Download or read book The High Road to China written by Kate Teltscher and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-07-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: _______________ 'Splendid and fascinating ... Teltscher has made remarkable use of her source material, aided by the constantly perceptive and witty tone of Bogle's own writings' - Patrick French, Sunday Times 'It is hard to imagine this fascinating story being told with greater sensitivity or skill' - Sunday Telegraph 'Teltscher is a remarkable new historian ... wholly original' - William Dalrymple 'Thrilling and fascinating ... Letters, journals and documents are woven into the flowing narrative, which is wonderfully vivid and evocative' - Jenny Uglow _______________ An unlikely meeting between a young Scotsman and the Panchen Lama gives birth to a remarkable friendship In 1774 British traders longed to open relations with China so they sent a young Scotsman, George Bogle, as an envoy to Tibet. Bogle became smitten by what he saw there, and struck up a remarkable friendship with the Panchen Lama. This gripping book tells the story of their two extraordinary journeys across some of the harshest and highest terrain in the world: Bogle's mission, and the Panchen Lama's state visit to China, on which British hopes were hung. Piecing together extracts from Bogle's private papers, Tibetan biographies of the Panchen Lama, the account of a wandering Hindu monk and the writings of the Emperor himself, Kate Teltscher deftly reconstructs the momentous meeting of these very different worlds.
Download or read book An Embassy to China written by Earl George Macartney Macartney and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China written by George Leonard Staunton and published by . This book was released on 1797 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Immobile Empire written by Alain Peyrefitte and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1793, Lord George Macartney and an enormous delegation—including diplomats, doctors, scholars, painters, musicians, soldiers, and aristocrats—entered Beijing on a mission to open China to British trade. But Macartney’s famous refusal to perform the traditional kowtow before the Chinese Emperor was just one sign that the two empires would not see eye to eye, and the trade talks failed. The inability to develop a trade relation would have enormous consequences for future relations between China and the West. Peyrefitte’s vivid narrative of this fascinating encounter is based on extraordinary source materials from each side—including the charming and candid diary of Thomas Staunton, the son of one of Macartney’s aides. An example of history at its finest, The Immobile Empire recaptures the extraordinary experience of two great empires in collision, sizing each other up for the first time.
Download or read book Merchants of War and Peace written by Song-Chuan Chen and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The First Opium War The Chinese Expedition 1840 1842 The Illustrated Edition written by Duncan McPherson and published by . This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first Anglo-Chinese War of 1839-1842 was fought essentially over trade restrictions between the British Empire and the Qing Dynasty. European traders were only permitted to sell though a cartel of Chinese merchants known as the Thirteen Hongs, and were not allowed to travel, live or trade in any other part of China apart from the Thirteen Factories in Canton. Due to the ever-growing demands of the home market for tea, and China's insistence on payment in silver, a trade imbalance in China's favour developed, and so the British, via the East India Company, began to trade in opium. Initially the Chinese authorities tolerated this, but in 1839, the new governor of Canton seized all the opium, banned its sale under threat of death, and closed the channel to Canton, effectively holding the British traders hostage. The resulting retaliation from the British was somewhat delayed, but in April 1840 the Chinese Expedition, a force of 3000 soldiers and a small naval force arrived in Singapore. After decisively defeating the Chinese in the summer 1842, the war finally ended with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking and the ceding of Hong Kong to the British Crown. Fully illustrated throughout with contemporary paintings, engravings and maps, this authoritative eye-witness account of the First Opium War was written by Duncan McPherson, a surgeon with the 37th Madras Native Infantry. Highly readable, McPherson's vivid descriptions of China and its people, and his detailed accounts of the battles give a unique perspective to the conflict. Also included is an in-depth appendix featuring the official battle reports, general orders, circulars, notifications and returns of the dead and wounded.
Download or read book Cherishing Men from Afar written by James Louis Hevia and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the late eighteenth century two expansive Eurasian empires met formally for the first time--the Manchu or Qing dynasty of China and the maritime empire of Great Britain. The occasion was the mission of Lord Macartney, sent by the British crown and sponsored by the East India Company, to the court of the Qianlong emperor. Cherishing Men from Afar looks at the initial confrontation between these two empires from a historical perspective informed by the insights of contemporary postcolonial criticism and cultural studies. The history of this encounter, like that of most colonial and imperial encounters, has traditionally been told from the Europeans' point of view. In this book, James L. Hevia consults Chinese sources--many previously untranslated--for a broader sense of what Qing court officials understood; and considers these documents in light of a sophisticated anthropological understanding of Qing ritual processes and expectations. He also reexamines the more familiar British accounts in the context of recent critiques of orientalism and work on the development of the bourgeois subject. Hevia's reading of these sources reveals the logics of two discrete imperial formations, not so much impaired by the cultural misunderstandings that have historically been attributed to their meeting, but animated by differing ideas about constructing relations of sovereignty and power. His examination of Chinese and English-language scholarly treatments of this event, both historical and contemporary, sheds new light on the place of the Macartney mission in the dynamics of colonial and imperial encounters.
Download or read book The Englishman in China During the Victorian Era written by Alexander Michie and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book An Historical Account of the Embassy to the Emperor of China Undertaken by Order of the King of Great Britain written by Sir George Staunton and published by . This book was released on 1797 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Alexander Dalrymple and the Expansion of British Trade written by Howard T. Fry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alexander Dalrymple was once described as the man who, after Hakluyt, had done most for the spread of Britain’s commerce. In this important new work, Dr. Fry discusses Dalrymple’s extensive contribution to knowledge about New Guinea and his pioneer attempt to establish a free port on Balambangan, and shows that his interest in the possibility of a North-West Passage and his influence in government circles were to be a major factor in bringing about Vancouver’s survey. Dalrymple’s research and theories about the great Southern Continent led to his appointment by the Royal Society as commander of the 1768 expedition, and though the Admiralty countermanded this decision and appointed instead Captain Cook, Dalrymple’s geographical researches were the motivating force behind the initiation of the search for Terra Australis. Dr. Fry throws interesting new light on Dalrymple’s relations with Cook, which, he argues, have been consistently misrepresented. Dalrymple became an expert navigator and surveyor during his years as captain of East India snows, and he became in turn hydrographer of the East India Company and the Admiralty. His work in this field revolutionised chart-making and was a contribution of incalculable value to Britain’s maritime supremacy in the nineteenth century. This classic book was first published in 1970.
Download or read book Imperial Twilight written by Stephen R. Platt and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As China reclaims its position as a world power, Imperial Twilight looks back to tell the story of the country’s last age of ascendance and how it came to an end in the nineteenth-century Opium War. As one of the most potent turning points in the country’s modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today’s China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to “open” China even as China’s imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country’s decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China’s advantage. The book paints an enduring portrait of an immensely profitable—and mostly peaceful—meeting of civilizations that was destined to be shattered by one of the most shockingly unjust wars in the annals of imperial history. Brimming with a fascinating cast of British, Chinese, and American characters, this riveting narrative of relations between China and the West has important implications for today’s uncertain and ever-changing political climate.
Download or read book Maiden Voyage written by Joshua A. Fogel and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2014-09-19 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Japanese from varied domains, as well as shogunal officials, Nagasaki merchants, and an assortment of deck hands, made the voyage along with a British crew, spending a total of ten weeks observing and interacting with the Chinese and with a handful of Westerners. Roughly a dozen Japanese narratives of the voyage were produced at the time, recounting personal impressions and experiences in Shanghai. The Japanese emissaries had the distinct advantage of being able to communicate with their Chinese hosts by means of the "brush conversation" (written exchanges in literary Chinese). For their part, the Chinese authorities also created a paper trail of reports and memorials concerning the Japanese visitors, which worked its way up and down the bureaucratic chain of command. This was the first official meeting of Chinese and Japanese in several centuries.
Download or read book The Great Reversal written by Kerry Brown and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2024-08-27 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid history of the relationship between Britain and China, from 1600 to the present The relationship between Britain and China has shaped the modern world. Chinese art, philosophy and science have had a profound effect upon British culture, while the long history of British exploitation is still bitterly remembered in China today. But how has their interaction changed over time? From the early days of the East India Company through the violence of the Opium Wars to present-day disputes over Hong Kong, Kerry Brown charts this turbulent and intriguing relationship in full. Britain has always sought to dominate China economically and politically, while China’s ideas and exports—from tea and Chinoiserie to porcelain and silk—have continued to fascinate in the west. But by the later twentieth century, the balance of power began to shift in China’s favour, with global consequences. Brown shows how these interactions changed the world order—and argues that an understanding of Britain’s relationship with China is now more vital than ever.
Download or read book First British Trade Expedition to China written by Nicholas D. Jackson and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The First British Trade Expedition to China, Nicholas D. Jackson explores the pioneering British trade expedition to China launched in the late Ming period by Charles I and the Courteen Association. While utilizing the vivid and unique perspective of its commander, Captain John Weddell, this study concentrates on the fleet's adventures in south China between Portuguese Macao and the provincial capital, Guangzhou (Canton). Tracing the obscure origins of Sino.
Download or read book Anglo Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War written by Xin Liu and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-08-12 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War: A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries studies the fascinating encounters between the two historic empires from Queen Elizabeth I’s first letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli in 1583, to Lord Palmerston’s letter to the Minister of China in 1840. Starting with Queen Elizabeth I’s letter to the Chinese Emperor and ending with the letter from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of China just before the Opium War, this book explores the long journey in between from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy. It interweaves the most known diplomatic efforts at the official level with the much unknown intellectual interactions at the people-to-people level, from missionaries to scholars, from merchants to travelers and from artists to scientists. This book adopts a novel "mirror" approach by pairing and comparing people, texts, commodities, artworks, architecture, ideologies, operating systems and world views of the two empires. Using letters, gifts and traded goods as fulcrums, and by adopting these unique lenses, it puts China into the world history narratives to contextualise Anglo-Chinese relations, thus providing a fresh analysis of the surviving evidence. Xin Liu casts a new light on understanding the Sino-centric and Anglo-centric world views in driving the complex relations between the two empires, and the reversals of power shifts that are still unfolding today. The book is not intended for specialists in history, but a general audience wishing to learn more about China’s historical engagement with the world.
Download or read book Annals Memoirs of the Court of Peking written by Sir Edmund Backhouse and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enduring interest displayed by many readers in the character of China's great Empress Dowager Tzŭ Hsi, and the generous appreciation accorded to our work on her life and reign, have prompted the belief that the present work, covering a wider stretch of space and time, should prove interesting, and of some value, to those who desire to study the causes, immediate and remote, of recent and current events in the Far East. Until we understand something of the mainsprings of thought and action which determine the governance and daily life of a people-something of their atavistic memories and instincts, of their social, religious and economic systems, it is not possible to sympathise with them in their perils and crises of change, or to render them the assistance which appreciation of their motives and intelligent anticipation of their needs might supply. -- Introduction.
Download or read book Pioneering in Formosa written by William Alexander Pickering and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
