Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Western ideas and the fall of the Qing dynasty

Seminar questions

  • How far did Western ideas lead to the fall of the Qing empire?
  • Was Confucianism to blame?
  • How important was 'the search for wealth and power' to Chinese intellectuals?

Core readings: read the works of one of the following thinkers

Yan Fu (Yen Fu)

Kang Youwei (K'ang Yu-wei)

Liang Qichao (Liang Ch'i-ch'ao)

Further readings

William de Bary, Sources of Chinese Tradition, volume 2 (2000). See pp. 260-270, 244-249, 287-293. see here.

Fairbank and Goldman, China, A New History, (chapter 11-12). see here.

Joseph Levenson, Liang Ch'i - ch'ao and the mind of modern China, 1959. See here.

Joseph Levenson, Confucian China and its modern fate, 1968. ACLS E-book.

Ben Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West (1964). E-Book.

Vera Schwarcz, The Chinese enlightenment: intellectuals and the legacy of the May fourth Movement of 1919, 1986. See here.

Rana Mitter, A bitter revolution : China's struggle with the modern world, 2005. See here, and EBSCO e-book.