China's Last Imperial Frontier: Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan's Tibetan Borderlands

by Xiuyu Wang

Overview

China's Last Imperial Frontier explores imperial China's frontier expansion in the Tibetan borderlands during the last decades of the Qing. The empire mounted a series of military attacks against indigenous chieftaincies and Buddhist monasteries in the east Tibetan region seeking to replace native authorities with state bureaucrats by redrawing the politically diverse frontier into a system of Chinese-style counties. Historically, at all the strategic frontier locations, the state had been for the most part outstripped by local institutions in political, military, and ideological strengths. With perceived threats from the Anglo-Russian “Great Game” accentuating Qing vulnerability in Tibet, the Sichuan government took advantage of the frontier crisis by encroaching upon local and Lhasa domains in Kham. Even though the Kham campaign was portrayed in Qing official discourse as a part of the nationwide reforms of “New Policies” (xinzheng) and administrative regularization (gaitu guiliu), its progress on the ground was influenced by the dynamics of interregional relations, including Sichuan’s competition with central Tibet, power struggles among Qing frontier officials, and varied Khampa responses to the new regime. The growing regionalism intensified the resistance of local forces to imperial authority. Despite the uneven results of the late Qing campaign, it had come to serve as an important source of sovereignty claims and policy inspirations for the subsequent governments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739168103
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	11/28/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	306
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Xiuyu Wang is professor of history at Washington State University Vancouver.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Qing Discourse and Capability in Eastern Tibet
Chapter 2. Frontier Society and Power
Chapter 3. Lu Chuanlin’s “Great Game” in Nyarong
Chapter 4. Frontier Incident and War Making
Chapter 5. State Violence and Local Resistance: the Kham War
Chapter 6. “Regularization” Reconsidered: Variants of Gaitu Guiliu in Northern Kham
Chapter 7. Fashioning an “Inner Region beyond the Pass”
Chapter 8. Developing the West: Opening Kham Lands, Mines and Young Minds
Conclusion
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Character List
Index

What People are Saying About This

Peter Perdue

Xiuyu Wang's book is an excellent narrative and analysis of the last frontier expansion project of the Qing, in the Tibetan region of western Sichuan. China's troubled relationship with its Tibetan population is one of the legacies of this early twentieth century effort. Wang combines geographical, ethnographic, and historical approaches very well, and connects his study to comparative literature on imperial expansion. This is a fascinating and impressive contribution to the study of modern China's frontier and ethnic history.

Mark Elliott

This is a finely wrought study of the expansion of the late Qing state on the southwestern frontier. It not only illuminates the political debates over how best to tame the 'wild west' of Kham, but gives a penetrating analysis of the connections between those policies, efforts at military modernization, and the rising tide of revolution in Sichuan. Carefully researched using original Chinese sources, Wang’s account is a valuable addition to the growing literature on the place of the frontier in the making of modern China.

Editorial Reviews

Xiuyu Wang's book is an excellent narrative and analysis of the last frontier expansion project of the Qing, in the Tibetan region of western Sichuan. China's troubled relationship with its Tibetan population is one of the legacies of this early twentieth century effort. Wang combines geographical, ethnographic, and historical approaches very well, and connects his study to comparative literature on imperial expansion. This is a fascinating and impressive contribution to the study of modern China's frontier and ethnic history.

Peter Perdue

One of the main strengths of the book is Wang’s use of Chinese-language sources, including some Grand Council archival documents and hitherto unexplored Qing officials’ accounts of Tibet. Wang provides a good analysis of the Qing motives and global issues that propelled aggressive frontier policies.... [T]he book is strong in its use of Chinese sources and does provide a good assessment of late Qing polices toward Tibet and Sino-Tibetan border regions. Xiuyu Wang’s China’s Last Imperial Frontier: Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan’s Tibetan Borderlands is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarly works on Kham, the Sino-Tibetan frontier.

Journal of Asian Studies

This is a finely wrought study of the expansion of the late Qing state on the southwestern frontier. It not only illuminates the political debates over how best to tame the 'wild west' of Kham, but gives a penetrating analysis of the connections between those policies, efforts at military modernization, and the rising tide of revolution in Sichuan. Carefully researched using original Chinese sources, Wang’s account is a valuable addition to the growing literature on the place of the frontier in the making of modern China.

Mark Elliott