Negotiated Power in Late Imperial China

Negotiated Power in Late Imperial China PDF

Author: Jennifer M. Rudolph

Publisher: Cornell University - Cornell East Asia Series

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13:

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Negotiated Power in Late Imperial China: The Zongli Yamen and the Politics of Reformexplores the nature and functioning of reform during the nineteenth century of China's Qing dynasty (1644-1911). By analyzing the bureaucratic modes of management that developed around the creation and evolution of the Zongli Yamen or Foreign Office (1861-1901), the book demonstrates the vitality of not only the Chinese State, but also the institutional traditions of its Manchu rulers. Drawing on precedent and the flexibility of the administrative system in their efforts to manage the conduct of foreign affairs, high Qing ministers transformed opportunities for institutional dynamism into the reality of a functioning central Zongli Yamen with a foreign affairs field administration supporting it in the provinces. In the process, they altered the governmental hierarchy and changed the definition of institutional power in the multi-faceted area of foreign affairs and, more generally, for the Qing bureaucracy. As the most significant example of institutional development in China's critical period of the nineteenth century, the Zongli Yamen's experience serves as valuable background for understanding reform efforts in late imperial China and beyond.

National Polity and Local Power

National Polity and Local Power PDF

Author: Tu-ki Min

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1684170036

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Despite efforts to attain a more balanced approach, Western historians have largely interpreted China's modern period in terms of China's "response to the West." To a surprising extent, this bias has prevailed even among Chinese historians, for whom the reaction to imperialism has remained a dominant concept. This book, by a scholar who is neither Chinese nor Western,goes far to set the balance right. Min Tu-ki, Korea's leading Sinologist, shows how China's own internal agenda has conditioned Chinese political life during the transition to modernity. Min sets the stage with two chapters about Chinese scciety under Ch'ing rule, one on a Korean visitor's reaction to eighteeenth-century China, the other on the social condition of the lower gentry. Each casts new light on the Chinese elite and their relation to state power. The chapters that follow-particularly the discussion of "political feudalism"-examine the conceptual resources available within the Chinese tradition for coming to terms with modernity. Min's internalist approach provides both a creative new vision of the encounter between two civilizations and a distinguished introduction to Korean Sinology.

The Art of Being Governed

The Art of Being Governed PDF

Author: Michael Szonyi

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-08-27

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 0691197245

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One of Choice Reviews' Outstanding Academic Titles of 2018--an innovative look at how families in Ming dynasty China negotiated military and political obligations to the state.tate.

The China Questions 2

The China Questions 2 PDF

Author: Maria Adele Carrai

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 0674270339

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The China Questions 2 assembles top experts to explore key issues in US–China relations today, including conflict over Taiwan, economic and military competition, public health concerns, and areas of cooperation. Rejecting a new Cold War mindset, the authors call for dealing with the world’s most important bilateral relationship on its own terms.

Negotiated Power

Negotiated Power PDF

Author: Sukhee Lee

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-05-11

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 1684175461

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The internal dynamics driving the relationship between the state and local society during the Southern Song and Yuan dynasties has both captivated and baffled scholars. In this book, Sukhee Lee posits an alternative understanding of the relationship between the state and social elites in the middle period of Chinese imperial history. Directly challenging the assumption of a zero-sum competition between the power of the state and that of local elites, Negotiated Power shows in vivid detail how state power and local elite interests were mutually constitutive and reinforcing. It was precisely the connectedness of social elites to the state, as well as the presence of the state in local life, that was essential to the rise of a self-conscious local elite society during this period. In probing the historical trajectory of Mingzhou prefecture (today’s Ningbo), Lee makes extensive use of local gazetteers from the Southern Song and the Yuan dynasties, and the abundant literary collections that still survive from this area, including some 280 epitaphs written for Mingzhou people of the time.

The China Questions 2

The China Questions 2 PDF

Author: Maria Adele Carrai

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2022-08-30

Total Pages: 465

ISBN-13: 0674287517

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Following the success of The China Questions, a new volume of insights from top China specialists explains key issues shaping today’s US-China relationship. For decades Americans have described China as a rising power. That description no longer fits: China has already risen. What does this mean for the US-China relationship? For the global economy and international security? Seeking to clarify central issues, provide historical perspective, and demystify stereotypes, Maria Adele Carrai, Jennifer Rudolph, and Michael Szonyi and an exceptional group of China experts offer essential insights into the many dimensions of the world’s most important bilateral relationship. Ranging across questions of security, economics, military development, climate change, public health, science and technology, education, and the worrying flashpoints of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Xinjiang, these concise essays provide an authoritative look at key sites of friction and potential collaboration, with an eye on where the US-China relationship may go in the future. Readers hear from leading thinkers such as James Millward on Xinjiang, Elizabeth Economy on diplomacy, Shelley Rigger on Taiwan, and Winnie Yip and William Hsiao on public health. The voices included in The China Questions 2 recognize that the US-China relationship has changed, and that the policy of engagement needs to change too. But they argue that zero-sum thinking is not the answer. Much that is good for one society is good for both—we are facing not another Cold War but rather a complex and contextually rooted mixture of conflict, competition, and cooperation that needs to be understood on its own terms.

The Quest for Gentility in China

The Quest for Gentility in China PDF

Author: Daria Berg

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2007-12-07

Total Pages: 412

ISBN-13: 1134077033

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The quest for gentility has shaped Chinese civilization and the formation of culture in China until the present day. This book analyzes social aspirations and cultural practices in China from 1550 to 1999, showing how the notion of gentility has evolved and retained its relevance in China from late imperial times until the modern day. Gentility denotes the way of the gentleman and gentlewoman. The concept of gentility transcends the categories of gender and class and provides important new insights into the ways Chinese men and women lived their lives, perceived their world and constructed their cultural environment. In contrast to analyses of the elite, perceptions of gentility relate to ideals, ambitions, desires, social capital, cultural sophistication, literary refinement, aesthetic appreciation, moral behaviour, femininity and gentlemanly elegance, rather than to actual status or power. Twelve international leading scholars present multi-disciplinary approaches to explore the images, artefacts and transmission of gentility across the centuries in historical and literary situations, popular and high culture, private and official documents, poetry clubs, garden culture and aesthetic guidebooks. This volume changes the ways we look at Chinese cultural history, literature, women and gender issues and offers new perspectives on Chinese sources.