HIS102Y1 Lecture : Imperial Culture and Foreign Relations in East Asia
Document Summary
Imperial culture and foreign relations in east asia. Introduction: policies of isolation in asia circa 1600 y asiatic isolation is a eurocentric idea y. In the 1600s china and japan were not isolated: they just didn t interact much with europe, china and japan interacted extensively with asia and south east asia. In the 1600s ming dynasty began to decline: couldn t collect taxes, rebellions, clashes with elite y manchus pressed in northeast border, organized society militarily, gradually defeated ming. were resisted by loyalists and pirate y 1644 new qing dynasty: quickly adapted chinese beurocracy. yellow as the official imperial colour of qing y. precious stones, copper, wood, jade, gold trading y cultural flowering: qianlong emperor patronized art and literature. also jesuits, who represented themselves as scholars and not missionaries. Jesuits compares louis xiv to qianlong y enlightenment: voltaire admired china as a society that was moral but not christian, chinoiserie became fashionable in france.