Continuing the argument developed in the author's previous book, this exhaustively researched study shows how the see-saw political battle that had weakened the Ming dynasty raged into the early part of the Qing era. It describes the humiliation of the Chinese gentry at the hands of the statist Oboi regents in the 1660s and the Kangxi emperor's self-declared Confucian sagehood in the 1670s, which effectively trumped the gentry's claim to sovereignty. Based on archival and rare book research but briskly written, this book offers a compelling narrative for scholars of Chinese, Asian, and World history.