Negotiated Power in Late Imperial China

The Zongli Yamen and the Politics of Reform

Jennifer Rudolph

• Publisher: Cornell East Asia Series
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN:
  9781933947372
  9781933947075
• eBook ISBN:
  9781942242376
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

Negotiated Power in Late Imperial China: The Zongli Yamen and the Politics of Reform explores the nature and functioning of reform during the nineteenth century of China's Qing dynasty (1644–1911). By analyzing the bureaucratic modes of management that developed around the creation and evolution of the Zongli Yamen or Foreign Office (1861–1901), the book demonstrates the vitality of not only the Chinese State, but also the institutional traditions of its Manchu rulers. Drawing on precedent and the flexibility of the administrative system in their efforts to manage the conduct of foreign affairs, high Qing ministers transformed opportunities for institutional dynamism into the reality of a functioning central Zongli Yamen with a foreign affairs field administration supporting it in the provinces. In the process, they altered the governmental hierarchy and changed the definition of institutional power in the multi-faceted area of foreign affairs and, more generally, for the Qing bureaucracy. As the most significant example of institutional development in China's critical period of the nineteenth century, the Zongli Yamen's experience serves as valuable background for understanding reform efforts in late imperial China and beyond.

Table of contents

• i Half-Title Page
• iii Title Page
• iv Copyright Page
• v Dedication Page
• vii Contents
• ix Abbreviations
• xiii Emperors Reign Titles
• xv Acknowledgments
• Chapter1 Zongli Yamen in Time and Place
• Chapter2 Building Change, One Man At A Time
• Chapter3 Foreign Constitutional Change?
• Chapter4 Making Change Work- Institutional Negotiations
• Chapter5 Bridging the Bureaucracy- Linking Communication and Power
• Chapter6 Negotiated Solutions- Multilevel Resolutions
• Chapter7 Negotiated Power and Institutional Place
• Appendix A 183-194
• Appendix B 195-197
• Glossary 199-202
• Bibliography 203-220
• Index 221-228
• Book List Last Page 231-234