Shaping the Blue Dragon
Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Published on 29. October 2024
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-1-83553-743-5 (ISBN)
Description
An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and through Knowledge Unlatched.
Throughout much of history, imperial China has exhibited a seemingly capricious relationship with the sea. At times, it has welcomed commerce and travel across its vast waters with open arms, yet at others, it has sought to completely cordon off the littoral and the waters beyond. This intermittent approach has fostered a maritime community that, over time, has become increasingly estranged from the dominating Confucian society. Consequently, this has led to behaviours among the coastal residents that pose challenges for those attempting to govern them, with each influencing the other in turn.
In Shaping the Blue Dragon, Ronald Po examines China's relationship with the maritime world from the Ming through the Qing by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people engaging with the blue domain. Pirates, cartographers, administrators, naval generals, maritime writers, emperors, visionaries, and travellers. Most of their stories are unheard in the Anglophone community. Despite the range of their backgrounds and expertise, their cumulative lives were all bounded to the sea. They bared their own souls and mirrored their own logics and reflections in their actions, yet in doing so their characters, identities, and life histories were largely shaped by a maritime China that was in transition between the fourteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Throughout much of history, imperial China has exhibited a seemingly capricious relationship with the sea. At times, it has welcomed commerce and travel across its vast waters with open arms, yet at others, it has sought to completely cordon off the littoral and the waters beyond. This intermittent approach has fostered a maritime community that, over time, has become increasingly estranged from the dominating Confucian society. Consequently, this has led to behaviours among the coastal residents that pose challenges for those attempting to govern them, with each influencing the other in turn.
In Shaping the Blue Dragon, Ronald Po examines China's relationship with the maritime world from the Ming through the Qing by following the stories of ordinary and extraordinary people engaging with the blue domain. Pirates, cartographers, administrators, naval generals, maritime writers, emperors, visionaries, and travellers. Most of their stories are unheard in the Anglophone community. Despite the range of their backgrounds and expertise, their cumulative lives were all bounded to the sea. They bared their own souls and mirrored their own logics and reflections in their actions, yet in doing so their characters, identities, and life histories were largely shaped by a maritime China that was in transition between the fourteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Reviews / Votes
'An engaging and compelling study of cartographers, pirates, and scholar-officials and their encounters with maritime frontiers in the Ming and Qing dynasties.' Dr Donna Brunero, National University of Singapore 'From pirates to cartographers to envoys, Ronald C. Po takes us on a journey through the lives of several famous Chinese players who were unknowingly involved in Shaping the Blue Dragon. Po convincingly shows us that this land-oriented empire was astutely aware of the importance of the blue sphere surrounding her shores.' Professor Paul A. Van Dyke, retired Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 'Ultimately, Shaping the Blue Dragon makes a compelling contribution to the growing field of Chinese maritime studies, shedding light on the complex and evolving relationship between China and the sea, and serving as a useful companion for students and researchers alike in the fields of historical and contemporary China and maritime affairs.'Ilay Golan, LSE Review of Books "Shaping the Blue Dragon is an excellent addition to the existing scholarship studying the maritime interactions of pre-modern China. Po presents a fresh approach to examining Ming and Qing China's maritime past, viewing it through the lens of the inherent tensions between a dominant continental discourse and individuals, or groups, who were willing and/or able to engage with the sea. He skilfully connects these historical narratives to present developments, showing how the past has shaped contemporary realities." Ming Qing Studies 'This is a work that deserves a wide readership-not only among scholars of East Asian or maritime history, but also among those interested in the global flows and fragmentations that shaped the early modern world. It is, in short, a landmark study: intellectually provacative, empirically rich, and imaginatively ambitious.' Philip L. Picha, Maritime History Entangled 'Each chapter is a minor tour de force that amply demonstrates the extent to which some Chinese saw and connected themselves to the maritime world beyond China's shores... Shaping the Blue Dragon is a masterwork of scholarly reimagination that deserves wide attention from scholars of maritime history.' Timothy Brook, International Journal of Maritime History
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Liverpool
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
18 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 163 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83553-743-5 (9781835537435)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Ronald C. Po is Associate Professor in the Department of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science.