초록 열기/닫기 버튼
This article reviews Peter Purdue's China Marches West, and explores its contribution to 'Eurasian' history. Examining the eighteenth-century Qing empire building in global historical context, Purdue identifies 'Eurasia' as a new macro spatial unit of global history, defined by the steppe ecological system and the cultural and political legacy of the Mongol empires, and argues that Eurasia gave rise to three structurally related, mutually competitive early modern states – Qing, Zunghar, and Russia. While this concept of Eurasia as 'environment'opens up new analytical possibilities to analyze the Qing empire building as a multi-layered political process, in which diverse agents took part,rather than a unilateral process of the expansion of the 'Chinese' state, Purdue's actual historical narrative fails to realize this potential, because it pays too much attention to the role of the state builders. This article suggests that one may explore the Qing empire building in the broader context of the 'eighteenth century crisis of Eurasia' – a notion suggested by British imperial historian C.A. Bayly. One may understand Qing empire building as a culmination of multi-layered interactions among diverse agents – Central Asian caravan merchants, Turco-Mongolian tribal leaders, uprooted oasis settlers, agrarian laborers, and so on – that played out in a global context.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
Eurasia, the Qing empire, Peter Purdue, China Marches West, The eighteenth century global crisis
