The publication presents the entire collection of printing plates depicting battles of the
Chinese emperor that are still in existence. They show scenes of Chinese military campaigns
between 1755 and 1828. Of the originally eighty-eight printing plates only thirty-seven are
still known today thirty-four of them in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. The book tells the
history of the plates'provenance and describes the history of copperplate engraving in China.
The process in which the printing plates were created and the motifs found in the pictures of
battles are also explained. The magnificent copper plates which are part of the exhibition in
the Wang Shu Room of the Humboldt Forum bear witness to the history of missionaries in China
the military campaigns and politics of the Chinese emperor the transnational interrelation of
culture and craft and ultimately the craft of copperplate engraving itself.
