Classical Historiography for Chinese History

Records on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide in Western languages. Includes chapters in edited volumes, conference proceedings, etc. 1971+

One of two Chinese reference databases. Use in conjunction with Chinese Reference Online (Apabi). For details and contents, see the EAL pages.

Indexes for Chinese (and other language) periodicals and articles published in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau periodicals from 1853 to current; updated each quarter.

This database searches full-text versions of new (i.e., post-1949) local gazetteers, which are also browsable by region or topic. Pages are readable and downloadable in pdf form in some 6 million small parts by navigating through the Table of Contents (mulu), by clicking on “chakan yuanwen” (read original excerpt) or “xiazai yuanwen” (download original excerpt). You can also read through the complete gazetteers on line, by clicking on “zhengben yuedu” (reading full volume). More advanced searching (Boolean searching, fuzzy searching) is available, and you can narrow down results by using facets or adding refinements to your search (and clicking “search within results.”)

This database includes more than 2 million dissertations and theses, and hence is much larger than the history and literature (doctoral) dissertations and (master) theses parts of the CNKI equivalent previously available. Note that you can narrow down your results not only by using the topical and chronological facets, but also by typing within the tab-looking grey boxes on top of your results: e.g., by typing 北京大学 in the 学校 box.

More than 22 million full-text searchable articles, which are also browsable by topic or journal. Covered years are fewer than the China Academic journals database (most journals do not go back further than 2001), and page numbers are only visible when viewing the article itself, not in the index. Hence, searching CNKI’s China Academic Journals should be your first choice for finding articles; yet, with exclusive online contracts on the rise in China, some journals may be only available in one database and not the other. Again, you can narrow down your results not only by using the topical and chronological facets, but also by typing within the tab-looking grey boxes on top of your results: e.g., by typing 2003 to 2008 in the starting and concluding year boxes.

Searches more than 2 million conference papers. Also browsable by topic and then year. Although an extra function “full text only” is available, differences between “all” and “full-text only” seem to be minimal.

Searches some 500,000 entries. Special facets include currently valid versus discontinued distinctions, and refinement search boxes include issuing agency.