Early Qing (1644-1799) Teacher Resource Guide East Asia National Resource Center By Kelly Hammond
Mar 26, 2016
Early Qing (1644-1799)
Teacher Resource Guide
East Asia National Resource Center
By Kelly Hammond
The Qing Dynasty The Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) was the last
imperial dynasty to rule China. The
Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan, later known as
the Manchus, founded the dynasty. The
Manchus came from beyond the Great
Wall, hailing from Manchuria in
Northeastern China. By the late sixteenth
century, the leader of the Aisin Gioro clan,
a man named Nurhachi, was putting
together a large army consisting of various
semi-nonadic tribes and clans that lived
beyond the Great Wall. These groups grew
tired of paying tribute to the ailing Ming,
who offered them nothing in return for
their vassalage. By 1635, Nurhachi’s son,
Hong Taiji had united such groups under
his leadership. It was only then that these
disparate groups of semi-nomadic peoples
truly came together under the name
Manchu. They began fighting their way
south, pushing the Ming army completely
out of southern Manchuria.
Map of the Ming Dynasty.
Source: The Art of Asia
Map of the Qing Dynasty.
Source: The Art of Asia
Some rather fortuitous events paved the
way for the Manchus to take control of
China and establish the Qing Dynasty. The
Manchus were not the only ones who were
disgruntled with poor Ming
administration at the end of the dynasty.
Li Zicheng had also organized a large
peasant army that sacked Beijing in 1644
(see the Ming Dynasty resource guide).
The Ming emperor Chongzhen hung
himself rather than surrendering to the
rebels and Li proclaimed the short-lived
Shun dynasty. The Manchus seized an
opportunity and with the help of Ming
general Wu Sangui, they passed through
an opening in the Great Wall at
Shanhaiguan, quickly taking control of
Beijing from Li Zicheng and his
undisciplined peasant army. It took a
while for the Manchus to consolidate their
power, and between 1644 and 1683, the
Qing emperors went on numerous
pacification campaigns to defeat the Ming
loyalists and incorporate new territories
into their empire.
Throughout their reign, the Qing
integrated and acculturated themselves to
the mainstream Chinese culture. Many of
the bureaucratic institutions, such as the
imperial examination system, were
maintained. Yet, the Qing rulers also
instituted their own bureaucratic changes
to ensure that they stay in power.
The last emperor Puyi. Source: Chinese Culture
The eighteenth century is known as the
“High Qing” period. Under the Qianlong
Emperor (r. 1735-1795), the dynasty
achieved its cultural, diplomatic, and
military height. However, corruption,
rebellions, and natural disasters, coupled
with unprecedented population growth
and the arrival of newly aggressive
European imperialist powers made it
extremely difficult for the Qing to
maintain control over their massive
empire. By the early twentieth century, the
Qing were in a precarious position and in
the end were not able to adapt and reform
in a meaningful way. In February 1912, the
last emperor of China, the young Puyi,
abdicated, bringing an end to imperial
rule in China.
Because so many changes occurred in
China during the Qing Dynasty, the
module is broken into two sections: early
Qing and late Qing. The first module
follows the course of the Qing until the
death of the Qianlong Emperor. The
second module picks up at the beginning
of the tumultuous nineteenth century.
Prior to the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan
Dynasty ruled China. Kublai Khan, the
grandson of Genghis Khan, established the
Yuan Dynasty in 1271. Yet, most Chinese
considered the Mongols to be uncivilized
and unfit to govern China. In less than one
hundred years, a man named Zhu
Yuanzhang led a revolt that put an end to
Mongol rule.
The Ming-Qing Transition and the
Manchus There were numerous factors that
precipitated the Ming-Qing transition. In
order to understand the Qing properly, it
is important to look not only at when they
came to power, but also how they came to
power. As noted, the Manchus resembled
a confederation in that they were made up
of nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples
who lived beyond the Great Wall were
ethically different from the Han Chinese.
By 1619, they were discontented with
essentially being a vassal state of the Ming.
The Manchus, under the charismatic
leadership of a Jurchen clan leader
Nurhaci, organized themselves into an
effective and loyal military, which then
became the Manchu Eight Banner Army
(see below). However, the Manchus’
victory over the Ming cannot solely be
explained by the former’s military prowess.
By the time the Manchus were organizing
beyond the Great Wall, Ming China was in
economic ruins and plagued by internal
rebellions.
Manchu writing system. Source: Chinese Culture
The economic crisis in the last years of the
Ming Dynasty was centered on a sudden
shortage of silver. As Philip IV of Spain
cracked down on illegal smuggling from
Mexico and Peru across the Pacific, and
Tokugawa Japan slowed their exports of
silver to almost a halt, China was in a
serious bind. The single-whip tax reform
(see the Ming Dynasty resource guide)
meant that all taxes were paid in silver,
and with no silver flowing into the empire,
the price of silver skyrocketed. As this led
to serious inflation, people and provinces
were unable to pay their taxes to the
central government. The value of copper
also plummeted. This had adversely
affected peasants, who had to pay their
taxes in silver but conducted the majority
of their daily business in copper. Peasants
became increasingly disgruntled because
they could neither pay their taxes nor buy
basic necessities for living. The recession
was also exacerbated by severe famines
that plagued northern China in the
seventeenth century. These famines were
caused by crop failures owing to unusually
dry and cold weather. Historians and
scientists now call this ecological event the
“Little Ice Age.” Famine, alongside tax
increases, widespread military desertions,
a declining government supported relief
system, and natural disasters such as
flooding, caused starvation, destitution,
and the loss of normal civility. The central
government faced severe shortage of
resources and could do very little to
mitigate the effects of these calamities.
It was in this context that the Manchus
rose to power. Nurhaci saw the weakness
of the Ming and knew that he could
capitalize on it. In 1618, Nurhaci
announced his Seven Grievances to the
Ming Court and led an attack on a Ming
garrison town. The Ming struck back but
Nurhaci’s northern armies defeated them.
This escalated tensions between the Ming
forces and the Manchus, resulting in a
series of battles between them over the
next ten years. During this time, Nurhaci
died and his son Hong Taiji succeeded
him. The Manchus also defeated the Ming
Dynasty’s long-time ally Joseon Korea and
forced the Koreans to renounce their
loyalty to the Ming.
The Manchu Qing state under the very
capable leadership of Hong Taiji
continued their aggressive attacks on the
ailing Ming. However, when Hong Taiji
died suddenly without having named an
heir, the Manchus suffered a temporary
setback; a council was convened to decide
on a successor and Hong Taiji’s son Fulin
was chosen. Because Fulin was only five
years old at the time, a popular military
leader Dorgon was appointed as regent.
Dorgon, who was a very skilled and
capable general, eventually led the
Manchus to victory over the Ming.
Qing mandated Queue haircut.
Source: China Mike
Entering China proper through the Great
Wall at Shanhaiguan with the help of Ming
general Wu Snagui, the Manchus
approached Beijing to capture it from Li
Zicheng in June 1644. They easily defeated
Li Zicheng’s untrained peasant army. In
newly occupied Beijing, Hong Taiji’s
young son Fulin was enthroned as the first
Qing Emperor Shunzi (r. 1644-1661), with
Dorgon continuing to play an important
role as regent.
The Southern Ming There were a few problems that plagued
the new Qing Dynasty. First, Li Zicheng
had escaped, so Wu Sangui was sent out to
capture Li and bring him back to Beijing.
Nevertheless, Li got away again and made
it as far as Xi’an, where he re-established
himself as emperor, though it was very
short lived. After quelling some smaller
rebellions, Dorgon sent a large army to get
rid of Li once and for all. In the fall of 1645,
Li was killed and his followers dispersed.
Second, some remained loyal to the Ming
and refused the Qing rule. On hearing the
news of the Chongzhen Emperor’s suicide,
many Han officials in Nanjing debated
over how to handle the crisis. It was
decided that a new Ming Emperor should
be proclaimed in order to rally support for
the Ming. They decided on the young and
rather naïve Prince of Fu, who was quickly
enthroned as the Hongguang Emperor.
However, the prince’s inability to rally
supporters, coupled with massive
corruption and political bickering,
prevented the Ming loyalists from
consolidating power in the way that they
had hoped. The Qing forces arrived to
quash the Southern Ming and the
Hongguang Emperor escaped to the south.
However, it did not take long for the Qing
forces to find and capture him. Slowly, the
Qing consolidated their power and began
to round up the remaining Ming loyalists
and execute them. Wu Sangui caught the
final vestiges of the Ming imperial family
in Burma in 1662.
The Eight Banners Under the Manchus, China’s military
families were administered in military
divisions called the Eight Banners. Some
of the banners represented old lineage or
tribal connections, while others separated
and segregated groups that were known to
cause trouble. For instance, there were
many Mongols in the Banners, but early
on they were dispersed among the
different banners as the Manchus wished
to prevent them from becoming too
powerful and mounting a coup. Nurhaci
developed the banner system based on old
military formations that the Mongols used.
Nurhaci reorganized the military into
groups that are similar to today’s military
units. They are named the “banners”
because each unit was associated with a
military flag and attire of specific color.
Eight banner flags and regalia.
Source: Taipei Times
The banners were unique in that they were
ethnically diverse, consisting mostly of
Manchus, Mongols, and Han Chinese.
Once the Qing defeated the Ming, they
created and established four fully Chinese
banners, and then added four more a few
years later. The Mongols also joined.
When the Qing Dynasty solidified its
power, they further institutionalized the
Banner system, standardizing ranks and
determining salaries. As a result, the Eight
Banners became a sort of hereditary
military caste. Although the banners were
instrumental in the Qing’s victory over the
Ming, their military technology began to
lag behind western powers in later years.
Moreover, since their positions were
hereditary and firmly institutionalized,
many lost their martial spirit and became
lethargic. Some scholars partially blame
the inadaptability and laziness of the
banners on some of the later losses that
the Qing faced, especially in the mid-to-
late nineteenth century.
Kangxi’s Consolidation
The Kangxi Emperor’s sixty-one year rule
(r. 1661-1722) lasted longer than that of
any other Chinese emperor. He is also
recognized as one of the most talented
emperors in Chinese history despite his
Manchu origin. Kangxi assumed the
throne at the age of eight when his father,
the Shunzhi Emperor, died. Unlike the
earlier reign of the regent Dorgon, the
Shunzhi emperor appointed a four-person
council to assist the Kangxi Emperor in his
transition to power. However, over time,
one of the regents named Oboi gained
political strength and his conservative
views brought him to blows with the
young Kangxi emperor. In 1669, the
fifteen-year old Emperor tricked Oboi and
had the regent imprisoned, solidifying his
power base and demonstrating to others
that he was serious about ruling as well as
his authority. Kangxi’s reign brought
about long-term stability and relative
wealth to the Qing Dynasty after years of
chaos.
The Kangxi Emperor.
Source: Royal Academy of Arts
As China’s vastness proved difficult to
govern, the Qing appointed three Ming
generals, including Wu Sangui, to be in
charge of the southern provinces. These
areas soon turned against the Qing and
Kangxi was forced to send armies to
suppress rebellions and reclaim the
southern provinces. Kangxi’s troops were
also caught up in multiple border
skirmishes with the expanding Russian
Empire along the Amur River in
Manchuria. In these battles, the Qing
forces claimed victory against the
Russians. However, the Russians attacked
the Qing again in the 1680s along China’s
northern frontier. After a series of battles,
both sides agreed to sign the Treaty of
Nerchinsk in 1689, setting fixed borders
along the Amur. This was the first
Western-style treaty signed by the Qing,
and also the first time that they had ever
dealt with a foreign power on equal
grounds. The treaty was negotiated by the
Jesuits and written in Manchu, Chinese,
Russian, and Latin.
Palace Memorials.
Source: National Palace Museum
Kangxi is recognized as not only the great
consolidator of the Qing Dynasty, but also
as one of China’s most adept emperors. He
was a workaholic, rising early and retiring
late, and reading and personally
responding to important messages
submitted by his officials. Furthermore,
Kangxi developed a system called palace
memorials to hold the Han bureaucrats in
check because he considered them to be
tedious and inefficient. This system
involved the direct transfer of secret
messages—sometimes written in
Manchu—between Kangxi and his trusted
officials.
The Qianlong Emperor
The Qianlong Emperor was the grandson
of the famous Kangxi Emperor. He
reigned from 1735 to 1796, although he did
not die until 1799. He abdicated in favor of
his son, the Jiaqing Emperor, in a filial
gesture so as not to rule longer than his
lauded grandfather. Like his grandfather,
Qianlong was very capable in marital arts,
horseback riding, and was also very
interested in literature and cultural
activities. He was a major patron of the
arts, as both a collector and a funder of
massive architectural and artistic projects.
Moreover, Qianlong was a passionate poet
and a talented essayist. His admiration for
the arts and literature led him to assemble
a massive collection of Chinese art.
Qianlong was also a keen architect and
builder. He expanded many of the villas
built by his father and grandfather. He
was fond of European styles and invited
an Italian Jesuit, Guiseppe Castiglione, to
paint and help him decorate his palaces.
He also had another Jesuit design a series
of Western-style fountains for his family.
All these projects were not cheap.
Additionally, like his grandfather,
Qianlong went on expensive and time-
consuming imperial campaigns and tours,
leaving palace ministers to deal with the
daily affairs of the palace. This led to
increased expenditures as well as
embezzlement of imperial funds and
corruption. The massive construction
projects that Qianlong undertook, along
with his costly wars to pacify the south
and expand the empire into Xinjiang,
meant that by the end of his reign the
Qing coffers were nearly empty.
The Qianlong Emperor in court dress.
Source: Palace Museum, Beijing
Qianlong proved himself as a skilled
military leader, successfully suppressing
numerous rebellions. He also greatly
expanded the territory controlled by the
Qing on numerous campaigns that he
personally led. His successes were
admirable, but were also made easier by
the disunity and fragmentation at the time
in Central Asia. He was able to play
different powers off of each other and
completely annihilate the long-time rivals
of the Manchus, the Zhunghar Mongols.
He also asserted control over Tibet,
sending armies to subdue and assert
suzerainty over the region. Qianlong also
tried to conquer Burma and Vietnam,
though his campaigns in the region were
not successful. Overall, Qianlong’s military
expansion nearly doubled the size of the
already large Chinese empire, bringing
many non-Han Chinese, such as the
Uyghurs, the Kazakhs, the Mongols, and
the Tibetans, into the imperial fold.
Qianlong on a hunting trip.
Source: Giuseppe Castiglione
Chengde: Assertions of
Imperial Authority The Qianlong Emperor loved to hunt and
spent a lot of time north of the Great Wall
close to his ancestral homeland in
Manchuria. In order to spend more time
in the north and to show his imperial
prowess, Qianlong ordered the
construction of the extended imperial
palace at Rehe (now Chengde), which is
located about three hours north of Beijing
by train. In 1703, the Kangxi Emperor
chose Rehe as the location for his summer
palace. Since Beijing is extremely hot and
humid in the summers, most emperors
liked to escape the city and head north.
Because the seat of government followed
the emperor, Rehe was a political center of
the Chinese empire during these times.
Chengde Imperial Palace.
Source: CTS China Guide
In 1703, the Qing began to build a massive
palatial mountain resort, which was
completed in 1790. The whole resort
covered an area of approximately
5,640,000 square meters and is
considered to be the largest royal garden
in China. As Qianlong expanded his
imperial authority over the vast territory
that came to encompass the Chinese
empire, he wanted to show this his power
in new ways. At Rehe, the Emperor had a
temple, loosely based on the Potala temple
in Lhasa, to show his reverence for
Tibetan Buddhism but also to show that
he had the capabilities to build a temple
much like the one in Lhasa. Qianlong also
built other temples and a large park
complex with man-made lakes and
beautiful pagodas. Today, the Imperial
Palace at Rehe is a UNESCO world
heritage site and a popular tourist
destination.
The Xumifushou Temple located north of the
Chengde Mountain Resort. Source: China.org.cn
Economy and Society in the Qing
One of the most noteworthy social trends
in early and mid-Qing history is
population growth. The population
doubled in China during the eighteenth
century and people began to migrate at
unprecedented rates. The dramatic rise in
population was due to several reasons: the
long period of peace and stability in the
eighteenth century and the import of new
crops—peanuts, sweet potatoes, and
maize—to China from the Americas. It has
been reported that the empire's rapidly
expanding population was geographically
mobile on a scale that was unprecedented
in Chinese history. Indeed, the Qing
government did far more to encourage
mobility than to discourage it. Migration
took several different forms, though it
could be divided in two varieties:
permanent migration for resettlement and
relocation conceived by the party (in
theory at least) as a temporary sojourn.
Parties to the latter included the empire's
increasingly large and mobile manual
workforce.
By the late seventeenth century, the
economy that had been in chaos since the
end of the Ming Dynasty was beginning to
recover. In the centuries that followed,
markets continued to expand, but
increased trade with different regions
resulted in a growing Chinese dependence
on overseas markets. In the first half of
the seventeenth century, the Qing
exported tea, silk, and other manufactured
goods while importing little from the West.
Yet, during the second half of the
eighteenth century, this favorable trade
balance for Qing shifted in the opposite
direction, as the British began to export
the highly addictive drug opium to China
(see late Qing module for more
information on opium). Finally, the Qing
took measures to expand and broaden
land ownership, and tried to provide tax
incentives to people who participated in
the marketization and commercialization
of the economy, mostly by reducing taxes
and eliminating the corvée labor system.
Managing Foreigners: Jesuits
in the Qing Court Jesuits who played an important role in
the Ming court continued to do so in the
Qing court. Although the Qing did not let
the Jesuits proselytize, they did value
them for the scientific and technical
knowledge they brought from the West.
The Jesuits also spent a lot of time
learning Chinese, and by the Qing they
were integral members of the court life,
bringing information from the West and
translating it into Chinese. The Jesuits
then transferred information and
knowledge about China back to the West.
For example, they were the first to
translate the Confucian classical texts, as
well as books on Chinese medicinal
practices, into European languages. The
Jesuits acted as the conduit of knowledge
being exchanged between the East and the
West.
In the Qing court, the most influential
Jesuit was a German priest named Johann
Adam Schall (1591-1666). He taught math
and contributed to the development of a
more precise Chinese astronomical
calendar under the Shunzhi Emperor. The
Jesuits were also instrumental in mapping
and surveying China, travelling the empire
and making maps for the Qing. However,
not everything was easy for the Jesuits
under the Qing. Although some priests did
manage to gain the favor of the new
Manchu leaders, others were imprisoned
or expelled from Beijing.
Jesuits in China.
Source: New World Encyclopedia.
Managing Foreigners:
Macartney in the Qing Court
Although the Qing allowed certain Jesuits
in the court, they were not interested in
allowing foreign merchants to trade in the
capital. They were satisfied enough with
keeping the foreigners in Macao (near
Hong Kong) and Canton, and using these
southern entrepôts that were far from the
capital for trading. However, under
mounting pressures from the West in the
mid-eighteenth century, Qianlong faced
the ever-persistent Westerners who
wished to trade with his large and
burgeoning empire. Yet, Qianlong lacked
experience interacting with foreign
kingdoms and failed to engage with the
Europeans in ways that they wanted him
to interact with them. Viewing itself as the
Middle Kingdom, the Qing believed that
foreigners should pay tribute and obey
Chinese protocols if they wanted to trade
with the empire. It was in this context that
the debacle of the British visit to the Qing
court by George Macartney unfolded.
Artistic depiction of Qianlong’s first meeting with
MacCartney. Source: British Library’s Collection
of Western Drawings
Macartney requested an audience with
Qianlong as a representative of King
George III in the early 1790s to see if they
could expand their trading networks in
China beyond Canton. Under the Canton
System, the Europeans were restricted in
their formal trade to an island of Canton
and all trade needed to go through
appointed Chinese merchants known as
Hongs. This system was purposefully
restrictive and the Qing wanted it that way.
Macartney wanted an audience with
Qianlong, but did not observe proper
imperial protocol, which baffled some of
the Qing officials. Regardless, Qianlong
agreed to meet with him. The embassy was
ultimately not successful in its objective of
securing better trade relations with the
Qing. Some believe that this was the case
because Qianlong was angry at Macartney
for not kowtowing (to bow in full
prostration) when he met the emperor.
However, it was more of a case of two men
differing in worldviews and being unable
to reach a compromise for a mutually
agreeable solution. Some historians argue
that the Macartney mission was a massive
failure that showed how little the
Westerners really understood the Chinese
empire and its power in Asia.
Cartoon of the Macartney Mission.
Source: James Gillray, 1792
Useful Websites BBC History: The Opium War: when the British invaded China http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/20428167 CCTV 9 English Documentary about Nurhaci http://english.cntv.cn/program/documentary/special/nurhaci/index.shtml
Chinese government source on the Qing Dynasty http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/qing.htm Chinese History Library from the Fairbank Center http://www.cnd.org/fairbank/qing.html Explanation about Manchu writing system developed by Nurhaci http://www.omniglot.com/writing/manchu.htm Eye witness history—a Prisoner of the Boxer Rebellion http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/boxer.htm Fordham University History Sourcebook: Primary Sources Online http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/eastasia/eastasiasbook.asp#Imperial China Historical maps of China from the University of Texas http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_china.html List of the Qing Emperor http://web.mit.edu/shou/www/china/qing.html Minneapolis Institute of Art website: Qing Dynasty Art http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-ching.cfm MIT Visualizing Cultures: The First Sino-Japanese War http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/throwing_off_asia_02/ MIT Visualizing Cultures: The First Opium War http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/opium_wars_01/ow1_essay01.html Mount Holyoke Site about the Manchu Dynasty explaining the history of the Dynasty and their relationship to the Mongols
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~aycui/manchus.htm Paintings from Qianlong’s Southern Inspection Tours http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/41493?img=9 Recording the grandeur of the Qing—a site about the Qing from Columbia University http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/emperors/ http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/other/t_index.htm The first Sino-Japanese War from Princeton University http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/First_Sino-Japanese_War.html The Southern Expeditions of Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/features.php?searchterm=009_expeditions.inc&issue=009
Suggestions for Further Reading
Adshead, S.A.M. China in World History.
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Benedict, Carol. Bubonic Plague in
Nineteenth-Century China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
_________. “Policing the Sick: Plague and
the Origins of State Medicine in Late Imperial China,” Late Imperial China 14 (1993): 60-77.
Benite, Zvi Ben-Dor. The Dao of Muhammad:
A Cultural History of Muslims in Late Imperial China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Berger, Patrica. Empire of Emptiness:
Buddhist are and political authority in Qing Imperial Institutions. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
Bernhardt, Kathryn and Philip Huang. Civil
Law in Qing and Republican China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994.
Bray, Francesca. Technology and Gender:
Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997.
Chang, Michael. A court on horseback:
imperial touring and the construction of Qing rule, 1680-1785. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Chin Shunshin. The Taiping Rebellion. Trans.
Joshua Fogel. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001.
Cohen, Paul A. China and Christianity; the
Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Anti-foreignism, 1860-1870. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
Crossley, Pamela Kyle. The Wobbling Pivot:
China Since 1800, An Interpretive History. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Crossley, Pamela Kyle. A Translucent Mirror:
History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999.
Crossley, Pamela, Helen Sui, and Donald
Sutton, eds. Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity and Frontier in Early Modern China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005.
Ebrey, Patricia, and James Watson, eds.
Kinship Organizations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986.
Elliot, Mark. The Manchu Way: The Eight
Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.
Elman, Benjamin. A Cultural History of civil
Examinations in Late Imperial China.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.
Elman, Benjamin. A Cultural History of
Modern Science in China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Fairbank, John K. Trade and Diplomacy on
the China Coast: The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842-1854. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1964.
Gunder Frank, Andre. ReOrient: Global
Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.
Harrell, Stevan ed. Cultural encounters on
China’s Ethnic Frontiers. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1995.
Herman, John E. Amid the Clouds and Mist:
China’s Colonization of Guizhou, 1200-1700. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Hostetler, Laura. Qing Colonial Enterprise:
Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Howland, Douglas. Borders of Chinese
Civilization: Geography and History at Empire’s End. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1996.
Huang, Philip C. The Peasant Family and
Rural Development in the Yangzi Delta, 1350-1988. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990.
Judge, Joan. Print and Politics: 'Shibao' and
the Culture of Reform in Late Qing China, Studies of the East Asian Institute. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Kuhn, Philip A. “Toward a Nineteenth
Century.” Late Imperial China. 29 (2008): 1-6.
Kuhn, Philip. Rebellion and Its Enemies in
Late Imperial China, Militarization and Social Structure, 1796-1864. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Kuhn, Philip. Soulstealers: The Chinese
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