The Diary of a Manchu Soldier in Seventeenth-century China: My Service in the Army

The Manchu conquest of China inaugurated one of the most successful and long-living dynasties in Chinese history: the Qing (1644-1911). The wars fought by the Manchus to invade China and consolidate the power of the Qing imperial house spanned over many decades through most of the seventeenth century. This book provides the first Western translation of the diary of Dzengseo, a young Manchu officer, and recounts the events of the War of the Three Feudatories (1673-1682), fought mostly in southwestern China and widely regarded as the most serious military challenge faced by the Manchus before the Taiping rebellion (1851-1864). The author's participation in the campaign provides the close-up, emotional perspective on what it meant to be in combat, while also providing a rare window into the overall organization of the Qing army, and new data in key areas of military history such as combat, armament, logistics, rank relations and military culture. The diary represents a fine and rare example of Manchu personal writing, and shows how critical the development of Manchu studies can be for our knowledge of China's early modern history.