Commissioned by the Qianlong emperor in 1751, the Qing Imperial Illustrations of Tributary Peoples (Huang Qing zhigong tu 皇清職貢圖), is a captivating work of art and an ideological statement of universal rule best understood as a cultural cartography of empire. This translation of the ethnographic texts accompanied by a full-color reproduction of Xie Sui’s (謝遂) hand-painted scroll helps us to understand the conceptualization of imperial tributary relationships the work embodies as rooted in both dynastic history and the specifics of Qing rule.
Laura Hostetler, Ph.D (1995, University of Pennsylvania) is Professor of History and Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2001).
Wu Xuemei is Professor of History at the School of History and Culture of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. She has published extensively on social order and questions of state control among the Miao and Tujia in Qing Hubei.
Scholars and students of universal empire, Qing history, art history, early modern diplomacy, and early modern ethnography.