John Otway Percy Bland (1863-1945) was a customs official and then a civil servant in China and Shanghai between 1883 and 1910. He advocated for a greater relationship between China and Britain and was decidedly anti-German in the build up to the First World War. After his dismissal he authored several highly influential contemporary histories of China which shaped British and Western opinion of the late Qing dynasty, of which this work is one.

First edition; large 8vo (25.5 x 17 cm); 50 photographic plates including frontispiece, colour folding map, discreet booksellers ticket to pastedown; publisher's original blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, red calligraphic decoration to upper board and spine, a very good copy; xii, 482pp.

Cordier Sinica 3489.