Research Catalog

Title

China : how the empire fell / edited by Joseph W. Esherick and C.X. George Wei.

Publication

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2014.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Esherick, Joseph
• Wei, C. X. George

Description

xxiv, 296 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

"The Qing dynasty was China's last, and it created an empire of unprecedented size and prosperity. However in 1911 the empire collapsed within a few short months, and China embarked on a revolutionary course that lasted through most of the twentieth century. The 1911 Revolution ended two millennia of imperial rule and established the Republic of China, but dissatisfaction with the early republic fuelled further revolutionary movements, each intended to be more thoroughgoing than the last, from the National Revolution of the 1920s, to the Communist Revolution, and finally the Cultural Revolution. On the centenary of the 1911 Revolution, Chinese scholars debated the causes and significance of the empire's collapse, and this book presents twelve of the most important contributions. Rather than focusing on Sun Yat-sen's relatively weak and divided revolutionary movement, as much previous scholarship has, these studies examine the internal dynamics of political and socio-economic change in China. The chapters reveal how reforms in education, army organization, and constitutional rule created new social forces and political movements that undermined dynastic legitimacy within China and on its frontiers. Through detailed analyses, using new archival, memoir, diary, and newspaper sources, the authors cast new light on the sudden collapse of an empire that many thought was at last embarked on a road to reform and national rejuvenation."--Publisher's Web site.

Series Statement

Asia's transformations ; 41

Uniform Title

Asia's transformations ; 41.

Subjects

• China
• History
• 1911 - 1912
• Revolution (China : 1911-1912)
• China > History > Revolution, 1911-1912

Genre/Form

• History
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction / Joseph W. Esherick -- Reform and revolution. The reform predicament / Dai Angang ; Late Qing governors and provincial assemblies / Li Zhenwu ; Conflict and competition : a new perspective on late Qing politics / Zhou Jiming and Hu Xi -- The Sichuan Railway crisis : prelude to revolution. Zaifeng and Qing railway policy / Li Xuefeng -- The Hubei reforms and the Wuchang Uprising. The new policies in Hubei / Feng Tianyu ; Tang Hualong in the 1911 Revolution / Ma Mingde -- Qing officials and the revolution. Provincial officials in 1911-12 : their backgrounds and reactions to revolution : an inquiry into the structure of "weak center, weak regions" in the late Qing / Li Xizhu ; On the mentalities of Manchu and Mongol elites during the 1911 Revolution / Sun Yanjing and Zhou Zengguang -- Yuan Shikai and the 1911 Revolution. Zaifeng's dismissal of Yuan Shikai and Sino-U.S.-Japanese diplomacy / Cui Zhihai ; The Qing's three armies after the Wuchang Uprising / Zhang Huateng ; Yuan Shikai and the February 1912 "Beijing Mutiny" / Shang Xiaoming -- The revolution and the frontier. The "political game" and "state-building" : Outer Mongolia during the 1911 Revolution / Feng Jianyong.

ISBN

• 9780415831017 (hardback : alk. paper)
• 0415831016 (hardback : alk. paper)
• 9780203509333 (ebook) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

^^2013015539

OCLC

• 816564594
• SCSB-13852787

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library