Rachel Harris
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262979
- eISBN:
- 9780191734717
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262979.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
The Sibe are an immigrant group, Qing dynasty bannermen who made a three-year ‘long march’ from Manchuria in the 18th century to serve as a border garrison in the newly conquered Western Regions of ...
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The Sibe are an immigrant group, Qing dynasty bannermen who made a three-year ‘long march’ from Manchuria in the 18th century to serve as a border garrison in the newly conquered Western Regions of the Qing Chinese empire. They preserved their military structure and a discrete identity in the multi-ethnic region of Xinjiang and are now officially recognised as an ethnic minority nationality under the People's Republic. They are known in China today as the last speakers of the Manchu language, and as preservers of their ancient traditions. This study of their music culture reveals not fossilised tradition but a shifting web of borrowings, assimilation, and retention. It is an informed account of culture and performance in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. The book approaches musical and ritual life in this ethnically diverse region through an understanding of society in terms of negotiation, practice, and performance. It explores the relations between shamanism, song, and notions of externality and danger, bringing recent theories on shamanism to bear on questions of the structural and affective powers of ritual music. The book focuses on the historical demands of identity, boundary maintenance, and creation among the Sibe, and on the role of musical performance in maintaining popular memory, and it discusses the impact of state policies of the Chinese Communist Party on village musical and ritual life. It draws on a wide range of Chinese, Sibe-Manchu language sources, and oral sources including musical recordings and interviews gathered in the course of fieldwork in Xinjiang.Less
The Sibe are an immigrant group, Qing dynasty bannermen who made a three-year ‘long march’ from Manchuria in the 18th century to serve as a border garrison in the newly conquered Western Regions of the Qing Chinese empire. They preserved their military structure and a discrete identity in the multi-ethnic region of Xinjiang and are now officially recognised as an ethnic minority nationality under the People's Republic. They are known in China today as the last speakers of the Manchu language, and as preservers of their ancient traditions. This study of their music culture reveals not fossilised tradition but a shifting web of borrowings, assimilation, and retention. It is an informed account of culture and performance in the Chinese region of Xinjiang. The book approaches musical and ritual life in this ethnically diverse region through an understanding of society in terms of negotiation, practice, and performance. It explores the relations between shamanism, song, and notions of externality and danger, bringing recent theories on shamanism to bear on questions of the structural and affective powers of ritual music. The book focuses on the historical demands of identity, boundary maintenance, and creation among the Sibe, and on the role of musical performance in maintaining popular memory, and it discusses the impact of state policies of the Chinese Communist Party on village musical and ritual life. It draws on a wide range of Chinese, Sibe-Manchu language sources, and oral sources including musical recordings and interviews gathered in the course of fieldwork in Xinjiang.
Pär Kristoffer Cassel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199792054
- eISBN:
- 9780199932573
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199792054.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History, World Modern History
This chapter charts the evolution of jurisdiction over foreigners in Qing China from the late nineteenth century through the Sino-British “Chefoo Convention” of 1876, which was the last British ...
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This chapter charts the evolution of jurisdiction over foreigners in Qing China from the late nineteenth century through the Sino-British “Chefoo Convention” of 1876, which was the last British treaty to deal with extraterritoriality to any large extent before the turn of the century. Prior to the Opium War, the Qing Empire granted foreigners far more legal autonomy than the contemporary Ottoman Empire did under the “Capitulations,” a series of treaties between the Sublime Porte and Western nations, which were concluded from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries.Less
This chapter charts the evolution of jurisdiction over foreigners in Qing China from the late nineteenth century through the Sino-British “Chefoo Convention” of 1876, which was the last British treaty to deal with extraterritoriality to any large extent before the turn of the century. Prior to the Opium War, the Qing Empire granted foreigners far more legal autonomy than the contemporary Ottoman Empire did under the “Capitulations,” a series of treaties between the Sublime Porte and Western nations, which were concluded from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries.
Pamela Kyle Crossley
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520215665
- eISBN:
- 9780520928848
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520215665.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter describes the rulership that functioned during the Qing Empire. It notes that the empire is considered to have been founded by, controlled by, or given a certain political and cultural ...
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This chapter describes the rulership that functioned during the Qing Empire. It notes that the empire is considered to have been founded by, controlled by, or given a certain political and cultural cast by, the Manchus in the early seventeenth century. The chapter explains that during the eighteenth century, the Qing reached its height of political control over Manchuria, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, and China, as well as the states recognizing Qing superiority in the system of court visitation, sometimes called the tributary system. It adds that this golden age was represented in the rile of the Qianlong emperor, the most “Confucian,” “sinified,” or simply grandest of the Qing rulers. After his death, the empire went into a decline during which it became vulnerable to the expansionist, colonialist, and imperialist actions of Europe, the United States, and eventually Japan.Less
This chapter describes the rulership that functioned during the Qing Empire. It notes that the empire is considered to have been founded by, controlled by, or given a certain political and cultural cast by, the Manchus in the early seventeenth century. The chapter explains that during the eighteenth century, the Qing reached its height of political control over Manchuria, Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, Tibet, and China, as well as the states recognizing Qing superiority in the system of court visitation, sometimes called the tributary system. It adds that this golden age was represented in the rile of the Qianlong emperor, the most “Confucian,” “sinified,” or simply grandest of the Qing rulers. After his death, the empire went into a decline during which it became vulnerable to the expansionist, colonialist, and imperialist actions of Europe, the United States, and eventually Japan.
Pär Kristoffer Cassel
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199792054
- eISBN:
- 9780199932573
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199792054.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History, World Modern History
This chapter examines how legal pluralism and extraterritoriality contributed to shape the public debate in China and Japan in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It contrasts official ...
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This chapter examines how legal pluralism and extraterritoriality contributed to shape the public debate in China and Japan in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It contrasts official Chinese and Japanese responses to a series of widely publicized consular courts cases and shows that the Japanese authorities were much more successful in mobilizing public opinion against extraterritoriality than the Qing Empire was. The chapter argues that one of the reasons for the Japanese success was the fact that the Japanese state had created a relatively unified citizenry by abolishing all traces of legal pluralism.Less
This chapter examines how legal pluralism and extraterritoriality contributed to shape the public debate in China and Japan in the last decades of the nineteenth century. It contrasts official Chinese and Japanese responses to a series of widely publicized consular courts cases and shows that the Japanese authorities were much more successful in mobilizing public opinion against extraterritoriality than the Qing Empire was. The chapter argues that one of the reasons for the Japanese success was the fact that the Japanese state had created a relatively unified citizenry by abolishing all traces of legal pluralism.
Pamela Kyle Crossley
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520230156
- eISBN:
- 9780520927537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520230156.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Though multilayered identity has been an inherent part of Mongol social and cultural history, the particular patterns it assumes in the present are to a significant degree a product of historical ...
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Though multilayered identity has been an inherent part of Mongol social and cultural history, the particular patterns it assumes in the present are to a significant degree a product of historical changes of the period from 1600 to 1800. The Qing, particularly, both nurtured the establishment of criteria of Mongol affiliation and forced the political dismemberment of territories inhabited by a majority of those now considered Mongols. Resistance to this process among some Mongol groups was continuous, contributing to the momentum behind the reclamation of partial political sovereignty by Mongols in the last years and after the fall of the Qing empire. People now entertain a notion of “Mongol”as a distinguishable cultural identity, but it is not limited to, congruent with, or intimately associated with the only state that at present uses the word Mongolia in its name.Less
Though multilayered identity has been an inherent part of Mongol social and cultural history, the particular patterns it assumes in the present are to a significant degree a product of historical changes of the period from 1600 to 1800. The Qing, particularly, both nurtured the establishment of criteria of Mongol affiliation and forced the political dismemberment of territories inhabited by a majority of those now considered Mongols. Resistance to this process among some Mongol groups was continuous, contributing to the momentum behind the reclamation of partial political sovereignty by Mongols in the last years and after the fall of the Qing empire. People now entertain a notion of “Mongol”as a distinguishable cultural identity, but it is not limited to, congruent with, or intimately associated with the only state that at present uses the word Mongolia in its name.
Pamela Kyle Crossley, Helen F. Siu, and Donald S. Sutton
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520230156
- eISBN:
- 9780520927537
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520230156.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Ethnicity is produced by socio-political orders that are stratified by associations of certain regions and certain cultural institutions with the “normal,” “classic,” or “formal.” The importance of ...
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Ethnicity is produced by socio-political orders that are stratified by associations of certain regions and certain cultural institutions with the “normal,” “classic,” or “formal.” The importance of being precise in the use of these terms becomes clear when one turns to the period between 1600 and 1800. The Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1636–1912) empires were profoundly different with respect to their perceived structure of national and ethnic populations. In the Ming period, a national group within the empire happened to be very clearly defined, usually by culture, but in some instances by genealogy. The Qing structure was quite different, particularly before the nineteenth century. The lingering centralities and marginalities of the Ming period remained identifiable, and many regions vigorous, beneath the formal, newly historicized hierarchies of the Qing conquest.Less
Ethnicity is produced by socio-political orders that are stratified by associations of certain regions and certain cultural institutions with the “normal,” “classic,” or “formal.” The importance of being precise in the use of these terms becomes clear when one turns to the period between 1600 and 1800. The Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1636–1912) empires were profoundly different with respect to their perceived structure of national and ethnic populations. In the Ming period, a national group within the empire happened to be very clearly defined, usually by culture, but in some instances by genealogy. The Qing structure was quite different, particularly before the nineteenth century. The lingering centralities and marginalities of the Ming period remained identifiable, and many regions vigorous, beneath the formal, newly historicized hierarchies of the Qing conquest.
Trent Pomplun
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195377866
- eISBN:
- 9780199869466
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195377866.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Desideri flees the capital to escape the Zünghar invasion of 1717 in the fourth chapter, which will largely be taken up by Desideri's narrative of the carnage that followed. This chapter outlines the ...
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Desideri flees the capital to escape the Zünghar invasion of 1717 in the fourth chapter, which will largely be taken up by Desideri's narrative of the carnage that followed. This chapter outlines the dominant ideological and political myths of seventeenth and early eighteenth century Tibet, especially those involving the Dalai Lamas, and addresses the missionary's understanding of the uniquely Tibetan understanding of reincarnation. This approach synthesizes much of the new research being done in Tibetan Studies today and introduces the reader to many of the ideas that the young Jesuit would later present to his European readers. The violent political struggles of seventeenth and eighteenth‐century Tibet also allow the reader to discern the political motives behind Desideri's writing that will be outlined in the fifth chapter and will set the stage for an assessment of his capacities as an historian.Less
Desideri flees the capital to escape the Zünghar invasion of 1717 in the fourth chapter, which will largely be taken up by Desideri's narrative of the carnage that followed. This chapter outlines the dominant ideological and political myths of seventeenth and early eighteenth century Tibet, especially those involving the Dalai Lamas, and addresses the missionary's understanding of the uniquely Tibetan understanding of reincarnation. This approach synthesizes much of the new research being done in Tibetan Studies today and introduces the reader to many of the ideas that the young Jesuit would later present to his European readers. The violent political struggles of seventeenth and eighteenth‐century Tibet also allow the reader to discern the political motives behind Desideri's writing that will be outlined in the fifth chapter and will set the stage for an assessment of his capacities as an historian.
Kwangmin Kim
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804799232
- eISBN:
- 9781503600423
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804799232.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter offers an overview of the Muslim notables and the scope and structure of capitalistic commercial agriculture they developed in the Xinjiang oasis. In particular, it argues that the Qing ...
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This chapter offers an overview of the Muslim notables and the scope and structure of capitalistic commercial agriculture they developed in the Xinjiang oasis. In particular, it argues that the Qing empire played a pivotal role in the expansion of the beg enterprise, which caused social tensions within the oasis society resulting in a series of anti-beg and anti-Qing revolts led by Sufi holy man (khwaja). Their story revises the previous narrative on the Qing empire in Central Asia, which was written from a China-centered perspective, and contributes to the global understanding of capitalism by identifying native capitalist developments in Chinese Central Asia, which has often been considered a backwater of world history.Less
This chapter offers an overview of the Muslim notables and the scope and structure of capitalistic commercial agriculture they developed in the Xinjiang oasis. In particular, it argues that the Qing empire played a pivotal role in the expansion of the beg enterprise, which caused social tensions within the oasis society resulting in a series of anti-beg and anti-Qing revolts led by Sufi holy man (khwaja). Their story revises the previous narrative on the Qing empire in Central Asia, which was written from a China-centered perspective, and contributes to the global understanding of capitalism by identifying native capitalist developments in Chinese Central Asia, which has often been considered a backwater of world history.
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804782241
- eISBN:
- 9780804785389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804782241.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter presents a discussion on British India and Qing strategic thought in the early nineteenth century. Indian merchants at Guangzhou did not increase official knowledge of growing British ...
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This chapter presents a discussion on British India and Qing strategic thought in the early nineteenth century. Indian merchants at Guangzhou did not increase official knowledge of growing British power in India. It is noted that the remarkable journey by Thomas Manning had no permanent effect on Qing perspectives on British India. His journey contributes to the tenacity of a frontier policy. William Moorcroft had penetrated the western rim of the Qing empire. His exchange with officials in Yarkand and Kashgar depicts how a frontier policy affected the intelligence gathering and strategic thinking of the Qing state. The Qing government sometimes coordinated its inquiries into foreign conditions between different frontiers and fit together local geographic understandings; even alliances were sometimes contemplated.Less
This chapter presents a discussion on British India and Qing strategic thought in the early nineteenth century. Indian merchants at Guangzhou did not increase official knowledge of growing British power in India. It is noted that the remarkable journey by Thomas Manning had no permanent effect on Qing perspectives on British India. His journey contributes to the tenacity of a frontier policy. William Moorcroft had penetrated the western rim of the Qing empire. His exchange with officials in Yarkand and Kashgar depicts how a frontier policy affected the intelligence gathering and strategic thinking of the Qing state. The Qing government sometimes coordinated its inquiries into foreign conditions between different frontiers and fit together local geographic understandings; even alliances were sometimes contemplated.
Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253025
- eISBN:
- 9780520934221
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253025.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
It was in Shanxi Province that the Incredible Famine threw its longest shadow. The province lost its pre-famine population of between fifteen and seventeen million people to starvation, disease, and ...
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It was in Shanxi Province that the Incredible Famine threw its longest shadow. The province lost its pre-famine population of between fifteen and seventeen million people to starvation, disease, and flight. Before the famine struck, however, Shanxi had been thriving. As one of the few parts of China not severely affected by one of the three gigantic mid-nineteenth-century rebellions, in the early 1870s, the province was home to the lucrative Hedong saltworks, an impressive banking network, and merchants powerful enough to dominate China's trade with Mongolia and Russia. This chapter examines how the drought that struck between 1876 and 1878 resulted in a devastating famine that brought such a wealthy and strategically important part of the empire to its knees. It considers how the formidable challenges facing the Qing Empire in the late nineteenth century hampered the state's ability to prevent a drought from escalating into a major famine.Less
It was in Shanxi Province that the Incredible Famine threw its longest shadow. The province lost its pre-famine population of between fifteen and seventeen million people to starvation, disease, and flight. Before the famine struck, however, Shanxi had been thriving. As one of the few parts of China not severely affected by one of the three gigantic mid-nineteenth-century rebellions, in the early 1870s, the province was home to the lucrative Hedong saltworks, an impressive banking network, and merchants powerful enough to dominate China's trade with Mongolia and Russia. This chapter examines how the drought that struck between 1876 and 1878 resulted in a devastating famine that brought such a wealthy and strategically important part of the empire to its knees. It considers how the formidable challenges facing the Qing Empire in the late nineteenth century hampered the state's ability to prevent a drought from escalating into a major famine.
Timothy Brook, Michael van Walt van Praag, and Miek Boltjes (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226562629
- eISBN:
- 9780226562933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226562933.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The rules governing international relations in Inner and East Asia changed hugely in the nineteenth century. Asian laws of nations were supplanted under pressures coming from outside, most ...
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The rules governing international relations in Inner and East Asia changed hugely in the nineteenth century. Asian laws of nations were supplanted under pressures coming from outside, most conspicuously from the West but also from Japan. The resort to violence by Western powers and Asian rulers alike was justified through doctrines of European international law that had evolved so as to remove restraints on European imperialist projects. Asian states scrambled to reorganize along modern, Western lines, and most governments that had ruled them in the nineteenth century were gone by the twentieth, with few exceptions. As new political elites took power, a continent of khans, emperors, hierarchs, and kings became a world of presidents, party leaders, constitutional monarchs, and national assemblies. Interpolity relations underwent a complete conceptual and organizational transformation. Some states, such as Tibet and its Himalayan neighbors, became the objects of competing imperial ambitions, while others, such as Japan, used their new capacities to overturn the hierarchy of earlier relationships, especially with the Qing Great State, and spread their sway over others, notably Korea. Though the older sources of ruler legitimacy and legality did not fully disappear, newer ideologies and rules of interstate relationships largely replaced them.Less
The rules governing international relations in Inner and East Asia changed hugely in the nineteenth century. Asian laws of nations were supplanted under pressures coming from outside, most conspicuously from the West but also from Japan. The resort to violence by Western powers and Asian rulers alike was justified through doctrines of European international law that had evolved so as to remove restraints on European imperialist projects. Asian states scrambled to reorganize along modern, Western lines, and most governments that had ruled them in the nineteenth century were gone by the twentieth, with few exceptions. As new political elites took power, a continent of khans, emperors, hierarchs, and kings became a world of presidents, party leaders, constitutional monarchs, and national assemblies. Interpolity relations underwent a complete conceptual and organizational transformation. Some states, such as Tibet and its Himalayan neighbors, became the objects of competing imperial ambitions, while others, such as Japan, used their new capacities to overturn the hierarchy of earlier relationships, especially with the Qing Great State, and spread their sway over others, notably Korea. Though the older sources of ruler legitimacy and legality did not fully disappear, newer ideologies and rules of interstate relationships largely replaced them.
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804782241
- eISBN:
- 9780804785389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804782241.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter explores the Opium War and the British empire during 1839–1842. New appreciation of the British as an empire contributed to the increased quantity of research conducted during the Opium ...
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This chapter explores the Opium War and the British empire during 1839–1842. New appreciation of the British as an empire contributed to the increased quantity of research conducted during the Opium War. The mission by Lin Zexu eradicated the opium trade in Guangdong. Lin was involved in developing opium policy. The Opium War can be regarded as a peerless opportunity for securing a Qing alliance against the British. At the end of the Opium War, Qing officials confronting the manifest power of the British remained unpersuaded that it rested on sound foundations. It is noted that the significance of the Opium War lay in its impact on the empire's geostrategic worldview. The Qing state persisted in its frontier-specific operational geography even though this was ill-suited to elucidating the overall strategic situation of the Qing empire in relation to its multipronged British foe.Less
This chapter explores the Opium War and the British empire during 1839–1842. New appreciation of the British as an empire contributed to the increased quantity of research conducted during the Opium War. The mission by Lin Zexu eradicated the opium trade in Guangdong. Lin was involved in developing opium policy. The Opium War can be regarded as a peerless opportunity for securing a Qing alliance against the British. At the end of the Opium War, Qing officials confronting the manifest power of the British remained unpersuaded that it rested on sound foundations. It is noted that the significance of the Opium War lay in its impact on the empire's geostrategic worldview. The Qing state persisted in its frontier-specific operational geography even though this was ill-suited to elucidating the overall strategic situation of the Qing empire in relation to its multipronged British foe.
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804782241
- eISBN:
- 9780804785389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804782241.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter explains that Chinese scholars were conditioned to treat place-names as the foundation of geographic analysis. It also focuses on the way geographic argument proceeded by proposing ...
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This chapter explains that Chinese scholars were conditioned to treat place-names as the foundation of geographic analysis. It also focuses on the way geographic argument proceeded by proposing connections between bodies of evidence that were hard to commensurate, and the corresponding posture of skepticism that led geographic claims to be considered provisional, which is described as “geographic agnosticism.” Islam had brought new geographic concepts into China. The textual research methods that influenced the evaluation of foreign geography have led to what can be termed the kaozheng paradox of Chinese geography. Chinese geographic practice moved slowly from text-oriented geographic agnosticism toward a single, standardized worldview framed against a roughly agreed-upon cartographic background. Current events have offered no force for either the state or private scholars to organize intelligence gathering across multiple frontiers and build an integrated picture of the relationship between India and the Qing empire in a global context.Less
This chapter explains that Chinese scholars were conditioned to treat place-names as the foundation of geographic analysis. It also focuses on the way geographic argument proceeded by proposing connections between bodies of evidence that were hard to commensurate, and the corresponding posture of skepticism that led geographic claims to be considered provisional, which is described as “geographic agnosticism.” Islam had brought new geographic concepts into China. The textual research methods that influenced the evaluation of foreign geography have led to what can be termed the kaozheng paradox of Chinese geography. Chinese geographic practice moved slowly from text-oriented geographic agnosticism toward a single, standardized worldview framed against a roughly agreed-upon cartographic background. Current events have offered no force for either the state or private scholars to organize intelligence gathering across multiple frontiers and build an integrated picture of the relationship between India and the Qing empire in a global context.
Matthew Mosca
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804782241
- eISBN:
- 9780804785389
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804782241.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, Qing rulers, officials, and scholars fused diverse, fragmented perceptions of foreign territory into one integrated worldview. In the same ...
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Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, Qing rulers, officials, and scholars fused diverse, fragmented perceptions of foreign territory into one integrated worldview. In the same period, a single “foreign” policy emerged as an alternative to the many localized “frontier” policies hitherto pursued on the coast, in Xinjiang, and in Tibet. By unraveling Chinese, Manchu, and British sources to reveal the information networks used by the Qing empire to gather intelligence about its emerging rival, British India, this book explores China's altered understanding of its place in a global context. Far from being hobbled by a Sinocentric worldview, Qing China's officials and scholars paid close attention to foreign affairs. To meet the growing British threat, they adapted institutional practices and geopolitical assumptions to coordinate a response across their maritime and inland borderlands. In time, the new and more active response to Western imperialism built on this foundation reshaped not only China's diplomacy, but also the internal relationship between Beijing and its frontiers.Less
Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, Qing rulers, officials, and scholars fused diverse, fragmented perceptions of foreign territory into one integrated worldview. In the same period, a single “foreign” policy emerged as an alternative to the many localized “frontier” policies hitherto pursued on the coast, in Xinjiang, and in Tibet. By unraveling Chinese, Manchu, and British sources to reveal the information networks used by the Qing empire to gather intelligence about its emerging rival, British India, this book explores China's altered understanding of its place in a global context. Far from being hobbled by a Sinocentric worldview, Qing China's officials and scholars paid close attention to foreign affairs. To meet the growing British threat, they adapted institutional practices and geopolitical assumptions to coordinate a response across their maritime and inland borderlands. In time, the new and more active response to Western imperialism built on this foundation reshaped not only China's diplomacy, but also the internal relationship between Beijing and its frontiers.
Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231160704
- eISBN:
- 9780231537162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231160704.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This part of the book explores the eighteenth-century political configuration of Northeast Asia. By the beginning of the century, the Qing Empire had no single governance structure in all among their ...
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This part of the book explores the eighteenth-century political configuration of Northeast Asia. By the beginning of the century, the Qing Empire had no single governance structure in all among their territories. This was due to a growing number of Chinese traders and residents, as well as a feared Russian penetration of the region. In response, the Qing authorities initiated the instruction of Mongolian to its territories and trade caravans with the Russians. By the mid-eighteenth century, despite consolidation efforts, Qing authorities had not effectively managed its growing territorial extent. One of the Qing's main territorial concerns was the Zunghar Mongols' uprising—initiated due to the emperor's refusal of their right to install “khan.” As a consequence, the Mongols were often passed over in favor of the Manchus for the top administrative positions. Meanwhile, at the periphery, Korea's economy was flourishing and Russia was becoming more lenient over their control of Siberian territory.Less
This part of the book explores the eighteenth-century political configuration of Northeast Asia. By the beginning of the century, the Qing Empire had no single governance structure in all among their territories. This was due to a growing number of Chinese traders and residents, as well as a feared Russian penetration of the region. In response, the Qing authorities initiated the instruction of Mongolian to its territories and trade caravans with the Russians. By the mid-eighteenth century, despite consolidation efforts, Qing authorities had not effectively managed its growing territorial extent. One of the Qing's main territorial concerns was the Zunghar Mongols' uprising—initiated due to the emperor's refusal of their right to install “khan.” As a consequence, the Mongols were often passed over in favor of the Manchus for the top administrative positions. Meanwhile, at the periphery, Korea's economy was flourishing and Russia was becoming more lenient over their control of Siberian territory.
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804782241
- eISBN:
- 9780804785389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804782241.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter explains the discovery of British India on the Chinese coast during 1800–1838. The crisis on the coast was directly associated to the administrative and fiscal structure of the British ...
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This chapter explains the discovery of British India on the Chinese coast during 1800–1838. The crisis on the coast was directly associated to the administrative and fiscal structure of the British empire. Ruan Yuan carried the first steps toward developing a new provincial gazetteer, the Guangdong tongzhi. The Guangdong tongzhi revealed circumstantial evidence of having used oral inquires. The cartography by Li Mingche for the Guangdong tongzhi was supervised by Ruan, who in turn was guided by court precedent on the use of maps. It is observed that private assessment into the British empire before 1838 was mostly limited to sources on the coast, and while it recognized a sprawling and widespread network of territories, it had yet to ascertain its proximity to the Qing empire's inland frontiers.Less
This chapter explains the discovery of British India on the Chinese coast during 1800–1838. The crisis on the coast was directly associated to the administrative and fiscal structure of the British empire. Ruan Yuan carried the first steps toward developing a new provincial gazetteer, the Guangdong tongzhi. The Guangdong tongzhi revealed circumstantial evidence of having used oral inquires. The cartography by Li Mingche for the Guangdong tongzhi was supervised by Ruan, who in turn was guided by court precedent on the use of maps. It is observed that private assessment into the British empire before 1838 was mostly limited to sources on the coast, and while it recognized a sprawling and widespread network of territories, it had yet to ascertain its proximity to the Qing empire's inland frontiers.
Matthew W. Mosca
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198732259
- eISBN:
- 9780191796562
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198732259.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter offers a brief review of dominant approaches to placing early modern China in its world context, discussing major findings, ongoing debates, and emerging challenges. Attention to ...
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This chapter offers a brief review of dominant approaches to placing early modern China in its world context, discussing major findings, ongoing debates, and emerging challenges. Attention to different geographic regions, periods of time, and topics of research, including economic, political, and cultural and intellectual history, have led to competing judgements about the degree to which the Qing Empire was integrated into global developments. Against this background, and with reference to the case of the Qing official Ghombojab, it argues that the rise of global history can complement research that focus on the Qing empire or China as a whole, by emphasizing the differential impact of global forces on individual Qing subjects and their reciprocal individual contributions towards shaping those forces.Less
This chapter offers a brief review of dominant approaches to placing early modern China in its world context, discussing major findings, ongoing debates, and emerging challenges. Attention to different geographic regions, periods of time, and topics of research, including economic, political, and cultural and intellectual history, have led to competing judgements about the degree to which the Qing Empire was integrated into global developments. Against this background, and with reference to the case of the Qing official Ghombojab, it argues that the rise of global history can complement research that focus on the Qing empire or China as a whole, by emphasizing the differential impact of global forces on individual Qing subjects and their reciprocal individual contributions towards shaping those forces.
Peter Schwieger
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231168526
- eISBN:
- 9780231538602
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231168526.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter details events that ultimately led to the incorporation of Tibet into the Qing Empire and its administration. These include the death of the fifth dalai Lama in 1682, which was kept ...
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This chapter details events that ultimately led to the incorporation of Tibet into the Qing Empire and its administration. These include the death of the fifth dalai Lama in 1682, which was kept secret by his regent for a good fifteen years—not only from the Tibetan public but also from the emperor and the aristocracy of the various Mongol tribes; and the disappearance into retreat in 1651 of zhapdrung Ngawang Namgyel, who, like the Fifth Dalai Lama, had established the “union of religion and politics” in Bhutan, and whose death was not revealed until around 1705. In effect, during these years the Tibetan and Bhutanese states were both ruled by corpses, in a manner of speaking.Less
This chapter details events that ultimately led to the incorporation of Tibet into the Qing Empire and its administration. These include the death of the fifth dalai Lama in 1682, which was kept secret by his regent for a good fifteen years—not only from the Tibetan public but also from the emperor and the aristocracy of the various Mongol tribes; and the disappearance into retreat in 1651 of zhapdrung Ngawang Namgyel, who, like the Fifth Dalai Lama, had established the “union of religion and politics” in Bhutan, and whose death was not revealed until around 1705. In effect, during these years the Tibetan and Bhutanese states were both ruled by corpses, in a manner of speaking.
Kwangmin Kim
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780804799232
- eISBN:
- 9781503600423
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804799232.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This book provides an examination of the Muslim notability (begs) and their development of capitalistic enterprises in Eastern Turkestan under the Qing Empire. The begs, the powerful organizers of ...
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This book provides an examination of the Muslim notability (begs) and their development of capitalistic enterprises in Eastern Turkestan under the Qing Empire. The begs, the powerful organizers of trade, agriculture, and labor in the oases, needed the empire and its military as a patron of their capitalistic reorganization of the oasis agriculture and the expansion of their access to new markets and resources. The Qing needed the begs as the foundation of imperial security and as partners in revenue extraction from local agriculture and mining development constituencies. However, the capitalistic transformation of the oasis economy created socio-economic tensions between the begs and the rural villagers. From the latter’s ranks, resistance grew in the form of bandits and refugees fleeing into the mountains that surrounded the oases, where these people would amass to form outsider communities. These communities, under the leadership of Sufi holy men (khwaja), eventually engaged in over political action in the early 1800s, which culminated in war against the Qing state. The Qing fell in Central Asia in 1864, as this new crisis deepened after Opium War (1839-42). This book offers a new perspective on Qing imperial history, and also contributes to a revised narrative on the history of global capitalism and imperialism on a truly global scale, and in an interconnected fashion.Less
This book provides an examination of the Muslim notability (begs) and their development of capitalistic enterprises in Eastern Turkestan under the Qing Empire. The begs, the powerful organizers of trade, agriculture, and labor in the oases, needed the empire and its military as a patron of their capitalistic reorganization of the oasis agriculture and the expansion of their access to new markets and resources. The Qing needed the begs as the foundation of imperial security and as partners in revenue extraction from local agriculture and mining development constituencies. However, the capitalistic transformation of the oasis economy created socio-economic tensions between the begs and the rural villagers. From the latter’s ranks, resistance grew in the form of bandits and refugees fleeing into the mountains that surrounded the oases, where these people would amass to form outsider communities. These communities, under the leadership of Sufi holy men (khwaja), eventually engaged in over political action in the early 1800s, which culminated in war against the Qing state. The Qing fell in Central Asia in 1864, as this new crisis deepened after Opium War (1839-42). This book offers a new perspective on Qing imperial history, and also contributes to a revised narrative on the history of global capitalism and imperialism on a truly global scale, and in an interconnected fashion.
Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231160704
- eISBN:
- 9780231537162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231160704.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This part of the book details the nineteenth-century political configuration of Northeast Asia. In the first four decades of the nineteenth century, while the Qing empire reinforced restriction ...
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This part of the book details the nineteenth-century political configuration of Northeast Asia. In the first four decades of the nineteenth century, while the Qing empire reinforced restriction policies against Chinese migration to their territories in Mongolia and Manchuria, the Russian government focused on the reorganization of the administration of Siberia. Amid this internal unrest came the emergence of Christianity—a religion that was initially despised since Buddhism was prevalent among the Mongols and Koreans—and Orthodox Christian beliefs prevailed in Siberia. By the turn of the fifth decade of the century, reinforced by the rise in Christian beliefs, Western states were able to penetrate the Korean peninsula, Manchuria, and Mongolia. The text examines the entry of Western culture and Christianity as they re-configured relations between the Mongols, Manchus, Chinese settlers, Koreans, and the Russians towards the end of the century.Less
This part of the book details the nineteenth-century political configuration of Northeast Asia. In the first four decades of the nineteenth century, while the Qing empire reinforced restriction policies against Chinese migration to their territories in Mongolia and Manchuria, the Russian government focused on the reorganization of the administration of Siberia. Amid this internal unrest came the emergence of Christianity—a religion that was initially despised since Buddhism was prevalent among the Mongols and Koreans—and Orthodox Christian beliefs prevailed in Siberia. By the turn of the fifth decade of the century, reinforced by the rise in Christian beliefs, Western states were able to penetrate the Korean peninsula, Manchuria, and Mongolia. The text examines the entry of Western culture and Christianity as they re-configured relations between the Mongols, Manchus, Chinese settlers, Koreans, and the Russians towards the end of the century.
