The qing dynasty, part 2

Late Qing (1800-1911) Teacher Resource Guide East Asia National Resource Center

By Kelly Hammond

The Late Qing and the End of Imperial Rule in China Prior to the nineteenth century, the Chinese empire was the major power in East Asia. During the Qing Dynasty, China’s territory almost more than doubled and millions of new subjects were brought into the imperial fold as a result of Qing’s expansion into the west and southwest of China. However, as Europeans made their way to East Asia with imperial ambitions, the Qing’s influence quickly diminished. The Dutch encroached on Indonesia and Japan, the British reigned over India, the Spanish and Portuguese extended their empires into the Pacific, and the Russians searched for ports in the Pacific.

though its situation was dire. The economy was crumbling but the Qianlong Emperor continued to mount expensive pacification campaigns to the west and the south, and went on expensive imperial tours. Qianlong argued that the Chinese had no use for European manufactured goods and that the empire was uninterested in extending their trade relationships with the Europeans. The demand in Europe for Chinese tea, silk, and ceramics continued to grow. Tea was especially in high demand as people in Europe adapted to the new pressures of industrialization and the British developed a new dependence on caffeine to remain alert in factories. However, the Chinese did not feel that they needed any of the manufactured goods that the Europeans were producing, while demanding that all of their exports to Europe be paid in silver.

This led to an enormous trade imbalance and induced the British to search for new products that would attract the Chinese.

Carving up China. Source: Miskatonic

The Opium Wars: The Opening of China?

When the Macartney Mission (see the Early Qing module) showed up, China refused to negotiate with the British even

The First Opium War. Source: E. Duncan

The British finally found such product in their Indian colony: opium. Under the auspices of the British East India Company, the British traders brought enormous quantities of opium into China.

Large segments of Chinese population soon became addicted to the drug, quickly evening out the trade imbalance between the Qing and the Great Britain. Although opium had been used in China for medicinal purposes for centuries, the British introduced a new technique of mixing opium with tobacco, which made the drug more accessible and addictive.

The overworked Chinese began to consume opium for recreational purposes.

Furthermore, as the Chinese paid silver to buy opium, a huge amount of silver flowed out of the empire. By the time the Qing began to ban the import and sale of opium, it was too late. Although the Yongzheng Emperor placed a ban on opium in 1729, his order was not enforced. The Chinese were becoming increasingly debilitated with addiction. Nearly one hundred years later, the Daoguang Emperor demanded that action be taken, and the Qing officials imposed harsh sentences for selling and consuming opium. Nevertheless, the main problem lied with the British, who operated outside of Qing jurisdiction. In 1838, the Qing tried to enforce a ban on the importation of opium and soon after the British government under pressure from merchants, who had lost enormous stockpiles of drugs in a sting operation, declared war on the Qing. The British quickly and decisively defeated the Qing in the First Opium War. The First Opium War revealed how outdated the Chinese military and navy was. The navy, made up almost entirely of wooden ships, was severely outdone by the modern British Navy. Once on the ground, the British were able to use muskets and

artillery to easily defeat the under-armed Qing soldiers. The Chinese surrender to the British, and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, was a serious and humiliating blow to the Chinese.

Opium smokers in Qing China.

Source: blog.holachina.net

The treaty demanded reparations for the war, allowed British subjects access to certain port cities for trading and ceded the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain.

Soon after, foreigners were also granted the most-favorite-nation clause, meaning that in any subsequent treaties that were signed between a country and the Qing, all other countries that were engaged in treaty relations with the Qing would benefit from the provisions of the new treaty. The Treaty of Nanjing was the first in a string of treaties that the Qing entered with the foreign imperial powers in the nineteenth century. They came to be known as the “unequal treaties” because the foreigners got way more out of them than the Chinese did, and in the parlance of the Communist party of China, the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing also marked the beginning of the so-called “century of humiliation” where China was “carved up” by the imperial powers like a melon.

time highlights the ongoing and constant warfare in early modern Europe. Because of this constant occurrence of war between states in Europe, the continent’s military technology developed to be much more efficient than that in East Asia, where the Qing and the Japanese were fighting the same enemies they had been for centuries.

This meant that when the Europeans showed up in Asia with technologically advanced naval ships and armies, the Qing were unprepared and did not know how to respond.

“The Opium Trade in China, 1833-1839.” Source: Yangwen Zheng, The Social Life of Opium in China, Cambridge University Press, 2005

A large contradiction on the part of the British should be acknowledged. While they had been importing opium into China and creating addicts among large segments of the Chinese population, the sale and importation of opium into Great Britain was illegal. This double standard was not lost on the Qing or the British. It was around this time that empires began using racial arguments to condone their actions, and by the late nineteenth century the discourses of Social Darwinism had seeped deep into the politics of East Asia.

Some historians argue that China was “opened” to the West with the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing. However, China has been in contact with Western and other world powers as early as the Ming Dynasty.

One theory about the military superiority of the West over China and Japan at this

Representation of Second Opium War by Chinese Woodblock Artist. Source: Encyclopædia Britannica

Treaty Ports Through the Treaty of Nanjing, the British were able to establish themselves in Chinese coastal cities, such as Shanghai and Ningbo. Because of the most-favorednation clause, other nations soon joined them and the foreigners living in these cities enjoyed extraterritoriality. Moreover, they generally lived separate from the Chinese populations. Interestingly, Shanghai, which is now one of the largest metropolises on earth, was a small fishing town when the British decided to drain some land by the mouth of the river and

settle down there. Since then, Shanghai quickly developed into a cosmopolitan city.

As news of the British merchants living in the city spread, Chinese people made their way to the city to seek their fortunes. It was the first city in China to have streetlights and modern plumbing, and the British brought many of the accoutrements of empire with them, such as their dog-racing tracks, the famous Bund, and their private clubs. For a while, at least, the city remained segregated, with all the different foreign powers having different “concessions� and the Chinese living in the old walled city. However, this all changed when the Taiping Rebellion broke out. As refugees flooded into Shanghai from Nanjing, the foreign concessions became overcrowded with Chinese people. However detrimental this event was to the population, it did change the face of Shanghai forever, making it into one of the densest, most cosmopolitan, and most lively cities anywhere on the planet.

French conceded their concessions and extraterritorial jurisdictions in China.

When the Communists came to power in 1949, they exiled foreigners from China, effectively ending the treaty port era.

Finally, Hong Kong was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Shanghai in the twenty-first century.

Source: Edsaplan

In regards to the treaty port era, some nationalists argue that foreigners took advantage of China. However, Chinese citizens took lessons amid their interactions with the West and learned to make the products of Western civilization their own. Shanghai is still one of the most cosmopolitan places in Asia and has a unique feeling among Chinese cities. It owes at least some part of this to the legacy of the treaty port system.

The Taiping Rebellion and Muslim Revolts Map of Shanghai in the mid-nineteenth century.

Source: Tongzhi Shanghai, 1871.

The treaty port system lasted for about one hundred years. It was not until WWII that the British, the Americans and the

The Taiping Rebellion was the largest civil war in the world history, with an estimated 20-30 million deaths as a result of the war. It took place between 1850 and 1864, and was led by the leader of a millenarian movement named Hong

Xiuquan. After failing the qualifying examinations for the imperial bureaucracy a number of times, Hong met a protestant missionary who was proselytizing in South China. Hong then started to believe that he himself was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, and that he was sent to China to punish the “foreign devils.” Hong was referring to both the ruling Manchus and the western imperialists, but his energies became increasingly focused on getting the Manchu rulers out of China.

Given the economic and social problems that were plaguing the Qing around the middle of the nineteenth century, a charismatic and prophetic leader like Hong had little trouble garnering support from the people. Hong established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with its capital in Nanjing. His army controlled a large swath of southern China. Some argue that the Taiping were a “proto-capitalist” group because they shared property, championed gender equality, and sought to fight “feudal landlords.” However, this analysis might be anachronistic in that it projects ideas about socialism and communism onto a place and time where the leaders of the Taiping were not aware of such concepts.

their vested interests in Shanghai which was very close to Nanjing; the French and the British did not want the Taiping rebels to take Shanghai. The Qing forces, along with the help of the Europeans, finally defeated the Taiping rebels in 1864. Hong died shortly after. The fighting was long and arduous, and it completely decimated the surrounding countryside. Reliable estimates of the death tolls during this fifteen-year war range from 20 to 30 million civilians and soldiers, many of them dying from famine and disease caused by the war. Because of the large civilian death toll and the complete destruction wreaked on the Chinese countryside surrounding Nanjing, historians agree that the Taiping Rebellion was the first instance of Total War on the mainland. At the same time that the Qing were suppressing the Taiping, Muslim groups in western China were also rebelling against imperial authority. The Qing definitely had their hands full on all fronts during this time.

The Taiping Rebellion. Source: Wu Youru

Since the Qing forces were in disarray, the French and the British also sent troops to help the Qing defeat the Taiping, given

Hong Xiuquan, leader of the Taiping Rebellion.

Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895 A series of wars followed after the end of the Taiping Rebellion. As Meiji Japan grew in strength and began to assert itself in the Pacific, the Qing became worrisome.

Like other imperial powers, Japan wanted to acquire an empire and needed resources to fuel industrialization on the small island nation. Japan first set their sights on Korea; Japan was concerned about Russian encroachment in the region, and wanted to create a buffer between its main islands and the expanding Russian Empire before it was too late. Moreover, Japan realized that having access to Korea’s coal and iron ore deposits would benefit its growing industrial base. Korea was also seen as a source of agricultural imports to Japan, helping to feed the growing Japanese population.

Japanese lines of attack in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Source: MIT

Chinese generals in Pyongyang surrendering to the Japanese. Source: Migita Toshihede

The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between 1894 and 1895, primarily for control over Korea. By the spring of 1894, tensions were running high between China and Japan, but war was not yet inevitable.

However, a rebellion by Koreans in 1894 meant that the Qing were forced to send troops to Korea to aid the Korean King to suppress the rebellion. The Japanese saw this as an act of aggression and sent their own troops to meet the Qing forces.

Tensions quickly escalated and war broke out. After six months of continuous military and naval successes by the Japanese, the Chinese agreed to a peace treaty. In April 1895, Japan and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, in which China recognized the total independence of Korea and ceded the Liaodong peninsula and other territories to Japan. Additionally, China was forced to pay a large indemnity as reparations for the war. This indicated that the Qing’s attempts to modernize their army were failing completely. The loss of Korea as a vassal state was extremely humiliating for the Qing, and within China, the loss was the final straw that sparked a series of reforms, followed by a revolution to overthrow the dynasty.

Self -Strengthening Movement and the Hundred Days Reform Throughout all this, the Qing did try to reform and change. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Qing initiated a period of institutional reforms, known in English as the Self-Strengthening Movement. The Qing established a new institution called the Zongli Yamen to deal with the foreigners, and within this governmental organization, the majority of the people in charge were reformminded liberals. They believed that in order for China to maintain its position in relation to the West, they needed to follow the lines of Meiji Japan and modernize quickly and efficiently. However, a conservative faction in the Qing, backed by the Dowager Empress Cixi, believed that Western influence was polluting China. Cixi, who had become the most powerful figure in the Manchu court after she succeeded in controlling the reigns of the young Tongzhi Emperor and the Guangzu Emperor, wanted to keep the Westerners out of China.

Between 1861 and 1872, the Qing made some changes to their military technologies and adopted Western firearms, machines, and scientific knowledge in the wake of their massive defeats in the Opium Wars. They also sent many diplomats abroad to study and learn about the efficiencies of Western bureaucracy and government. One of

these men was Li Hongzhang, who later became an important figure in the SelfStrengthening Movement. Li’s position as the Zongli Yamen’s Superintendent in Tianjin allowed him to come into direct contact with foreigners and foreign ideas.

Despite his reform-mindedness, Li was not interested in abolishing the monarchy in China. Instead, he wanted to establish a constitutional monarchy, such as the one in Great Britain. This approach was different from those of other reformers who wanted to completely abolish the monarchy.

The Dowager Empress Cixi.

Source: Britannica Encyclopedia

Two sources of conflict characterized the Qing court politics during the period of the Self-Strengthening Movement. The first was the struggle for influence between the conservative and progressive factions within the court. The other was the conflict between the central

government's interests and the growing regional interests. These tensions determined the character as well as the successes and failures of the movement.

Both the conservative and the progressive factions saw the need for modernization of the Chinese military. Yet, they disagreed over the question of the reform of the Chinese political system. As a last ditch effort, the Guangxu Emperor and his reform-minded supporters approved the Hundred Days’ Reform, which was supposed to change China’s educational and political systems in 1898 in response to their loss to the Japanese in 1895. The movement ended when Cixi used her powers to crush the reformers. Some of the reform measures, suggested by influential bureaucrats such as Li Hongzhang and Kang Youwei, included the abolishment of the examination system, creation of a modern education system, establishment of a constitutional monarchy, the re-structuring of the army, and rapid industrialization. However, opposition was intense among the conservative ruling elite, who engineered a coup to force the young reform-minded emperor into seclusion. Guangxu was put under house arrest until his death in 1908 and the young Puyi, who was only five years old at the time of his enthronement, came to power with Cixi ruling from “behind the curtain.” Despite the conservative backlash, some of the reforms suggested by the young bureaucrats did come to fruition. For example, the examination system was abolished in 1905. However, the overall failure of the political reforms fuelled the fire of the revolutionaries, who were

determined to bring about serious changes in China.

The Boxer Rebellion The Boxers were a group of Chinese who wanted to eradicate the foreign presence in China, especially foreign missionaries, at the end of the nineteenth century. Some people argue that the Boxers were a “proto-nationalist” group that the Qing sought to use to their advantage to drive the foreigners out of China. The Boxers were a secret founded in northern Shandong, an area in China greatly impacted by foreign imperialism and missionary work. The Boxers believed that through training, diet, martial arts, and prayer, they could perform extraordinary feats, such as flying and being invincible to Western firearms. The Boxers consisted of local farmers, peasants, and other workers who were left destitute by disastrous floods and widespread opium addiction.

They blamed Christian missionaries, Chinese Christians, and the Europeans who colonized their country.

Boxer Rebellion. Source: Torajiro Kasai

Cixi, the Dowager Empress

The eight-nation alliance against the Boxers.

Source: Historica

The Boxers launched a series of attacks against foreigners until they were suppressed by the foreign armies in China.

After several months of violence against the missionary presence in Shandong, the Boxer Army converged on Beijing with the slogan “Support the Qing, Exterminate the Foreigners.” In January 1900, with a majority of conservatives in the Imperial Court, the Empress Dowager Cixi changed her long policy of suppressing the Boxers and issued edicts in their defense, causing protests from foreign powers. Initially, the Qing were hesitant about supporting the Boxers, but in June 1901, they authorized attacks on foreigners living in Beijing. The foreign forces intervened and completely destroyed the Boxers. Two months later, the foreigners issued the Boxer Protocol and stipulated that officials who had supported the Boxers be executed, that a provision of foreign troops be permanently stationed in Beijing, and that a large indemnity paid to the eight nations affected. This indemnity crippled the Qing government because the price to be paid was higher than their annual tax revenues.

The Dowager Empress Cixi (1835-1908) was a powerful and charismatic woman who effectively controlled Qing China from 1861 until 1908. She was selected by the Xianfeng Emperor to be one of his imperial concubines, and her son became the Tongzhi Emperor when Xianfeng died.

She ousted the regents appointed by the Emperor to help young Tongzhi rule and consolidated power with a small group of elites. Then, when Tongzhi died, contrary to the rules of succession, her power position within the government allowed her to have her nephew installed as the Guangxu Emperor in 1875. Although she was adamantly against a constitutional monarchy in China, she did support the military reforms. Cixi rejected the Hundred Days’ Reform as impractical and a threat to the monarchy, which is why she staged a coup and had the Guangxu Emperor placed under house arrest.

Cixi with Western missionaries.

However, after the final humiliation of the Boxer Rebellion, Cixi was forced to adopt some reform measures. Both international and Chinese historians have generally portrayed her as a despot and villain responsible for the fall of the Dynasty, though a few have suggested that her opponents among the reformers made her a scapegoat for problems beyond her control, that she stepped in to prevent disorder and was no more ruthless than other rulers.

Encounters with the West, Encounters with Japan

many Chinese continued to emigrate to South East Asia and to the Americas in search of new opportunities. These overseas Chinese communities kept close ties with their families and relatives in mainland China, often sending money and gifts to them. Some scholars argue that these early Chinese communities in the Americas were more of sojourners than immigrants. They were usually single men who went to the other side of the Pacific to make their fortunes and then ultimately went back to China. However, the links they created across the ocean were indelible, and the Qing began to recognize the value of its overseas communities.

Members of the Singapore branch of Tongmenhui.

As the Qing grappled with rebellions and foreign encroachment on their sovereignty, they realized that they needed to make some drastic changes if their empire was going to survive. The Qing were close observers of the Meiji Restoration and sent many young students to study in Japan in the last decades of the nineteenth century. As the intellectual connections between China and Japan grew stronger,

Sun Yat-sen. Source: Britannica Encyclopedia

In the meantime, young Chinese elites who studied in Japan grew resentful of Qing’s inability to reform and change like the Japanese had done. However, this criticism was a little unjust; the Qing Dynasty was enormous in size compared

to the Japanese home islands, and the population was also incomparably larger.

Placing this in the context of laying tracks for railroad, connecting China requires much more capital and labor investment, as well as time, than it did for Japan.

These young Chinese elites who mostly came from wealthy Han Chinese families on the coast began to foment dissent against the ailing Manchu Qing Dynasty.

By 1905, the students had organized themselves into a group known as the Tongmenhui, or the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance. It was a secret underground society led by Sun Zhongshan (also known as Sun Yatsen).

Sun began to solicit funds and garner support from the Chinese who were overseas and were also resentful of the Manchu government’s inability to modernize and meet people’s economic needs. With their financial support, the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance began to gain influence throughout China and spread ideas about overthrowing the Qing government. The group also championed the idea of replacing the imperial system with a Republican government. Their main goal was to bring an end to the Manchu rule of China and they succeeded in December 1911 when the last Qing Emperor—the young Puyi—abdicated the throne and the Republic of China was established in 1912.

Useful Websites List of Qing Emperors hosted by MIT http://web.mit.edu/shou/www/china/qing.ht ml

Site about the first Sino-Japanese War from Princeton University http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/w iki100k/docs/First_Sino-Japanese_War.html MIT Visualizing Cultures—The First SinoJapanese War http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/thr owing_off_asia_02/ MIT Visualizing Cultures—the First Opium War http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/opi um_wars_01/ow1_essay01.html Eye witness history—a Prisoner of the Boxer Rebellion http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/boxer.h tm BBC History: The Opium War: when the British invaded China http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/20428167 Chinese History Library from the Fairbank Center http://www.cnd.org/fairbank/qing.html The Southern Expeditions of Emperors Kangxi and Qianlong http://www.chinaheritagequarterly.org/featu res.php?searchterm=009_expeditions.inc&is sue=009 Article from the British Museum to accompany the displays of Chinese art http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/high lights/article_index/e/emperor_qianlong_rei gned_ad_1.aspx CCTV 9 English Documentary about Nurhaci http://english.cntv.cn/program/documentary /special/nurhaci/index.shtml Recording the grandeur of the Qing—a site about the Qing from Columbia University http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/ht ml/emperors/ http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/ht ml/other/t_index.htm

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 Explanation about Manchu writing system developed by Nurhaci http://www.omniglot.com/writing/manchu.h tm Information from the Chinese government about the Qing Dynasty http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/histo ry/qing.htm Historical maps of China from the University of Texas http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/h istory_china.html Fordham University History sourcebook— primary sources online http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/eastasia /eastasiasbook.asp#Imperial China Google online archive of Life Magazine photos http://images.google.com/hosted/life Minneapolis Institute of Art website—Qing Dynasty art http://www.artsmia.org/art-ofasia/history/dynasty-ching.cfm Modern Chinese Literature and Culture website—hosted by the Department of East Asian History and Languages at Ohio State University http://mclc.osu.edu/ University of Washington—Guide to late imperial Chinese homes http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/ 3homintr.htm University of Washington—Guide to late imperial Chinese gardens http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/ 3garintr.htm

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.

Translated by 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.

_______. A Translucent Mirror: history and identity in Qing imperial ideology.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999.

Huang, Philip C. The Peasant Family and Rural Development in the Yangzi Delta, 1350-1988. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990.

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.

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.

Ebrey, Patricia and James Watson, eds.

Kinship Organizations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1986.

Kuhn, Philip A. “Toward a Nineteenth Century.” Late Imperial China 29 (2008): 1-6.

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. _______. 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, 12001700. 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.

_______. Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China, Militarization and Social Structure, 1796-1864. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970. _______. Soulstealers: The Chinese Sorcery Scare of 1768. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990.

Larsen, Kirk W. Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism in Chosŏn Korea, 1850-1910. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.

Lee, James and Wang Feng. One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mythology and Chinese Realities, 1700-2000.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Leibold, James. Reconfiguring Chinese Nationalism: How the Qing Frontier and its Indigenes Became Chinese. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Lipman, Jonathan. Familiar Strangers: A Muslim History in China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.

Ma Zhao. “’Writing History in a Prosperous Age’: the New Qing History Project.”

Late Imperial China 29:1 (June 2008): 120-145.

Man-Cheong, Iona. The Class of 1761: Examinations, State and Elites in Eighteenth-Century China. Stanford, CA: Stanford Unversity Press, 2004.

Mann, Susan. Local Merchants and the Chinese Bureaucracy, 1750-1950.

Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987.

Marks, Robert. Tigers, Rice, Silk and Silt: Environment and Economy in Late Imperial South China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Millward, James. Beyond the pass: economy, ethnicity and empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998. _______. Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.

Ownby, David. Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China: The Formation of a Tradition. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.

Perdue, Peter C. “Nature and Nurture on Imperial China’s Frontiers.” Modern Asian Studies 43.1 (January 2009): 245267.

Rowe, William China’s Last Empire: The Great Qing. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009 Skinner, William G. The City in Late imperial China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1977.

Song Geng. The Fragile Scholar: Power and Masculinity in Chinese Culture. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004.

Teng, Emma Jinhua. Taiwan’s Imagined Geography: Chinese Colonial Travel Writing and Pictures, 1683-1895.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Wakeman, Fredric E. Jr. Telling Chinese History: A Selection of Essays.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.

_______. China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

Wong, J.Y. Deadly Dreams: Opium, Imperialism and the Arrow War, 18561860 in China. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Pomeranz, Kenneth. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the World Economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.

Wooldridge, William Charles. “Building and State Building in Nanjing after the Taiping Rebellion.” Late Imperial China 30.2 (December 2009): 84-126.

Qiang Fang. “Hot Potatoes: Chinese Complaint Systems from Early Times to the Late Qing (1898).” The Journal of Asian Studies 68:4 (November 2009): 1105-1135.

Rawski, Evelyn S. “Presidential address: reenvisioning the Qing: the significance of the Qing period in Chinese history.”

Journal of Asian Studies 55 (Nov 1996): 829-850. _______. The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.

Reed, Bradly W. Talons and Teeth: County Clerks and Runners in the Qing Dynasty.

Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.

Ropp, Paul S. China in World History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.