Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Middle Kingdom | 1989 | David Wingrove | Buy |
| 2 | The Broken Wheel | 1990 | David Wingrove | Buy |
| 3 | The White Mountain | 1991 | David Wingrove | Buy |
| 4 | The Stone Within | 1992 | David Wingrove | Buy |
| 5 | Beneath the Tree of Heaven | 1993 | David Wingrove | Buy |
| 6 | White Moon, Red Dragon | 1994 | David Wingrove | Buy |
| 7 | Days of Bitter Strength | 1995 | David Wingrove | Buy |
| 8 | The Marriage of the Living Dark | 1997 | David Wingrove | Buy |
The original Chung Kuo series by David Wingrove ran eight books from 1989 to 1997, with one volume arriving almost every year across that span. The sequence opens with The Middle Kingdom and closes with The Marriage of the Living Dark, with titles like The Stone Within, White Moon, Red Dragon, and Days of Bitter Strength filling the middle of the run.
This is a continuous story rather than a loosely connected series, so reading in order from The Middle Kingdom is essential. Each book picks up where the previous one left off, and the arc across all eight volumes builds toward the conclusion in The Marriage of the Living Dark (1997). Readers who have not yet started should note that a later, expanded recasting of the series also exists.