The Qing Dynasty: A History of China

The Qing Dynasty: A History of China, PART THREE, plunges you into the rise and fall of China's last imperial house — a realm of emperors and generals, reformers and dreamers, all standing on the ragged edge of a world in flux. I wrote this book to let readers step inside the Forbidden City and feel what it was like when the court truly believed it could endure forever. From Emperor Qianlong's ostentatious triumphs to the final, reluctant abdication of the child emperor Puyi, this is the story of a nation that shimmered with power even as the ground beneath it began to fracture. You will travel through Qianlong's Ten Great Campaigns — the far-flung wars that pushed the empire to its limits and reshaped its borders — and meet Heshen, the dazzlingly gifted yet unscrupulous minister whose meteoric rise under Qianlong and spectacular fall under Emperor Jiaqing seemed to echo the dynasty's own arc. You will witness the uneasy reign of Emperor Daoguang, a ruler torn between timeworn traditions and a new global order that literally came crashing onto China's shores with the Opium Wars. And at the heart of that crisis stands Lin Zexu: dispatched to Canton to halt the trade, he confronts the flood of opium and becomes, for a brief and incandescent moment, the voice of defiance in a changing age. As the empire weakens, new figures rise from the chaos. Prince Gong (Yixin) and Sushun become symbols of the court's struggle — but on very different sides: Prince Gong pushed limited reforms and diplomatic engagement, while Sushun led a conservative regency that sought to hold the old order together until he was toppled after the Xinyou Coup of 1861. Far to the west, Zuo Zongtang rides out to reconquer lost provinces and restore imperial authority; and inside the Forbidden City, a low-ranking concubine named Cixi climbs to become the most powerful woman in China, steering the court through the Tongzhi Restoration and the uneven era of self-strengthening that followed. The empire's final act unfolds when Yuan Shikai and Sun Yat-sen step onto the stage. One is a skilled soldier and politician with towering ambition; the other, a revolutionary idealist with a vision of a republic. Between their clashing paths — and the failures and reforms that preceded them, from the First Sino-Japanese War to the Hundred Days and its suppression — the dragon throne finally falls. Yet even in collapse, the Qing left behind institutions, ideas, and bitter struggles that helped shape the China we recognize today. This book is the final volume in the A History of China series, bringing the journey full circle — from the empire's first roar under Qin in 221 BCE to the last gasp of imperial rule in 1912. It's written for readers who want to feel history as it happened: vivid, human, and alive. If you've followed the series this far, this is where every dynasty and every emperor — every hope and every dream that powered centuries of rule — finally come to rest.