Cherishing men from afar : Qing guest ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793 / James L. Hevia.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hevia, James Louis, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Macartney, George Macartney, Earl, 1737-1806.

Macartney, George Macartney.

Diplomatic etiquette--China.

Diplomatic etiquette.

China--Foreign relations--Great Britain.

China.

Great Britain--Foreign relations--China.

Great Britain.

China--Foreign relations--1644-1912.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 292 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 1995.

Language Note:

English.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Introduction

A multitude of lords : the Qing Empire, Manchu rulership, and interdomainal relations

Planning and organizing the British embassy

King Solomon in all his glory : the British embassy in China

Guest ritual and interdomainal relations

Channeling along a centering path : greeting and preparation

Convergence : audience, instruction, and bestowal

Bringing affairs to a culmination

Guest ritual and diplomacy

From events to history : the Macartney embassy in the historiography of Sino-Western relations.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-284) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781306867467

1306867460

9780822396284

0822396289

OCLC:

800715399