A Court on Horseback: Imperial Touring and the Construction of Qing Rule, 1680-1785 / Edition 1

by Michael G. Chang

Overview

Between 1751 and 1784, the Qianlong emperor embarked upon six southern tours, traveling from Beijing to Jiangnan and back. These tours were exercises in political theater that took the Manchu emperor through one of the Qing empire's most prosperous regions.

This study elucidates the tensions and the constant negotiations characterizing the relationship between the imperial center and Jiangnan, which straddled the two key provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Politically, economically, and culturally, Jiangnan was the undisputed center of the Han Chinese world; it also remained a bastion of Ming loyalism and anti-Manchu sentiment. How did the Qing court constitute its authority and legitimate its domination over this pivotal region? What were the precise terms and historical dynamics of Qing rule over China proper during the long eighteenth century?

In the course of addressing such questions, this study also explores the political culture within and through which High Qing rule was constituted and contested by a range of actors, all of whom operated within socially and historically structured contexts. The author argues that the southern tours occupied a central place in the historical formation of Qing rule during a period of momentous change affecting all strata of the eighteenth-century polity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674024540
Publisher:	Harvard
Publication date:	05/01/2007
Series:	Harvard East Asian Monographs , #287
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	550
Sales rank:	1,148,480
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael G. Chang is Associate Professor in the Department of History & Art History at George Mason University.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures

Abbreviations

Note on Transcription and Dating Conventions

Introduction

1. Historical Precedents and the Multivalence of Imperial Touring

2. "Following Ancestors": The Ethno-Dynastic Imperative of Imperial Touring, 1680s and 1740s

3. Putting a Court on Horseback: The Logistics and Politics of Moving a Court

4. The Perils of Peace and the Politics of Empire: Wars, Tours, and Military Readiness

5. "Returning to Purity and Simplicity": the Southern Tours and Intra-Elite Compeition in an Age of Commercialization

6. The Southern Tours as Cultural Encompassment: The Valorization of Verse and Accommodation of Han Learning

7. The Poetics and Politics of Qianlong's Encounter with Jiangnan

8. Popular Perceptions and the Primacy of Ethno-Dynastic Politics, 1765-1785

Appendix A. A Note on Provincial Preparations for Qianlong's Southern Tours

Appendix B. An Estimate of the Overall Costs for Qianlong's Southern Tours

Appendix C. Southern Tour Recruitment Examinations: A Quantitative Analysis

Works Cited

Chinese Character List

Index