Daniel McMahon - Chinas Borderlands under the Qing, 1644–1912

This book explores new directions in the study of Chinas borderlands. In addition to assessing the influential perspectives of other historians, it engages innovative approaches in the authors own research. These studies probe regional accommodations, the intersections of borderland management, martial fortification, and imperial culture, as well as the role of governmental discourse in defining and preserving restive boundary regions. As the issue of Chinas management of its borderlands grows more pressing, the work presents key information and insights into how that nations contested fringes have been governed in the past.

Daniel McMahon is a professor in the Department of History at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan.

Edited by Peter Lorge

Vanderbilt University, USA

The importance of Asia will continue to grow in the twenty-first century, but remarkably little is available in English on the history of the polities that constitute this critical area. Most current work on Asia is hindered by the extremely limited state of knowledge of the Asian past in general, and the history of Asian states and empires in particular. Asian States and Empires is a book series that will provide detailed accounts of the history of states and empires across Asia from earliest times until the present. It aims to explain and describe the formation, maintenance, and collapse of Asian states and empires, and the means by which this was accomplished, making available the history of more than half the worlds population at a level of detail comparable to the history of Western polities. In so doing, it will demonstrate that Asian peoples and civilizations had their own histories apart from the West, and provide the basis for understanding contemporary Asia in terms of its actual histories, rather than broad generalizations informed by Western categories of knowledge.

17 The Collapse of Chinas Later Han Dynasty, 25200 CE

The Northwest Borderlands and the Edge of Empire

18 China, Korea & Japan at War, 15921598

Eyewitness Accounts

19 Chinas Northern Wei Dynasty, 386535

The Struggle for Legitimacy

20 Chinas Borderlands under the Qing, 16441912

Perspectives and Approaches in the Investigation of Imperial Boundary Regions

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Asian-States-and-Empires/book-series/SE900

First published 2021

by Routledge

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2021 Daniel McMahon

The right of Daniel McMahon to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN: 978-0-367-69656-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-14273-7 (ebk)

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6.1 Number of references in the Qing Veritable Records (ethical-behavioral categories)

6.2 Number of references in the Qing Veritable Records (jian categories)

What follows is my second collection of articles examining Qing Chinas boundary regions. The first centered on administrative planning for imperial peripheries in crisis, focused on questions of values, activism, and management. The current collection focuses on more submerged elements of frontier experience, particularly culture and discourse, as well as the deeper query of how such conditions might be studied. Preparing it has been a slow process, but one immeasurably enriched by the support of my colleagues in the Fu Jen Catholic University History Department, as well as that of my wife, Vicki Tzyy-Guan Yang, and daughter, Alysha Anne McMahon. My thanks also to Donald Sutton for reading and responding to essay drafts and to my research assistant, Chen Wei-ting, for guiding me to sources I should have known, but did not.

In the course of research, writing, and final preparation, I have also received financial support from the R.O.C. (Taiwan) Ministry of Science and Technology. This includes research grants (MOST 1082410-H-030017- and MOST 1032410-H-030011-), as well as travel grants to attend international conferences (MOST 1062914-I-030014-A1).

Some of the chapters of this work were previously published as articles in journals or (in one case) another article collection. They have here been revised, in some instances substantially, and directed toward common themes. Reprinting occurs with the consent of the original publishers.