Two leading Russian sinologists, world-class scientists Alexey Bokshchanin and Oleg Nepomnin undertook to write a boring history of medieval China. So that, on the one hand, everything in the book is described academically precisely - events, heroes, details of everyday life - and on the other hand, so that it is exciting to read both for those who have long been interested in China and for those in whom this interest is just awakening. The result was a lively narrative, where there was a place for battles, and the struggle for power, and the details of court life with its ceremony, luxury, intrigue, harems, cuisine and costumes. A colorful picture unfolds before the reader, in the space of which emperors and usurpers of the throne, generals and eunuch ministers, rebels of all stripes, pirates, Jesuit missionaries, European travelers and other historical characters act.