In 1644, the Manchus, a relatively unknown people inhabiting
China's rude northeastern frontier, overthrew the Ming, Asia's
mightiest rulers, and established the Qing dynasty, which endured
to 1912. From this event arises one of Chinese history's great
conundrums: How did a barely literate alien people manage to remain
in power for nearly 300 years over a highly cultured population
that was vastly superior in number? This problem has fascinated
scholars for almost a century, but until now no one has approached
the question from the Manchu point of view. This book, the first in
any language to be based mainly on Manchu documents, supplies a
radically new perspective on the formative period of the modern
Chinese nation. Drawing on recent critical notions of ethnicity,
the author explores the evolution of the "Eight Banners," a unique
Manchu system of social and military organization that was
instrumental in the conquest of the Ming. The author argues that as
rulers of China the Manchu conquerors had to behave like Confucian
monarchs, but that as a non-Han minority they faced other, more
complex considerations as well. Their power derived not only from
the acceptance of orthodox Chinese notions of legitimacy, but also,
the author suggests, from Manchu "ethnic sovereignty," which
depended on the sustained coherence of the conquerors. When, in the
early 1700s, this coherence was threatened by rapid acculturation
and the prospective loss of Manchu distinctiveness, the Qing court,
always insecure, desperately urged its minions to uphold the
traditions of an idealized "Manchu Way." However, the author shows
that it was not this appeal but rather the articulation of a
broader identity grounded in the realities of Eight Banner life
that succeeded in preserving Manchu ethnicity, and the Qing dynasty
along with it, into the twentieth century.
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