Review of The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions by Evelyn S. Rawski

The Last Emperors, by Evelyn S. Rawski, is an examination of the Chinese Qing, or Manchu, dynasty. Rather than examining the structure of this dynasty based upon political matters, Rawski instead looks at social history in order to develop a better understanding of the politics of the Qing dynasty. In particular, she "explores issues of ethnicity and historical interpretation within Qing history from the perspective of the Manchu rulers." (p. 2) As a former student of American immigration history, matters of ethnicity are frequently a part of my research, and thus this book was very interesting to me.

The book is divided into three sections, dealing respectively with material culture, the social organization of the Qing court, and rituals of the Qing court. These approaches all reflect the recent publication of this book, as they are all methods of studying social history that have been prevalent for only the past few decades, at most. While primarily confined to the study of social and cultural history, these techniques have found a small place in mainstream history as well.

Rawski notes that the material culture of the Qing dynasty reflected its multi-ethnic origins. Being a culture which derived aspects from both the Manchu culture and the existing Chinese culture, the rulers believed it was important to incorporate cultural aspects of all of the cultures which had a place in their dynasty: "The Qing rulers did not present themselves simply as Chinese or Manchu monarchs. Governing diverse peoples, they ‘took on' different cultural guises and portrayed themselves within different cultural frames. Only thus could they act as the integrating center of the empire." (p. 55) The wisdom that the Qing rulers expressed in their cultural decisions reflected the wisdom and skill with which they ruled.