In the seventeenth century the Manchu conquered the whole of China, replacing the Ming dynasty.

The original Manchu and Mongol documents selected for the this publication, translated and amply annotated, provide fascinating new information about the relations between Manchus and Mongols before the Manchu conquest of China.

They include diplomatic correspondence, military liaisons, legal cases, and records of tribute missions and present a detailed picture of the relative position of the various Mongol tribes vis-à-vis the future emperors of China.

Nicola Di Cosmo, Ph.D. (1991) in Uralic and Altaic Studies (Indiana University), is Professor of East Asian History, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. He has published extensively on the history of the relations between China and Inner Asia.

Dalizhabu Bao, Ph.D. (1996) in Ancient Chinese History (Central University of Nationalities, Beijing), is Professor and Head of the History Department at that same university. He has published extensively on the Mongol history in the Ming and Qing period and on the Manchu and Qing dynasties.