Riff on a line from Lao She's 1957 play "Teahouse," "The Great Qing is done for" (Dà Qīng yào wán 大清要完). The quotation is obscured by writing "done for" (yào wán 要完) as "pill ...

The end of the Dzungars was also the end of the great nomadic steppe empires of Central Asia. These flat grassland empires were good for nomads and their grazing animals. The Qing and Russia ...