The Inconvenient Imperial Visit: Writing Clothing and Ethnicity in 1684 Qufu

The twenty-third year of the Kangxi reign (1684) marked a turning point in the Ming-Qing transition.2 By this year, the Qing government had quelled the rebellion of the Three Feudatories (1673–1681), and opposing forces in Taiwan had submitted to the central government (1683). As political and military conflicts gradually settled down, the Manchu government embarked upon a series of cultural projects to consolidate its rule, a campaign some historians call the “second wave” of the Qing conquest.3 As part of this cultural campaign, the Kangxi emperor (hereafter Kangxi) embarked on an inspection tour of east and south China in the ninth month of this year, a ritual event symbolizing the beginning of an era of peace and prosperity.4 During his tour, Kangxi