Description
Book SynopsisThis is the first of two volumes in this major Cambridge history dealing with the decline of the Ch'ing empire. It opens with a survey of the Ch'ing empire in China and Inner Asia at its height, in about 1800. Contributors study the complex interplay of foreign invasion, domestic rebellion and Ch'ing decline and restoration. Special reference is made to the Peking administration, the Canton trade and the early treaty system, the Taiping, Nien and other rebellions, and the dynasty's survival in uneasy cooperation with the British, Russian, French, American and other invaders. Each chapter is written by a specialist from the international community of sinological scholars. No knowledge of Chinese is necessary; for readers with Chinese, proper names and terms are identified with their characters in the glossary, and full references to Chinese, Japanese and other works are given in the bibliographies. Numerous maps illustrate the text, and there are a bibliographical essays describing the
Table of Contents1. Introduction: the old order John K. Fairbank; 2. Ch'ing Inner Asia c.1800 Joseph Fletcher; 3. Dynastic decline and the roots of rebellion Susan Mann Jones and Philip A. Kuhn; 4. The Canton trade and the Opium War Frederic Wakeman, Jr; 5. The creation of the treaty system John K. Fairbank; 6. The Taiping Rebellion Philip A. Kuhn; 7. Sino-Russian relations, 1800–62 Joseph Fletcher; 8. The heyday of the Ch'ing order in Mongolia, Sinkiang and Tibet Joseph Fletcher; 9. The Ch'ing Restoration Kwang-Ching Liu; 10. Self-strengthening: the pursuit of Western technology Ting-Yee Kuo and Kwang-Ching Liu; 11. Christian missions and their impact to 1900 Paul A. Cohen; Bibliographical essays; Bibliography; Glossary and index.
