What do you think?
Rate this book
清代战争文化
清代的焦点在靠前民生还是军事问题？在这本开拓性的书里，作者推翻了传统观点，而认为战争是17、18世纪中国的核心问题。作者认为靠前民生问题与军事问题是相互作用的。帝国的军事扩张以文化影响力为基础，目的在于取得军事上的胜利。
244 pages, Hardcover
First published June 27, 2006
40 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 30, 2022
So the Qing rulers didn't just want to adher to both the chinese tradition but also the central asian one and even went so far to emulate or even surpass the Tang (who were of Turko-mongolic origin).
The author does things a bit different from many others. She states that she won't be dating the Qjng empire from 1644, but changed it to conform to a perspective less geared to the history of China. Her change of date has taken place because 1636 was the year in which the Manchu leader, Hung Taiji (1592-1643), unambiguously proclaimed his intention of building an empire, and gave it the name of "Qing."
Furthermore, she argues that an embrace of heterogeneity, as distinct from the assumption of an ultimately inevitable homogenization, marked another distinguishing feature of Qing rule. lt also bears out the recent proposition that Qing rulers' attitude to foreign relations divergcd from the hierarchical model enshrined in Chinese tributary theory, since relations within the empire generally operated as a microcosm of cxternal relations.
And ironically, she argues that the Qing were orientalists as well. The sensitivity indirectly concerned the real dearth in Manchu culture of any artistic and literary tradition comparable to that of their Chinese subjects, whose attitude to other civilizations bore some analogy to the orientalist power relationship whose identification in western cultures is most closely associated with Edward Said.
During these times, the use of multiple languages was in part a mark of Qjng cosmopolitanism and in part the act of a conqueror wishing to reiterate his dominion. But the purpose went beyond that. In the eighteenth-century Qjng context, using multiple languages asserted a claim to universal spiritual as well as terrestrial overlordship.
And given the imperial record of adjusting the historiographical record to make it represent the precise image desired, it is highly likely that emperors were just as ready to embroider the visual record to accentuate such a manifestation of imperial power. In this one case, by incorporating the supposed international audience as actors into imperial theatre, and hence implying their consent to overarching imperial goals. In the case of pieces of art, subsequent series were drawn and engraved in China by Chinese artists and craftsmen, who may have learned or relearned the art from the Jcsuits. In whatever form, all the war illustrations must have been imaginary versions drawn from eyewitness descriptions, since court artists cannot personally have observed all these far-off battles.
And all this theatre, depictions in all forms had a purpose of course. By its imagining unity among Qjng subjects despite their diversity, through the sense of shared achievement that the commemorations sought to inculcate, the eighteenth-century Qjng imperial project created the field of possibility from which the new political forms could begin to be envisioned. And since the auther mentioned the Qianlong emperor and his influence in the Qing projects, she did refer to the extermination of the Zhungar by war several times, but never calls it a genocide.
And speaking of war, not only did Tibetan lamas surrender themselves on the battle field, likely in the hope that Qing troops might hesitate to attack them in the same way that they would have done ordinary soldiers, at least that their clerical status might save them from the severest punishment. And it sometimes seemed that only when Qing forces countered magic with magic were they able to overcome the enemy. So, with some success, at least in the realm of raising their own troops' morale and demoralizing the others, they sent naked prostitutes onto the ramparts to deploy the yin force of their urine and menstrual blood in the hope of terrifying and immobilizing their adversaries. And apart from that, gosh was there much in terms of military rituals. There was even a ritualistic autumn hunt at a place called Mulan, which was the only ritual here that was somewhat interesting and that chapter was the shortest, sadly.
It was more interesting to read that while the Qing emperor claimed to the ambassador of George III that his empire was entirely self-sufficient, he was in fact keenly interested in foreign military and technological innovations. And to this day people take his word at the state of "China" back then for granted, without looking at what he actually did. And despite rigid Chinese assertions that the empire was the centre of the world, and a determined insistence that others acknowledge its superiority, Chinese foreign policy was highly pragmatic and often adapted to circumstances as necessary. And despite professions of disdain for trade, Chinese across the social spectrum have in fact energetically and enthusiastcally engaged in commercial exchange.
In the end the author argued that the legacy of the high Qing was to have bequeathed some of the ground on which 20th century Chinese states have been built, which suggest that the physical and cultural relationship between empire and nation, and the military ethos that informed them both, as well as the "isms" commonly associated with them, neither appeared in a vacuum nor arose exclusively as the result of the complicated "encounter with the West."
Sadly, the book was suddenly over. Well at least she wrote a conclusion. Not one that was memorable mind you.
The author does things a bit different from many others. She states that she won't be dating the Qjng empire from 1644, but changed it to conform to a perspective less geared to the history of China. Her change of date has taken place because 1636 was the year in which the Manchu leader, Hung Taiji (1592-1643), unambiguously proclaimed his intention of building an empire, and gave it the name of "Qing."
Furthermore, she argues that an embrace of heterogeneity, as distinct from the assumption of an ultimately inevitable homogenization, marked another distinguishing feature of Qing rule. lt also bears out the recent proposition that Qing rulers' attitude to foreign relations divergcd from the hierarchical model enshrined in Chinese tributary theory, since relations within the empire generally operated as a microcosm of cxternal relations.
And ironically, she argues that the Qing were orientalists as well. The sensitivity indirectly concerned the real dearth in Manchu culture of any artistic and literary tradition comparable to that of their Chinese subjects, whose attitude to other civilizations bore some analogy to the orientalist power relationship whose identification in western cultures is most closely associated with Edward Said.
During these times, the use of multiple languages was in part a mark of Qjng cosmopolitanism and in part the act of a conqueror wishing to reiterate his dominion. But the purpose went beyond that. In the eighteenth-century Qjng context, using multiple languages asserted a claim to universal spiritual as well as terrestrial overlordship.
And given the imperial record of adjusting the historiographical record to make it represent the precise image desired, it is highly likely that emperors were just as ready to embroider the visual record to accentuate such a manifestation of imperial power. In this one case, by incorporating the supposed international audience as actors into imperial theatre, and hence implying their consent to overarching imperial goals. In the case of pieces of art, subsequent series were drawn and engraved in China by Chinese artists and craftsmen, who may have learned or relearned the art from the Jcsuits. In whatever form, all the war illustrations must have been imaginary versions drawn from eyewitness descriptions, since court artists cannot personally have observed all these far-off battles.
And all this theatre, depictions in all forms had a purpose of course. By its imagining unity among Qjng subjects despite their diversity, through the sense of shared achievement that the commemorations sought to inculcate, the eighteenth-century Qjng imperial project created the field of possibility from which the new political forms could begin to be envisioned. And since the auther mentioned the Qianlong emperor and his influence in the Qing projects, she did refer to the extermination of the Zhungar by war several times, but never calls it a genocide.
And speaking of war, not only did Tibetan lamas surrender themselves on the battle field, likely in the hope that Qing troops might hesitate to attack them in the same way that they would have done ordinary soldiers, at least that their clerical status might save them from the severest punishment. And it sometimes seemed that only when Qing forces countered magic with magic were they able to overcome the enemy. So, with some success, at least in the realm of raising their own troops' morale and demoralizing the others, they sent naked prostitutes onto the ramparts to deploy the yin force of their urine and menstrual blood in the hope of terrifying and immobilizing their adversaries. And apart from that, gosh was there much in terms of military rituals. There was even a ritualistic autumn hunt at a place called Mulan, which was the only ritual here that was somewhat interesting and that chapter was the shortest, sadly.
It was more interesting to read that while the Qing emperor claimed to the ambassador of George III that his empire was entirely self-sufficient, he was in fact keenly interested in foreign military and technological innovations. And to this day people take his word at the state of "China" back then for granted, without looking at what he actually did. And despite rigid Chinese assertions that the empire was the centre of the world, and a determined insistence that others acknowledge its superiority, Chinese foreign policy was highly pragmatic and often adapted to circumstances as necessary. And despite professions of disdain for trade, Chinese across the social spectrum have in fact energetically and enthusiastcally engaged in commercial exchange.
In the end the author argued that the legacy of the high Qing was to have bequeathed some of the ground on which 20th century Chinese states have been built, which suggest that the physical and cultural relationship between empire and nation, and the military ethos that informed them both, as well as the "isms" commonly associated with them, neither appeared in a vacuum nor arose exclusively as the result of the complicated "encounter with the West."
Sadly, the book was suddenly over. Well at least she wrote a conclusion. Not one that was memorable mind you.
December 17, 2020
A brief introductio and narrative of the claims on Qing political culture in the area of New Qing History. Good for quote in papers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews