Rethinking the Decline of China's Qing Dynasty

Rethinking the Decline of China's Qing Dynasty PDF

Author: Daniel McMahon

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-08-21

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 1317650433

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The many instances of regional insurgency and unrest that erupted on China’s borderlands at the turn of the nineteenth century are often regarded by scholars as evidence of government disability and the incipient decline of the imperial Qing dynasty. This book, based on extensive original research, argues that, on the contrary, the response of the imperial government went well beyond pacification and reconstruction, and demonstrates that the imperial political culture was dynamic, innovative and capable of confronting contemporary challenges. The author highlights in particular the Jiaqing Reforms of 1799, which enabled national reformist ideology, activist-oriented administrative education, the development of specialised frontier officials, comprehensive borderland rehabilitation, and the sharing of borderland administration best practice between different regions. Overall, the book shows that the Qing regime had sustained vigour, albeit in difficult and changing circumstances.

Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period

Rethinking the 1898 Reform Period PDF

Author: Rebecca E. Karl

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-03-23

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1684173744

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The nine essays in this volume reexamine the “hundred days” in 1898 and focus particularly on the aftermath of this reform movement. Their collective goal is to rethink the reforms not as a failed attempt at modernizing China but as a period in which many of the institutions that have since structured China began. Among the subjects covered are the reform movement, the reformers, newspapers, education, the urban environment, female literacy, the “new” woman, citizenship, and literature. All the contributors urge the view that modernity must be seen as a conceptual framework that shaped the Chinese experience of a global process, an experience through which new problems were raised and old problems rethought in creative, inventive, and contradictory ways.

After the Prosperous Age

After the Prosperous Age PDF

Author: Seunghyun Han

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1684170850

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Scholars have described the eighteenth century in China as a time of “state activism” when the state sought to strengthen its control on various social and cultural sectors. The Taiping Rebellion and the postbellum restoration efforts of the mid-nineteenth century have frequently been associated with the origins of elite activism. However, drawing upon a wide array of sources, including previously untapped Qing government documents, After the Prosperous Age argues that the ascendance of elite activism can be traced to the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns in the early nineteenth century, and that the Taiping Rebellion served as a second catalyst for the expansion of elite public roles rather than initiating such an expansion. The first four decades of the nineteenth century in China remain almost uncharted territory. By analyzing the social and cultural interplay between state power and local elites of Suzhou, a city renowned for its economic prosperity and strong sense of local pride, from the eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, Seunghyun Han illuminates the significance of this period in terms of the reformulation of state–elite relations marked by the unfolding of elite public activism and the dissolution of a centralized cultural order.

China's Economic Rise

China's Economic Rise PDF

Author: Sangaralingam Ramesh

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-08-29

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 3030498115

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book examines the economic and political rise of China from the perspective of Japan’s economic development. Beginning with Japan’s rise to statehood in the Kamakura Period (1185 to 1333) and detailing the evolution of its economy through to 2018, parallels are drawn with the economic development of China. Many of the challenges Japan faced in the first decades of the 20th century, including nationalism, militarism, income disparities, social deprivation, and economic crisis are applicable to modern day China. China’s Economic Rise: Lessons from Japan’s Political Economy aims to detail the possible economic and political upheavals that could accompany the slowing of the Chinese economy from the experience of Japan. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in Political Economy, Economic History, Economic Transition, and Development Economics. The book supplements the other publications of the author: China’s Lessons for India: Volume 1 – The Political Economy of Development, China’s Lessons for India: Volume 2 – The Political Economy of Change and The Rise of Empires: The Political Economy of Innovation.

The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture

The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture PDF

Author: Richard J. Smith

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2015-10-23

Total Pages: 625

ISBN-13: 1442221941

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Qing dynasty (1636–1912)—a crucial bridge between “traditional” and “modern” China—was remarkable for its expansiveness and cultural sophistication. This engaging and insightful history of Qing political, social, and cultural life traces the complex interaction between the Inner Asian traditions of the Manchus, who conquered China in 1644, and indigenous Chinese cultural traditions. Noted historian Richard J. Smith argues that the pragmatic Qing emperors presented a “Chinese” face to their subjects who lived south of the Great Wall and other ethnic faces (particularly Manchu, Mongolian, Central Asian, and Tibetan) to subjects in other parts of their vast multicultural empire. They were attracted by many aspects of Chinese culture, but far from being completely “sinicized” as many scholars argue, they were also proud of their own cultural traditions and interested in other cultures as well. Setting Qing dynasty culture in historical and global perspective, Smith shows how the Chinese of the era viewed the world; how their outlook was expressed in their institutions, material culture, and customs; and how China’s preoccupation with order, unity, and harmony contributed to the civilization’s remarkable cohesiveness and continuity. Nuanced and wide-ranging, his authoritative book provides an essential introduction to late imperial Chinese culture and society.

Restless Empire

Restless Empire PDF

Author: Odd Arne Westad

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2012-08-28

Total Pages: 536

ISBN-13: 0465029361

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

As the twenty-first century dawns, China stands at a crossroads. The largest and most populous country on earth and currently the world's second biggest economy, China has recently reclaimed its historic place at the center of global affairs after decades of internal chaos and disastrous foreign relations. But even as China tentatively reengages with the outside world, the contradictions of its development risks pushing it back into an era of insularity and instability -- a regression that, as China's recent history shows, would have serious implications for all other nations. In Restless Empire, award-winning historian Odd Arne Westad traces China's complex foreign affairs over the past 250 years, identifying the forces that will determine the country's path in the decades to come. Since the height of the Qing Empire in the eighteenth century, China's interactions -- and confrontations -- with foreign powers have caused its worldview to fluctuate wildly between extremes of dominance and subjugation, emulation and defiance. From the invasion of Burma in the 1760s to the Boxer Rebellion in the early 20th century to the 2001 standoff over a downed U.S. spy plane, many of these encounters have left Chinese with a lingering sense of humiliation and resentment, and inflamed their notions of justice, hierarchy, and Chinese centrality in world affairs. Recently, China's rising influence on the world stage has shown what the country stands to gain from international cooperation and openness. But as Westad shows, the nation's success will ultimately hinge on its ability to engage with potential international partners while simultaneously safeguarding its own strength and stability. An in-depth study by one of our most respected authorities on international relations and contemporary East Asian history, Restless Empire is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the recent past and probable future of this dynamic and complex nation.

China's Interaction with the World

China's Interaction with the World PDF

Author: Jens Damm

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2017-11-13

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 3643909608

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The rapidly changing role of China - once an isolated pariah state, now a G-20 member and an emerging superpower in Asia and beyond - is one of the factors to be considered in any conceptualization of the current state of global affairs. The articles in this issue offer preliminary insights into the expansive topic of China's diversified economic, political and cultural interactions with the world. U.S. policies towards Tibet during the Cold War period are examined as well as current global Chinese business networks, China's foreign policy in the 21st century, and the developing relations between China and the five Central Asian states. Jens Damm is an Associate Professor at Chang Jung University, Tainan. He is currently leading a three-year research project at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Mechthild Leutner is Professor emerita of Modern Chinese History and Culture at Freie Universitaet Berlin. Niu Dayong is a Professor of the History Department, Peking University. His research is mainly focused on the interactions between China and foreign powers in recent decades.

Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era

Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Western Hunan during the Modern Era PDF

Author: Paul R. Katz

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-08-19

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 0429591829

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Suitable for use in courses on ethnic studies or gender studies Rethinks interaction between Han Chinese and non-Han cultures Considers how religion has adapted to the challenges of modern Chinese history Describes rituals and ritual specialists largely unknown to Western readers Combines historical and ethnographic methodologies

Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period

Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period PDF

Author: Arthur W. Hummel Sr.

Publisher: Berkshire Publishing Group

Published: 2018-01-01

Total Pages: 1100

ISBN-13: 1614728496

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period was first developed under the auspices of the US Library of Congress during World War II. This much-loved work, edited by Arthur W. Hummel Sr., was meticulously compiled and unique in its scope, and quickly became the standard biographical reference for the Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1911/2. Amongst the contributors are John King Fairbank, Têng Ssû-yü, L. Carrington Goodrich, C. Martin Wilbur, Fêng Chia-shêng, Knight Biggerstaff, and Nancy Lee Swann. The 2018 Berkshire edition contains the original eight hundred biographical sketches as well as the original front and back matter, including the preface by Hu Shih, a scholar who had been China’s ambassador to the United States. An introduction by Pamela Crossley places this classic work in historical context, and discusses its origins, authors and editors, themes, style, and contemporary relevance. Chinese names in English have been converted to the pinyin transcription system (changing the book’s title from Ch’ing to Qing), but the traditional Chinese characters have been retained. Additional materials added by Berkshire include a general bibliography, a Wade-Giles to pinyin conversion table, and a list of Qing dynasty emperors. Arthur W. Hummel Sr. (1884–1975) was a missionary, sinologist, and the first director of the Orientalia Division at the Library of Congress. Pamela Crossley is a professor at Dartmouth College and a specialist on the Qing empire and modern Chinese history, as well as the software author and scholarly editor of the ECCP Reader, a digital companion to the original Eminent Chinese of the Ch’ing Period.