China’s last empire, the Qing (1644–1911), has been ill served until recently in historical writing, and in the popular imagination, especially in the West. The predominant image is one of decline in the face of European industry and innovation; of an inability to meet the demands of modernity as it is defined by Western culture. Yet, in the eighteenth century, foreign travellers and writers described China as the most prosperous and best-governed state on earth.
