his. 113-14. qing dynasty pt.i

8/3/2019 His. 113-14. Qing Dynasty Pt.I

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HISTORY 113

CHINESE CIVILIZATIONQing Dynasty

Part I (Pre-Modern Era)

Michael D. Berdine, Ph.D.

Office Hours: by appointment

Email: [email protected]

Chinese CivilizationQing Dynasty

The greatest threat to the Ming, however, were theManchus in the north.

The Manchus were a stock of the Jurchen tribe

who lived in Manchuria.

In the 12th century, they founded a dynasty in

Manchuria called the Jin ("Gold") dynasty; they

were conquered a century later by the Mongols,

but became semi-independent during the Ming.

China, Manchuria, Korea and Japan


Led by the dynamic and brilliant leader, Nurhaci

(1559-1626), the Jurchen slowly consolidated

through a series of raids into a single political unit.

In 1607, Nurhaci had become so powerful in the

north the Mongols gave him the title, Kundulen

Han, or "Respected Emperor."

In 1616, he consolidated the Jurchen tribes under

his rule, and declared a new state, the Jin, with

himself as emperor.


Nurhaci claimed the Mandate of Heavenand set his sights on the whole of China, but

died in 1626. He was succeeded by Abahai (1592-1643),

his second son, who first attacked Koreaand then marched on China.

After looting Beijing, Abahai set up a civiladministration modeled after that of China.


The Qing administration, however, was slightlydifferent from the Chinese model.

Each ministry (or board) was not administered by apresident and vice-president, but rather by aManchurian prince.

Under the Manchurian prince were five assistants ofwhich at least one was Mongol and one was Chinese.

This system, called by historians the Manchu-Mongol-Chinese rule, became the model forQing government until 1911.


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Chinese CivilizationQing Manchu Dynasty

Abahai also renamed his people, "Manchu

,"rather than "Jurchen," and renamed the dynasty

from Jin" to Qing," meaning "Pure."

When Abahai died in 1643, the throne was left to

his six-year-old son, Fu-lin.

The Qing government, then, fell into the hands of

the regents, Jirgalang and Dorgan.


At this time, the Manchus were making incursionsinto northern China at the same time the Chinese

were rebelling against the Chongzhen emperor.

One of the rebel leaders, Li Zicheng (1605-1645),

attacked Beijing in late April of 1644 and took

control of the imperial city April 25, 1644.

As Li entered the city, the Chongzhen emperor hung

himself.


On learning of this, Dorgan proceeded towards

Beijing at the head of an army, presumably to assist

a beleaguered Ming.

Hearing of the Manchus approach, Li burned

down part of the Forbidden City and fled.

After entering Beijing, Dorgan made a big show of

burying the Chongzhen emperor, who had hung

himself.


However, his real scheme was to place Fu-lin on

the throne of China.

Li was eventually hunted down and killed in 1645,

but not before Dorgan placed Fu-lin on the throne.

Thus began the last imperial dynasty in Chinese

history: the Qing or Manchu dynasty.


Over the next seven years, the Manchu fought

battles outside of Beijing and around China.

They captured strategic military garrisons, forcingthe Ming supporters to take refuge in Taiwan,

which did not submit to the Manchus until 1683.

China's emperors now belonged to a Manchu

family called the Qing family, a dynasty that was

to rule to the 19th century.


A few Chinese chose death rather than serve in theManchus.

The Manchus never more than two percent ofthe population in China were able to rule Chinawith the acquiescence of the Chinese.

They employed Confucianism as support forpolitical authority, and

promoted study of the Classics,

veneration of ancestors, and

the idea that a ruler rules by virtue of his goodness.


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Chinese filled many of the positions in theManchu government bureaucracy.

However, Manchu emperors kept military

power out of the hands of Chinese and in the

hands of their fellow Manchus.

The Manchus in China were thus obliged to

devote themselves solely to military service.


They were forbidden to engage incommerce or labor, and forbidden to marry

Chinese.

With the peace that the Manchu imposed

upon China, prosperity and population

growth returned, and trade with Europe

increased.


Immediately upon the establishment of the Qing

dynasty, a loyalist movement sprang up around the

Ming Prince Fu.

In 1645, they declared him Emperor in Nanjing,

which had been the secondary capital of the Ming.

Fu, however, was little interested in government

and rebellion and abandoned himself to his own

pleasures.


After this movement petered out, other loyalist

movements sprang up all over the country.

These movements were motivated not so much out

of affection for the Ming rulers, but out of

bitterness over a foreign dynasty ruling China.

All of these movements centered around one of

the Princes of the imperial house.


None of these movements coordinated with one

another and they were soon defeated by both

Chinese and Manchu forces. The greatest threat to the Manchu hold on China

came from the loyalist movement ofCheng

Ch'eng-kung, better known in the West by his

Dutch name, Koxinga (1624-1662).

By 1655, Koxinga managed to control most of

Fukien province along the central coast of China.


Had he proceeded prudently, he probably would

have reconquered China for the Ming.

In 1659, however, he unwisely attacked Nanjingand suffered a disastrous defeat.

In 1661, he attacked and conquered Taiwan and

began a series of coastal raids on China, but this

last shred of hope for the Ming died in 1662 at the

age of 38.


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Chinese CivilizationShunzhi Emperor

With him went the Ming cause; when the Qingconquered Taiwan in 1683, the Ming cause had

effectively terminated.

The first emperor of the Qing dynasty was Fu-lin,

who styled himself the Shunzhi emperor (1644-

1661); he was only seven years old at the time.

Imperial power, then, fell to his uncle, Dorgan,

who had been so successful in establishing the

Empire.


Dorgan was effectively the absolute powerin China until his death in 1650; he set all

policies and kept all the imperial seals.

He saw the importance of maintaining Ming

institutions and bureaucratic practices.

So, he appointed large numbers of Chinese

officials into the new Qing government.


Each ministry, however, was headed by aManchu prince; there was no questionwhere the power lay.

Dorgan was chauvinistic about Manchuculture and sought to impose it on theChinese.

He seized Chinese lands and ceded them toManchu princes.


His most bitterly hated policy, however, was the

compulsory wearing ofpigtails, which was the

Manchu fashion of wearing hair.

After Dorgans death, the Shunzhi emperor took

over the government in 1651.

He retained Dorgan's policy of hiring Chinese

officials, but he introduced several innovations in

order to make government more efficient.

Qing men, c. 1870s Qing women, c. 1870s


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Qing footwear for bound feet Chinese CivilizationShunzhi Emperor

He added several sub-chancelleries to the office ofthe Grand Secretary who was the single individualwho ran the government.

He abolished the Ministry of the ImperialHousehold, which was run by the eunuchs, andreplaced it with thirteen imperial householddepartments.

This was his effort to curtail the power of palaceeunuchs, who proved so disastrously meddlesomeduring the Ming period.


When the Shunzhi emperor died in 1661 of

smallpox at the age of twenty, he was succeeded

by his third son, Shengzu.

Shengzu, who styled himself the Kangxi emperor

(1662-1722), was only eight years old at the time,

so the government fell to four regents.

However, in 1667, at the age of thirteen, Kangxi

assumed the leadership of the government and

expelled the regents.

Chinese CivilizationKangxi Emperor

From this very early age, Kangxi proved to be one

of the strongest and most dynamic of the Qing

emperors.

Kangxi (1654-1722), the second Emperor of the

Qing dynasty, was the third son of Fu-lin.

He was to rule sixty-one years (1661 to 1722)

the longest in Chinese history and is considered

one of China's great emperors.


Later, he would win praise from Jesuits in China

for his "noble heart," his intelligence, his excellent

memory, his taste in reading and his being an"absolute ruler over his passions."

His rule was, for the most part, tolerant and

conciliatory.

Like the Hong Wu emperor at the beginning of the

Ming dynasty, Kangxi was quite tireless in his

administration of government.

Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661-1722)


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On a typical day, he would rise long before sunriseand by five am would begin holding audiences to

receive officials; his day rarely ended before

midnight.

In Chinese versions of history, Kangxi is considered

one of only a small handful of emperors who fit the

ideal pattern.

He was brilliant, energetic, moral, and tirelessly

devoted to the administration of the government.


Conscious of the bitterness Dorgan and the Shun-chih emperor caused by giving away Chineselands, Kangxi ended the practice and beganreturning lands to native Chinese.

He greatly increased the number of Chinese inhigh official positions.

He also greatly increased the efficiency of revenuecollection by appointing Chinese servants tooversee provincial financial, textile, and judicialcommissions.


He increased his own power by creating out of this

network a secret, personal bureaucracy.

He added to this personal bureaucracy a secret

personal intelligence-gathering bureaucracy.

Kangxi believed his power rested solely on the

welfare and good will of the common people and, in

order to secure that good will, his most common

political practice was to remit or reduce taxes.


He strived to create new confidence in imperial

government by cleaning out corruption with a

severe hand.

Kangxi also believed learning was the foundation of

government and became one of the most profligate

sponsors of learning in Chinese imperial history.

He himself would sit through hours of academic

lectures every day and demanded high levels of

learning from his officials.


It was Kangxi who completed the wars ofconquest started almost a century earlier by

Nurgaci. His greatest conquest was the suppression

of the Three Feudatories.

The Qing had come to power through thehelp of Chinese generals who had defectedto their side.


As a reward for their service, each of the majorgenerals was given their own territory; these nearlyindependent territories were known as the Three

Feudatories.

While Shunzhi tolerated these semi-autonomousstates, Kangxi sought to curtail their power.

When they broke into open rebellion in 1673, Kangxideclared war on them and by 1681 had conquered allthree territories.


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Kangxi's biggest threat, however, camefrom the Mongols and the Russians in thenorth.

Beginning in the late 1500's, the Russiansbegan to aggressively expand their territory.

They moved west into Europe, south intoOttoman territories, and gradually expandedeast across Asia.


By the 1640's, the Russians had conqueredSiberia and were making raids into Manchuand Chinese territory.

Kangxi feared an alliance between Russiansand Mongols, so he aggressively attacked theMongols and seized territory in Turkistan.

He then turned on the Russians and defeatedthem soundly in 1685.


This led to the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, which

was China's first treaty with a European power.

With the Russians out of the way, Kangxi defeated

the Mongols in 1696 and in 1697, he incorporated

Outer Mongolia and Hami into the Chinese Empire.

Later, in 1750 Emperor Qianlong (1736-1796) the

Qing conquered all of Turkistan, making the Qing

empire the largest Chinese empire in history.

Qing Manchu Empire


Compared to the late Ming emperors Kangxi was

frugal, practical, and conscientious in the discharge

of his responsibilities. During his reign, the empire increased in wealth

and most of the time enjoyed peace and prosperity.

The Kangxi period is noted for the advancement of

learning to which the emperor himself made

significant contributions.


To encourage reluctant Chinese scholars to the new

rgime, he solicited their help in the compilation of

theMing-shih (Ming Dynasty History). In order to get the most capable for this project, he

summoned many to compete in a special examination.

He selected learned men and good calligraphers to be

his personal secretaries, their office being known as

theNan shu-fang or Imperial Study.


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Many famous works on literature and art werecompiled by his order.

The Emperor took notice of scientific matters and

he became interested in mathematics during the

controversy (1668-69) concerning Chinese and

Western calendar methods.

Finding that his high officials were ignorant of the

subject, he determined to learn something of it for

himself.


TheJesuit

missionaries, having proved theircalculations to be correct, were placed in charge of

the Imperial Board of Astronomy.

They were then asked to teach the Emperor

Western sciences.

In the last decade of his reign, Kangxi arranged for

a group of young Chinese and Manchus to be

tutored by the Jesuits.


Early in Kangxis reign, Catholic missionaries inthe provinces were often persecuted

In 1692, they obtained a decree from Kangxilegalizing and protecting missionary work in theempire.

In 1693, for the service at court - especially forhaving cured the Emperor of malaria with quinine- French missionaries were given a piece of landinside the Forbidden City, with permission to

erect a church there (completed in 1703).

South Gate, the Gate of Divine Might,(Shenwumen) of the Forbidden City


Kangxi tried to foster the military traditionsof the Manchus by going on hunting trips

regularly. At first he often visited the old hunting

grounds at Nan-yuan, south of the capital.

In 1677 he made a journey to Jehol, andafter 1683 went there once each year,chiefly during the summer months.


Kangxi restored a garden near Beijing (Yuan

Ming Yuan) once belonging to a Ming nobleman

and often spent several months each year there. It was in this garden he studied mathematics for

several years with the Jesuit missionaries to whom

he granted a residence nearby.

Beginning in 1703 he built the summer palaces at

Jehol.


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Yuan Ming Yuan Gardens

Three Gardens made up Yuan Ming Yuan:

Yuan Ming Yuan, Chang Chun Yuan and Yi Chun Yuan

Chinese CivilizationYongzheng Emperor

At the death of the Kangxi,Emperor Yongzheng

,became emperor of China at the age of 45.

Although he ruled for only twelve years (1723-

1735), he greatly modified Qing government.

Deeply suspicious by nature, he concentrated

power into his own hands and seriously curtailed

the feudal powers enjoyed by Manchu princes.


Then he took away their military power; all militarypower, which had been shared by the earlier Qingemperors, was now concentrated in the hands of theemperor.

Like that of the Hong Wu emperor, the administrationof the Yongzheng emperor worked effectivelybecause he was an absolutely tireless administrator.

He kept all his officials on a very short leash andpunished incompetence, insubordination and

corruption with an unmatched fury.


He expanded Kangxi's personal intelligence-

gathering network into a secret police feared by

every government official.

He did not fight corruption with just a heavy hand;

he also rewarded officials for not being corrupt by

setting up an "integrity nourishing allowance."

This allowance rewarded virtuous service and

partially eliminated the temptation to charge

surtaxes or to take bribes.


His most significant innovation in the conduct of

the state was the creation of the Grand Council in

1729. This Council was designed to help directly the

Emperor in the drafting of edicts and to serve as

the primary advisory council in matters of state

and military government.

This was the most far-reaching and efficient

innovation of the Qing period.


The Grand Council usurped the powers of the Grand

Secretary and was able to formulate policy quickly,

efficiently, and privately. So efficient was it that it was retained for most of the

Qing period.

The last great emperor of the early Qing was Hung-li,

who styled himself the Qianlong Emperor (1736-

1795).


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Emperor Qianlong (r. 17351796)

Chinese CivilizationQianlong Emperor

His reign was awesomely long fifty-nineyears second only to Kangxi's reign ofsixty-one years.

All during his boyhood, Qianlong had beenprepared for the throne.

He was rigorously trained in the Classics,in Confucianism, the ethics and practice ofgovernment, and in Manchu military arts.


By the time he became emperor at the age oftwenty-five, he was perhaps the best trainedindividual for the job in all of Chinese history.

He announced that the rule of his father had beentoo strict, while that of Kangxi, his grandfather,had been too lenient.

He announced a "middle course" for his owngovernment and, with two brilliant assistants, thefirst decade and a half of his rule was marked by

peace and unprecedented prosperity.


He was one of the greatest military

emperors of the dynasty.

He finally conquered the Mongols in 1759

and, by the next year, had annexed all of

Turkistan.

In 1770, he subjugated Burma and again, in

1789, he brought Annam under his rule.


At this point, the Qing empire had become thegreatest empire in Chinese history and possiblythe world.

But while the Qing empire reached its highestpoint under the Qianlong emperor, both Chineseand Western historians date the decline of theempire to the same figure in history.

At the age of sixty-five, growing increasinglysenile and decrepit, Qianlong fell for a handsomepalace guard named Ho-shen (1750-1799).


He was first made Grand Councilor andthen a minister of the Imperial Household.

Assured of the Emperor's constant goodgraces and increasingly in control of thesenile old man, Ho-shen was free to dowhatever he pleased whenever he pleased.

He was unabashedly corrupt and demandedbribes with complete abandon.


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His practices spread throughout the government andinto the provinces; by the 1790's, the imperial

government had become hopelessly corrupt.

Emperor Qianlong retired in 1795, a filial act in

order not to reign longer than his grandfather, the

Kangxi Emperor, but still controlled the government.

It wasn't until his death in 1799 that Ho-shen was

finally executed.


The damage to the government, however, was soextensive the imperial administration never

regained the same level of integrity and efficiency

it had enjoyed under the early Qing emperors.

The Qing period was the era in which China came

into conflict with Europe.

As they spread around the globe, Europeans

became more and more confident.

Chinese CivilizationEuropeans and China

They established economic monopolies and

political power all around the globe, from the

Americas to Africa to India and, eventually, to

China itself.

As the Qing dynasty continued, Europeans began

to increasingly enforce their economic and

political will through the use of arms.

This practice would eventually be called "gunboat

diplomacy" in the nineteenth century.


The history of conflict between Europe and China

slowly developed over the seventeenth and

eighteenth centuries.

By the middle of the 19th century, Chinese and

European relations had so degraded that England

sent warships in order to preserve its despicable

trade in opium to the Chinese people.

The relationships between Europeans and the

Chinese did not begin auspiciously.


The Portuguese reached Canton in 1516 and theChinese, accustomed to peaceful trading withIslamic traders, freely granted them access to themarkets.

But the Portuguese soon began to attack and robChinese ships; to the Chinese, they were no betterthan pirates.

Because of their predation on Chinese shipping,the Chinese dubbed Europeans, "the OceanDevils."


The pressures exerted on the Chinese government byforeign powers were certainly exacerbated by the lackof any official mechanism for dealing with foreignpowers.

Despite its complexity and efficiency, the Chineseimperial administration had no ministry of foreignaffairs.

Its only formal mechanism for dealing with foreignerswas the Office of Border Affairs, whose primary taskwas relations with Mongols (and later Russians).


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Commercial relationships with other Asiancountries were managed by the Ministry of

Rituals.

However, foreign countries could only trade in

China if they formally entered into a subservient

role under the emperor.

Even then, trade with foreign powers only took

place in Canton during the winter months.


By 1740, theBritish East India Company

wasthe largest international corporation in the world.

It controlled directly and indirectly vast amounts

of land in India and was steadily conquering more.

Sensing profits to be made by trading not just with

Europe but with China as well, The Company

persuaded the British government to negotiate for

trading rights with China.


The British delegation arrived in Canton in 1793

under the leadership ofLord George Macartney.

The Chinese, though, demanded that McCartney

present England as a "tribute nation" to China

(which was required of all commercial delegations).

Not only that, but they insisted Macartney perform

rituals of obeisance (kowtow) to the emperor.

Lord George Macartney (1737-1806)


Even though Macartney refused, he was allowedto see the emperor.

On meeting with the emperor, Macartney askedfor several things important to British trade withChina.

permission for the British to trade at the North Chinaports of Ningpo, Chusan Islands, and Tientsin (Tianjin),

printed tariff schedules, and

the rights to establish a trading post in Beijing and tomaintain a British representative there.


The emperor, however, was not pleased by

the British behavior to make such demands

and, after politely listening to Macartney,refused every one of his requests.

Thus was to set the pattern for European

and Chinese relationships over the next two

hundred and fifty years.


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The Macartney mission was a failure becauseneither culture could not understand the other.

This communicative failure still characterizes

relationships between European countries and

China today.

Moreover, both cultures believed themselves to be

superior both militarily and culturally to the other

and acted accordingly.

Chinese CivilizationChristianity and China

Neither would give in to the other on this account,and the history of European and Chinese relations

went downhill from there.

The Chinese had always had an uneasy relationship

with Christianity.

The Nestorian mission set up in 635 C.E. was

driven out of China in the ninth century and the

Franciscan mission begun in 1289 was largely

driven out by the Yuan.


The third active Christian mission was begun by the

Jesuit priest, Francis Xavier; when he failed,

another Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, targeted the imperial

court and met with profound success.

The Jesuits continued their activities in the imperial

court after the establishment of the Qing.

However, the Manchus were primarily interested in

their mechanical devices, such as telescopes and

clocks.

Fr. Matteo Ricci, S.J.


Still, they respected the learning of the Jesuits,particularly their learning in the Chinese Classicsand Confucianism

So, they granted them respect and a certainamount of liberty.

While the Jesuits openly attacked both Buddhismand Taoism, but they felt that Confucianism was arational philosophy completely in accord withChristianity.


There were, however, other Christian missions led

by Dominicans and Franciscans.

Jealous of the Jesuits successes, these otherCatholic missionaries reported to Rome that the

Jesuits were promoting Confucianism.

After a bitter series of debates, the pope issued

two bulls (edicts), one in 1715 and another in 1742

on the matter.


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These condemned Confucianism and preventedChinese Christians from participating in any of the

Confucian rites.

As a result of this, the Qianlong emperor banned

Christianity from China.

All Christian churches were seized, the European

missionaries were expelled, and Christianity

slowly died out in the Empire.

his. 113-14. qing dynasty pt.i

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