Map of Imperial and Forbidden City, Map of Beijing and outskirts, Map of Qing China (1820), Acknowledgments, Conventions for the Notation of Time, Weights, and Measures, Note on Translation, List of Figures, Tables, Charts, and Maps, Introduction, Part I. Operating the Machine: Personnel and Paper Trails, Vignette essay. Moving Pieces: On the Reuse of Interior Decoration Objects in Qing Palaces (Shuxian Zhang),
1. Working the Qing Palace Machine: The Servants' Perspective (Christine Moll-Murata),
2. Manager or Craftsman: Skillful Bannermen of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) (Kai Jun Chen),
3. Kupiao and the Accounting System of the Imperial Household Workshops (Yijun Wang and Kyoungjin Bae), Part II. Producing the Court: Materials and Artefacts, Vignette essay. The Story of An Image: Ding Guanpeng's 'Ultimate Bliss' and the Auspiciousness of Reproduction (Qiong Zhang),
4. Piecing Shards Together: The Uses and Manufacturing of Imperially Porcelain (Guangyao Wang),
5. Resplendent Innovations: Fire Gilding Techniques at the Qing Court (Hui-min Lai and Te-cheng Su),
6. Transporting Jade: Objects, Ecology and Local Bureaucracy in Qing Xinjiang (Yulian Wu), Part III. Mobilizing Nature: Plants and Animals, Vignette essay. Decluttering: On the Classification of Objects at the Imperial Household Department (Elif Akcetin),
7. Growing and Organizing Lotus in Qing Imperial Spaces: Interlocking Cycles of Money and Nature (Martina Siebert),
8. The Medicine Supply System of the Qing Court (Xueling Guan),
9. When There Is Peace, There Are Elephants (Hui-chun Yu), Coda, Bibliography, Index