Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tigers` Jaws

by Lynn A. Struve (Editor/Translator)

This fascinating book presents eyewitness accounts of a turbulent period in Chinese the fall of the Ming dynasty and the conquest of China by the Manchus in the mid-seventeenth century. Lynn Struve has translated, introduced, and annotated absorbing testimonies from a wide range of individuals - Chinese and Europeans, missionaries and viceroys, artists and merchants, Ming loyalists and Qing collaborators, maidservants and eunuchs - all telling stories of hardship and challenge in the midst of cataclysmic change.
Until now, biographies of individuals who lived in the late Ming and early Qing periods have been either in-depth studies of important intellectuals or portraits sketched from the historical record and amplified by the imaginations of present-day authors. This book is the first to provide actual comment from a variety of people in different social stations. Some of the documents made accessible to Western readers are little known even to Chinese scholars. The book also breaks new ground by offering examples of the diversity in Chinese historical rustic histories, tendentious reports, self-serving memoirs, family letters, official memorials, and other forms of records. Together these translations provide evidence of the increasing articulateness about personal experience that characterized writing in late Ming times.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 1993

Reviews

[Paul H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essentially perfect, among the most engrossing books that I've ever read. The primary sources that Struve gathers here are just absurdly compelling in every way, and they fit together so perfectly that I found myself briefly wondering if some were fictional (the prose quality is certainly high enough) -- e.g., an elderly Ming Dynasty minister's description of his quixotic last crusade against the Qing ends just before his execution, and the following chapter is written by the viceroy who executed him (!); a Dutch general and South Seas Chinese corsair provide dueling narratives of the battle for Taiwan/Formosa; etc. Cannot recommend highly enough.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fifteen sad and very haunting tales translated from the original Chinese depicting the chaos and misery of the era. Often glossed over as a "period of transition" it was more than that--it was a period of devastation and savagery and unbelievable suffering. If you need a visual image, it should be tigers. While normally dwelling in wooded places, they ventured into China's cities to feed off the human carrion. This book should be read together with Ray Huang's 1587: A Year of no Significance.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this very difficult to read. The immense importance of the translation of historical, eye-witness accounts of China in the tumultuous period of the mid to late 1600's is no lost on me. However, for someone (me) with only a very simple, cursory understanding of Chinese history it was difficult to follow. Struve makes great attempts to explain background and context of each essay within which made the text at least understandable. There is absolutely no fault on her part and I appreciated her extensive notes and footnotes.

Chinese history scholars and those with at least a basic understanding of the history of China during the 1600s, I can imagine, will fair better in absorbing and understanding the magnitude of the accounts. I think I would had enjoyed it more with that basic understanding. Still a very powerful and important collection of first hand accounts of a horrible time in Chinese history.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well selected translation of primary sources. Strong recommend for Late Imperial China scholars. Probably even fun for nonspecialists!

Read for class

[Daniel Burton-Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving and diverse collection of translations of primary documents from a tumultuous period.

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firsthand history - diaries, eye-witnesses - in very troubled times. Fifteen different accounts. A major siege seen from the inside - with a massacre at the end - sticks in my head.