This is the first book-length study of the roles played by the Manchu language at the center of the Qing empire at the height of its power in the eighteenth century.

It presents a revisionist account of Manchu not as a language in decline, but as extensively and consciously used language in a variety of areas.

It treats the use, discussion, regulation, and philological study of Manchu at the court of an emperor who cared deeply for the maintenance and history of the language of his dynasty.