Search

This article examines Ziti xiaozhi 紫隄小志 and Ziticun xiaozhi 紫隄村小志, compiled by Wang Yong’an 汪永安 in the early Qing Dynasty. Through the analysis of the genesis context and content changes of these local gazetteers, this paper shows how local social conditions and changes in the political environment affected the content of local gazetteers. In particular, I first demonstrate that Wang Yong’an’s inclusion of a large number of good deeds of the Hou 侯 family of Shanggu 上谷 and the Wang 汪 family of Pingyang 平陽 in his gazetteers had two purposes. On one hand, it was an attempt to influence compilers of official gazetteers to include members of their own clans. On the other hand, it reflected his belief that narratives of loyalty and righteousness could change the declining moral standards of Ziti villagers. Second, this paper also points out that in Ziticun xiaozhi, Wang Yong’an deleted sensitive content that expressed nostalgia for the Ming Dynasty and that affirmed the legitimacy of the Southern Ming regime. This reflects the latent self-censorship that emerged among literati during the Yongzheng 雍 正 period and illustrates the profound impact of political changes on how local elites wrote township gazetteers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of the New Policies in China (1901–1911) has been hotly debated for decades. While scholars doubt the sincerity of the Qing government in their pursuit of constitutional reform, there is a general agreement on the high quality of their educational reform. Some even consider their educational innovations as "genuine reform" but condemn the political reform as "pseudo reform". How could educational reform be independent of political influence? To understand the institutional change in education in the final decade of imperial China, this article analyses the relationship between educational reform and political ideology in the New Policies before 1905 by comparing the 1902 and 1904 Decrees on education. It will be shown that the 1902 Decrees deemphasised the imperial orthodoxy, and they were therefore unacceptable for the ruling circle and did not work out. The 1904 Decrees, on the contrary, succeeded because of their accordance with the dominant political ideology. The "genuineness" of the educational reform in the New Policies seem not to be an indicator of the central government's determination to pursue fundamental reform before 1905. Rather, to a large extent, this determination was manifested in the substantial achievement of educational reform at the local level during 1906 to 1911. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the light of 19th-century attempts to universalize history and international law, the purpose of this article is to show how the theory of an Ancient Chinese international law matured and disseminated within one politics of history and helped generate another at the end of the Qing Dynasty. On the one hand, the middleman William Alexander Parsons Martin, who as part of his Christian mission and in order to make international law more acceptable to the Chinese, translated systematically international law into Chinese and attempted to universalize it by finding a proto-international law in Ancient China. On the other hand, Chinese scholars and officials sought to use Martin's theory to universalize Confucianism and rectify international law according to what they believed to be their own superior morality and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ruling large expanses of terrain, imperial Chinese state-builders deployed bureaucratic resources sparingly, explicitly defining administrative priorities for county-level jurisdictions. Supported by primary evidence from the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), this article investigates where exactly the empire placed its priorities, what their effect was, and how rational the system was. The empire's priorities were the product of manmade spatial organization, defying macro-regional center-periphery divides, patterns debated in past issues of this journal. Moreover, even when priorities were biased, outdated, and manipulated, they had tangible effects on local state presence, creating distinct bureaucratic spheres: the many non-prioritized routine counties tended to have smaller governments with more first-time magistrates, whereas priority counties typically had bigger governments led by magistrates who were chosen in a deliberative yet corruptible process. The construction and uses of the empire's mental map demonstrates the merits and vicissitudes accompanying the still ongoing Chinese practice of differentiated local government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Qing Imperial Post Office was set up in 1896, soon after the First Sino-Japanese War. It provided the first national postal service for the general public in the whole of Chinese history, and was a symbol of China's increasing engagement with the rest of the globe. Much of the preparation for the launch was carried out by the high-ranking foreign staff of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, an influential institution established after the first Opium War.With a mission to promote modernization and project Qing power, the Imperial Post Office was established with a centrally controlled set of unified methods and procedures, and its success was rooted in integration with the new railway network, a strategy at the heart of its ambitious plans for expansion. This article explores the history of this postal expansion through railways, the use of which allowed its creators to plan networks in an integrated way—from urban centres on the coasts and great rivers through to China's interior. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous researchers have noted that the telegraph had a significant impact on late Qing politics in a variety of ways. This paper, however, argues that the telegraph in China failed to become a popular means of communication due to technical problems and misguided pricing policies. The Telegraph Administration (Zhongguo dianbaoju) was established in 1882, and its service suffered from persistent problems with regard to speed, stability, cost, and security. In order to keep profits up so as to be able to pay dividends to its shareholders, the Telegraph Administration did not invest in the latest and most efficient telegraph machines which would have enabled it to improve its service, cut down on telegraph fees, and attract more customers. Instead, it had to keep charges high for both private and commercial telegraph users, but at the same time it was not able to resolve delays in transmission, even for government messages. Although the service had an impact on the overall communications market in China—not least due to its near-monopoly position—and returned a degree of profit to its shareholders, the mindset of its administration and its approach to management limited the company's ability to develop a successful niche in the market or to achieve its potential as a driving force in China's economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gongju, or public offices, controlled by the local gentry class, were the grassroots authorities in rural Guangdong during the late Qing. These offices maintained their own armed forces and usually had powers of administration, tax collection, and self-defense, as well as judicial powers. They were considered the extension of prefecture and county governments. With the authorization of the prefecture and county governments, these offices had the power to deal with important legal cases. Although they came under attack during the 1911 Revolution, these offices were able to recover quickly in different forms. In the late Qing era, local gentry with official titles earned in middle-level or lower-level civil service examinations took the leadership roles in such grassroots offices, but they were replaced by people who had direct control over the armed forces during Republican times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Qing emperors, who ruled over China from 1644 to 1911, managed to bring large parts of Inner Asia under their control and extended the territory of China to an unprecedented degree. This paper maintains that the political technique of patronage with its formalized language, its emphasis on gift exchange and expressions of courtesy is a useful concept for explaining the integration of Inner Asian confederations into the empire. By re-interpreting the obligations of gift exchange, the Qing transformed the network of personal relationships, which had to be reinforced and consolidated permanently, into a system with clearly defined rules. In this process of formalization, the Lifanyuan, the Court for the Administration of the Outer Regions, played a key role. While in the early years of the dynasty, it was responsible for collecting and disseminating information concerning the various patronage relationships with Inner Asian leaders, over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries its efforts were directed at standardizing and streamlining the contacts between ethnic minorities and the state. Through the Lifanyuan, the rules and principles of patronage were maintained in a modified form even in the later part of the dynasty, when the Qing exercised control in the outer regions more directly. The paper provides an explanation for the longevity and cohesiveness of the multi-ethnic Qing Empire. Based on recently published Manchu and Mongol language archival material and the Maussian concept of gift exchange, the study sheds new light on the changing self-conception of the Qing emperors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Jinshi Academy 進士館 was founded specially to re-educate the emperor's elite students 天子門生—holders of the highest imperial degree granted through palace examination—in law and politics. Searching for a quick way to implement the New Reform, the late Qing government required the new jinshi to enroll in the Jinshi Academy. This paper reveals that the government had generously invested in the establishment of this academy; that the school had elaborately-formulated regulations; and that its teachers were well-qualified. Moreover, not only were the newly-admitted jinshi not required to pay any fees, they were also entitled to receive considerable stipends. The jinshi, however, were not willing to attend the academy. They were interested in their own political careers and not government efficiency or politics in general, while the Manchu rulers were concerned with political stability, the implementation of the New Reform, and the continuation of governance. This shows how divergent the jinshi idea of “developing the wisdom of government officials” 開官智 was from the late Qing government's. These differences between the government and its officials had an extraordinarily negative effect on the operation of the Jinshi Academy. The late Qing government spared no effort to set up the academy, yet the Manchus never obtained satisfactory results. It should be pointed out that the Jinshi Academy symbolizes an essential transformation of the education of the emperor's elite students, namely, from the Shuchang Academy 庶常館 system focusing on Confucian classics and historiography, to the Jinshi Academy system in which modern legal and political knowledge was highly emphasized. In addition, the Jinshi Academy initiated systematic legal education in modern China. The re-education experiences in the Jinshi Academy provided these traditional cultural elites with a rare opportunity during the social transformation to modern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Socio-Economic History / Shakai-Keizai Shigaku is the property of Socio-Economic History Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses practices related to the recruitment of employees for the Chinese state bureaucracy during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), focusing on meritocracy and office purchase. The ways to obtain a post in the government through purchase, the financial aspects of the practice, and its impact on social mobility are explored.

The article explores the place of Islam and the condition of Muslims in China during the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), focusing on the impact of Mongol cultural and political influence. The policies of the Qing rulers towards the ethnic, linguistic, and religious differences among the empire's population are discussed. Also mentioned is the approach of Qing officials towards Muslims in the Xinjiang region in the context of relations with the Junghar Mongols.

This article examines two potential configurations of the constitutional state at the time of Constitutional Reform. One was from Sichuan Governor-General Zhao Erxun, who claimed that 'all political power belongs to the state.' The other was from the Sichuan assemblymen, who were inarticulate at first, but, when the meeting closed one and a half months later, firmly announced that 'there would be no taxation without supervision.' Both views emerged during the 1909 Provincial Assembly meeting in Sichuan; via rounds of debates over forty-two bills, the differences between them gained sharp articulation as a clash of divergent political principles. There emerged not only a reaction of elite bitterness toward high-handed state policies but also a repertoire of political skills now in the practiced hands of an expanding circle of political leaders. The Sichuan Provincial Assembly meeting was a staging area for the revolutionary activism of the Railway Protection Movement two years later as well as for the development of both a new Chinese citizenship and a new relationship between the citizenry and the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the political thought of late imperial Chinese philologist and political theorist Gu Yanwu, particularly commenting on his ideology in his book "A Record of Daily Learning" ("Rizhi lu") and its impact on Chinese political discourse. It addresses the way in which he negotiated between the fengjian model, which promoted familial and aristocratic power, and the junxian model, which was bureaucratic and meritocratic. Other topics explored include despotism in late imperial China, the impact of Confucian values on Gu's political theories, and the dichotomy between the rule of men and the rule of law.

Neglected in the current scholarship on Qing dynasty court compilations, the dictionary commissioned by the Kangxi emperor in 1710 is an important source for understanding the nature of court-commissioned reference works in the early Qing. The Kangxi Classic of Characters, although typically believed to have improved on Ming and early Qing dictionaries by virtue of its greater inclusion of source materials, in fact had a more complicated relationship with its predecessors. In the process of delegitimizing earlier, privately compiled works, the editors of the Kangxi Classic of Characters actively promoted the exclusive authority of the court in their composition of dictionary definitions. Further, their manipulation of definitions in earlier dictionaries was not a straightforward process of greater inclusion and deletion of redundancy, but rather a reflection of contemporary intellectual developments. This can be seen in the compilers' attempts to bring the definitions in line with a number of trends in Confucian thought, which were taking form at the court during this period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the use of European concepts regarding painting and theatricality in the Chinese court paintings and artwork produced during the reign of the Qing dynasty's Qianlong Emperor, with focus given to the paintings by Italian artist Giuseppe Castiglione found in the European Palaces, a garden located within the larger imperial Eternal Spring Garden in Beijing, China. Because the paintings have been lost, the author analyzes a print series depicting them entitled "Pictures of the Waterworks in the European Palaces" ("Xiyanglou shuifa tu"). The author examines the use of linear perspective in the complex, and notes how the European Palaces exemplify the theatricality of Qianlong's political identity.

The article discusses the failed reconstruction of the Yuanming Yuan, the Imperial retreat for Chinese emperors, and the repair of its gardens during the reign of the Tongzhi emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The author views the reconstruction as an attempt to restore the power of the imperial court and explains how various actors responded to the project, including the emperor, treaty-port communities, provincial governments, and imperial advisors. Particular focus is given to the Chinese bureaucratic censorate, which advocated court reform, and the Imperial Household Department, or neiwufu.

The article discusses Chinese imperial government policy regarding illness and sick leave among civil bureaucratic officials during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. More broadly, the author is concerned with imperial Chinese human resource management in relation to this large bureaucracy. The author explains how the policies, which allowed for the re-appointment of officials who took sick leave, differed from those of the Ming Dynasty, which did not allow for leave, as well as the connection between health, illness, and Qing political culture. Focus is given to the local government reaction to the Qing policies.

The late Qianlong period (ca. 1776-1795) has mostly been seen as the time when the Qing empire went from its pinnacle into its decline as the bureaucracy became bogged down in corruption. Heshen has come to epitomize late Qing venality and mismanagement. This article argues that, in reality, the Qianlong emperor employed Heshen and his associates in order to overcome the political crisis that marred the middle years of his reign. A balance of power was established whereby the cliques respectively represented by Akedun and Liu Tongxun and by Heshen held each other in check. It is also shown that the wealth that Heshen is alleged to have accumulated through his corrupt activities was far less than commonly believed, and that Heshen could not significantly abuse his political authority until about the time of Qianlong's abdication, four years before his own demise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the main lines of relations between the Qing and two neighbors, Đai Việt (Vietnam) and Siam (Thailand), ca. 1700-1820. It argues that the tribute system was not a "fossil" of Qing pretensions and meaningless ceremonies but a functional matrix for adjustment to changing realities. It cites archival sources in Beijing and Taipei that will repay further detailed study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a preliminary investigation of the institutional backdrop to the rise of speech activities in the late Qing dynasty, especially in reference to the Railway Protection Movement. The support given to vernacular language facilitated railway protection speech activities by stirring up the lower classes, generating discursive power that influenced the momentum of the game between members of the gentry class and officials. Their methods (to incite the audience to "speak with one voice" and create a feeling of "unanimous popular will") and rhetorical techniques of discourse target setting (to selectively rephrase the opponent's words for the purpose of targeting for criticism) became a reference point for later social movements-political movements, in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liang Qichao used the Taoist term zhenzhi to express his admiration for the Ma brothers who he felt personified his ideal of seamlessly blending together Chinese and Western knowledge. This article considers Liang's interaction with the Ma brothers as the vantage point from which to trace the formation and development of his concept of 'real learning' and to show the Ma brothers' influence on his understanding of the West and Western learning prior to the 1898 Reform. It further analyzes Liang's thought by examining the rationale and logic behind his great appreciation for The Ma Grammar and his dialogue with Ma Jianzhong on how to train qualified translators. The final section employs the reflections of Liang Qichao and Ma Xiangbo in the aftermath of the 1898 Reform to examine the differences as well as their shared views on the synthesis of Chinese and Western learning, and the relationship between language and scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the influence of 18th century French Enlightenment philosophy on Chinese intellectual life under the China's late Qing Dynasty from the late 19th century through the early 20th century, including in regard to the influence of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. An overview of the influence of Western civilization on China, including on Chinese political reforms, is provided.

The article presents a profile of the Malyasian Chinese intellectual Gu Hongming, otherwise known as Thompson Ku, and analyzes his role in shaping philosophy related to Western civilization following World War I. Particular focus is paid to his views on conservatism as an aspect of Chinese society and the influence of traditional Confucian teachings and Western hegemonic discourse in shaping those views. A brief biographical sketch of Gu's life is also provided which covers topics including his early life in British-controlled Malaysia, his work as a government official within the Chinese Qing dynasty, and an overview of ways in which his English translations of writings on Confucianism helped inform the Western world.

The article explores the social aspects of transprovincial fund-raising campaigns that sold public offices to finance provincial military budgets in nineteenth-century China. The author reflects on the impact of the Taiping Rebellion and the appointment of military leaders in provincial government. Emphasis is give to relations between the central government and regional leaders regarding revenue sharing, fiscal autonomy, and the recovery of border regions lost during rebellion. Other topics include the authority of the Board of Revenue in Beijing, China, decentralization of the Qing dynasty, and frontier defense.

From 9 to 11 August 2010, the Institute of Qing History of the Renmin University of China held the international symposium "Qing Politics and National Identity" in Beijing. Nearly 60 experts and scholars from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, the United States, Japan, Germany, and other countries addressed the issue of "New Qing History.” This shift in paradigm benefited from focused research on marginalization in political history, as well as input from social history and cultural history methodologies. The reaction to this influx of approaches and ideas also generated a counter-reaction to “return to old political history.” This core theme runs throughout the symposium. Scholars discussed such topics as the Qing state and national identity, the Qing political system, Qing bureaucracy and government administration, Qing political culture, and state control and social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a study of the yellow riding jacket (magua) as a political tool and a symbol. The jackets were special items bestowed by Qing emperors; an example can be seen in "Illustrations of Qianlong’s Southern Tour." Previous scholars have criticized the yellow riding jacket as a non-Han costume. Focusing on the close relationship between politics and dress code, the author utilizes the study of the yellow riding jacket as a focus on Qing-dynasty political culture. The first section describes the origins of the yellow riding jacket, its typology, and imperial power. The second section discusses whether the jacket’s origin is Han or non-Han, and traces its evolution in the Qing dynasty.

In September 1906, the Qing government issued an edict that promised to prepare a constitution beginning with the reform of the administrative structure. Two months later, a plan for reform in the central bureaucratic system was issued. But reforming the local bureaucratic system was slow and difficult to implement. During the preparation for the reform of local governments, different political forces from the Qing government heatedly debated the pace and scope of the reform. The different opinions not only reflected efforts to safeguard their interests, but also involved doubts about the feasibility of the reform plan. It was not until the following July, when the "Regulations Regarding Reform of the Official System of the Provinces," which was based on the compromise among different factions, was declared. However, the drafters evaded some crucial questions and it seemed to contemporaries that the rule was just an interim measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting with a court debate which broke out in the spring of 1684, this essay explores the multivalent symbolism of the Kangxi emperor's first imperial tour(s) to Shandong and Jiangsu provinces in the fall of 1684. Some courtiers advocated treating the Kangxi emperor's touring activities as a rite of conquest, while others saw them as an exercise in benevolent civil governance. Here I suggest that this ritual controversy revealed a tension between civil and military values within the political culture of the Qing court. Furthermore, this ideological tension became increasingly apparent as the imperial procession proceeded farther southward during the Kangxi emperor's "eastern" and "southern" tours of 1864, especially as recorded in the Chinese editions of the Imperial Diaries. Thus, the legitimization and consolidation of Qing rule was never entirely smooth or complete, but was always in the active process of being constituted through ritual negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses an important issue on the Manchu-Han relationships in the Qing dynasty, namely the differences in the law of Qing dynasty regarding its treatments of different ethnic groups. The distinction between the Manchus and Han people could be barely seen if we only pay attention to the Qing rulers' sinolization sayings that "the Manchus and Han people are one family" and "no distinction between the Manchus and Han people." But from the household register policy, we may see clearly that the Qing dynasty ruled the Banner people and Han people in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the social conditions and political power of eunuchs living in China during the reign of the Qing dynasty. Specific emphasis is given to the methods used by the Chinese Qianlong emperor in managing eunuchs in China's government. The author believes that relatively lenient imperial oversight on the part of Qing emperors allowed eunuchs to gain political power despite reform efforts and laws restricting their influence in the court. He seeks to understand eunuch group identity at the Yuanming yuan palace in Beijing, China.

This article focuses on the German navy troops that were a part of the intervention by the Eight-Nation Alliance, a Western military alliance that sent military troops to China during the Boxer Rebellion, a nationalist uprising in China at the end of the 19th century. Several topics are discussed, including that historians consider the German troops to have been the strongest force in the alliance (despite the fact that the Germans arrived later than the other troops), and how German troops are said to have been too aggressive and violent, shooting 76 Chinese people and killing all the male inhabitants of the city of Liangxiang upon their arrival in China. The author also presents a detailed description of the recruitment, travels, and massacres that were committed by the German troops.

This article considers an essay on provincial government written by the Yongzheng Emperor of China shortly after his ascension to the throne in 1723. The essay treats provincial governors' role in personnel, financial and military matters and the problems of China's southwest. It reflects the emperor's dissatisfaction with policies in each of these areas, which were all to be the focus of reforming efforts during his reign. But perhaps more important, it expresses the Emperor's new concern with the value of administrative efficacy. The essay argues that this was a fundamental innovation in the political theology of the Chinese state. Although practical ideas for reform often came from governors themselves, who were closer to the problems than the Emperor and more familiar with the details of solution, imperial leadership created a climate in which reform ideas would be welcomed and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Emperor Guangxu issued the "Reform Edict" and the Nine Memorials to the Throne by Hu Yufen, Kang Youwei and others, requiring generals and governors to make careful plans on the basis of their local conditions. This set off the great post-war reform discussion. This discussion on the future of the dynasty, held by the Qing ruling clique at an important historical turning point, did not achieve its intended aim. To some extent, however, it reflects the level of knowledge and state of mind of high officials throughout the country, revealing the deeper causes of the many setbacks encountered by the Qing dynasty in relation to reform and other matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the history of modern literature on China in the early modern period and European perspectives on Chinese methods for maintaining social order. It is suggested that authors such as Domingo Fernández Navarette, Louis-Daniel Le Comte, and Joachim Bouvet were attracted to imperial demonstrations of benevolence, civility, and self-possession that they equated with Chinese social and cultural distinction. Emphasis is given to the ways in which these Christian clergy indicate the limits of early modern European morality in their efforts as missionaries to educate and convert Chinese people.

Qing metropolitan and provincial officials did not have dedicated administrative funding, a fact that led to rampant malpractice. To rectify this situation, the court decided in the Yongzheng reign that all extra silver collected by officials in charge of taxes must be handed to the state treasury and that the government would pay officials a fixed amount of money as a grant in order to keep them honest. However, after the reigns of Xianfeng and Tongzhi, officials' unrestrained spending on social activities and administration and a myriad of perquisites under various names resulted in corruption in official circles and financial chaos. At the turn of the Guangxu and Xuantong reigns, a uniform standard for public expenditure was put on the agenda with a view to reforming officialdom and putting the country's financial affairs in order. But the vague concept of "public expenditure" led directly to a distortion of this institutional approach, so that it became an opportunity for officials to appropriate public funds for private use. The uniform standard for public expenditure was not put into actual practice before the demise of the Qing dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the late Qing, with the growing power of Governors-general and Governors, the original magistrate's selection system by the Board of Personnel and these highest provincial officials was impacted. After the Xinzheng Reform, the Qing court had to cease the selection by the Board. Thus gave rise to the conflict between the Board of Personnel and the highest provincial officials. The reform presented an entanglement of the new and the old systems, and couldn't resolve the problem of expectant appointee's stagnation fundamentally. The Ceasing Selection was transitional During the Reform, indicating and the reform was not completed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ko-Lao-Hui developed with Shan-Tang as organizational archetype in the Qing dynasty. Shan-Tang was a kind of symbolic code name for certain independent Ko-Lao Hui organization. Following the way in the popular story ‘Shui Hu Zhuan’ (The Outlaws of the Marsh), every organization used their particular names of both ‘Shan’ (mountain) and ‘Tang’ (hall). The territory and size of an organization depends on the radius of action as well as organizing capacity of its leaders. Some were limited to certain nook in a county with only dozens of members, while others spread into different counties in different provinces with members as much as tens of thousands. Organization structure of Ko-Lao-Hui was simple at first, but the relationships among inner members as well as outer organizations became very complex in later ages. Based on such complex and enormous organizations, Ko-Lao-Hui formed a huge but incompact relationship network. This structural characteristic had given Ko-Lao-Hui foundation and dynamic for its expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sample survey on Jiangnan reveals that Yuan E Ren Ding (original Ding) in Da Qing yi tong zhi (National Gazetteer of Qing Dynasty) was based on different records of "Ding" in Jiangnan tong zhi (Local Gazetteer of Jiangnan) compiled in Qian-long period of Qing dynasty,with no standards. The case study also indicates the danger of applying those figures to history research directly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tang Shouqian, a well-known thinker and constitutionalist, was one of exponents of Shenshang in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. In the preparation for constitutionalism in the late Qing Dynasty, Tang Shouqian dealt with other Shenshang worthies such as Zhang Jian and Zheng Xiaoxu. He engineered the preparation for constitutionalism, paid close attention to bureaucracy reform and participated in mobilizing and organizing parliament petition and so on. What he did played an important role in the rise and development of Constitutional Movement in the late Qing Dynasty. But the temporizing of Qing Dynasty on the constitutionalism produced his rejection. According to the variable situation after the Wuchang Uprising, he turned into a republican from a constitutionalist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the impact of the Chinese Qing diplomatic mission to Seoul, Korea to deliver a letter of condolence for the death of Korean Chosŏn dowager Empress Cho in 1890. The Chinese diplomatic visit and subsequent obsequience of the greeting by the Korean delegation were a matter of diplomacy and foreign relations between the countries and helped reinforce China's position of authority and previous claims to Korea. Other subjects considered include Western views of the visit, historiography regarding the incident, and tributary relations between nations.

In normal circumstances, the Qing government operated its usual social control mechanisms with the assistance of the local gentry, who mediated between the local government and the people. However, the gentry could come into direct conflict and confrontation with the government if their interests were not satisfied or were encroached on. The government-local gentry conflict in the Changsha Rice Riot of 1910 can serve as a typical case. Because of complex and intricate conflicts of interest, the local gentry not only failed to help the local officials suppress the riot, but took advantage of the mood of the famine victims to confront the local officials. This threw them into disarray, rendering them unable to control the development of events. The Qing government suppressed the local gentry by force and inflicted severe punishment upon the representatives of the old gentry who had incited the riot, so that they lost their ties with government. The new gentry, on the other hand, had also lost faith in the government because of the delay in the preparation of the constitution. The escalation of the government-gentry conflict led to cleavage between the government and the local gentry. The failure of this traditional mechanism of social control undermined the rule of the Qing dynasty and accelerated its fall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the deterioration of the Qing dynasty from 1799 to 1820, focusing particularly on China's government policies in southern Shaanxi province after the White Lotus Revolt (1796-1804). The article argues that imperial policies regarding the frontier regions in Shaanxi were indicative of the handling of later 19th century crises. The article also discusses the Hans; Qinling mountains; the Daba Shan Range, or Greater Ba Mountains; the Han River valley area; Shaanxi's infrastructure, China's history and legends regarding Shaanxi, and Imperial Confucianism.

The article focuses on the imperial policies of the early Qing dynasty from 1645 to 1720 in China regarding scholars, scholarship, and public service examinations. During the previous Ming dynasty, scholars from the lower Yangzi Delta region were noted for their superior training and concomitant high grades on government administered examinations. The adaptive polices of the Qing dynasty regarding this group of scholars is explored. The article also discusses Confucianism, the Palace Examination of 1659, China's Kangxi emperor Aisin Gioro Xuanye (r. 1662-1722), and Jiangnan province scholars Xu Yuanwen (1634-1691) and Ye Fang'ai (1629-1682).

The article looks at the practice of interlocking territorial administrative districts to indicate political and regional boundaries within imperial China during the Qing and Ming dynasties. The five chief military commissions of China's central government used interlocking governmental jurisdiction to change and establish the jurisdiction of the Tongguan Guard, located on the border of the Henan and Shaanxi provinces. The author notes that changes in power structures at the local and central governmental level accompanied the development of the Tongguan Guard and its jurisdictional status.

The article examines the historical accuracy of "Ming History," the official royal history of the Chinese Ming dynasty sponsored by its successor, the Qing dynasty. In particular, the author is concerned with an evaluation of the biographical information on Early Ming scholar and government official Fang Keqin within "Ming History." More specifically, the ways in which this biography commented on autocracy, Chinese imperial authority, and the role of scholar-officials in Ming politics are discussed. The author also compares the official "Ming History," compiled by historian Zhang Tingyu, to an earlier draft created by historian Wang Hongxu.

The seeds of conflict, or even of a revolution, in a society can germinate from policies of a nation-state that are designed to strengthen its power of governance. This paper explores how such seemingly contradictory phenomena emerged within the Qing government and led to the Repiblican Revolution of 1911. The ideas included here have been borrowed from Theda Skocpol, a historical sociologist, who has made a major contribution to research on the revolution. Emphasizing that a state autonomously functions as a governing body, she focuses on the process of how old regimes in the past, pressured by military competition with foreign powers, provoked conflicts within and among different groups of people or along the lines of class while campaigning for the modernization of national institutions. This paper shares her view but differs in that it terms a government's attempt to strengthen its functions as "naturalization," instead of "centralization," in order to more clearly outline how state policies and society influence each other, thereby laying the seeds for a possible revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the history of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service which led to the modernization of China. John King Fairbank guided research teams that co-edited two volumes of Robert Hart's letters from China to his London-based secretary James Campbell and the two volumes of Hart's journals. Hart was the Inspector General of the Maritime Customs Service. Hart was British and was the only non-Chinese director of a Chinese bureaucracy.

The article comments on the reparation made after the Boxer Rebellion in China and the assistance provided by Peking legislation. Agreements which were made in connection to the indemnity lasted until after World War II and stopped only after the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. Robert Hart, the Inspector General of the Maritime Custom Services in China, played a role during the initial stages of the negotiations.

The article focuses on the role of Robert Hart during the Boxer Rebellion in China, together with Gustav Detring, the German Commissioner of Customs at Tianjin. Their efforts paved the way for the reformed China of the twentieth century. A collection of Hart's manuscript at the Queen's University of Belfast showed evidences of his ability in convincing the Qing Empire and foreign nations to unite. Hart also participated in restructuring the Boxer Protocol on September 7, 1901.