The Blue Frontier

Cambridge Oceanic Histories

by Ronald C. Po

In this revisionist history of the eighteenth-century Qing Empire from a maritime perspective, Ronald C. Po argues that it is reductive to view China over this period exclusively as a continental power with little interest in the sea. With a coastline of almost 14,500 kilometers, the Qing was not a landlocked state. Although it came to be known as an inward-looking empire, Po suggests that the Qing was integrated into the maritime world through its naval development and customs institutionalization. In contrast to our orthodox perception, the Manchu court, in fact, deliberately engaged with the ocean politically, militarily, and even conceptually. The Blue Frontier offers a much broader picture of the Qing as an Asian giant responding flexibly to challenges and extensive interaction on all frontiers - both land and sea - in the long eighteenth century.

308 pages, Paperback

Published June 13, 2019

Reviews

[Eressea]

索恩2022待出

[Boyd Cothran · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an ambitious book that sets out to challenge the traditional narrative of the Qing Empire as being a non-navel empire (i.e. exclusively focused on land-based territorial expansion). Instead, Po argues the Qing were a maritime power with a diverse and ambitious set of policies, goals, structures and ideas about the sea. While I appreciated Po's revisionist instinct, I was left only partially convinced. What he shows is that the sea immediately along China's coast and extending for some miles out was very important to the Qing. He also demonstrates that the Qing was highly depended upon the sea, knew it, and also had shared cultures around maritime spaces and ideas. Fair enough. But does that amount to the Qing being a naval power, a maritime empire, or having a systemic maritime vision? That might be a bit too much for this volume to bear. In the end, Po's book struck me as more provisional in the conclusions its evidence could support then as definitive as he claims in his more unguarded moments.

[Louis Deng · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this is an impressive study, and I think the author has handled the matter quite well, especially in the overlooked connection between the Chinese Qing empire and the sea in a global context, which is something that I as a Chinese reader who was born in the States know very little about. The book is also supported by a rich vein of historical materials in various languages. Although Ronald PO has argued that his study is not to suggest that the Qing was a maritime power as his attempt was to better situate the Qing within a maritime frontier framework, I personally think that his argument could be more ambitious, in other word, his claim was too modest and not strong enough at the end of the day. Based on his analyses as well as definition of sea power, I think the Qing Dynasty should be projected as an early modern sea power; we should not be confined by our understanding of sea power in a post-early modern sense.

[Josh Reid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history attempting to excavate maritime consciousness of the Qing. I kept wondering, though, if a borderlands framework would have allowed for more productive analysis.