An excellent volume that opens the doors of the closed room that this period in Chinese history is for most non-specialists. Professor Dien covers the period's history, cities, architecture, tombs, religions, material culture, (including armour and weapons), and other aspects of daily life in a highly informative and readable style. It includes both Pinyin and Chinese characters for those who read Chinese, but is not pretentious nor overly-academic in its approach. And the black & white line drawings and illustrations are superb and very helpful (just one example: an illustration of the Northern Qi tomb figurines from just one tomb showing the diversity of dress, headgear and jewellery of the period). I've recommended this book to the students and docents I work with, all of whom have praised it in turn. Don't skip over the very informative notes (which unfortunately are at the back of the book; be sure to read them in tandem with the text), and the list of resources is enough to keep anyone on the right research path for years. ( )