On the eve of the close encounter with the West, China’s distinctive political trajectory (still dominated by its symbiotic relationship with Inner Asia) propelled it not towards an all-powerful oriental despotism (imagined by Europeans) – which might have permitted drastic change in the face of external challenge – but instead still further toward

So long as the scholar-gentry aspired to bureaucratic advancement through the examination system, with its classical syllabus and Confucian ideology, and while China was governed from walled cities with an ultra-loyal Manchu army in reserve, rebellion was unlikely to spread far or last long. The early emperors also insisted upon frugal expenditure

European fascination with China – however ignorant and ill-informed – had no counterpart in Chinese intellectual circles, a measure perhaps of cultural self-confidence and the prestige of an unbroken classical tradition of exceptional range and subtlety.

K’ang-hsi had restored Peking’s authority in mainland East Asia. This great triumph, followed up by the Yung-cheng (r. 1723–35) and Ch’ien-lung (r. 1735–96) emperors, was the vital geopolitical precondition for the domestic achievements of Ch’ing rule and, in the longer term, for its tenacious resistance to European diplomatic and commercial demand