The contributors, all specialists from the international community of Sinologists, cover the main developments in political, social, economic and intellectual life of China in their respective periods. Collectively they present the major events in a long history that encompasses both a very old civilisation and a great modern power. Written not only for students and scholars, but with the general reader in mind, the volumes are designed to be read continuously, or as works of reference. No knowledge of Chinese is necessary for readers with Chinese, proper names and terms are identified with their characters in the glossary, and full references to Chinese, Japanese, and other works are given in the bibliographies. Numerous maps illustrate the texts. The published volumes have constituted essential reading in Chinese history.Vol. 9: The Ching Dynasty, Part 1: To 1800 This volume of The Cambridge History of China considers the political, military, social, and economic developments of the Ching empire to 1800. The period begins with the end of the resurgent Ming dynasty, covered in Volumes 7 and 8, and ends with the beginning of the collapse of the imperial system in the nineteenth century, described in Volume 10. Ten chapters elucidate the complexities of the dynamic interactions between emperors and their servitors, Manchus and non-Manchu populations, various elite groups, competing regional interests, merchant networks and agricultural producers, and rural and urban interests, and, at work among all these tensions, between old and new. China under the Ching dynasty changed, and this volume presents these changes underway in the period prior to the advent of Western imperialist military power.

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