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

Sorcery Scare of 1768. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Larsen, Kirk W. Tradition, Treaties, and

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