.

General History

China: A Macrohistory
Ray Huang

The Cambridge Illustrated History of China
Patricia Buckley Ebrey

Imperial History

China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture
Charles O. Hucker

A History of Chinese Civilization
Jacques Gernet (translated from French)

Medieval Chinese Warfare, 300-900
David A. Graff

Imperial China 900-1800
Frederick W. Mote

Modern History

The Rise of Modern China
Immanuel Chung-Yueh Hsu

The Search for Modern China
Jonathan Spence

China: A New History
John King Fairbank, with a chapter by Merle Goldman

Cultural History (because I'm into that kind of thing)

Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilisation
Edited by Paul S. Ropp and Timothy Hugh Barrett

Now, I won't be reading every word of every page, since I believe that adds up to over 6000 pages. It will be more like reading for a class. Get the important bits and move on. I've also got others I'm going to add into the mix:

Cultural History

China's Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty 1644-1912
Richard J. Smith

Primary Sources (in translation)

Sources of Chinese Tradition Vols. I and II
Wm. Theodore de Bary

Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook
Patricia Buckley Ebrey

Historical Records
Sima Qian (Raymond Dawes, trans., Oxford World Classics)

The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection
Pei-kai Cheng, Michael Lestz, Jonathan Spence

Less "Textbooky" Books

God's Chinese Son
Jonathan Spence

Emperor of China
Jonathan Spence

Return to Dragon Mountain
Jonathan Spence

OK, so Half Price books had a bunch of Spence's books in great condition for only a few bucks each. I'm open to other recommendations for the "less textbooky" books. I figure those will be good for when I need a break from trudging through the heavier volumes. The books of primary sources will be used in conjunction with the other books. For instance, if I'm reading about the Tang Dynasty and want to dig a little deeper, I'll find the corresponding passages in de Bary or Ebrey.

I figure if I can get through this list (or at least reasonable chunks of it), I will have a good grounding in Chinese History should I decide to pursue that further in grad school (my specific research interests are still pretty unformed). It will also serve as a good background for any other topic I may end up studying, such as historical linguistics or literature.

開始！