This comprehensive but concise narrative of China since the eighteenth century builds its story around the delicate relationship between central government and local communities.

• Rejects the traditional view of China as a wholly harmonious society based on principles of stability - the Unwobbling Pivot of Ezra Pound's translation of the Chinese classic Zhongyong
• Provides an original interpretation, arguing that developments can be explained through an understanding of China's surprising swings between centralization and decentralization, between local initiative and central authoritarianism
• Serves as an introduction to the subject, while readers with a background in Chinese history will find the book offers a personal perspective and addresses long-standing interpretive issues
• Supported by a variety of timelines, maps, illustrations, and extensive notes for further reading
• Places China's history within the context of global change

Pamela Kyle Crossley is Professor of Inner Asian, East Asian Intellectual and Chinese History at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Her publications include The Manchus (Blackwell, 1997); A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Ideology (1999); and What is Global History? (2008). She is a past Guggenheim Fellow and was awarded the Levenson Prize from the Association for Asian Studies in 2001.

List of Illustrations vii

List of Maps viii

Foreword and Acknowledgments ix

Prelude xi

Timeline xv

1 The Wobbling Pivot 1

2 Sources of Order Under the Qing Empire 21

3 Sources of Disorder Under the Qing Empire 44

4 Essay: Strategic Borders 66

5 Qing and the World 70

6 Essay: Rebel Heroines 98

7 Visionaries 100

8 Essay: Hunan Takes the Lead 126

9 Essay: Water 129

10 Beiyang Ascendancy 133

11 Cultural Revolution 155

12 Essay: Manchus as Minorities 177

13 War 180

14 The Ubiquitous Center 207

15 Essay: Minerals 240

16 Essay: Health Risks 243

17 Gravity 246

Bibliography 274

Index 295