Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World

by Pamela Kyle Crossley

Book Overview

In the mid-1600s, Manchu bannermen spearheaded the military force that conquered China and founded the Qing Empire, which endured until 1912. By the end of the Taiping War in 1864, however, the descendants of these conquering people were coming to terms with a loss of legal definition, an ever-steeper decline in living standards, and a sense of abandonment by the Qing court. Focusing on three generations of a Manchu family (from 1750 to the 1930s),...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691055831
• ISBN13: 9780691055831
• Release Date: February 1990
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

point of fact

While the review that twice mentions bestiality in the Qing court is questionable on many grounds--including priorities and historical analyses--decribing a male courtier as a courtesan is not one of those grounds. For thousands of years, Chinese emperors routinely had sexual relations with males, including their courtiers and officials. This was still common in the late Qing, and various sources attest that Puyi did not break with this tradition. Whether the gentleman mentioned in the review received these attentions from Puyi I don't know, but the suggestion is not absurd on its face. Nor is describing such a relationship with the term "courtesan." One could debate the merits of such a neologism, but one should not dismiss it out of hand. I wanted to say something to clarify this point that has been raised in two other reviews, but I will not myself review the book.

Taking Issue

I must take issue with the comments from Singapore. Orphan Warriors was 1991, the Last Emperors, 1998. How does one figure that the later book came first? This is not to detract from Evelyn S. Rawski, who has written the definitive study of the Qing (Ch'ing) emperors.

A first rate read

First, there was Evelyn Rawski and now there's Pamela Crossley. These two women are truly revamping Qing culture for the Western world.The story of the Manchus as seen thru 3 generations of bannermen. However, one of the earlier reviews was clearly horsing around - he has morphed Emperor Puyi to Piyu and also mentioned that Jinliang was Puyi's courtesan. Jinliang was a man! The reference to the Empress Dowager's interest in all things equus gives the game away.

Much Better Than Expected

I read this after The Manchus, and I actually liked it better. The first three chapters are very informative, and the story of the last part of the book is absolutely engrossing. Even serious readers will be swept along by the drama. If you like Jonathan Spence or Sterling Seagrave, the last half of this book will be found very delightful.

Manchu Bannermen, Fierce, loyal and forgotten

The Manchu bannermen who conquered China in the 1600's were looked upon as the definative example of the warrior class. However, they were unable to make the transition from Warrior Class to that of the Gentry Class. Because of the ineptness of the Manchu Throne, the Bannermen who served the emperor so fervently, were left to slide into degredation. Economic erosion did much to destroy the Bannermen way of life as their stipends were unable to keep up with commodity inflation. The Bannermen also would also lose the cultural idenity, as they began to assimilate the local Chinese customs as well as language. They even were forced into cross-dressing as the Qing Dynasty came to an end in 1912. Crossley, uses a grandfather-father-son lineage that lasted from 1790-1962 to tell the story of the final years of the Qing Dynasty. She uses three actually Bannermen to relate the major events and their roles in these events. Guancheng, who fought the British in the Opium War single handedly repelled a force of 500 British soldiers entering his Garrison fortress. Fengrui, who unlike many of the Bannermen was quite sucessful economically, he was the consimate hero of the Taiping Rebellion. After the rebellion ended in 1864, Fengrui received an appointment to the Emperor's staff. However by 1875 the Emperor who was sick with syphyillis forced Fengrui to perform in beastaility shows for the Court. Fengrui, fiercely loyal to the Emperor would do what ordered. Finally their was Jinliang, he served the Emperor as a progressive advisor, a bureaucrat and most of all as a loyal courtesan. Jinliang was there for the fall of the Dynasty in 1912. He advised the Emperor on matters of state and warned Piyu (Emperor) of the inpending doom that faced the Empire. However, Piyu failed to heed Jinliang's warning and all but discarded Jinliang's classic 1911 Manifesto which probably would have preserved the Qing Dynasty. Although it was rumored that Jinliang had a torrid affairs with the Dowager Empress Xaioqin, however it was a well known fact that she prefered the equine persausion. The tragedy that was the Bannermen, mirrored the erosion of the Qing World as the Bannermen was unable to adapt to their changing structure and World, so were the Manchus and by 1918 both had disappeared from the Earth.