The Qing and Tibet
The road up to Lhasa in the autumn of 1720 was lined with the dismantled walls of a city that had just been taken…
23 min read
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Qing Dynasty
The Jesuits at the Chinese Court
In the spring of 1601 a mechanical clock was carried into the Forbidden City at Beijing, and for the first time in the history…
36 min read
The Temple of Heaven
South of the Forbidden City, behind a wall that is square at one end and round at the other, there is a place where…
23 min read
Koxinga Takes Taiwan from the Dutch
On the morning of 30 April 1661 a thick mist lay over the sandbar of Tayouan, off the south-west coast of Taiwan, where the…
17 min read
From Jurchen Tribes to Manchu Emperors
In November 1635, the ruler of a rising state in what is now north-east China issued an order about a name. His people had…
14 min read