Books
21 Best Novels About the Qing Dynasty
Bestselling authors first, then star rating.
Period
Qing Dynasty
1644–1912 CE
The Qing Dynasty was founded by the Manchus and ruled China from 1644 to 1912. It expanded the empire to include Mongolia, Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan, while governing a vast multiethnic realm. The dynasty later faced internal rebellion, population pressure and Western imperial intrusion.
It mattered because Qing history contains both imperial expansion and the crisis that ended dynastic rule. It offers fiction settings of palace intrigue, banner society, scholars, missionaries, merchants, rebels and treaty ports. Pearl S. Buck, Anchee Min, Lisa See and many others connect late imperial China to family saga, court drama and social change.
Imperial China supports fiction by Pearl S. Buck, Anchee Min, Lisa See, Robert van Gulik and writers using court, village, merchant and dynastic settings. Detective series, family sagas and court novels can all draw on emperors, mandarins, concubines, scholars, rebels and foreign traders. These pages should connect readers to novels about dynastic change, imperial examinations, palace life, opium, rebellion and the fall of the Qing.
Related people for Qing Dynasty
Charles Elliot1801–1875 Daoguang Emperor1782–1850 Empress Dowager Cixi1835–1908 George Chinnery1774–1852 George Elliot1784–1863 Gordon Bremer1786–1850 Guangxu Emperor1871–1908 Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston1784–1865 Hong Xiuquan1814–1864 James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin1811–1863 James Matheson1796–1878 Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy1783–1859 Lancelot Dent1799–1853 Lin Zexu1785–1850 Prince Gong1833–1898 Qishan1786–1864 Victoria1819–1901 William Jardine1784–1843 Xianfeng Emperor1831–1861
Non Fiction
3 Non-Fiction Books About the Qing Dynasty
Histories, biographies and reference works are listed separately from the historical novels above.
