Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China

by Hostetler, Laura

• ISBN13: 9780226354200
• ISBN10: 0226354202
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-05-15
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In "Qing Colonial Enterprise, Laura Hostetler shows how Qing China (1636-1911) used cartography and ethnography to pursue its imperial ambitions. She argues that far from being on the periphery of developments in the early modern period, Qing China both participated in and helped shape the new emphasis on empirical scientific knowledge that was simultaneously transforming Europe--and its colonial empires--at the time. Although mapping in China is almost as old as Chinese civilization itself, the Qing insistence on accurate, to-scale maps of their territory was a new response to the difficulties of administering a vast and growing empire. Likewise, direct observation became increasingly important to Qing ethnographic writings, such as the illustrated manuscripts known as "Miao albums" (from which twenty color paintings are reproduced in this book). These were intended to educate Qing officials about various non-Han peoples so that they could govern these groups more effectively.Hostetler's groundbreaking account will interest anyone studying the history of the early modern period and colonialism.

Author Biography

Laura Hostetler is an assistant professor and associate chair in the Department of History at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Table of Contents

Note on Romanization	ix
List of Tables, Maps, Figures, and Color Plates	xi
Preface and Acknowledgments	xvii
Introduction Cartography and Ethnography as Early Modern Modes of Representation	1	(32)
The Qing Empire: Constructing a Place in the Eighteenth-Century World	33	(18)
Mapping Territory	51	(30)
Depicting Peoples	81	(20)
Bringing Guizhou into the Empire	101	(26)
The Development of Ethnographic Writing in Guizhou Province, 1560-1834	127	(32)
Miao Albums; The Emergence of a Distinct Ethnographic Genre	159	(22)
The Evolution of a Genre: Miao Albums as Art and Objects of Study	181	(24)
Conclusion	205	(8)
Appendix: Bibliographic Information on Miao Albums	213	(8)
List of Abbreviations	221	(2)
Bibliography of Works Cited	223	(16)
Glossary	239	(12)
Index	251