State and Society in Eighteenth-Century China

China in the reign of the Ch’ien-lung emperor was confident, prosperous, internally at peace, unchallenged at its frontiers. The Chinese self-image in the eighteenth century was as close to the historical reality from which it was abstracted as any idealized construct. This book describes the conditions that characterized Ch’ing society during its glory days.

Albert FEUERWERKER is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Michigan.