This is a study of China's attempt to meet the challenges of the nineteenth century. Using the career of Shen Pao-chen as a looking glass, Professor Pong examines the political awakening of a small coterie of Ching dynasty officials as they responded to dynastic decline and the ever-growing threat of Western encroachment on China. Driven by a deep sense of crisis, they dedicated themselves to "self-strengthening," a two-pronged effort to restore the vitality of the Ching dynasty and to protect it from further foreign inroads by adopting Western technology, especially military technology.