Imperial China cannot be understood without an examination of its fiscal base. In his pioneering study, Yeh-chien Wang for the first time provides a reliable estimate and an in-depth analysis of China’s principal source of public revenue—the land tax—in the Ch’ing period. The purpose of this study is to inquire how the land-tax system worked and how much revenue was produced from this source. Hence the approach adopted by the author is both institutional and quantitative.