The Sichuan Frontier and Tibet: Imperial Strategy in the Early Qing

by Yingcong Dai

Overview

During China's last dynasty, the Qing (1644-1911), the empire's remote, bleak, and politically insignificant Southwest rose to become a strategically vital area. This study of the imperial government's handling of the southwestern frontier illuminates issues of considerable importance in Chinese history and foreign relations: Sichuan's rise as a key strategic area in relation to the complicated struggle between the Zunghar Mongols and China over Tibet, Sichuan's neighbor to the west, and consequent developments in governance and taxation of the area.

Through analysis of government documents, gazetteers, and private accounts, Yingcong Dai explores the intersections of political and social history, arguing that imperial strategy toward the southwestern frontier was pivotal in changing Sichuan's socioeconomic landscape. Government policies resulted in light taxation, immigration into Sichuan, and a military market for local products, thus altering Sichuan but ironically contributing toward the eventual demise of the Qing.

Dai's detailed, objective analysis of China's historical relationship with Tibet will be useful for readers seeking to understand debates concerning Tibet's sovereignty, Tibetan theocratic government, and the political dimension of the system of incarnate Tibetan lamas (of which the Dalai Lama is one).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295989525
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	01/21/2010
Series:	China Program Books (Paperback)
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Yingcong Dai is associate professor of history at William Paterson University of New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Reign Dates of the Qing Dynasty, 1636-1911 xi

Introduction 3

1 A Humble Beginning, 1644-1696 14

2 A Strategic Turn from the Steppe to Tibet, 1696-1701 36

3 The Formative Era, 1701-1722 64

4 Realignment in the Yongzheng Period, 1723-1735 91

5 The Shaping of Independence in the Qianlong Period, 1736-1795 117

6 The Military Presence in Society and Economy 147

7 The Benefit and Cost of Imperial Strategy 189

Epilogue 226

Abbreviations Used in Notes and Bibliography 243

Notes 245

Glossary 303

Selected Bibliography 311

Index 337

What People are Saying About This

Laura Hostetler

"An excellent contribution to the field of Qing history. This is regional history at its best. Dai's study both engages and transcends local concerns, showing how regional histories are directly affected by national and international considerations."

American Historical Review

"… an opportunity for non-specialists interested in Tibet to understand the historical narrative and analytical context that informs domestic scholarly opinion on that region in China today."

From the Publisher

… an opportunity for non-specialists interested in Tibet to understand the historical narrative and analytical context that informs domestic scholarly opinion on that region in China today.

University of Washington Press

Collecting and scrutinizing imperial archives in Taipei, Beijing, Chongqing, and even Paris, as well as in some major East Asian libraries in the United States, Dai successfully presents a solid and comprehensive study on a previously ignored region of the Qing Dynasty.

University of Washington Press

Editorial Reviews

"Dai has provided us with a highly informative study of how state policies and military institutions shaped the socioeconomic reconstruction of eighteenth-century Sichuan . . . . [and] has provided us with a valuable study of how state policy and military institutions led to the dramatic reconstruction of Sichuan province during the eighteenth century."

Pacific Affairs - John Herman

"This excellent narrative proves that the dynamic process of imperial strategy exhibited on the Sichuan frontier and Tibet during the early Qing is critical to understanding the history of Qing as a whole, making this book an essential reading for all specialists."

Journal of Chinese Military History - Tianxiang Jiang

"This book is a brilliant study of the interplay between regional and central governments during a pivotal period as China expanded into Tibet and Xingjiang. Summing up: Essential."

Choice

"Dai's vivid study of Sichuan allows us to see in some detail the ways in which Qing expansion into Dzungharia and Tibet profoundly militarized the economies and the political elites of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, while nurturing the intertwining of mobilization and corruption that made the empire as incapable of containing rebellion in the heartland as it was further extending its conquests at the borders."

The China Quarterly

"Dai's revisionist work forces us to reconsider two sacred tropes in Chinese history, the predominance of civilian over military values, and that Qing success rested on blind adherence to Chinese administrative norms."

Canadian Journal of History - Blaine Chiasson

"Provides a fresh explanation of Sichuan's place in the Qing system based on the empire's strategic endeavor in the Tibetan and Mongolian regions of Inner Asia."

Journal of Asian Studies

Dai has provided us with a highly informative study of how state policies and military institutions shaped the socioeconomic reconstruction of eighteenth-century Sichuan . . . . [and] has provided us with a valuable study of how state policy and military institutions led to the dramatic reconstruction of Sichuan province during the eighteenth century.

--John Herman "Pacific Affairs" (1/1/2011 12:00:00 AM)

Dai's revisionist work forces us to reconsider two sacred tropes in Chinese history, the predominance of civilian over military values, and that Qing success rested on blind adherence to Chinese administrative norms.

--Blaine Chiasson "Canadian Journal of History"

Dai's vivid study of Sichuan allows us to see in some detail the ways in which Qing expansion into Dzungharia and Tibet profoundly militarized the economies and the political elites of Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi, while nurturing the intertwining of mobilization and corruption that made the empire as incapable of containing rebellion in the heartland as it was further extending its conquests at the borders.

-- "The China Quarterly"

Provides a fresh explanation of Sichuan's place in the Qing system based on the empire's strategic endeavor in the Tibetan and Mongolian regions of Inner Asia.

-- "Journal of Asian Studies"

This book is a brilliant study of the interplay between regional and central governments during a pivotal period as China expanded into Tibet and Xingjiang. Summing up: Essential.

-- "Choice"

This excellent narrative proves that the dynamic process of imperial strategy exhibited on the Sichuan frontier and Tibet during the early Qing is critical to understanding the history of Qing as a whole, making this book an essential reading for all specialists.

--Tianxiang Jiang "Journal of Chinese Military History" (1/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)

This is a wonderful, meticulously-documented and tersely written work on the Sichuan frontier and, more broadly, on Qing China's empire building in the Southwest. It is also a welcome addition to the exciting literature on the history of the Qing frontier.

-- "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society"

From the Publisher