The making of the Chinese state : ethnicity and expansion on the Ming borderlands /
Ethnicity and expansion on the Ming borderland
Leo K. Shin.
- xxi, 246 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
History of the margins -- Nature of the borderland -- Politics of chieftancy -- Mapping of settlement -- Culture of demarcation -- Margins in history. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
"In this study of the relationships between the state and its borderlands, Leo Shin traces the roots of China's modern ethnic configurations to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Challenging the traditional view that China's expansion was primarily an exercise of incorporation and assimilation, Shin argues that as the center extended its reach to the wild and inaccessible south, the political interests of the state, the economic needs of the settlers, and the imaginations of the cultural elites all facilitated the demarcation and categorization of the borderland "non-Chinese" populations. The story told here, however, extends beyond the imperial period. Just as Ming emperors considered it essential to reinforce a sense of universal order by demarcating the "non-Chinese," modern-day Chinese rulers also find it critical to maintain the myth of a unitary multi-national state by officially recognizing a total of fifty-six "nationalities.""--BOOK JACKET.