White Lotus Rebels and South China Pirates: Crisis and Reform in the Qing Empire

by Wensheng Wang

Overview

The reign of Emperor Jiaqing (1796–1820 CE) has long occupied an awkward position in studies of China’s last dynasty, the Qing (1644–1911 CE). Conveniently marking a watershed between the prosperous eighteenth century and the tragic post–Opium War era, this quarter century has nevertheless been glossed over as an unremarkable interlude separating two well-studied epochs of great transformation. White Lotus Rebels and South China Pirates presents a major reassessment of this misunderstood period by examining how the emperors, bureaucrats, and foreigners responded to the two crises that shaped the transition from the Qianlong to the Jiaqing reign.

Wensheng Wang argues that the dramatic combination of internal uprising and transnational piracy, rather than being a hallmark of inexorable dynastic decline, propelled the Manchu court to reorganize itself through a series of modifications in policymaking and bureaucratic structure. The resulting Jiaqing reforms initiated a process of state retreat that pulled the Qing Empire out of a cycle of aggressive overextension and resistance, and back onto a more sustainable track of development. Although this pragmatic striving for political sustainability was unable to save the dynasty from ultimate collapse, it represented a durable and constructive approach to the compounding problems facing the late Qing regime and helped sustain it for another century. As one of the most comprehensive accounts of the Jiaqing reign, White Lotus Rebels and South China Pirates provides a fresh understanding of this significant turning point in China’s long imperial history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674725317
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/06/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 11.90(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Wensheng Wang is Associate Professor of History at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

I Contextualizing Crises

1 Origins of the Qianlong-Jiaqing Crises 17

II A View from the Bottom

2 The White Lotus Rebellion in the Han River Highlands 37

3 The Piracy Crisis in the South China Sea 81

III A View from the Top

4 Court Politics and Imperial Visions 113

5 The Inner White Lotus Rebellion 132

6 The Jiaqing Reforms 165

7 The Piracy Crisis and Foreign Diplomacy 209

Conclusion 253

List of Abbreviations and Primary Sources 261

Notes 265

Acknowledgments 319

Index 323

Editorial Reviews

An impressive history of a critical and little-known period in the Qing dynasty, the first decade of the nineteenth century. Wang shows that the Jiaqing reign was not a time of weakness or decline, but a deliberate renunciation of the excessive overreach of his predecessor, the Qianlong emperor. Indeed, the Jiaqing emperor’s reforms left the empire better equipped to meet its many social and political challenges.

Peter C. Perdue

This important book brings the case of Qing China into our broader discussions of an age of multiple global transformations. It is theoretically ambitious, in control of scholarship in several languages, and based on extensive archival research, with an abundance of vivid quotations.

John E. Wills

An impressive history of a critical and little-known period in the Qing dynasty, the first decade of the nineteenth century. Wang shows that the Jiaqing reign was not a time of weakness or decline, but a deliberate renunciation of the excessive overreach of his predecessor, the Qianlong emperor. Indeed, the Jiaqing emperor’s reforms left the empire better equipped to meet its many social and political challenges.
— Peter C. Perdue, Yale University

This important book brings the case of Qing China into our broader discussions of an age of multiple global transformations. It is theoretically ambitious, in control of scholarship in several languages, and based on extensive archival research, with an abundance of vivid quotations.
— John E. Wills, Jr., University of Southern California

From the Publisher