The mechanisms by which the Manchu rulers of Qing dynasty China maintained their hegemony over a vast empire have long fascinated scholars, with New Qing History models challenging older Sinicization models in recent years. Images of War adds a new dimension to these debates, from an unlikely source: art history. Two seemingly disparate fields of inquiry are brought together in this innovative work, which presents Ming and Qing painting and visual culture in dialogue with Ming and Qing military history, offering a fresh new way of understanding the establishment and operation of imperial Qing cultural hegemony.
Ma Ya-chen is a professor at the Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan.