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Great Qing大清

← 1644–1912 →

Flag

Anthem《鞏金甌》

"Gong Jin'ou"("Cup of Solid Gold")

The Qing Empire in 1890.

Capital Beijing

Languages Mandarin, Manchu,Mongolian, Tibetan,Turki (Modern

Qing dynastyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to be confused with the Qin dynasty, the first dynasty of Imperial China.

"Qing" redirects here. For other uses, see Qing (disambiguation).

The Qing dynasty (Chinese: 清朝; pinyin: Qīng Cháo; Wade–

Giles: Ch'ing1 Ch'ao2; IPA: [tɕʰíŋ tʂʰɑ̌ʊ̯]), also Empire of the

Great Qing, Great Qing or Manchu dynasty, was the lastimperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief,abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Mingdynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qingmulti-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formedthe territorial base for the modern Chinese nation.

The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan inNortheastern China, historically known as Manchuria. In the latesixteenth century, Nurhachi, originally a Ming vassal, beganorganizing Jurchen clans into "Banners," military-social units andforming a Manchu people. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji begandriving Ming forces out of southern Manchuria and declared anew dynasty, the Qing. In 1644, peasant rebels led by LiZicheng conquered the Ming capital Beijing. Rather than servethem, Ming general Wu Sangui made an alliance with theManchus and opened the Shanhai Pass to the Banner Armiesled by Prince Dorgon, who defeated the rebels and seizedBeijing. The conquest of China proper was not completed until1683 under the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722). The TenGreat Campaigns of the Qianlong emperor from the 1750s tothe 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia. While theearly rulers maintained Manchu culture, they governed usingConfucian styles and institutions of bureaucratic government.They retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chineseto work in parallel with Manchus. They also adopted the idealsof the tributary system in international relations.

The reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–1796) saw theapogee and initial decline of prosperity and imperial control.Population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and governmentrevenues were fixed at a low rate, virtually guaranteeing eventualfiscal crisis. Corruption set in, rebels tested governmentlegitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in theface of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War,European powers imposed "unequal treaties," free trade,extraterritoriality and treaty ports under foreign control. TheTaiping Rebellion (1849–1860) and Muslim uprisings in CentralAsia led to the deaths of some 20 million people. In spite of

Coordinates: 39°54′N 116°23′E

0:00 MENU

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Uighur),[1] numerous

regional languages andvarieties of Chinese

Religion Heaven worship,Shamanism,Confucianism,Buddhism, Taoism,Chinese folk religion,others

Government Absolute monarchy

Emperor

- 1644–1661 Shunzhi Emperor

- 1908–1912 Xuantong Emperor

Regent

- 1908–1912 Empress DowagerLongyu

Prime Minister

- 1911 Yikuang

- 1911–1912 Yuan Shikai

Historical era Imperial era

- Collapse of theMing 25 April 1644

- Battle of ShanhaiPass 27 May 1644

- Sino-JapaneseWar

1 Aug 1894–17 Apr1895

- WuchangUprising 10 October 1911

- Xinhai Revolution 12 February 1912

Area

- 1760 est. 13,150,000 km²(5,077,243 sq mi)

- 1790 est. (incl.

vassals)[2]

14,700,000 km²(5,675,702 sq mi)

Population

- 1740 est. 140,000,000

- 1776 est. 268,238,000

- 1790 est. 301,000,000

Currency Tael (Tls.)

Today part of Bhutan

Burma

China

Hong Kong

India

Kazakhstan

these disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, HanChinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order andthe Qing rulers. The initial gains in the Self-StrengtheningMovement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea and thepossession of Taiwan. New Armies were organized, but theambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back bythe Empress Dowager Cixi, a ruthless but capable leader.When, in response to the violently anti-foreign Yihetuan("Boxers"), foreign powers invaded China, the EmpressDowager declared war on them, leading to disastrous defeat.

The government then initiated unprecedented fiscal andadministrative reforms, including elections, a new legal code, andabolition of the examination system. Sun Yat-sen and otherrevolutionaries competed with reformers such as Liang Qichaoand monarchists such as Kang Youwei to transform the Qingempire into a modern nation. After the death of the EmpressDowager and the Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu courtalienated reformers and local elites alike. Local uprisings startingon October 11, 1911 led to the 1911 Revolution. The lastemperor abdicated on February 12, 1912.

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Kyrgyzstan

Macao

Mongolia Pakistan

Russia

Taiwan

Tajikistan Vietnam

Qing dynasty

Chinese name

Chinese 清朝

Transcriptions

Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin Qīng Cháo

Wade–Giles Ch'ing1 Ch'ao2

Cantonese

Jyutping cing1 ciu4

Empire of the Great Qing

Simplified Chinese 大清帝国

Traditional Chinese 大清帝國

Transcriptions

Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin Dà Qīng Dìguó

Wade–Giles Ta2 Ch'ing1 Ti4-kuo2

Cantonese

Jyutping daai6 cing1 dai3 gwok3

Later Jin

Simplified Chinese 后金

Traditional Chinese 後金

Transcriptions

Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin Hòu Jīn Cháo

Wade–Giles Hou4 Chin1 Chao2

Cantonese

Jyutping hau6 gam1 ciu4

Contents

1 Name

2 History

2.1 Formation of the Manchu state

2.2 Claiming the Mandate of Heaven

2.3 The Kangxi Emperor's reign and

consolidation

2.4 Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong

emperors

2.5 Rebellion, unrest and external pressure

2.6 Self-strengthening and the frustration of

reforms

2.7 Fall of the dynasty

3 Government

3.1 Central government agencies

3.2 Administrative divisions

3.3 Territorial administration

3.4 Military

3.4.1 Beginnings and early

development

3.4.2 Peace and stagnation

3.4.3 Transition and modernization

4 Society

5 Economy

6 Arts and culture

7 See also

8 Notes

9 References

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Manchu name

Manchu script

9.1 Works cited

10 Further reading

10.1 Historiography

11 External links

Name

Main article: Names of China

Both in honor of the earlier Jurchen Jin dynasty in the 12–13th century and his Aisin Gioro clan (Aisin being theManchu for the Chinese 金 (jīn, "gold")) Nurhachi originally named his state the Great Jin (lit "Gold") dynasty,

afterwards called the Later Jin dynasty by historians. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing (lit."Clarity") in 1636. There are numerous competing explanations on the meaning of "Qing," but none has beenentirely accepted. The name Qing may have been selected in reaction to the name of the Ming dynasty (明), whichconsists of the characters for "sun" (日) and "moon" (月), both associated with the fire element. The character Qing(清) is composed of "water" (氵) and "azure" (青), both associated with the water element. This association wouldjustify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water. The water imagery of the new name may also have had

Buddhist overtones of perspicacity and enlightenment and connections with the Bodhisattva Manjusri.[3]

The Manchu name daicing, which sounds like a phonetic rendering of "Da Qing" or "Dai Ching", may in fact havebeen derived from a Mongolian word that means "warrior". Daicing gurun may therefore have meant "warriorstate", a pun that was only intelligible to Manchu and Mongol people. In the later part of the dynasty, however,

even the Manchus themselves had forgotten this possible meaning.[4]

The state was known internationally as China[5] or the Chinese Empire.[6] In the Chinese-language versions of itstreaties and its maps of the world, the Qing government used "Qing" and "China" (simplified Chinese: 中国;

traditional Chinese: 中國; pinyin: Zhōngguó) interchangeably.[7] Less commonly, it was also known in the

romanization of the time as the Ta Tsing Empire[8][9] from the Chinese for "Empire of the Great Qing" (大清帝国,Dà Qīng Dìguó).

After conquering the Ming, the Qing identified their state as "China" (中國, Zhongguo; "Middle Kingdom"), and

referred to it as "Dulimbai Gurun" in Manchu.[10][11][12] The Qing equated the lands of the Qing state (includingpresent day Manchuria, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet and other areas) as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchulanguages, defining China as a multi ethnic state, rejecting the idea that China only meant Han areas, proclaimingthat both Han and non-Han peoples were part of "China", using "China" to refer to the Qing in official documents,international treaties, and foreign affairs, and the "Chinese language" (Dulimbai gurun i bithe) referred to Chinese,Manchu, and Mongol languages, and the term "Chinese people" (中國人 Zhongguo ren; Manchu: Dulimbai gurun i

niyalma) referred to all Han, Manchus, and Mongol subjects of the Qing.[13]

When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759, they proclaimed that the new land was absorbed into "China"

(Dulimbai Gurun) in a Manchu language memorial.[14][15] The Qing expounded on their ideology that they werebringing together the "outer" non-Han Chinese like the Inner Mongols, Eastern Mongols, Oirat Mongols, andTibetans together with the "inner" Han Chinese, into "one family" united in the Qing state, showing that the diverse

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An Italian map showing the "Kingdom

of the Nüzhen" or the "Jin Tartars",

who "have occupied and are at

present ruling China", north of

Liaodong and Korea, published in

1682

subjects of the Qing were all part of one family, the Qing used the phrase "Zhongwai yijia" 中外一家 or "neiweiyijia" 內外一家 ("interior and exterior as one family"), to convey this idea of "unification" of the different

peoples.[16] The Manchu language version of the Convention of Kyakhta (1768), a treaty with the Russian Empireconcerning criminal jurisdiction over bandits, referred to people from the Qing as "people from the Central

Kingdom (Dulimbai Gurun)".[17] In the Manchu official Tulisen's Manchu language account of his meeting with theTorghut Mongol leader Ayuki Khan, it was mentioned that while the Torghuts were unlike the Russians, the "peopleof the Central Kingdom" (dulimba-i gurun 中國, Zhongguo) were like the Torghut Mongols, and the "people of the

Central Kingdom" referred to the Manchus.[18]

History

Formation of the Manchu state

The Qing dynasty was founded not by Han Chinese, who form themajority of the Chinese population, but by a semi-sedentary peopleknown as the Jurchen, a Tungusic people who lived around the region

now comprising the Chinese provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang.[19] Whatwas to become the Manchu state was founded by Nurhachi, the chieftainof a minor Jurchen tribe – the Aisin Gioro – in Jianzhou in the early 17thcentury. Originally a vassal of the Ming emperors, Nurhachi embarkedon an inter-tribal feud in 1582 that escalated into a campaign to unify thenearby tribes. By 1616, he had sufficiently consolidated Jianzhou so as tobe able to proclaim himself Khan of the Great Jin in reference to the

previous Jurchen dynasty.[20]

Two years later, Nurhachi announced the "Seven Grievances" and openlyrenounced the sovereignty of Ming overlordship in order to complete theunification of those Jurchen tribes still allied with the Ming emperor. Aftera series of successful battles, he relocated his capital from Hetu Ala tosuccessively bigger captured Ming cities in Liaodong Province: first

Liaoyang in 1621, then Shenyang (Mukden) in 1625.[20]

Relocating his court from Jianzhou to Liaodong provided Nurhachi access to more resources; it also brought him inclose contact with the Mongol domains on the plains of Mongolia. Although by this time the once-united Mongolnation had long since fragmented into individual and hostile tribes, these tribes still presented a serious securitythreat to the Ming borders. Nurhachi's policy towards the Mongols was to seek their friendship and cooperation

against the Ming, securing his western border from a powerful potential enemy.[21]

Furthermore, the Mongols proved a useful ally in the war, lending the Jurchens their expertise as cavalry archers.To cement this new alliance, Nurhachi initiated a policy of inter-marriages between the Jurchen and Mongolnobilities, while those who resisted were met with military action. This is a typical example of Nurhachi's initiativesthat eventually became official Qing government policy. During most of the Qing period, the Mongols gave military

assistance to the Manchus.[21]

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Qing era brush container

Some of Nurhachi's other important contributions include ordering the creation of a written Manchu script based onthe Mongolian so as to avoid the earlier Jurchen script which had been derived from Khitan and Chinese and thecreation of the civil and military administrative system which eventually evolved into the Eight Banners, the definingelement of Manchu identity and the foundation for transforming the loosely knitted Jurchen tribes into a nation.

Nurhachi's unbroken series of military successes came to an end inJanuary 1626 when he was defeated by Yuan Chonghuan whilelaying siege to Ningyuan. He died a few months later and wassucceeded by his eighth son, Hong Taiji, who emerged after a shortpolitical struggle amongst other potential contenders as the newKhan.

Although Hong Taiji was an experienced leader and the commanderof two Banners at the time of his succession, his reign did not startwell on the military front. The Jurchens suffered yet another defeat in1627 at the hands of Yuan Chonghuan. As before, this defeat was,in part, due to Ming's newly acquired Portuguese cannons.

To redress the technological and numerical disparity, Hong Taiji in1634 created his own artillery corps, the ujen chooha, Chinese: 重軍 from among his existing Han troops whocast their own cannons in the European design with the help of captured Chinese metallurgists. In 1635, theManchus' Mongol allies were fully incorporated into a separate Banner hierarchy under direct Manchu command.Hong Taiji then proceeded in 1636 to invade Korea again.

This was followed by the creation of the first two Han Banners in 1637 (increasing to eight in 1642). Together thesemilitary reforms enabled Hong Taiji to resoundingly defeat Ming forces in a series of battles from 1640 to 1642 forthe territories of Songshan and Jinzhou. This final victory resulted in the surrender of many of the Ming dynasty'smost battle-hardened troops, the death of Yuan Chonghuan at the hands of the Chongzhen Emperor (who thoughtYuan had betrayed him), and the complete and permanent withdrawal of the remaining Ming forces north of theGreat Wall.

Meanwhile, Hong Taiji set up a rudimentary bureaucratic system based on the Ming model. He established sixboards or executive level ministries in 1631 to oversee finance, personnel, rites, military, punishments, and publicworks. However, these administrative organs had very little role initially, and it was not until the eve of completing

the conquest some ten years later that they filled out their government roles.[22]

Hong Taiji's bureaucracy was staffed with many Han Chinese, including many newly surrendered Ming officials.The Manchus' continued dominance was ensured by an ethnic quota for top bureaucratic appointments. HongTaiji's reign also saw a fundamental change of policy towards his Han Chinese subjects. Whereas under Nurhachiall captured Han Chinese were seen as potential fifth columnists for the Ming and treated as chattel – includingthose who eventually held important government posts – Hong Taiji instead incorporated them into the Jurchen"nation" as full (if not first-class) citizens, obligated to provide military service. By 1648, less than one-sixth of the

bannermen were of Manchu ancestry.[23]

This change of policy not only increased Hong Taiji's manpower and reduced his military dependence on bannersnot under his personal control, it also greatly encouraged other Han Chinese subjects of the Ming dynasty tosurrender and accept Jurchen rule when they were defeated militarily. Through these and other measures Hong Taiji

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Pine, Plum and Cranes, 1759 AD,

by Shen Quan (1682–1760).

Hanging scroll, ink and colour on

silk. The Palace Museum, Beijing.

was able to centralize power unto the office of the Khan, which in the long run prevented the Jurchen federationfrom fragmenting after his death.

One of the defining events of Hong Taiji's reign was the official adoption of the name "Manchu" for the unitedJurchen people in November, 1635. The next year, when he is said to be presented with the imperial seal of theYuan dynasty after the defeat of the last Khagan of the Mongols, Hong Taiji renamed his state from "Great Jin" to"Great Qing" and elevated his position from Khan to Emperor, suggesting imperial ambitions beyond unifying theManchu territories.

Claiming the Mandate of Heaven

Hong Taiji died suddenly in September 1643 without a designated heir. Asthe Jurchens had traditionally "elected" their leader through a council ofnobles, the Qing state did not have in place a clear succession system untilthe reign of the Kangxi Emperor. The leading contenders for power at thistime were Hong Taiji's oldest son Hooge and Hong Taiji' half brotherDorgon. A compromise candidate in the person of Hong Taiji's five-year-oldson, Fulin, was installed as the Shunzhi Emperor, with Dorgon as regent andde facto leader of the Manchu nation.

Ming government officials fought against each other, against fiscal collapse,and against a series of peasant rebellions. They were unable to capitalise onthe Manchu succession dispute and installation of a minor as emperor. InApril 1644, the capital at Beijing was sacked by a coalition of rebel forcesled by Li Zicheng, a former minor Ming official, who established a short-lived Shun dynasty. The last Ming ruler, the Chongzhen Emperor, committedsuicide when the city fell, marking the official end of the dynasty.

Li Zicheng then led a coalition of rebel forces numbering 200,000[a] toconfront Wu Sangui, the general commanding the Ming garrison at ShanhaiPass. Shanhai Pass is a pivotal pass of the Great Wall, located fifty milesnortheast of Beijing, and for years its defenses were what kept the Manchusfrom directly raiding the Ming capital. Wu Sangui, caught between a rebelarmy twice his size and a foreign enemy he had fought for years, decided tocast his lot with the Manchus with whom he was familiar. Wu Sangui mayhave been influenced by the rebels' mistreatment of his family and otherwealthy and cultured officials; it was said that Li also took Wu's concubineChen Yuanyuan for himself. Wu and Dorgon's armies joined in the name ofavenging the death of the Chongzhen Emperor. Together, the two former enemies met and defeated Li Zicheng's

rebel forces in battle on May 27, 1644.[24]

Wu's armies and the Manchus captured Beijing on June 6. The Shunzhi Emperor was installed as the "Son ofHeaven" on October 30. The Manchus who had positioned themselves as political heir to the Ming emperor bydefeating the rebel Li Zicheng, completed the symbolic act of transition by holding a formal funeral for theChongzhen Emperor. However the process of conquering the rest of China took another seventeen years of battlingMing loyalists, pretenders and rebels. The last Ming pretender, Prince Gui, sought refuge with the King of Burma,but was turned over to a Qing expeditionary army commanded by Wu Sangui, who had him brought back toYunnan province and executed in early 1662.

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A Chinese paddle-wheel driven

ship from a Qing encyclopedia

published in 1726.

The first seven years of the Shunzhi Emperor's reign were dominated by theregent prince Dorgon. Because of his own political insecurity, Dorgonfollowed Hong Taiji's example by ruling in the name of the emperor at theexpense of rival Manchu princes, many of whom he demoted or imprisonedunder one pretext or another. Although the period of his regency wasrelatively short, Dorgon cast a long shadow over the Qing dynasty.

First, the Manchus had entered "China proper" because Dorgon respondeddecisively to Wu Sangui's appeal. Then, after capturing Beijing, instead ofsacking the city as the rebels had done, Dorgon insisted, over the protests ofother Manchu princes, on making it the dynastic capital and reappointingmost Ming officials. Choosing Beijing as the capital was not astraightforward decision, since no major Chinese dynasty had directly takenover its immediate predecessor's capital. Keeping the Ming capital andbureaucracy intact helped quickly stabilize the regime and sped up theconquest of the rest of the country. However, not all of Dorgon's policieswere equally popular nor easily implemented.

Dorgon's controversial July 1645 edict (the "haircutting order") forced adultHan Chinese men to shave the front of their heads and comb the remaining

hair into a queue, on pain of death.[25] The popular description of the orderwas: "To keep the hair, you lose the head; To keep your head, you cut the

hair."[26] To the Manchus, this policy was a test of loyalty and an aid in distinguishing friend from foe. For the HanChinese, however, it was a humiliating reminder of Qing authority that challenged traditional Confucian values. TheClassic of Filial Piety (Xiaojing) held that "a person's body and hair, being gifts from one's parents, are not to bedamaged." Under the Ming dynasty, adult men did not cut their hair but instead wore it in the form of a top-

knot.[27] The order triggered strong resistance to Qing rule in Jiangnan[28] and massive killing of ethnic Han

Chinese. Li Chengdong, a Han Chinese general who had served the Ming but surrendered to the Qing,[29] orderedtroops to carry out three separate massacres in the city of Jiading within a month, resulting in tens of thousands of

deaths. At the end of the third massacre, there was hardly any living person left in this city.[30]

On December 31, 1650, Dorgon suddenly died during a hunting expedition, marking the official start of the ShunzhiEmperor's personal rule. Because the emperor was only 12 years old at that time, most decisions were made on hisbehalf by his mother, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, who turned out to be a skilled political operator.

Although Dorgon's support had been essential to Shunzhi's ascent, Dorgon had through the years centralised somuch power in his hands as to become a direct threat to the throne. So much so that upon his death he wasextraordinarily bestowed the posthumous title of Emperor Yi (Chinese: 義皇帝), the only instance in Qing history inwhich a Manchu "prince of the blood" (Chinese: 親王) was so honored. Two months into Shunzhi's personal rule,

Dorgon was not only stripped of his titles, but his corpse was disinterred and mutilated.[b] to atone for multiple"crimes", one of which was persecuting to death Shunzhi’s agnate eldest brother, Hooge. More importantly,Dorgon's symbolic fall from grace also signalled a political purge of his family and associates at court, thus revertingpower back to the person of the emperor. After a promising start, Shunzhi's reign was cut short by his early deathin 1661 at the age of twenty-four from smallpox. He was succeeded by his third son Xuanye, who reigned as theKangxi Emperor.

The Kangxi Emperor's reign and consolidation

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The Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662–

1722)

Pilgrim flask, porcelain with

underglaze blue and iron-red

decoration. Qing dynasty, Qianlong

period in the 18th century.

The sixty-one year reign of the Kangxi Emperor was the longest of anyChinese emperor. Kangxi's reign is also celebrated as the beginning of an eraknown as "High Qing", during which the dynasty reached the zenith of itssocial, economic and military power. Kangxi's long reign started when hewas eight years old upon the untimely demise of his father. To prevent arepeat of Dorgon's dictatorial monopolizing of power during the regency, theShunzhi Emperor, on his deathbed, hastily appointed four senior cabinetministers to govern on behalf of his young son. The four ministers — Sonin,Ebilun, Suksaha, and Oboi — were chosen for their long service, but also tocounteract each other's influences. Most important, the four were not closelyrelated to the imperial family and laid no claim to the throne. However astime passed, through chance and machination, Oboi, the most junior of thefour, achieved such political dominance as to be a potential threat. Eventhough Oboi's loyalty was never an issue, his personal arrogance andpolitical conservatism led him into an escalating conflict with the youngemperor. In 1669 Kangxi, through trickery, disarmed and imprisoned Oboi— a significant victory for a fifteen-year-old emperor over a wily politicianand experienced commander.

The early Manchu rulers alsoestablished two foundations oflegitimacy which help to explainthe stability of their dynasty. Thefirst was the bureaucratic institutions and the neo-Confucian culture which

they adopted from earlier dynasties.[31] Manchu rulers and Han Chinesescholar-official elites gradually came to terms with each other. Theexamination system offered a path for ethnic Han to become officials.Imperial patronage of Kangxi dictionary demonstrated respect forConfucian learning, while the Sacred Edict of 1670 effectively extolledConfucian family values. The second major source of stability was theCentral Asian aspect of their Manchu identity which allowed them toappeal to Mongol, Tibetan, Uighur constituents. The Qing rulers weresimultaneously emperors of the Han Chinese, Manchu khans, andBuddhist sage rulers, patrons of Tibetan Buddhism, for the newly

conquered areas of Central Asia.[32] The Kangxi Emperor alsowelcomed to his court Jesuit missionaries, who had first come to Chinaunder the Ming. Missionaries including Tomás Pereira, Martino Martini,Johann Adam Schall von Bell, Ferdinand Verbiest and Antoine Thomasheld significant positions as military weapons experts, mathematicians,cartographers, astronomers and advisers to the emperor. The relationship

of trust was however lost in the later Rites controversy.

Yet controlling the "Mandate of Heaven" was a daunting task. The vastness of China's territory meant that therewere only enough banner troops to garrison key cities forming the backbone of a defence network that reliedheavily on surrendered Ming soldiers. In addition, three surrendered Ming generals were singled out for theircontributions to the establishment of the Qing dynasty, ennobled as feudal princes (藩王), and given governorships

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over vast territories in Southern China. The chief of these was Wu Sangui, who was given the provinces of Yunnanand Guizhou, while generals Shang Kexi and Geng Jingzhong were given Guangdong and Fujian provincesrespectively.

As the years went by, the three feudal lords and their extensive territories became increasingly autonomous. Finally,in 1673, Shang Kexi petitioned Kangxi for permission to retire to his hometown in Liaodong province andnominated his son as his successor. The young emperor granted his retirement, but denied the heredity of his fief. Inreaction, the two other generals decided to petition for their own retirements to test Kangxi's resolve, thinking thathe would not risk offending them. The move backfired as the young emperor called their bluff by accepting theirrequests and ordering that all three fiefdoms to be reverted to the crown.

Faced with the stripping of their powers, Wu Sangui, later joined by Geng Zhongming and by Shang Kexi's sonShang Zhixin, felt they had no choice but to revolt. The ensuing Revolt of the Three Feudatories lasted for eightyears. Wu attempted, ultimately in vain, to fire the embers of south China Ming loyalty by restoring Ming customs,ordering that the resented queues be cut, and declaring himself emperor of a new dynasty. At the peak of therebels' fortunes, they extended their control as far north as the Yangtze River, nearly establishing a divided China.Wu then hesitated to go further north, not being able to coordinate strategy with his allies, and Kangxi was able tounify his forces for a counterattack led by a new generation of Manchu generals. By 1681, the Qing government

had established control over a ravaged southern China which took several decades to recover.[33]

To extend and consolidate the dynasty's control in Central Asia, the Kangxi Emperor personally led a series ofmilitary campaigns against the Dzungars in Outer Mongolia. The Kangxi Emperor was able to successfully expelGaldan's invading forces from these regions, which were then incorporated into the empire. Galdan was eventuallykilled in the First Oirat-Manchu War. In 1683, Qing forces took Taiwan from Zheng Keshuang, grandson ofKoxinga, who had conquered Taiwan from the Dutch colonists as a base against the Qing. Winning Taiwan freedKangxi's forces for series of battles over Albazin, the far eastern outpost of Russian Empire. The 1689 Treaty ofNerchinsk was China's first formal treaty with a European power and kept the border peaceful for the better part oftwo centuries. After Galdan's death, his followers, as adherents to Tibetan Buddhism, attempted to control thechoice of the next Dalai Lama. Kangxi dispatched two armies to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and installed a Dalai

Lama sympathetic to the Qing.[34]

By the end of the 17th century, China was at its greatest height of confidence and political control since the Mingdynasty.

Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors

The reigns of the Yongzheng Emperor (r. 1723–1735) and his son, the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), markedthe height of Qing power. During this period, the Qing Empire ruled over 13 million square kilometres of territory.

After the Kangxi Emperor's death in the winter of 1722, his fourth son, Prince Yong (雍親王), became theYongzheng Emperor. In the later years of Kangxi's reign, Yongzheng and his brothers had fought, and there wererumours that he had usurped the throne, a charge for which there is little evidence. In fact, his father had trusted himwith delicate political issues and discussed state policy with him. When Yongzheng came to power at the age of 45,he felt a sense of urgency about the problems which had accumulated in his father's later years and did not need

instruction in how to exercise power.[35] In the words of one recent historian, he was "severe, suspicious, and

jealous, but extremely capable and resourceful,"[36] and in the words of another, turned out to be an "early modern

state-maker of the first order."[37]

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The Putuo Zongcheng Temple of Chengde,

built in the 18th century during the reign of

the Qianlong Emperor.

He moved rapidly. First, he promoted Confucian orthodoxy andreversed what he saw as his father's laxness by cracking down onunorthodox sects and by decapitating an anti-Manchu writer hisfather had pardoned. In 1723 he outlawed Christianity andexpelled Christian missionaries, though some were allowed to

remain in the capital.[38] Next, he moved to control thegovernment. He expanded his father's system of Palace Memorialswhich brought frank and detailed reports on local conditionsdirectly to the throne without being intercepted by thebureaucracy, and created a small Grand Council of personaladvisors which eventually grew into the emperor's de factocabinet for the rest of the dynasty. He shrewdly filled key positionswith Manchu and Han Chinese officials who depended on hispatronage. When he began to realize that the financial crisis waseven greater than he had thought, Yongzheng rejected his father'slenient approach to local landowning elites and mounted a campaign to enforce collection of the land tax. Theincreased revenues were to be used for "money to nourish honesty" among local officials and for local irrigation,schools, roads, and charity. Although these reforms were effective in the north, in the south and lower Yangzivalley, where Kangxi had wooed the elites, there were long established networks of officials and landowners.Yongzheng dispatched experienced Manchu commissioners to penetrate the thickets of falsified land registers and

coded account books, but they were met with tricks, passivity, and even violence. The fiscal crisis persisted.[39]

Yongzheng also inherited diplomatic and strategic problems. A team made up entirely of Manchus drew up theTreaty of Kyakhta (1727) to solidify the diplomatic understanding with Russia. In exchange for territory and tradingrights, the Qing would have a free hand dealing with the situation in Mongolia. Yongzheng then turned to thatsituation, where the Zunghars threatened to re-emerge, and to the southwest, where local Miao chieftans resistedQing expansion. These campaigns drained the treasury but established the emperor's control of the military and

military finance.[40]

The Yongzheng Emperor died in 1735. His 24-year-old son, Prince Bao (寶親王), then became the QianlongEmperor. Qianlong personally led military campaigns near Xinjiang and Mongolia, putting down revolts anduprisings in Sichuan and parts of southern China while expanding control over Tibet.

Qianlong's reign saw the launch of several ambitious cultural projects, including the compilation of the SikuQuanshu, or Complete Repository of the Four Branches of Literature. With a total of over 3,400 books,79,000 chapters, and 36,304 volumes, the Siku Quanshu is the largest collection of books in Chinese history.Nevertheless, Qianlong had used Literary Inquisition to silence opposition. The accusation of individuals began withthe emperor's own interpretation of the true meaning of the corresponding words. If the emperor decided thesewere derogatory or cynical towards the dynasty, persecution would begin. Literary inquisition began with isolatedcases at the time of Shunzhi and Kangxi, but had become a pattern under Qianlong's rule, during which there were

53 cases of literary persecution.[41]

Beneath outward prosperity and imperial confidence, the later years of Qianlong's reign saw rampant corruptionand neglect. Heshen, the emperor's handsome young favorite, took advantage of the emperor's indulgence to

become one of the most corrupt officials in the history of the dynasty.[42] Qianlong's son, the Jiaqing Emperor (r.1796–1820), eventually forced Heshen to commit suicide.

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"The reception of the Diplomatique

(Macartney) and his suite, at the Court of

Pekin". Drawn and engraved by James

Gillray, published in September 1792.

British Steamship destroying Chinese war junks (E.

Duncan) (1843)

In 1796 open rebellion by the White Lotus Society against the Qinggovernment broke out. The White Lotus Rebellion continued foreight years, until 1804, and marked a turning point in the history of

the Qing dynasty.[43]

Rebellion, unrest and external pressure

At the startof thedynasty, theChineseempirecontinued tobe thehegemonicpower in

East Asia. Although there was no formal ministry of foreignrelations, the Lifan Yuan was responsible for relations withthe Mongol and Tibetans in Central Asia, while the tributarysystem, a loose set of institutions and customs taken overfrom the Ming, in theory governed relations with East andSoutheast Asian countries. The Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689)stabilized relations with Czarist Russia.

However, the 18th century saw the European empires gradually expand across the world, as European statesdeveloped economies built on maritime trade. The dynasty was confronted with newly developing concepts of theinternational system and state to state relations. European trading posts expanded into territorial control in nearbyIndia and on the islands that are now Indonesia. The Qing response, successful for a time, was in 1756 to establishthe Canton System, which restricted maritime trade to that city and gave monopoly trading rights to private Chinesemerchants. The British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company had long before been grantedsimilar monopoly rights by their governments.

In 1793, the British East India Company, with the support of the British government, sent a delegation to Chinaunder Lord George Macartney in order to open Free trade and put relations on a basis of equality. The imperialcourt viewed trade as unimportant while the British saw maritime trade as the key to their economy. The QianlongEmperor told Macartney "the kings of the myriad nations come by land and sea with all sorts of precious things,"

and "consequently there is nothing we lack...."[44]

Nonetheless, demand in Europe for Chinese goods such as silk, tea, and ceramics could only be met if Europeancompanies funneled their limited supplies of silver into China. In the late 1700s, the governments of Great Britainand France were deeply concerned about the imbalance of trade and the drain of silver. To meet the growingChinese demand for opium the British East India Company greatly expanded its production in Bengal. TheDaoguang emperor, concerned both over the outflow of silver and the damage that opium smoking was causing tohis subjects, ordered Lin Zexu to end the opium trade. Lin confiscated the stocks of opium without compensation in1839, leading Great Britain to declare war on China in the following year.

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In this political cartoon, the

United Kingdom, Germany,

Russia, France, and Japan

are dividing China

A scene of the Taiping Rebellion, 1850–1864

The First Opium War revealed the outdated state of the Chinese military. The Qing navy, composed entirely ofwooden sailing junks, was severely outclassed by the modern tactics andfirepower of the British Royal Navy. British soldiers, using advanced muskets andartillery, easily outmaneuvered and outgunned Qing forces in ground battles. TheQing surrender in 1842 marked a decisive, humiliating blow to China. The Treatyof Nanjing, the first of the "unequal treaties," demanded war reparations, forcedChina to open up the five ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuchow, Ningpo and Shanghaito western trade and missionaries, and to cede Hong Kong Island to GreatBritain. It revealed many inadequacies in the Qing government and provokedwidespread rebellions against the already hugely unpopular regime.

The Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century was the first major instance of anti-Manchu sentiment threatening the stability of the dynasty. Hong Xiuquan, a failedcivil service candidate, led the Taiping Rebellion, amid widespread social unrestand worsening famine. In 1851 Hong Xiuquan and others launched an uprising inGuizhou province, established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with Hong himselfas king, claiming he often had visions of God and that he was the brother of JesusChrist. Slavery, concubinage, arranged marriage, opium smoking, footbinding,judicial torture, and the worship of idols were all banned. However, success andsubsequent authority and power led to internal feuds, defections and corruption.In addition, British and French troops, equipped with modern weapons, had come to the assistance of the Qingimperial army. It was not until 1864 that Qing armies under Zeng Guofan succeeded in crushing the revolt. Therebellion not only posed the most serious threat towards Qing rulers; it was also "bloodiest civil war of all time."

Between 20 and 30 million people died during its fourteen-year course from 1850 to 1864.[45] After the outbreakof this rebellion, there were also revolts by the Muslims and Miao people of China against the Qing dynasty, mostnotably in the Dungan revolt (1862–1877) in the northwest and the Panthay Rebellion (1856–1873) in Yunnan.

The Western powers, largely unsatisfied with the Treaty ofNanjing, gave grudging support to the Qing government duringthe Taiping and Nien Rebellions. China's income fell sharplyduring the wars as vast areas of farmland were destroyed,millions of lives lost, and countless armies raised and equippedto fight the rebels. In 1854, Great Britain tried to re-negotiatethe Treaty of Nanjing, inserting clauses allowing Britishcommercial access to Chinese rivers and the creation of apermanent British embassy at Beijing.

In 1856, Qing authorities, in searching for a pirate, boarded a ship, the Arrow, which the British claimed had beenflying the British flag, an incident which led to the Second Opium War. In 1858, facing no other options, theXianfeng Emperor, agreed to the Treaty of Tientsin, which contained clauses deeply insulting to the Chinese, suchas a demand that all official Chinese documents be written in English and a proviso granting British warshipsunlimited access to all navigable Chinese rivers.

Ratification of the treaty the following year led to resumption of hostilities and in 1860, with Anglo-French forcesmarching on Beijing, the emperor and his court fled the capital for the imperial hunting lodge at Rehe. Once inBeijing, the Anglo-French forces looted the Old Summer Palace, and in an act of revenge for the arrest of several

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Imperialism 1900. The bear

representing Russia, the lion, the

United Kingdom, the frog France, and

the eagle the United States.

Englishmen, burnt it to the ground. Prince Gong, a younger half-brother of the emperor, who had been left as hisbrother's proxy in the capital, was forced to sign the Convention of Beijing. Meanwhile, the humiliated emperordied the following year at Rehe.

Self-strengthening and the frustration of reforms

Yet the dynasty rallied. Chinese generals and officials such as Zuo Zongtang had led the suppression of rebellionsand stood behind the Manchus. When the Tongzhi Emperor came to the throne at the age of five in 1861, theseofficials rallied around him in what was called the Tongzhi Restoration. Their aim was to adopt western militarytechnology in order to preserve Confucian values. Zeng Guofan, in alliance with Prince Gong, sponsored the rise ofyounger officials such as Li Hongzhang who put the dynasty back on its feet financially and instituted the Self-Strengthening Movement. The reformers then proceeded with institutional reforms, including China's first unifiedministry of foreign affairs, the Zongli Yamen; allowing foreign diplomats to reside in the capital; establishment of theImperial Maritime Customs Service; the formation of modernized armies, such as the Beiyang Army, as well as a

navy; and the purchase from Europeans of armament factories. [46]

The dynasty lost control of the periphery bit by bit. In return for promisesof support against the British and the French, in 1860 Czarist Russia tooklarge chunks of territory in the Northeast. The period of cooperationbetween the reformers and the European powers ended with the TientsinMassacre of 1870, marked by Chinese murders of French nuns set offby the belligerence of local French diplomats. Starting with theCochinchina Campaign in 1858, France expanded control of Indochina,and by 1883 was in full control and had reached the Chinese border. TheSino-French War over Tonkin, once a Qing tributary state ended in1885 with French victory and Chinese recognition of all the French

claims.[47]

In 1884, pro-Japanese Koreans in Seoul led the Gapsin Coup. Tensionsbetween China and Japan rose after China intervened to suppress theuprising. Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi and Li Hongzhang signedthe Convention of Tientsin, an agreement to simultaneously withdrawtroops, but the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895 was a militaryhumiliation. The Treaty of Shimonoseki recognized Korean independenceand ceded Taiwan and the Pescadores to Japan. The terms might havebeen harsher, but a Japanese citizen tried attacked and wounded LiHongzhang, which led to an international outcry and the shamedJapanese revised the terms. The terms had also included the cession ofLiaodong Peninsula to Japan, but Russia, with its own designs on theterritory, along with Germany and France, in what was known as the Triple Intervention, successfully put pressureon the Japanese to abandon the peninsula.

These years saw an evolution in the involvement of Empress Dowager Cixi (Wade-Giles: Tz'u-Hsi). She enteredthe palace in the 1850s as concubine to the Xianfeng Emperor (r. 1850–1861) and came to power in 1861 afterher five year-old son, the Tongzhi Emperor ascended the throne and coup ousted several regents for the boyemperor. Between 1861 and 1873, she and the Empress Dowager Ci'an, who had been Xianfeng's empress,

served as regents for Tongzhi, "ruling from behind the curtain."[c] Following the emperor's death in 1875, Cixi's

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Painting of

Empress Dowager

Cixi by Dutch

American artist

Hubert Vos circa

1905

nephew, the Guangxu Emperor took the throne, in violation of the dynastic custom that the new emperor be of thenext generation, and another regency began. In the spring of 1881, Ci'an suddenly died, aged only forty-three,leaving Cixi as sole regent.

From 1889, when Guangxu began to rule in his own right, to 1898, the Empress Dowager lived in semi-retirement,spending the majority of the year at the Summer Palace. On November 1, 1897, twoGerman Roman Catholic missionaries were murdered in the southern part of ShandongProvince. In response, Germany used the murders as a pretext for a naval occupation ofJiaozhou Bay. The occupation prompted a "scramble for concessions" in 1898, whichincluded the German lease of Jiazhou Bay, the Russian acquisition of Liaodong, and theBritish lease of the New Territories of Hong Kong.

In the wake of these external defeats, Emperor Guangxu initiated the Hundred Days'Reform of 1898. Newer, more radical advisers like Kang Youwei were given positions ofinfluence. The emperor issued a series of edicts and plans were made to reorganize thebureaucracy, restructure the school system, and appoint new officials. Opposition from thebureaucracy was immediate and intense. Although she had been involved in the initialreforms, the empress dowager stepped in to call them off, arrest and execute severalreformers, and take day to day control of policy. Yet many of the plans stayed in place,

and the goals of reform were implanted. [48]

Widespread drought in North China combined with this pressure from imperialistexpansion and instability in the government as background for the emergence of theRighteous and Harmonious Fists, or "Boxers." In 1900 local groups of Boxers, in proclaimed support of thedynasty, murdered foreign missionaries and large numbers of Chinese Christians and then converged on Beijing tobesiege the Foreign Legation Quarter. A coalition of European, Japanese, and Russian armies then entered Chinawithout diplomatic notice, much less permission. Cixi declared war on all of these nations, only to lose control ofBeijing after a short but hard fought campaign. She fled to Xi'an. The victorious allies listed scores of demands onthe Qing government, including compensation for their expenses in invading China and execution of complicit

officials.[49]

Fall of the dynasty

By the early 20th century, mass civil disorder had begun and continuously grown. To overcome such problems,Empress Dowager Cixi issued an imperial edict in 1901 calling for reform proposals from the governors-generaland governors and initiated the era of the dynasty's "New Policy", also known as the "Late Qing Reform". The edictpaved the way for the most far-reaching reforms in terms of their social consequences, including the creation of a

national education system and the abolition of the imperial examinations in 1905.[50]

The Guangxu Emperor died on November 14, 1908, and on November 15, 1908, Cixi also passed away. Rumorsheld that she or Yuan Shikai ordered trusted eunuchs to poison the Guangxu Emperor, and an autopsy conducted

nearly a century later confirmed lethal levels of arsenic in his corpse.[51] Puyi, the oldest son of Zaifeng, PrinceChun, and nephew to the childless Guangxu emperor, was appointed successor at the age of two, leaving Zaifengwith the regency. This was followed by the dismissal of General Yuan Shikai from his former positions of power. InApril 1911 Zaifeng created a cabinet, in which there were two vice-premiers. Nevertheless, this cabinet was alsoknown by contemporaries as "The Royal Cabinet" because among the thirteen cabinet members, five were

members of the imperial family or Aisin Gioro relatives.[52] This brought a wide range of negative opinions from

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A Qing dynasty mandarin

senior officials like Zhang Zhidong. The Wuchang Uprising succeeded on October 10, 1911, which led to thecreation of the new central government, the Republic of China, in Nanjing with Sun Yat-sen as its provisional head.Many provinces began "separating" from Qing control. Seeing a desperate situation unfold, the Qing governmentbrought Yuan Shikai back to military power, taking control of his Beiyang Army to crush the revolution in Wuhan.After taking the position of Prime Minister and creating his own cabinet, Yuan Shikai went as far as to ask for theremoval of Zaifeng from the regency. This removal later proceeded with directions from Empress Dowager Longyu.

With Zaifeng gone, Yuan Shikai and his Beiyang commanders effectively dominated Qing politics. He reasoned thatgoing to war would be unreasonable and costly, especially when noting that the Qing government had a goal forconstitutional monarchy. Similarly, Sun Yat-sen's government wanted a republican constitutional reform, bothaiming for the benefit of China's economy and populace. With permission from Empress Dowager Longyu, YuanShikai began negotiating with Sun Yat-sen, who decided that his goal had been achieved in forming a republic, andthat therefore he could allow Yuan to step into the position of President of the Republic of China.

On 12 February 1912, after rounds of negotiations, Longyu issued an imperial edict bringing about the abdicationof the child emperor Puyi. This brought an end to over 2,000 years of imperial China and began an extended periodof instability of warlord factionalism. The unorganized political and economic systems combined with a widespreadcriticism of Chinese culture led to questioning and doubt about the future. In the 1930s, the Empire of Japaninvaded Manchuria and founded Manchukuo in 1934, with Puyi, as the nominal regent and emperor. After theinvasion by the Soviet Union, Manchukuo collapsed in 1945.

Government

Main articles: Mandarin (bureaucrat) § Ranks under the Qing dynasty and List of emperors of the Qingdynasty

The early Qing emperors adopted the bureaucratic structures and institutions fromthe preceding Ming dynasty but split rule between Han Chinese and Manchus,

with some positions also given to Mongols.[53] Like previous dynasties, the Qingrecruited officials via the imperial examination system, until the system wasabolished in 1905. The Qing divided the positions into civil and military positions,each having nine grades or ranks, each subdivided into a and b categories. Civilappointments ranged from attendant to the emperor or a Grand Secretary in theForbidden City (highest) to being a prefectural tax collector, deputy jail warden,deputy police commissioner or tax examiner. Military appointments ranged frombeing a field marshal or chamberlain of the imperial bodyguard to a third class

sergeant, corporal or a first or second class private.[54]

Central government agencies

The formal structure of the Qing government centered on the Emperor as the

absolute ruler, who presided over six Boards (Ministries[d]), each headed by two presidents[e] and assisted by four

vice presidents.[f] In contrast to the Ming system, however, Qing ethnic policy dictated that appointments were splitbetween Manchu noblemen and Han officials who had passed the highest levels of the state examinations. The

Grand Secretariat,[g] which had been an important policy-making body under the Ming, lost its importance during

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2000-cash banknote from 1859

the Qing and evolved into an imperial chancery. The institutions which had been inherited from the Ming formed thecore of the Qing "Outer Court," which handled routine matters and was located in the southern part of theForbidden City.

In order not to let the routine administration take over the running of the empire, the Qing emperors made sure thatall important matters were decided in the "Inner Court," which was dominated by the imperial family and Manchunobility and which was located in the northern part of the Forbidden City. The core institution of the inner court was

the Grand Council.[h] It emerged in the 1720s under the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor as a body charged withhandling Qing military campaigns against the Mongols, but it soon took over other military and administrative duties

and served to centralize authority under the crown.[55] The Grand Councillors[i] served as a sort of privy council tothe emperor.

The Six Ministries and their respective areas of responsibilities were as follows:

Board of Civil Appointments[j]

The personnel administration of all civil officials - including evaluation,

promotion, and dismissal. It was also in charge of the "honours list".

Board of Finance[k]

The literal translation of the Chinese word hu (户) is "household". For much

of Qing history, the government's main source of revenue came from taxation

on landownership supplemented by official monopolies on salt, which was an

essential household item, and tea. Thus, in the predominantly agrarian Qing

dynasty, the "household" was the basis of imperial finance. The department

was charged with revenue collection and the financial management of the

government.

Board of Rites[l]

This board was responsible for all matters concerning court protocol. It

organized the periodic worship of ancestors and various gods by the emperor, managed relations with

tributary nations, and oversaw the nationwide civil examination system.

Board of War[m]

Unlike its Ming predecessor, which had full control over all military matters, the Qing Board of War had very

limited powers. First, the Eight Banners were under the direct control of the emperor and hereditary Manchu

and Mongol princes, leaving the ministry only with authority over the Green Standard Army. Furthermore,

the ministry's functions were purely administrative campaigns and troop movements were monitored and

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A postage stamp from Yantai

(Chefoo) in the Qing dynasty

directed by the emperor, first through the Manchu ruling council, and later through the Grand Council.

Board of Punishments[n]

The Board of Punishments handled all legal matters, including the supervision of various law courts and

prisons. The Qing legal framework was relatively weak compared to modern day legal systems, as there was

no separation of executive and legislative branches of government. The legal system could be inconsistent,

and, at times, arbitrary, because the emperor ruled by decree and had final say on all judicial outcomes.

Emperors could (and did) overturn judgements of lower courts from time to time. Fairness of treatment was

also an issue under the apartheid system practised by the Manchu government over the Han Chinese

majority. To counter these inadequacies and keep the population in line, the Qing government maintained a

very harsh penal code towards the Han populace, but it was no more severe than previous Chinese

dynasties.

Board of Works[o]

The Board of Works handled all governmental building projects,

including palaces, temples and the repairs of waterways and flood

canals. It was also in charge of minting coinage.

From the early Qing, the central government was characterized by a system ofdual appointments by which each position in the central government had aManchu and a Han Chinese assigned to it. The Han Chinese appointee wasrequired to do the substantive work and the Manchu to ensure Han loyalty to

Qing rule.[56] The distinction between Han Chinese and Manchus extended totheir court costumes. During the Qianlong Emperor's reign, for example,members of his family were distinguished by garments with a small circularemblem on the back, whereas Han officials wore clothing with a squareemblem.

In addition to the six boards, there was a Lifan Yuan unique to the Qing government. This institution wasestablished to supervise the administration of Tibet and the Mongol lands. As the empire expanded, it took overadministrative responsibility of all minority ethnic groups living in and around the empire, including early contactswith Russia — then seen as a tribute nation. The office had the status of a full ministry and was headed by officialsof equal rank. However, appointees were at first restricted only to candidates of Manchu and Mongol ethnicity,until later open to Han Chinese as well.

Even though the Board of Rites and Lifan Yuan performed some duties of a foreign office, they fell short ofdeveloping into a professional foreign service. It was not until 1861 — a year after losing the Second Opium Warto the Anglo-French coalition — that the Qing government bowed to foreign pressure and created a proper foreignaffairs office known as the Zongli Yamen. The office was originally intended to be temporary and was staffed by

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Qing dynasty in 1820, with provinces in yellow,

military governorates and protectorates in light

yellow, tributary states in orange.

officials seconded from the Grand Council. However, as dealings with foreigners became increasingly complicatedand frequent, the office grew in size and importance, aided by revenue from customs duties which came under itsdirect jurisdiction.

There was also another government institution called Imperial Household Department which was unique to the Qingdynasty. It was established before the fall of the Ming, but it became mature only after 1661, following the death of

the Shunzhi Emperor and the accession of his son, the Kangxi Emperor.[57] The department's original purpose wasto manage the internal affairs of the imperial family and the activities of the inner palace (in which tasks it largelyreplaced eunuchs), but it also played an important role in Qing relations with Tibet and Mongolia, engaged intrading activities (jade, ginseng, salt, furs, etc.), managed textile factories in the Jiangnan region, and even published

books.[58] Relations with the Salt Superintendents and salt merchants, such as those at Yangzhou, were particularlylucrative, especially since they were direct, and did not go through absorptive layers of bureaucracy. The

department was manned by booi,[p] or "bondservants," from the Upper Three Banners.[59] By the 19th century, it

managed the activities of at least 56 subagencies.[57][60]

Administrative divisions

Main article: History of the administrative divisions of China before 1912 § Provinces and

Protectorates under the Qing dynasty

Qing China reached its largest extent during the 18thcentury, when it ruled China proper (eighteen provinces) aswell as the areas of present day Manchuria (NortheastChina), Inner Mongolia, Outer Mongolia, Xinjiang and

Tibet, at approximately 13 million km2 in size. There wereoriginally 18 provinces, all of which in China proper, butlater this number was increased to 22, with Manchuria andXinjiang being divided or turned into provinces. Taiwan,originally part of Fujian province, became a province of itsown in the 19th century, but was ceded to the Empire ofJapan following the First Sino-Japanese War by the end ofthe century. In addition, many surrounding countries, suchas Korea (Joseon dynasty), Vietnam and Nepal, weretributary states of China during much of this period. TheKatoor dynasty of Afghanistan also paid tribute to the Qing

dynasty of China until the mid-19th century.[61] During theQing dynasty the Chinese claimed suzerainty over the Taghdumbash Pamir in the south west of Tashkurgan TajikAutonomous County but permitted the Mir of Hunza to administer the region in return for a tribute. Until 1937 the

inhabitants paid tribute to the Mir of Hunza, who exercised control over the pastures.[62] Khanate of Kokand wereforced to submit as protectorate and pay tribute to the Qing dynasty in China between 1774 and 1798.

1. Northern and southern circuits of Tian Shan (later became Xinjiang province) - including several small semi-

autonomous khanates such as Kumul Khanate

2. Outer Mongolia - Khalkha, Kobdo league, Köbsgöl, Tannu Urianha

3. Inner Mongolia - 6 leagues (Jirim, Josotu, Juu Uda, Shilingol, Ulaan Chab, Ihe Juu)

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Qing dynasty in 1833

4. Other Mongolian leagues - Alshaa khoshuu (League-level khoshuu), Ejine khoshuu, Ili khoshuu (in Xinjiang),

Köke Nuur league; directly ruled areas: Dariganga (Special region designated as Emperor's pasture), Guihua

Tümed, Chakhar, Hulunbuir

5. Tibet (Ü-Tsang and western Kham, approximately the area of present-day Tibet Autonomous Region)

6. Manchuria (Northeast China, later became provinces)

Eighteen provinces (China proper provinces)

1. Zhili

2. Henan

3. Shandong

4. Shanxi

5. Shaanxi

6. Gansu

7. Hubei

8. Hunan

9. Guangdong

10. Guangxi

1. Sichuan

2. Yunnan

3. Guizhou

4. Jiangsu

5. Jiangxi

6. Zhejiang

7. Fujian (incl. Taiwan until 1885)

8. Anhui

Additional provinces in the late Qing dynasty

1. Xinjiang

2. Taiwan (until 1895)

1. Fengtian, later renamed and known today as Liaoning

2. Jilin

1. Heilongjiang

Territorial administration

The Qing organization of provinces was based on the fifteen administrative units set up by the Ming dynasty, latermade into eighteen provinces by splitting for example, Huguang into Hubei and Hunan provinces. The provincialbureaucracy continued the Yuan and Ming practice of three parallel lines, civil, military, and censorate, orsurveillance. Each province was administered by a governor (巡撫, xunfu) and a provincial military commander(提督, tidu). Below the province were prefectures (府, fu) operating under a prefect (知府, zhīfǔ), followed bysubprefectures under a subprefect. The lowest unit was the county, overseen by a magistrate. The eighteenprovinces are also known as "China proper". The position of viceroy or governor-general (總督, zongdu) was thehighest rank in the provincial administration. There were eight regional viceroys in China proper, each usually tookcharge of two or three provinces. The Viceroy of Zhili, who was responsible for the area surrounding the capitalBeijing, is usually considered as the most honorable and powerful viceroy among the eight.

1. Viceroy of Zhili – in charge of Zhili

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The Qing Empire in 1870.

Qing China in 1892

2. Viceroy of Shaan-Gan – in charge of Shaanxi and Gansu

3. Viceroy of Liangjiang – in charge of Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Anhui

4. Viceroy of Huguang – in charge of Hubei and Hunan

5. Viceroy of Sichuan – in charge of Sichuan

6. Viceroy of Min-Zhe – in charge of Fujian, Taiwan, and Zhejiang

7. Viceroy of Liangguang – in charge of Guangdong and Guangxi

8. Viceroy of Yun-Gui – in charge of Yunnan and Guizhou

By the mid-18th century, the Qing had successfully put outer regions such as Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet andXinjiang under its control. Imperial commissioners and garrisons were sent to Mongolia and Tibet to oversee theiraffairs. These territories were also under supervision of acentral government institution called Lifan Yuan. Qinghaiwas also put under direct control of the Qing court.Xinjiang, also known as Chinese Turkestan, was subdividedinto the regions north and south of the Tian Shan mountains,also known today as Dzungaria and Tarim Basinrespectively, but the post of Ili General was established in1762 to exercise unified military and administrativejurisdiction over both regions. Likewise, Manchuria wasalso governed by military generals until its division intoprovinces, though some areas of Xinjiang and Manchuriawere lost to the Russian Empire in the mid-19th century.Manchuria was originally separated from China proper bythe Inner Willow Palisade, a ditch and embankment plantedwith willows intended to restrict the movement of the HanChinese into Manchuria, as the area was off-limits to theHan Chinese until the Qing government started colonizing

the area with them later on in the dynasty's rule, especially since the 1860s.[63]

With respect to these outer regions, the Qing maintainedimperial control, with the emperor acting as Mongol khan,patron of Tibetan Buddhism and protector of Muslims.However, Qing policy changed with the establishment ofXinjiang province in 1884. During The Great Game era,taking advantage of the Dungan revolt in northwest China,Yaqub Beg invaded Xinjiang from Central Asia withsupport from the Russian Empire, and made himself theruler of the kingdom of Kashgaria. The Qing court sentforces to defeat Yaqub Beg and Xinjiang was reconquered,and then the political system of China proper was formallyapplied onto Xinjiang. The Kumul Khanate, which wasincorporated into the Qing empire as a vassal after helpingQing defeat the Zunghars in 1757, maintained its status afterXinjiang turned into a province through the end of the

dynasty in the Xinhai Revolution up until 1930.[64] In early

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The Qianlong Emperor's Southern

Inspection Tour, Scroll Twelve:

Return to the Palace (detail), 1764

—1770, by Xu Yang.

20th century, Great Britain sent an expedition force to Tibet and forced Tibetans to sign a treaty. The Qing court

responded by asserting Chinese sovereignty over Tibet,[65] resulting in the 1906 Anglo-Chinese Convention signedbetween Britain and China. The British agreed not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration ofTibet, while China engaged not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal

administration of Tibet.[66] Furthermore, similar to Xinjiang which was converted into a province earlier, the Qinggovernment also turned Manchuria into three provinces in the early 20th century, officially known as the "ThreeNortheast Provinces", and established the post of Viceroy of Three Northeast Provinces to oversee theseprovinces, making the total number of regional viceroys to nine.

Military

Main article: Military of the Qing dynasty

See also: Military history of China before 1911 § Qing

Beginnings and early development

The development of the Qing military system can be divided into two broad

periods separated by the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864).[citation needed]

The early Qing military was rooted in the Eight Banners first developed byNurhachi as a way to organize Jurchen society beyond petty clan affiliations.There were eight banners in all, differentiated by colours. The banners intheir order of precedence were as follows: yellow, bordered yellow (i.e.yellow banner with red border), white, red, bordered white, bordered red,blue, and bordered blue. The yellow, bordered yellow, and white bannerswere collectively known as the "Upper Three Banners" (Chinese: 上三旗;pinyin: shàng sān qí) and were under the direct command of the emperor.Only Manchus belonging to the Upper Three Banners, and selected HanChinese who had passed the highest level of martial exams were qualified toserve as the emperor's personal bodyguards. The remaining Banners wereknown as the "Lower Five Banners" (Chinese: 下五旗; pinyin: xià wǔ qí)and were commanded by hereditary Manchu princes descended fromNurhachi's immediate family, known informally as the "Iron Cap Princes."Together they formed the ruling council of the Manchu nation as well as high

command of the army.[citation needed]

As Qing power expanded north of the Great Wall in the last years of theMing dynasty, the Banner system was expanded by Nurhachi's son andsuccessor Hong Taiji to include mirrored Mongol and Han Banners. After

capturing Beijing in 1644 and as the Manchu rapidly gained control of large tracts of former Ming territory, therelatively small Banner armies were further augmented by the Green Standard Army, which eventually outnumberedBanner troops three to one. The Green Standard Army so-named after the colour of their battle standards wasmade up of those Ming troops who had surrendered to the Qing. They maintained their Ming era organization andwere led by a mix of Banner and Green Standard officers. The Banners and Green Standard troops were standingarmies, paid for by the central government. In addition, regional governors from provincial down to village level

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A red lacquer box from the Qing

dynasty.

maintained their own irregular local militias for police duties and disaster relief. These militias were usually grantedsmall annual stipends from regional coffers for part-time service obligations. They received very limited military drills

if at all and were not considered combat troops.[citation needed]

Peace and stagnation

Banner Armies were broadly divided along ethnic lines, namely Manchuand Mongol. Although it must be pointed out that the ethnic compositionof Manchu Banners was far from homogeneous as they included non-Manchu bondservants registered under the household of their Manchumasters. As the war with Ming dynasty progressed and the Han Chinesepopulation under Manchu rule increased, Hong Taiji created a separatebranch of Han Banners to draw on this new source of manpower.However these Han bannermen were never regarded by the governmentas equal to the other two branches due to their relatively late addition tothe Manchu cause as well as their Han Chinese ancestry. The nature oftheir service—mainly as infantry, artillery and sappers, was also alien tothe Manchu traditions of fighting as cavalry. Furthermore, after theconquest the military roles played by Han bannermen were quicklysubsumed by the Green Standard Army. The Han Banners ceased to exist altogether after the Yongzheng

Emperor's banner registration reforms aimed at cutting down imperial expenditures.[citation needed]

The socio-military origins of the Banner system meant that population within each branch and their sub-divisionswere hereditary and rigid. Only under special circumstances sanctioned by imperial edict were social movementsbetween banners permitted. In contrast, the Green Standard Army was originally intended to be a professionalforce.

After defeating the remnants of the Ming forces, the Manchu Banner Army of approximately 200,000 strong at thetime was evenly divided; half was designated the Forbidden Eight Banner Army (Chinese: 禁旅八旗; pinyin: jìnlǚbāqí) and was stationed in Beijing. It served both as the capital's garrison and the Qing government's main strikeforce. The remainder of the Banner troops was distributed to guard key cities in China. These were known as theTerritorial Eight Banner Army (simplified Chinese: 驻防八旗; traditional Chinese: 駐防八旗; pinyin: zhùfángbāqí). The Manchu court, keenly aware its own minority status, reinforced a strict policy of racial segregationbetween the Manchus and Mongols from Han Chinese for fear of being sinicized by the latter. This policy applieddirectly to the Banner garrisons, most of which occupied a separate walled zone within the cities they werestationed in. In cities where there were limitation of space such as in Qingzhou, a new fortified town would bepurposely erected to house the Banner garrison and their families. Beijing being the imperial seat, the regent Dorgonhad the entire Chinese population forcibly relocated to the southern suburbs which became known as the "OuterCitadel" (Chinese: 外城; pinyin: wàichéng). The northern walled city called "Inner Citadel" (Chinese: 內城; pinyin:nèichéng) was portioned out to the remaining Manchu Eight Banners, each responsible for guarding a section of the

Inner Citadel surrounding the Forbidden City palace complex.[q][citation needed]

The policy of posting Banner troops as territorial garrison was not to protect but to inspire awe in the subjugatedpopulace at the expense of their expertise as cavalry. As a result, after a century of peace and lack of field trainingthe Manchu Banner troops had deteriorated greatly in their combat worthiness. Secondly, before the conquest, theManchu banner was a "citizen" army, and its members were Manchu farmers and herders obligated to providemilitary service to the state at times of war. The Qing government's decision to turn the banner troops into a

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A late-Qing woodblock print

representing the Yangzhou

massacre of May 1645. By the

late 19th century, the massacre

was used by anti-Qing

revolutionaries to arouse anti-

Manchu sentiment among the

population.

General Zeng Guofan

professional force whose every welfare and need was met by state coffersbrought wealth, and with it corruption, to the rank and file of the ManchuBanners and hastened its decline as a fighting force. This was mirrored by asimilar decline in the Green Standard Army. During peace time, soldieringbecame merely a source of supplementary income. Soldiers and commandersalike neglected training in pursuit of their own economic gains. Corruption wasrampant as regional unit commanders submitted pay and supply requisitionsbased on exaggerated head counts to the quartermaster department andpocketed the difference. When the Taiping Rebellion broke out in 1850s, theQing court found out belatedly that the Banner and Green Standards troopscould neither put down internal rebellions nor keep foreign invaders at

bay.[citation needed]

Transition and modernization

Early during the Taiping Rebellion, Qing forcessuffered a series of disastrous defeatsculminating in the loss of the regional capital cityof Nanjing in 1853. The rebels massacred theentire Manchu garrison and their families in thecity and made it their capital. Shortly thereafter,a Taiping expeditionary force penetrated as farnorth as the suburbs of Tianjin in what wasconsidered the imperial heartlands. In

desperation the Qing court ordered a Chinese mandarin, Zeng Guofan, to organizeregional (simplified Chinese: 团勇; traditional Chinese: 團勇; pinyin: tuányǒng) andvillage (simplified Chinese: 乡勇; traditional Chinese: 鄉勇; pinyin: xiāngyǒng)militias into a standing army called tuanlian to contain the rebellion. Zeng Guofan'sstrategy was to rely on local gentries to raise a new type of military organization fromthose provinces that the Taiping rebels directly threatened. This new force became known as the Xiang Army,named after the Hunan region where it was raised. The Xiang Army was a hybrid of local militia and a standingarmy. It was given professional training, but was paid for out of regional coffers and funds its commanders —mostly members of the Chinese gentry — could muster. The Xiang Army and its successor, the Huai Army, created

by Zeng Guofan's colleague and student Li Hongzhang, were collectively called the "Yong Ying" (Brave Camp).[67]

Before forming and commanding the Xiang Army, Zeng Guofan had no military experience. Being a classicallyeducated Mandarin, his blueprint for the Xiang Army was taken from a historical source — the Ming general QiJiguang, who, because of the weakness of regular Ming troops, had decided to form his own "private" army torepel raiding Japanese pirates in the mid-16th century. Qi Jiguang's doctrine was based on Neo-Confucian ideas ofbinding troops' loyalty to their immediate superiors and also to the regions in which they were raised. This initiallygave the troops an excellent esprit de corps. Qi Jiguang's army was an ad hoc solution to the specific problem ofcombating pirates, as was Zeng Guofan's original intention for the Xiang Army, which was raise to eradicate theTaiping rebels. However, circumstances led to the Yongying system becoming a permanent institution within theQing military, which in the long run created problems of its own for the beleaguered central government.

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In 1894–1895, fighting over influence

in Korea, Japanese troops defeated

Qing forces.

The Beiyang Army in training

Footage of a naval battle during the

First Sino-Japanese War (1894).

First, the Yongying system signaled the end of Manchu dominance in Qing military establishment. Although theBanners and Green Standard armies lingered on as parasites depleting resources, henceforth the Yongying corps

became the Qing government's de facto first-line troops. Secondly theYongying corps were financed through provincial coffers and were led byregional commanders. This devolution of power weakened the centralgovernment's grip on the whole country, a weakness further aggravatedby foreign powers vying to carve up autonomous colonial territories indifferent parts of the Qing Empire in the later half of the 19th century.Despite these serious negative effects, the measure was deemednecessary as tax revenue from provinces occupied and threatened byrebels had ceased to reach the cash-strapped central government.Finally, the nature of Yongying command structure fostered nepotism andcronyism amongst its commanders, whom, as they ascended thebureaucratic ranks laid the seeds to Qing's eventual demise and the

outbreak of regional warlordism in China during the first half of the 20th century.[68]

By the late 19th century, China was fast descending into a semi-colonial state. Even the most conservative elements within the Qingcourt could no longer ignore China's military weakness in contrast tothe foreign "barbarians" literally beating down its gates. In 1860,during the Second Opium War, the capital Beijing was captured andthe Summer Palace sacked by a relatively small Anglo-Frenchcoalition force numbering 25,000. Although the Chinese inventedgunpowder, and firearms had been in continual use in Chinesewarfare since as far back as the Song dynasty, the advent ofmodern weaponry resulting from the European Industrial Revolutionhad rendered China's traditionally trained and equipped army andnavy obsolete. The government attempts to modernize during theSelf-Strengthening Movement were, in the view of most historianswith hindsight, piecemeal and yielded few lasting results. The various reasons for the apparent failure of late-Qingmodernization attempts that have been advanced including the lack of funds, lack of political will, and unwillingness

to depart from tradition. These reasons remain disputed.[69]

Losing the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 was a watershed forthe Qing government. Japan, a country long regarded by the Chinese aslittle more than an upstart nation of pirates, had convincingly beaten itslarger neighbour and in the process annihilated the Qing government'spride and joy — its modernized Beiyang Fleet, then deemed to be thestrongest naval force in Asia. In doing so, Japan became the first Asiancountry to join the previously exclusively western ranks of colonialpowers. The defeat was a rude awakening to the Qing court especiallywhen set in the context that it occurred a mere three decades after theMeiji Restoration set a feudal Japan on course to emulate the Westernnations in their economic and technological achievements. Finally, inDecember 1894, the Qing government took concrete steps to reformmilitary institutions and to re-train selected units in westernized drills,

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tactics and weaponry. These units were collectively called the New Army. The most successful of these was theBeiyang Army under the overall supervision and control of a former Huai Army commander, General Yuan Shikai,

who used his position to eventually become President of the Republic of China and finally emperor of China.[70]

Society

The most significant fact of early and mid-Qing social history was population growth. The population doubledduring the 18th century. People in this period were also remarkably on the move. There is evidence suggesting thatthe empire's rapidly expanding population was geographically mobile on a scale, which, in term of its volume and itsprotracted and routinized nature, was unprecedented in Chinese history. Indeed, the Qing government did far moreto encourage mobility than to discourage it. Migration took several different forms, though might be divided in twovarieties: permanent migration for resettlement, and relocation conceived by the party (in theory at least) as atemporary sojourn. Parties to the latter would include the empire's increasingly large and mobile manual workforce,as well as its densely overlapping internal diaspora of local-origin-based merchant groups. It would also includedthe patterned movement of Qing subjects overseas, largely to Southeastern Asia, in search of trade and other

economic opportunities.[71]

According to statute, Qing society was divided into relatively closed estates, of which in most general terms therewere five. Apart from the estates of the officials, the comparatively minuscule aristocracy, and the degree-holdingliterati, there also existed a major division among ordinary Chinese between commoners and people with inferior

status.[72] They were divided into two categories: one of them, the good "commoner" people, the other "mean"people. The majority of the population belonged to the first category and were described as liangmin, a legal termmeaning good people, as opposed to jianmin meaning the mean (or ignoble) people. Qing law explicitly stated thatthe traditional four occupational groups of scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants were "good", or having a statusof commoners. On the other hand, slaves or bondservants, entertainers (including prostitutes and actors), and thoselow-level employees of government officials were the "mean people". Mean people were considered legally inferior

to commoners and suffered unequal treatments, forbidden to take the imperial examination.[73]

Economy

See also: Economic history of China until 1912

By the end of the 17th century, the Chinese economy had recovered from the devastation caused by the wars in

which the Ming dynasty were overthrown, and the resulting breakdown of order.[74] In the following century,markets continued to expand as in the late Ming period, but with more trade between regions, a greater

dependence on overseas markets and a greatly increased population.[75] After the re-opening of the southeastcoast, which had been closed in the late 17th century, foreign trade was quickly re-established, and was expanding

at 4% per annum throughout the latter part of the 18th century.[76] China continued to export tea, silk and

manufactures, creating a large, favorable trade balance with the West.[77] The resulting inflow of silver expanded

the money supply, facilitating the growth of competitive and stable markets.[78]

The government broadened land ownership by returning land that had been sold to large landowners in the late

Ming period by families unable to pay the land tax.[79] To give people more incentives to participate in the market,they reduced the tax burden in comparison with the late Ming, and replaced the corvée system with a head tax used

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Qing vases, in the Calouste Gulbenkian

Museum, Lisbon, Portugal.

Landscape by Wang Gai 1694

to hire laborers.[80] The administration of the Grand Canal was made more efficient, and transport opened to

private merchants.[81] A system of monitoring grain prices eliminated severe shortages, and enabled the price of rice

to rise slowly and smoothly through the 18th century.[82] Wary of the power of wealthy merchants, Qing rulerslimited their trading licenses and usually refused them

permission to open new mines, except in poor areas.[83] Theserestrictions on domestic resource exploration, as well as onforeign trade, are held by some scholars as a cause of theGreat Divergence, by which the Western world overtookChina economically.

By the end of the 18th century the population had risen to 300million from approximately 150 million during the late Mingdynasty. The dramatic rise in population was due to severalreasons, including the long period of peace and stability in the18th century and the import of new crops China received fromthe Americas, including peanuts, sweet potatoes and maize.New species of rice from Southeast Asia led to a huge increasein production. Merchant guilds proliferated in all of the growingChinese cities and often acquired great social and even political influence. Rich merchants with official connections

built up huge fortunes and patronized literature, theater and the arts. Textile and handicraft production boomed.[77]

Arts and culture

Main articles: Chinese art § Late imperial China (1368–1911), Chinese literature § Classical fictionand drama, Classical Chinese poetry § History and development and Qing poetry

Under the Qing, traditional forms of art flourished and innovations weremade at many levels and in many types. High levels of literacy, asuccessful publishing industry, prosperous cities, and the Confucianemphasis on cultivation all fed a lively and creative set of cultural fields.

The Manchu emperors were generally adept at poetry and often skilledin painting, and offered their patronage to Confucian culture. TheKangxi and Qianlong Emperors, for instance, embraced Chinesetraditions both to control them and to proclaim their own legitimacy.The Kangxi Emperor sponsored the Peiwen Yunfu, a rhyme dictionarypublished in 1711, and the Kangxi Dictionary published in 1716,which remains to this day an authoritative reference. The QianlongEmperor sponsored the largest collection of writings in Chinese history,the Siku Quanshu, completed in 1782. Court painters made newversions of the Song masterpiece, Zhang Zeduan's Along the RiverDuring the Qingming Festival whose depiction of a prosperous andhappy realm demonstrated the beneficence of the emperor. Theemperors undertook tours of the south and commissioned monumental

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scrolls to depict the grandeur of the occasion.[84] Imperial patronage also encouraged the industrial production ofceramics and Chinese export porcelain.

Yet the most impressive aesthetic works were done among the scholars and urban elite. Calligraphy and painting[85]

remained a central interest to both court painters and scholar-gentry who considered the Four Arts part of their

cultural identity and social standing.[86] The painting of the early years of the dynasty included such painters as theorthodox Four Wangs and the individualists Bada Shanren (1626–1705) and Shitao (1641–1707). The nineteenth

century saw such innovations as the Shanghai school and the Lingnan School[87] which used the technical skills oftradition to set the stage for modern painting.

Literature grew to new heights in the Qing period. Poetry continued as a mark of the cultivated gentleman, butwomen wrote in larger and larger numbers and poets came from all walks of life. The poetry of the Qing dynasty isa lively field of research, being studied (along with the poetry of the Ming dynasty) for its association with Chineseopera, developmental trends of Classical Chinese poetry, the transition to a greater role for vernacular language,and for poetry by women in Chinese culture. The Qing dynasty was a period of much literary collection andcriticism, and many of the modern popular versions of Classical Chinese poems were transmitted through Qingdynasty anthologies, such as the Quantangshi and the Three Hundred Tang Poems. Pu Songling brought theshort story form to a new level in his Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, published in the mid-18th century,and Shen Fu demonstrated the charm of the informal memoir in Six Chapters of a Floating Life, written in theearly 19th century but published only in 1877. The art of the novel reached a pinnacle in Cao Xueqin's Dream ofthe Red Chamber, but its combination of social commentary and psychological insight were echoed in highly skilled

novels such as Wu Jingzi's The Scholars (1750) and Li Ruzhen's Flowers in the Mirror (1827).[88]

In drama, Kong Shangren's Kunqu opera The Peach Blossom Fan, completed in 1699, portrayed the tragicdownfall of the Ming dynasty in romantic terms. The most prestigious form became the so-called Peking opera,though local and folk opera were also widely popular.

Cuisine aroused a cultural pride in the accumulated richness of a long and varied past. The gentleman gourmet, suchas Yuan Mei, applied aesthetic standards to the art of cooking, eating, and appreciation of tea at a time when NewWorld crops and products entered everyday life. The Manchu Han Imperial Feast originated at the court. Althoughthis banquet was probably never common, it reflected an appreciation by Han Chinese for Manchu culinary

customs.[89]

By the end of the nineteenth century, all elements of national artistic and cultural life had recognized and begun tocome to terms with world culture as found in the West and Japan. Whether to stay within old forms or welcomeWestern models was now a conscious choice rather than an unchallenged acceptance of tradition. Classicallytrained Confucian scholars such as Liang Qichao and Wang Guowei broke ground later cultivated in the NewCulture Movement.

See also

List of rebellions in China

Costumes of Qing officials

Timeline of Chinese history

Mongolia during Qing rule

Qing dynasty family tree

Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period

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Table of Chinese monarchs

Qing imperial consorts

Qing official headwear

History of China

History of rail transport in China

International relations (1814-1919)

Islam during the Qing dynasty

List of Manchu clans

List of recipients of tribute from China

Military history of China

The Rise and Fall of Qing Dynasty

Anti-Qing sentiment

Timeline of late anti-Qing rebellions

Qing poetry

Qing Dynasty Taiwan Provincial Administration Hall

Royal and noble ranks of the Qing dynasty

Notes

a. ^ The exact figure of Li Zicheng's forces at the battle of Shanhai Pass is disputed. Some primary sources, such as

the official Qing and Ming court histories (Chinese: 《清世祖實錄》, 《明史》), cite 200,000. Modern historians

generally estimate Li Zicheng's army to be no larger than 100,000.

b. ^ This event was recorded by Italian Jesuit Martin Martinius in his account Bellum Tartaricum with original text in

Latin, first published in Rome 1654. First English edition, London: John Crook, 1654.

c. ^ simplified Chinese: 垂帘听政; traditional Chinese: 垂簾聽政; pinyin: chuílián tīngzhèng

d. ^ Chinese: 六部; pinyin: lìubù

e. ^ simplified Chinese: 尚书; traditional Chinese: 尚書; pinyin: shàngshū; Ma: Aliha amban

f. ^ Chinese: 侍郎; pinyin: shìláng; Ma: Ashan i amban

g. ^ simplified Chinese: 内阁; traditional Chinese: 內閣; pinyin: nèigé; Ma: Dorgi yamun

h. ^ simplified Chinese: 军机处; traditional Chinese: 軍機處; pinyin: jūnjī chù

i. ^ simplified Chinese: 军机大臣; traditional Chinese: 軍機大臣; pinyin: jūnjī dàchén

j. ^ Chinese: 吏部; pinyin: lìbù; Ma: Hafan i jurgan

k. ^ Chinese: 户部; pinyin: hùbù; Ma: Boigon i jurgan

l. ^ simplified Chinese: 礼部; traditional Chinese: 禮部; pinyin: lǐbù; Ma: Dorolon i jurgan

m. ^ Chinese: 兵部; pinyin: bīngbù; Ma: Coohai jurgan

n. ^ Chinese: 刑部; pinyin: xíngbù; Ma: Beidere jurgan

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o. ^ Chinese: 工部; pinyin: gōngbù; Ma: Weilere jurgan

p. ^ Chinese: 包衣; pinyin: bāoyī

q. ^ Chinese: 紫禁城; pinyin: zǐjìnchéng; Ma: Dabkūri dorgi hoton

References

1. ^ Elliott (2001), pp. 290–291.

2. ^ Turchin, Peter; Adams, Jonathan M.; Hall, Thomas D. (December 2006). "East-West Orientation of Historical

Empires" (http://jwsr.ucr.edu/archive/vol12/number2/pdf/jwsr-v12n2-tah.pdf). Journal of world-systems research

12 (2): 219–229. ISSN 1076-156X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/1076-156X). Retrieved 12 August 2010.

3. ^ Crossley (1997), pp. 212–213.

4. ^ Elliott (2001), p. 402, note 118.

5. ^ Treaty of Nanking. 1842.

6. ^ McKinley, William. "Second State of the Union Address". 5 Dec. 1898.

7. ^ Bilik, Naran. "Names Have Memories: History, Semantic Identity and Conflict in Mongolian and Chinese

Language Use." Inner Asia 9.1 (2007): 23–39. p. 34

8. ^ Sino-American Treaty of Tien-Tsin. 1860.

9. ^ Burlingame Treaty. 1869.

10. ^ Hauer (2007), p. 117 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=NESwGW_5uLoC&pg=PA117&dq=Dulimbai+gurun&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iT7tUsrhM4bhyQH_04HYBg&ved=0C

FgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Dulimbai%20gurun&f=false).

11. ^ Dvořák (1895), p. 80 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=TmhtAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA80&dq=Dulimbai+gurun&hl=en&sa=X&ei=-0PtUoKZEKWgyAH8oIHgBQ&ved=0CF

0Q6AEwCTge#v=onepage&q=Dulimbai%20gurun&f=false).

12. ^ Wu (1995), p. 102 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=zqVug_wN4hEC&pg=PA102&dq=Dulimbai+gurun&hl=en&sa=X&ei=m0PtUtv-

OIOTyQHX8YCwAQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage&q=Dulimbai%20gurun&f=false).

13. ^ Zhao (2006), pp. 4, 7–10, and 12–14 (https://webspace.utexas.edu/hl4958/perspectives/Zhao%20-

%20reinventing%20china.pdf).

14. ^ Elliott & Chia (2004), pp. 77, 83.

15. ^ Elliott (2001), p. 503 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=_qtgoTIAiKUC&pg=PA503&dq=steppes+mountains+rivers+Dzungar+unified+with+china&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5

UHtUuvvCcu_sQStu4HYBw&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=steppes%20mountains%20rivers%20Dzungar

%20unified%20with%20china&f=false).

16. ^ Elliott & Chia (2004), pp. 76–77.

17. ^ Cassel (2012), pp. 44 and 205 (http://books.google.com/books?

id=qlJpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA205&dq=Dulimbai+gurun&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iT7tUsrhM4bhyQH_04HYBg&ved=0CDs

Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Dulimbai%20gurun&f=false).

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Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Dulimbai%20gurun&f=false).

18. ^ Perdue (2005), p. 218 (http://books.google.com/books?id=J4L-

_cjmSqoC&pg=PA218&dq=Dulimbai+gurun&hl=en&sa=X&ei=90LtUpuHEaSMyAHAl4DoDA&ved=0CEQQ6AE

wBTgK#v=onepage&q=Dulimbai%20gurun&f=false).

19. ^ Ebrey (2010), p. 220.

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21. ̂a b Bernard Hung-Kay Luk, Amir Harrak-Contacts between cultures, Volume 4, p.25

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Further reading

Bickers, Robert (2011), The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832–1914,

Penguin, ISBN 978-0-7139-9749-1.

Cotterell, Arthur (2007), The Imperial Capitals of China - An Inside View of the Celestial Empire,

London: Pimlico, ISBN 978-1-84595-009-5.

Dunnell, Ruth W.; Elliott, Mark C.; Foret, Philippe et al., eds. (2004), New Qing Imperial History: The

Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-134-36222-6.

Esherick, Joseph; Kayalı, Hasan; Van Young, Eric, eds. (2006), Empire to Nation: Historical

Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 978-0-7425-4031-6.

Fairbank, John K.; Liu, Kwang-Ching, eds. (1980), Late Ch'ing 1800–1911, Part 2, The Cambridge

History of China 11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-22029-3.

Paludan, Ann (1998), Chronicle of the Chinese Emperors, London: Thames & Hudson, ISBN 978-0-

500-05090-3.

Peterson, Willard, ed. (2003), The Ch'ing Empire to 1800, The Cambridge History of China 11,

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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-24334-6.

Rowe, William T. (2009), The Great Qing, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-

03612-3.

Smith, Richard Joseph (1994), China's Cultural Heritage: The Qing Dynasty, 1644–1912, Westview

Press, ISBN 978-0-8133-1347-4.

Spence, Jonathan (1997), God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, New

York: W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978-0-393-31556-1.

Struve, Lynn A. (1968), Voices from the Ming-Qing Cataclysm: China in Tigers' Jaws, Yale: Yale

University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-07553-3.

—— (2004), The Qing Formation in World-Historical Time, Harvard University Asia Center,

ISBN 978-0-674-01399-5.

Waley-Cohen, Joanna (2006), The culture of war in China: empire and the military under the Qing

dynasty, I.B. Tauris, ISBN 978-1-84511-159-5.

Woo, X.L. (2002), Empress dowager Cixi: China's last dynasty and the long reign of a formidable

concubine: legends and lives during the declining days of the Qing dynasty, Algora Publishing,

ISBN 978-1-892941-88-6.

Zhao, Gang (2013), The Qing Opening to the Ocean: Chinese Maritime Policies, 1684–1757, University

of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3643-6.

Historiography

Newby, L.J. (2011), "China: Pax Manjurica", Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 34 (4): 557–563,

doi:10.1111/j.1754-0208.2011.00454.x (http://dx.doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1754-0208.2011.00454.x).

Ho, Ping-Ti (1967), "The Significance of the Ch'ing Period in Chinese History", The Journal of Asian

Studies 26 (2): 189–195, JSTOR 2051924 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2051924).

—— (1998), "In Defense of Sinicization: A Rebuttal of Evelyn Rawski's 'Reenvisioning the Qing' ", The

Journal of Asian Studies 57 (1): 123–155, JSTOR 2659026 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2659026).

Rawski, Evelyn S. (1996), "Reenvisioning the Qing: The Significance of the Qing Period in Chinese History",

The Journal of Asian Studies 55 (4): 829–850, JSTOR 2646525 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2646525).

Waley-Cohen, Joanna (2004), "The New Qing History", Radical History Review 88 (1): 193–206,

doi:10.1215/01636545-2004-88-193 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1215%2F01636545-2004-88-193). A review

essay on revisionist works.

External links

Section on the Ming and Qing dynasties of "China's Population: Readings and Maps

(http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm)." Retrieved on 2008-11-10.

5/6/2014 Qing dynasty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_dynasty 37/37

Preceded by

Ming dynastyDynasties in Chinese history

1644–1912

Succeeded by

Republic of China

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Qing_dynasty&oldid=607294559"

Categories: Former countries in East Asia States and territories established in 1644

States and territories disestablished in 1912 Qing dynasty Imperial Chinese dynasties History of Manchuria

History of Mongolia 17th century in China 18th century in China 19th century in China

20th century in China

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