Slaves of the Emperor: Service, Privilege, and Status in the Qing Eight Banners

China's last imperial dynasty governed a vast and culturally diverse territory, encompassing a wide range of local...
$472.02 SGD
$472.02 SGD
SKU: 9780231212762
Product Type: Books
Please hurry! Only 183 left in stock
Author: David C. Porter
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $472.02
10 customers are viewing this product
Slaves of the Emperor: Service, Privilege, and Status in the Qing Eight Banners by Porter, David C.

Slaves of the Emperor: Service, Privilege, and Status in the Qing Eight Banners

$472.02

Slaves of the Emperor: Service, Privilege, and Status in the Qing Eight Banners

$472.02
Author: David C. Porter
Format: Hardcover
Language: English

China's last imperial dynasty governed a vast and culturally diverse territory, encompassing a wide range of local political systems and regional elites. But the Qing empire was built and held together by a single imperial elite: the more than two million members of the hereditary Eight Banner system who were at the core of both the military and the bureaucracy. The banner population was multiethnic, linked by shared membership in a clearly demarcated status group defined in law and administrative practice. Banner people were bound to the court by an exchange of loyal service for institutionalized privilege, a relationship symbolically conceptualized as one of slave to master.

Slaves of the Emperor explores the Qing approach to one of the fundamental challenges of early modern state-building: how to develop an effective bureaucracy with increasing administrative capacity to govern a growing polity while retaining the loyalty of the ruling family's most important supporters. David C. Porter traces how the banner system created a service elite through its processes of incorporating new members, its employment of bannermen as technical specialists, its imposition of service obligations on women as well as men, and its response to fiscal and ideological challenges. Placing Qing practices in comparative perspective, he uncovers crucial parallels to similar institutions in Tokugawa Japan, imperial Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. Slaves of the Emperor provides a new framework for understanding the structure and function of elites both in China and across Eurasia in the early modern period.

Author: David C. Porter
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 12/26/2023
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.52lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.94d
ISBN: 9780231212762

About the Author
David C. Porter is faculty lecturer in history and East Asian studies at McGill University.

Returns Policy

You may return most new, unopened items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

You should expect to receive your refund within four weeks of giving your package to the return shipper, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. This time period includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).

If you need to return an item, simply login to your account, view the order using the "Complete Orders" link under the My Account menu and click the Return Item(s) button. We'll notify you via e-mail of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

Shipping

We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Depending on the shipping provider you choose, shipping date estimates may appear on the shipping quotes page.

Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound.

Related Products

Recently Viewed Products