Manchu

by Robert Elegant Book 1 in the The Imperial China Trilogy series.

First published 1980

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3.7(63)

Francis Arrowsmith is an English orphan raised by exiled Jesuits and trained in the use of European artillery. Seeking fortune and a war in which to sell his skills, he joins a Portuguese expedition sent from Macau to support the failing Ming dynasty against the advancing Manchus. Capture brings him into the service of the Manchu prince Dorgon, forcing him to navigate rival courts, military campaigns and loyalties that no longer fit a simple division between European and Chinese worlds.

The novel follows the destruction of Ming authority and the formation of Qing rule through battle, diplomacy, religion and cultural exchange. Elegant uses Francis’s knowledge of cannon and his Jesuit education to examine the role of foreign specialists in seventeenth-century China, while Hong Taiji and Dorgon anchor the story in the political transformation that carries the Manchus from frontier power to imperial dynasty.