Description
Book SynopsisRemaking the Chinese Empire examines China''s development from an empire into a modern state through the lens of Sino-Korean political relations during the Qing period. Incorporating Korea into the historical narrative of the Chinese empire, it demonstrates that the Manchu regime used its relations with Choson Korea to establish, legitimize, and consolidate its identity as the civilized center of the world, as a cosmopolitan empire, and as a modern sovereign state.
For the Manchu regime and for the Choson Dynasty, the relationship was one of mutual dependence, central to building and maintaining political legitimacy. Yuanchong Wang illuminates how this relationship served as the very model for China''s foreign relations. Ultimately, this precipitated contests, conflicts, and compromises among empires and states in East Asia, Inner Asia, and Southeast Asia in particular, in the nineteenth century when international law reached the Chinese world. By adoptin
Trade Review
Deftly drawing his evidences from Manchu, Korean, and Chinese sources, the author successfully presents a complicated picture of the "age-honored China and Korea relations." This is a must-read for historians of China and Korea as well as for anyone interested in international relations.
* Choice *
Yuanchong Wang's Remaking the Chinese Empire is an innovative exploration of Sino-Korean relations during the Chosŏn period.
* Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture *
This inspiring book takes us a step forward toward a more interactive, and less national-history-oriented, understanding of Qing-Chosŏn relations. Full of intriguing observations and thought-provoking syntheses, it joins Kenneth M. Swope and Seonmin Kim in revising the Sino-Korean relations in late imperial China, a perennial subject that attracts both specialists and general readers.
* Asian Affairs *
This book's ambition goes beyond an account of Sino-Korean relations in the early modern period. Remaking the Chinese Empire is arguably the most comprehensive and sophisticated study on the Qing-Chosŏn relationship by far.
* The Journal of Chinese Studies *
The first full-length English-language exploration of the entirety of Qing-Choson relations, Remaking the Chinese Empire will be required reading for anyone interested in Qing or Choson history or in East Asian foreign relations or international relations more broadly. Drawing on a rich and varied base of Chinese, Manchu, Korean, English, Japanese, and other sources and boldly sketching new ways of conceptualizing East Asian foreign relations. The book will be an indispensable part of any conversation about these issues.
* The Journal of Asian Studies *
A major contribution to Sino-Korean history. Wang's writing is clear and engaging, much appreciated when dealing with a topic that is so easily bogged down with fusty and confusing reference to vassals, enfeoffment, tribute missions, and the like. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Qing history and East Asian diplomacy.
* American Historical Review *
Yuanchong Wang's Remaking the Chinese Empire offers a helpful analytical framework. Wang shows us in great detail how the geopolitical developments of the late nineteenth century severely tested the foundation of the Zongfan infrastructure.
* Saksaha *
