Studies in Qing statecraft in frontier contexts have in recent years produced revealing perspectives on the late imperial and nationalist histories of the Chinese state, with respect to both its construction and its place in world history. Viewed through the lens of borderland developments, even well-established ideas about Qing history can be problematized, or at least more fully elucidated. This book provides a fresh explanation of Sichuan's place in the Qing system based on the empire's strategic endeavor in the Tibetan and Mongolian regions of Inner Asia. Known as a wealthy “granary of heaven” yet also a tax haven, a cultural center yet also a bastion of unruliness, Sichuan's unique identity turns out to be, in Yingcong Dai's analysis, as much a legacy of Qing imperial strategy as a product of its citizens' industriousness peppered by abundant resources.
The central argument of the book is that Sichuan's strategic importance grew...
