Preface
1. Introduction
Part One. The Formation of the Qing State
2. The Rise of an Early-Modern Territorial State: China in the Early to Mid-Qing Period
3. Limits to Territorial Expansion: Fiscal Constitution and War-Making under the Qing
Part Two. The Transition to a Sovereign State
4. Regionalized Centralism: The Resilience and Fragility of the Late Qing State
5. Between the Frontier and the Coast: Geopolitical Strategy Reoriented
6. A Nation-State in the Making: Fiscal Expansion and the New Policies
Part Three. The Making of a Unified and Centralized State
7. Centralized Regionalism: The Rise of Regional Fiscal-Military States
8. In Search of National Unity: Frontier Rebuilding under the Republic
9. The Fate of Semi-Centralism: The Nationalist State Succeeded and Failed
10. Total Centralism at Work: The Confluence of Breakthroughs in State-Making
11. Conclusion
List of Characters
References
Biography
Huaiyin Li is Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Village Governance in North China, 1875–1936; Village China under Socialism and Reform: A Microhistory, 1948–2008; and Reinventing Modern China: Imagination and Authenticity in Chinese Historical Writing.






