Manchu Rivers and Mountains: rediscovering the Bannerman cultural world of nineteenth-century China and its modern heritage

We re-evaluate the Bannerman contribution to China, studying a community of letters active in the Mid Qing dynasty (1790s-1850s). The Bannermen (the Manchu-Mongol-Han elite, organised under Eight Military Banners) ruled China's last dynasty (1644-1911), inheriting the responsibility for the heritage and environment (agrarian life, water conservancy) of the empire. We study key texts and works of art of the period and demonstrate how the Bannermen made a unique contribution to Chinese culture. We recreate their cultural and social landscape, their Manchu Rivers and Mountains , in the decades before wars and rebellions changed the country for ever. Our Project is crucial to a deeper understanding of China's complex new sense of nationhood.