2007
Wensheng Wang
- Doctoral Candidate
- University of California, Irvine
![Picture of Wensheng Wang](https://www.acls.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/77E87987-B016-DC11-9D54-000C2903E717.jpg)
Abstract
This historical study examines the societal, imperial, bureaucratic, and intellectual responses to the conjunction of two crises in Qing China: the White Lotus rebellion (1796-1805) and South China piracy (1790s-1810). By exploring the mediated constructions placed upon both events, this project highlights a path-shaping conjuncture in the interlocking structural transformation of Qing state and culture as well as the shifting power configuration encompassing the Sino-centric tributary world during the Jiaqing reign (1796-1820). This dissertation provides a major reinterpretation of this pivotal yet most neglected period and explores the endogenous dynamism in the Qing Empire before the full rise of Western assault in the mid-nineteenth century.