Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: New Order for the Old Order
- 1 State Building before 1644
- 2 The Shun-chih Reign
- 3 The K'ang-hsi Reign
- 4 The Yung-cheng Reign
- 5 The Ch'ien-lung Reign
- 6 The Conquest Elite of the Ch'ing Empire
- 7 The Social Roles of Literati in Early to Mid-Ch'ing
- 8 Women, Families, and Gender Relations
- 9 Social Stability and Social Change
- 10 Economic Developments, 1644–1800
- Bibliography
- Glossary Index
- Map 1. The Ch'ing empire – physical features. John K. Fairbank, ed. Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911, Part 1, Vol. 10 of The Cambridge History of China (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978), Map 1, p. xii."
- Map 2. Liaotung and vicinity in 1600. Frederic Wakeman, Jr. The great enterprise: The Manchu reconstruction of imperial order in seventeenth-century China (Berkeley, 1985), p. 40. Secondary source: Jonathan D. Spence and John E. Wills, Jr., eds., From Ming to Ch'ing: Conquest, region, and continuity in seventeenth-century China (New Haven, 1979), p. [2]."
- Map 5. Suppression of the “Three Feudatories.” Partly based on: Wang Ya-hsüan, Chungkuo ku-tai li-shih ti-t'u chi (Shenyang: Liao-ning chiao-yü, 1990) p. 163."
- Map 8. Ch'ing empire in 1759. Jacques Gernet. A History of Chinese Civilization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982), Map 24, p. 476."
- Map 11. Distribution of Ming and Ch’ing Customs Houses Defining the Ch’ing Empire’s Integrated Market Economy (by the eighteenth century). Based in part on Map 2-1 in Fan I–chun, “Long-distance trade and Market integration in the Ming–Ch’ing Period 1400–1850.” Diss. Stanford University, 1992, Photocopy, Ann Arbor Michigan: UMI Dissertation Services, 1996."
- References
3 - The K'ang-hsi Reign
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: New Order for the Old Order
- 1 State Building before 1644
- 2 The Shun-chih Reign
- 3 The K'ang-hsi Reign
- 4 The Yung-cheng Reign
- 5 The Ch'ien-lung Reign
- 6 The Conquest Elite of the Ch'ing Empire
- 7 The Social Roles of Literati in Early to Mid-Ch'ing
- 8 Women, Families, and Gender Relations
- 9 Social Stability and Social Change
- 10 Economic Developments, 1644–1800
- Bibliography
- Glossary Index
- Map 1. The Ch'ing empire – physical features. John K. Fairbank, ed. Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911, Part 1, Vol. 10 of The Cambridge History of China (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978), Map 1, p. xii."
- Map 2. Liaotung and vicinity in 1600. Frederic Wakeman, Jr. The great enterprise: The Manchu reconstruction of imperial order in seventeenth-century China (Berkeley, 1985), p. 40. Secondary source: Jonathan D. Spence and John E. Wills, Jr., eds., From Ming to Ch'ing: Conquest, region, and continuity in seventeenth-century China (New Haven, 1979), p. [2]."
- Map 5. Suppression of the “Three Feudatories.” Partly based on: Wang Ya-hsüan, Chungkuo ku-tai li-shih ti-t'u chi (Shenyang: Liao-ning chiao-yü, 1990) p. 163."
- Map 8. Ch'ing empire in 1759. Jacques Gernet. A History of Chinese Civilization (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982), Map 24, p. 476."
- Map 11. Distribution of Ming and Ch’ing Customs Houses Defining the Ch’ing Empire’s Integrated Market Economy (by the eighteenth century). Based in part on Map 2-1 in Fan I–chun, “Long-distance trade and Market integration in the Ming–Ch’ing Period 1400–1850.” Diss. Stanford University, 1992, Photocopy, Ann Arbor Michigan: UMI Dissertation Services, 1996."
- References
Summary
Hsüan-yeh, born in 1654, reigned from 1661 to 1722 as the K'ang-hsi Emperor. He was one of China's greatest rulers, and his reign was not only the longest but also one of the most vibrant and complex in the history of imperial China. Though he could be callous or negligent at times, and made errors of judgment, he possessed a self-analytical acuity and a sense of imperial mission that mark him as one of those rare individuals who, by acts of will, change the course of human history. It has not escaped the notice of numerous historians – Chinese, Japanese, and Western – that his reign coincided chronologically with those of Tsar Peter the Great in Russia and King Louis XIV in France, and that the three shared certain common characteristics that marked perhaps the apogee of traditional kingship in pre-industrial societies.
Any emperor of China was, of course, merely one individual, occupying a special position within his society but unable to comprehend all that society's ramifications. Also, the actions and thoughts ascribed to him were often those of others, of relatives, courtiers, eunuchs, bureaucrats. Therefore we must be cautious about seeing the ruler as the reign, of narrowing our own vision to the emperor's own. Nevertheless, the K'ang-hsi Emperor acted decisively in so many matters, and took so great an interest in affairs of governance and of culture, that his actions and his personality serve as a valid entry point for comprehending the myriad elements that led to the consolidation of Ch'ing rule.
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- The Cambridge History of China , pp. 120 - 182Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
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