China on the sea / by Zheng Yangwen.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Facing the seas -- "The inconsistency of the seas" -- Feeding China -- Cette merveilleuse machine -- Les palais europeens -- "Wind of the west西洋风" -- Pattern and variation: indigenisation -- "Race for oriental opulence" -- Conclusion.

This volume challenges the Walled Kingdom perspective. China reached out to the seas far more actively than historians have allowed, while the maritime world shaped China, Qing China in particular, much more than the continental world. It gave birth to and defined Chinese modernity.

Generations of Chinese scholars have made China synonymous with the Great Wall and presented its civilization as fundamentally land-bound. This volume challenges this perspective, demonstrating that China was not a "Walled Kingdom", certainly not since the Yongjia Disturbance in 311. China reached out to the maritime world far more actively than historians have acknowledged, while the seas and what came from the seas--from Islam, fragrances and Jesuits to maize, opium and clocks--significantly changed the course of history, and have been of inestimable importance to China since the Ming. This book integrates the maritime history of China, especially the Qing period, a subject which has hitherto languished on the periphery of scholarly analysis, into the mainstream of current historical narrative. It was the seas that made Tang China a "Cosmopolitan Empire" (Mark Lewis), the Song dynasty China's "Greatest Age" (John Fairbank), China at 1600 "the largest and most sophisticated of all unified realms on earth" (Jonathan Spence), and the reign of the three Qing emperors (Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong) China's "last golden age" (Charles Hucker).

Cover caption: The several known complete sets of “Copper engravings of the European palaces in Yuan Ming Yuan” [圆明园西洋楼铜板画] each include 20 images. However, the set belonging to the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, was recently found to include a unique additional colour image. Jottings at the top and bottom read: “Planche 2e qui a été commencée à être mise en couleurs” and “Planche 2e esquissée pour la couleur”. Reproduced by courtesy of the University Librarian and Director, the John Rylands University Library, University of Manchester.

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'The art of alchemists, sex and court ladies' -- As the empire changed hands -- 'The age of calicoes and tea and opium' -- 'A hobby among the high and the low in officialdom' -- Taste-making and trendsetting -- The political redefinition of opium consumption -- Outward and downward 'liquidation' -- 'The volume of smoke and powder' -- 'The unofficial history of the poppy' -- Opiate of the people -- The road to St. Louis -- 'Shanghai vice'

"In a broad-ranging narrative, Zheng Yangwen's book explores the history of opium consumption in China from 1483 to the late twentieth century. The story begins in the mid-Ming dynasty, when opium was sent as a gift by vassal states and used as an aphrodisiac in court. Over time, the Chinese people from different classes and regions began to use it for recreational purposes, so beginning a complex culture of opium consumption. The book traces this transformation over a period of 500 years, asking who introduced opium to China, how it spread through all sections of society, embraced by rich and poor alike as a culture and an institution. The book, which is accompanied by a fascinating collection of illustrations, offers a vivid and alternative perspective on life in China, which will be embraced by students of history, anthropology and sociology, and all those with an interest in China."--Jacket.