China's Borderlands under the Qing, 1644–1912: Perspectives and Approaches in the Investigation of Imperial Boundary Regions (Asian States and Empires Book 20)

This book explores new directions in the study of China’s borderlands. In addition to assessing the influential perspectives of other historians, it engages innovative approaches in the author’s 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 China’s management of its borderlands grows more pressing, the work presents key information and insights into how that nation’s contested fringes have been governed in the past. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 List of illustrations 8 Acknowledgements 9 List of abbreviations 11 Introduction 14 Part I Historiographical perspectives 34 1 Perspectives in North American research on Qing China’s frontiers 36 Part II Conceptual perspectives 60 2 Were the Miao Kings “prophets of renewal?” The case of the 1795–1797 Hunan Miao revolt 62 3 The middle ground, “middle ground moments,” and accommodation in the study of later Qing borderland history 82 Part III New Military History 110 4 Geomancy and walled fortifications on a late eighteenth century Qing borderland 112 5 Fortified walls and social ordering in Qing China’s early Jiaqing borderland revolts 130 Part IV Political Discourse Analysis 142 6 Treachery at imperial edges: criminality and bureaucratic classification as jian in middle Qing China 144 7 Marking “men of iniquity”: imperial purpose and imagined boundaries in the Qing processing of rebel ringleaders, 1786–1828 170 Appendix: Yan Ruyi’s “conditions and customs in the mountains” 204 References 217 Index 231 Historiographical,perspectives;,Conceptual,perspectives;,New,Military,History;,Political,Discourse,Analysis;,Treachery,at,imperial,edges Historiographical perspectives,Conceptual perspectives,New Military History,Political Discourse Analysis,Treachery at imperial edges