The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial ChinaIn 1644, the Manchus, a relatively unknown people inhabiting China s rude northeastern frontier, overthrew the Ming, Asia s mightiest rulers, and established the Qing dynasty, which endured to 1912. From this event arises one of Chinese history s great conundrums: How did a barely literate alien people manage to remain in power for nearly 300 years over a highly cultured population that was vastly superior in number? This problem has fascinated scholars for almost a century, but until now no one has approached the question from the Manchu point of view. This book, the first in any language to be based mainly on Manchu documents, supplies a radically new perspective on the formative period of the modern Chinese nation. Drawing on recent critical notions of ethnicity, the author explores the evolution of the "Eight Banners, a unique Manchu system of social and military organization that was instrumental in the conquest of the Ming. The author argues that as rulers of China the Manchu conquerors had to behave like Confucian monarchs, but that as a non-Han minority they faced other, more complex considerations as well. Their power derived not only from the acceptance of orthodox Chinese notions of legitimacy, but also, the author suggests, from Manchu "ethnic sovereignty, which depended on the sustained coherence of the conquerors. When, in the early 1700s, this coherence was threatened by rapid acculturation and the prospective loss of Manchu distinctiveness, the Qing court, always insecure, desperately urged its minions to uphold the traditions of an idealized "Manchu Way. However, the author shows that it was not this appeal but rather the articulation of a broader identity grounded in the realities of Eight Banner life that succeeded in preserving Manchu ethnicity, and the Qing dynasty along with it, into the twentieth century. |
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Contents
XLIX | 234 |
LI | 235 |
LII | 241 |
LIII | 246 |
LIV | 255 |
LV | 257 |
LVI | 263 |
LVII | 268 |
LVIII | 275 |
LIX | 276 |
LX | 284 |
LXI | 290 |
LXII | 294 |
LXIII | 299 |
LXIV | 305 |
LXVI | 306 |
LXVII | 313 |
LXVIII | 322 |
LXIX | 326 |
LXX | 329 |
LXXI | 333 |
LXXII | 337 |
LXXIII | 342 |
LXXIV | 345 |
LXXV | 346 |
LXXVI | 355 |
LXXVII | 363 |
LXXIX | 365 |
LXXX | 369 |
LXXXI | 373 |
LXXXII | 505 |
LXXXIII | 511 |
LXXXIV | 551 |
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The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China Mark C. Elliott No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
already appears banner system baqi became become Beijing bondservant called capital century changed Chapter China Chinese banner Chinese bannermen cited civil commander common companies conquest continued court cultural distinct dynasty early edict Eight Banners eighteenth century emperor established ethnic evidence fact figures forces garrison Hangzhou households hundred hunt identity imperial important included institutional Jurchen Kangxi land language late later less lieutenant living Manchu Manchu city Manzu matter means memorial military Mongol never noted officials original percent political population position posts practice presented Press problem provincial Qianlong Qing Qingdai QLMaZPZZ rank reason received referred regular reign remained residence rule separate served shilu slaves soldiers Standard status suggests taels thousand tion troops University walls women Yongzheng YZMaZPZZ
Popular passages
Page xxv - Our youth, of labor patient, earn their bread ; Hardly they work with frugal diet fed. From ploughs and harrows sent to seek renown, They fight in fields, and storm the shaken town.
Page xxv - Th' inverted lance makes furrows in the plain. Ev'n time, that changes all, yet changes us in vain — The body, not the mind — nor can controul Th' immortal vigour, or abate the soul.
Page 22 - I have heard of men using the doctrines of our great land to change barbarians, but I have never yet heard of any being changed by barbarians.
Page 105 - The police is singularly strict. It is indeed stretched to an extent unknown I believe in any other city, and strongly marks the jealousy of the Government, and their unceasing apprehension of danger. At night all the streets are shut up by barricadoes at each end and a guard is constantly patrolling between them so that no person can pass after a certain hour without assigning satisfactory reasons.
Page xx - Additional research was assisted by a research grant from the Joint Committee on Chinese Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council, with funds provided by the Andrew W.
Page 218 - Chinese, as being more regularly educated, more learned, and more patient than the Tartars, who, in general, have a different turn, and prefer active military duty to tranquil or sedentary occupations. In all the tribunals of justice and finance, in all the courts of civil or military administration, an equal number of Tartar assessors is indispensably necessary to be present, in order to watch over and control the others. A Chinese may preside at the board, and pronounce the opinion, but the prompter...
Page 183 - At this distance it is hard to imagine how vast areas of the country could have been annexed simply to protect royal recreation — "the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible," as Siegfried Sassoon put it. But for a warrior state, the royal hunt was always more than a pastime, however compulsively pursued. Outside of war itself, it was the most important blood ritual through which the hierarchy of status and honor around the king was ordered. It may not be too much to characterize it as an alternative...
Page 471 - ... in light colours with flowers or butterflies. Their feet are of the natural size, the shoes worn by those who have to go about on foot being much like men's ordinary shoes, of silk and satin embroidered, with flat soles. In the case of ladies, however, who when they go out do so in a chair or cart, the shoes stand upon a sole of four or six inches in height, or even more. These soles, which consist of a wooden frame upon which white cotton cloth is stretched, are quite thin from the toe and heel...