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China in the World, 1500-1840

Module description

This module offers an opportunity to explore China and its place in the world from 1500 to the outbreak of the Opium War. China’s engagement with the outside world has traditionally been described as hostile to interaction and innovation, xenophobic and isolationist. This module encourages you to challenge these stereotypes. It shows that, well before the British ‘opened up’ China in the 1840s, China had encountered the wider world both within and beyond its borders. Since the sixteenth century, economic, technological, and military expansion brought China increasingly into a wide-ranging network of commercial, intellectual and cultural contacts that linked it with the outside world. You do not need prior knowledge of Chinese history to complete this module.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The aim of this module is to:

• Introduce China’s dynamic engagement with the wider world in the early processes of global interconnectedness
• Develop your skills in researching, interpreting, and analysing both primary and secondary material, and in reporting on your work
• Explore a new area of history, and help you to develop the depth of understanding you will require to study more specialised areas of history

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Be aware of the various developments in the history of China’s engagement with the world in the period 1500 to 1840
• 2. Make a close evaluation of the key political, economic, social and cultural trends within the period
• 3. Evaluate the main themes in the subject and to collate information upon, and evaluate in greater detail, those aspects of the module discussed in seminar and especially those topics selected by students for their coursework

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse the key developments of the period
• 5. Collate data from a range of sources, both primary and secondary
• 6. Interpret primary sources
• 7. Trace long-term as well as short-term historical developments
• 8. Recognise and deploy historical terminology correctly
• 9. Assess different approaches to historical writing in areas of controversy

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 10. Work both independently and in a group, including participating in oral seminar discussions
• 11. Identify a topic, select, comprehend, and organise primary and secondary materials on that topic with little guidance
• 12. Produce to a deadline and in examination conditions a coherent argument

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Ming China
• Zheng He’s voyages
• Matteo Ricci and Catholic missionaries in Ming China
• The rise of the Qing
• China and western technology under the Kangxi emperor
• The Rites Controversy
• Population growth, environmental change, and rebellions
• British missions in China
• The East India Company in China
• The Napier incident 1834
• The causes of the Opium War

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Elliott, Mark C., Emperor Qianlong: Son of Heaven, Man of the World (New York, 2009).
• Gregory, John S., The West and China since 1500 (Basingstoke, 2003).
• Mungello, D. E., The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500-1800 (Oxford, 2006).
• Naquin, Susan and Rawski, Evelyn S., Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven, CT, 1987).
• Perdue, Peter C., China Marches the West: the Qing conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge, MA, 2005).
• Pomeranz, Kenneth, The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy (Princeton, 2000).
• Waley-Cohen, Joanna, The Sextants of Beijing: global currents in Chinese history (New York, 1999).
• Wills, John E. Jr. (ed.), China and Maritime Europe, 1500-1800: trade, settlement, diplomacy, and missions (Cambridge, 2011).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11606 

Key words search

China, global history, China in the world, imperial history, globalisation