Conflict and commerce in maritime East Asia : the Zheng family and the shaping of the modern world, c. 1620-1720 / Xing Hang (Brandeis University).

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hang, Xing, 1982- author.

Series:

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University.

Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Zheng family.

Merchants--China--Biography.

Merchants.

Merchants--Taiwan--Biography.

Social conflict--East Asia--History--17th century.

Social conflict.

China--Commerce--History--17th century.

China.

China--Foreign economic relations--Europe, Western.

Europe, Western--Foreign economic relations--China.

Europe, Western.

East China Sea--Commerce--History--17th century.

East China Sea.

South China Sea--Commerce--History--17th century.

South China Sea.

East Asia--Commerce--History--17th century.

East Asia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 332 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Conflict & Commerce in Maritime East Asia

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Summary:

The Zheng family of merchants and militarists emerged from the tumultuous seventeenth century amid a severe economic depression, a harrowing dynastic transition from the ethnic Chinese Ming to the Manchu Qing, and the first wave of European expansion into East Asia. Under four generations of leaders over six decades, the Zheng had come to dominate trade across the China Seas. Their average annual earnings matched, and at times exceeded, those of their fiercest rivals: the Dutch East India Company. Although nominally loyal to the Ming in its doomed struggle against the Manchus, the Zheng eventually forged an autonomous territorial state based on Taiwan with the potential to encompass the family's entire economic sphere of influence. Through the story of the Zheng, Xing Hang provides a fresh perspective on the economic divergence of early modern China from western Europe, its twenty-first-century resurgence, and the meaning of a Chinese identity outside China.

Contents:

Introduction

1. Setting the stage

2. From smuggler-pirates to loyal Confucians

3. Between trade and legitimacy

4. Brave new world

5. The Zheng state on Taiwan

6. The lure of "China"

7. A contingent destruction

8. Conclusion

Appendix 1: Romanization of East Asian Languages

Appendix 2: Measurements and Currency Conversions

Appendix 3: Zheng Market Share, Revenues, and Profitability, 1640-1683

Appendix 4: Glossary of Chinese Characters.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 01 Jan 2016).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-45240-9

1-316-45528-9

1-316-45576-9

1-316-45864-4

1-316-40122-7

1-316-45624-2

1-316-45672-2