China

Throughout the years of Chinese self-questioning in the second half of the nineteenth century, Tz’u Hsi, the Empress Dowager, held the stage, untouched by the new thought. By Richard Harris.

That an occupant of the Celestial Throne should fall into the hands of the barbarians was an unprecedented catastrophe. Nora C. Buckley describes how the situation was cleverly dealt with by his ministers.

William Gardener describes how Russia's stealthy advance across Siberia led to close relations with China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Gerald Morgan charts the life and times of a senior Russian diplomat in nineteenth century China and Turkey, who outwitted his opponents by charm and guile.

C.R. Boxer describes how porcelain, silks and, above all, tea formed the basis of a lucrative trade between the Chinese and Dutch in the eighteenth century.

William Gardener describes how silks, tobacco and tea from China were exchanged across the deserts northwest of Peking for furs, cloth and leather from Asiatic Russia.

Father Ricci spent many years on his mission near Canton. Nora C. Buckley describes how, eventually, this Jesuit's skills in mathematics and astronomy were welcomed in Peking.

An island in a sea of mountains, as Sarah Searight describes it, the Indian region of Ladakh was once a cosmopolitan centre of pilgrimage and trade.

Chinese Emperors banned the importation of opium, writes M. Foster Farley, but it was smuggled into the country by East Indian traders and led to the Opium War of 1840.

During the seventh century AD a Celestial Emperor’s concubine herself became Empress; in effect, she ruled China for 50 years.