Empire at the Margins

by Crossley, Pamela Kyle

• ISBN13: 9780520230156
• ISBN10: 0520230159
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-01-19
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Focusing on the Ming (1368-1644) and (especially) the Qing (1364-1912) eras, this book analyzes crucial moments in the formation of cultural, regional, and religious identities. The contributors examine the role of the state in a variety of environments on China's "peripheries," paying attention to shifts in law, trade, social stratification, and cultural dialogue. They find that local communities were critical participants in the shaping of their own identities and consciousness as well as the character and behavior of the state. At certain times the state was institutionally definitive, but it could also be symbolic and contingent. They demonstrate how the imperial discourse is many-faceted, rather than a monolithic agent of cultural assimilation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Notes to Readers	ix
Introduction	1	(26)
PART I. IDENTITY AT THE HEART OF EMPIRE
Ethnicity in the Qing Eight Banners	27	(31)
Mark C. Elliott
Making Mongols	58	(25)
Pamela Kyle Crossley
``A Fierce and Brutal People'': On Islam and Muslims in Qing Law	83	(30)
Jonathan N. Lipman
PART II. NARRATIVE WARS AT THE NEW FRONTIERS
The Qing and Islam on the Western Frontier	113	(22)
James A. Millward
Laura J. Newby
The Cant of Conquest: Tusi Offices and China's Political Incorporation of the Southwest Frontier	135	(36)
John E. Herman
PART III. OLD CONTESTS OF THE SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST
The Yao Wars in the Mid-Ming and their Impact on Yao Ethnicity	171	(19)
David Faure
Ethnicity and the Miao Frontier in the Eighteenth Century	190	(39)
Donald S. Sutton
Ethnicity, Conflict, and the State in the Early to Mid-Qing: The Hainan Highlands, 1644--1800	229	(26)
Anne Csete
PART IV. UNCHARTED BOUNDARIES
Ethnic Labels in a Mountainous Region: The Case of She ``Bandits''	255	(30)
Wing-hoi Chan
Lineage, Market, Pirate, and Dan: Ethnicity in the Pearl River Delta of South China	285	(26)
Helen F. Siu
Liu Zhiwei
Conclusion	311	(10)
Notes on Contributors	321	(4)
Bibliography	325	(22)
Glossary of Characters	347	(20)
Index	367