 While the Manchu Qing sought used China (Zhongguo) to describe non-Han areas, however some Han scholar-officials opposed the Qing Manchu Emperor's use of Zhongguo to refer to non-Han areas, using Zhongguo to mark a distinction between the culturally Han Chinese areas and the territory newly brought into the Manchu Qing empire.In the early 19th century, Wei Yuan’s "Shengwuji" (Military History of the Qing Dynasty) calls the inner Asian polities "guo", while the seventeen provinces of the traditional heartland, that is, "China proper," and three eastern provinces of Manchuria are called ""Zhongguo".