In The Peking Gazette: A Reader in Nineteenth-Century Chinese History, Lane J. Harris offers an innovative text covering the extraordinary ruptures and remarkable continuities in the history of Chinaâs long nineteenth century (1793-1912) by providing scholarly introductions to thematic chapters of translated primary sources from the government gazette of the Qing Empire.
The Peking Gazette is a unique collection of primary sources designed to help readers explore and understand the policies and attitudes of the Manchu emperors, the ideas and perspectives of Han officials, and the mentality and worldviews of several hundred million Han, Mongol, Manchu, Muslim, and Tibetan subjects of the Great Qing Empire as they discussed and debated the most important political, social, and cultural events of the long nineteenth century.
Lane J. Harris, Ph.D. (2012), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, is Associate Professor of History at Furman University. His work on communications and state formation has appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, the Journal of Early Modern History, and Twentieth-Century China.
âI continue to be particularly impressed by the way that the questions force readers to analyze the documents. This reader is really set up to create a dialogue between teachers and students as they work through the documents. I am also even more aware after this reading about how this reader may serve a launch pad for research projects by students. This provides a real possibility that students can develop a real primary based investigation. Crucial to this is how the editor also made great efforts to include list of other contemporaneous publications in the readings sections. Having additional documents for the reader available digitally is a great feature. This will extend the advantage of the reader as a whole.â
Edward McCord, George Washington University
Contents
Acknowledgements Qing Reign Periods Terms of Measurement, Units of Currency, and Bureaucratic Titles
Introduction
1 The Macartney Audience, 1793
2 The Last Will and Testament of the Qianlong Emperor, 1799
3 The Case against Heshen, 1799
4 The Downfall of a Governor-General in the White Lotus Rebellion, 1800
14 The Dalai Lama and the Qing Empire, 1879â1910
15 Crime and Punishment
16 Honoring Old Age
17 Honoring the Gods
18 The Cult of Female Chastity
19 âTrue Storiesâ of Filial Piety
20 âTributeâ Missions to the Qing Empire
21 The Making of Taiwan Province, 1872â1887
22 The Sino-French War, 1884â1885
23 Anti-Missionary Violence, 1891â1899
24 The Sino-Japanese War, 1894â1895
25 The Hundred Daysâ Reforms, 1898
26 The Return of the Empress Dowager Cixi, 1898
27 The Boxer Uprising, 1899â1900
28 New Policies Reforms, 1901â1911
29 The 1911 Revolution
30 The Abdication, 1912
Chinese Name List
Anyone interested in the political, social, and cultural history of China in the nineteenth century, particularly professors and students exploring these themes in undergraduate and graduate classes.