Expert answer:Modern China class question
Expert answer:What political and military strategies did the Manchus adopt to successfully defeat the ailing Ming dynasty?What factors contributed to peace and prosperity in Qing China?
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China and the
Eighteenth-Century World
The Manchu Conquest
Characteristics of the Qing State
Three Emperors of the High Qing
The Prosperous Age
The Manchu Conquest
By the early 1600s, the aging Ming dynasty was decaying. Revolts
erupted, and Manchu invaders from the north pushed through the
Great Wall. The Manchus ruled a region in the northeast,
Manchuria, that had long been influenced by Chinese civilization.
In 1644, victorious Manchu armies seized Beijing and made it their
capital.
The Manchus set up a new dynasty called the Qing. They won the
support of Han Chinese scholars-officials because they adopted the
Confucian system of government.
For each top government position, the Qing chose two people -one Manchu and one Han Chinese. Local government remained in
the hands of the Chinese, but Manchu troops stationed across the
empire ensured loyalty.
The Manchu Empire
1644-1911
Characteristics of the Qing State
The Qing state inherited a long tradition of Chinese bureaucratic
rule and a political system that was of great interest to many
European thinkers in the late 1600s and early 1700s, when
Europeans were beginning to consider changes to their own
political systems.
The Chinese system of bureaucratic rule was unprecedented in
human history, and it contributed greatly to the ability of the Qing
dynasty to rule over a vast territory.
Four aspects of Chinese government that struck Western observers
of the time most forcibly were the:
Role of Emperor and the Mandate of Heaven
Integrated Bureaucracy
Official Service based on Merit and Social Responsibility
A Government of “Elite Commoners”
The Emperor and the Mandate of Heaven
The Chinese system of rule relied on a strong central government
headed by an emperor, who, with his many relatives, constituted a
ruling family and lineage. But the emperor did not necessarily have
the absolute power that is often associated with traditional
monarchy.
The Chinese never believed in the “divine right of kings.” They
believed that an emperor had to be an exceptional being — a sage
king — who could mediate the cosmic forces. His actions had to be
tempered by basic political expectations, and he had to do the
things that an emperor should do. If he did not do these things, he
could be overthrown, and this would be considered legitimate.
When a new dynasty was established, it was believed that the
Mandate of Heaven had passed to the ruling house.
An Integrated Bureaucracy
The Chinese government during the Qing was an integrated
bureaucracy — that is, political power flowed from the top to the
bottom through a series of hierarchically ordered positions that
extended down to the county level, where a local magistrate
headed a county office, called the yamen.
This hierarchically integrated bureaucracy was remarkable because
the people who had positions as officials within the bureaucracy
were not there because they were members of a hereditary
aristocracy. Rather, officials acquired their positions according to a
system of merit established on the basis of government
examinations.
Official Selection by Merit and Social
Responsibility
Those who had the ambition to become government officials were
schooled from an early age in the canonical literature and the
philosophical works of China’s great Confucian tradition.
It was through this learning that would-be officials would be able to
formulate a personal, moral and ethical structure for themselves,
their family, and their local community. They also would develop an
understanding of how one should appropriately act as a member of
the group of people that rules the state.
Examinations were given at the county level, and successful
candidates progressed to higher levels, all the way to the highestlevel examinations, which were given at the imperial capital. If one
could pass the examinations at this level, then chances were very
great that one would certainly become a member of the small
coterie of elite bureaucrats that ruled China.
A Government of “Elite Commoners”
The ability of someone to get the education needed to sit for these
examinations relied to a certain extent on wealth, although families
often coordinated their wealth so that the brightest and most
promising of their children would be able to rise through this
system.
An important consequence of this system of meritocracy that
peopled the Chinese bureaucracy with the best and the brightest of
the literati was that the Chinese state was not ruled by aristocrats
that had inherited their positions.
Rather, it was a state ruled by those who were of the “common
people,” although often they were the elite among the common.
Nevertheless, they had ties to families, relatives, and others who
were engaged in non-government occupations (such as merchants,
farmers, and landowners).
Western Admirers of the Chinese State
During the time that the Qing dynasty ruled China, these ideas of a
civil government based on meritocracy and social responsibility
were admired and promoted by prominent writers and philosophers
of the 18th-century Enlightenment period in Europe and the 19thcentury Transcendentalist movement in America, including Voltaire
in France, English diplomats serving in China, and Ralph Waldo
Emerson in the United States.
It is interesting to try to understand how Europeans were learning of
China during this time, and what their reactions were to Chinese
ideas and learning, and how understandings — and
misunderstandings — of Chinese culture had a profound impact on
the society and cultural beliefs of Europe during this time.
Three Emperors of the High Qing:
Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong
The 268-year duration of the period known as the “High Qing”
dynasty was dominated by the rule of three monarchs:
the Kangxi emperor, who reigned from 1662 to 1722;
his fourth son, the Yongzheng emperor, who reigned from 17231736;
and his grandson, the Qianlong emperor, who reigned from
1736 to 1796.
These three emperors set the course of Qing history and, in large
part, created the political, economic, and cultural legacy inherited
by modern China.
The Kangxi Emperor, 1662-1722
For the Manchus, who were a foreign
(unlike the ethnically Han majority, who
dominated Chinese politics during the
previous Ming dynasty), a major task on
the road to effective rule in China was to
enlist the help of the Han Chinese
populace — in particular, the elite
scholarly class.
The man most responsible for
accomplishing this was the Kangxi
emperor.
Portrait of the Kangxi emperor, Qing dynasty
The Manchu Way of Rulership
The Kangxi Emperor came to the throne in
1662, when he was only 8 years old.
After achieving his independence from several
powerful regents, the Kangxi Emperor
immediately began to recruit scholars from the
Yangzi River delta area in southern China.
The Kangxi Emperor brought these men into
his court to support his cause of transforming
the Manchu way of rulership into a truly
Confucian establishment. Through this
maneuver, the Kangxi Emperor was able to win
over the scholarly elite and the Chinese
populace at large.
Portrait of the Kangxi Emperor as a Young Man, Anonymous, Qing Dynasty
Stabilization of the Qing Empire
The first half of the Kangxi Emperor’s
rule was devoted to the stabilization
of the empire: gaining control over
the Manchu hierarchy and
suppressing armed rebellions.
It was only in the second half of his
rule that he would begin to turn his
attention to economic prosperity and
the patronage of art and culture.
The Kangxi emperor on an
inspection tour. Wang Hui and
other artists. 1690s.
Secret Palace Memorial System
Another important innovation that
took place during the Qing period
was to improve the communication
system that existed between
government officials and the state -the system of “memorials” or
communications on policy written
by local officials and sent to the
central government.
Building on this existing system, the
Qing introduced the “Secret Palace
Memorial System,” which was an
opportunity for the emperor to
communicate directly with officials.
Palace Memorial, Anonymous,
Qing dynasty
Autocracy at Work
During the period referred to as the “High Qing”,” the Secret Palace
Memorial system operated very well.
The High Qing saw very energetic emperors who, for the most part,
read these memorials themselves, or had small committees of
people reading the memorials and functioning like an imperial
cabinet. In this way the Qing emperors were able to get more
accurate reports of how policies were functioning within the local
context than had emperors of dynasties past.
This supported the ability of the Qing state to adjust its local policies
accordingly to ensure the popular welfare, and also enhanced the
ability of the state in the 18th century, particularly under the
Qianlong emperor, to expand its reach into newly subdued
territories.
The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Tours
The imperial inspection tours of the Kangxi
emperor were a first in Chinese history. Other
emperors in other eras had form time to time
completed a single inspection tour or made the
epic journey to Mount Tai to worship Heaven, but
the Kangxi emperor was the first to undertake
multiple tours of inspection to all corners of the
empire.
These personal inspection tours were part of a
strategy for extending and solidifing Manchu rule
throughout the empire.
During his 60-year reign, the Kangxi emperor
completed six southern inspection tours.
Map of the imperial southern inspection tour routes
Imperial Legitimacy and the Cosmic Order
The Kangxi Emperor’s southern
inspection tours took him to some of
the most significant cultural sites in
the empire.
A key function of the Southern Tour
paintings was to commemorate and
highlight those moments when the
Kangxi Emperor performed a
significant ceremony or ritual activity
that underscored his identity as an
ideal Chinese monarch.
“The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Three: Ji’nan to Mount Tai,”
Detail. Qing dynasty.
The Yongzheng Emperor, 1723-1735
The Yongzheng Emperor was the fourth
emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. His
father, the Kangxi Emperor left fourteen sons
and no designated heir; many accounts suggest
Yongzheng usurped the throne from his younger
brother, and portray him as a despot.
The Yongzheng Emperor’s official persona was
that of a distant, secretive and ruthless monarch.
The many unofficial portraits and pictorial
records he commissioned indicate an eccentric
yet sophisticated ruler who dared to deviate from
approved patterns and paths.
Portrait of the Yongzheng emperor in court dress
Centralization and Reform in the
Yongzheng Reign
Though he is less well-known than the Kangxi Emperor and his
son, the Qianlong Emperor, the Yongzheng Emperor’s thirteen-year
rule was efficient and vigorous.
During his reign, the Qing administration was centralized and
reforms were instituted that ensured a period of continued
development in China. He disliked corruption and punished officials
severely when they were found guilty of the offense.
Yongzheng reformed the fiscal administration and strengthened the
authority of the throne by uniting Qing military leadership under the
emperor. The Qing government encouraged settlement in the
southwest, appointed Han Chinese officials to important posts, and
used military force to secure China’s borders.
Sponsorship of Art in the Yongzheng Reign
The Yongzheng Emperor was the first true art-lover among the
Manchu rulers. Unlike the more practically-minded Kangxi Emperor,
who believed himself duty-bound to look after items inherited from the
past and to uphold standards of craftsmanship, the Yongzheng
Emperor passionately cared for and lived with works of art.
From the very first year of his reign, the Yongzheng Emperor
commissioned items from the Palace Workshops, whose output
changed in nature as a result. Whereas his predecessor had been
interested in the mastery of technical challenges, he took pride in the
artistic aspect of their creations.
Although Chinese artifacts were traditionally produced anonymously,
the names of well over one hundred craftsmen are recorded from the
Yongzheng period. The Emperor knew his artisans by name,
personally commented on their work and specially rewarded creations
that he considered outstanding.
Portraying the Yongzheng Emperor
During the Qing dynasty, it was
common for emperors to commission
portraits of themselves engaging in
various types of leisure activities.
Since these seemingly intimate
representations of an emperor at
leisure, known as “pictures of
pleasurable activities” (xingle tu), were
conscious manifestations of the
imperial personality — a type of
imperial propaganda — the choice of
these activities depicted is emblematic.
Portrait of the Yongzheng emperor as a Tibetan lama meditating in a cave, Anonymous.
Yongzheng period.
The Emperor at Leisure
The Yongzheng emeror commissioned a set of
fourteen “costume portraits,” depicting himself
as a Confucian scholar with books and writing
brush; a Buddhist itinerant monk; a Tibetan
lama meditating in a cave; a Daoist immortal
with a gourd hanging from his staff; a recluse
listening to the waves; a fisherman dreaming;
two figures in possession of magic charms: a
pearl for summoning a dragon (that is, rain), and
a peach of immortality; and three foreigners: a
Mongol nobleman, an archer perhaps of a
nomadic tribe, and a European hunter wearing
a wig.
Portrait of a bewigged Yongzheng emperor. Anonymous. Yongzheng period.
The Qianlong Emperor, 1736-1796
The Qianlong Emperor ruled from 1736 to
1796. His reign lasted almost exactly as long
as that of his grandfather.
Under the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the
Chinese empire grew to a size
unprecedented in Chinese history and
included Tibet and a great deal of central
Asia, including parts of what are today
Russia.
In addition, China extended its political
control over some of the smaller states in
Southeast Asia and Korea. At the height of
the Qianlong Emperor’s rule, China
Inauguration portrait of
dominated East Asia militarily, politically, and
the Qianlong emperor
culturally.
Creation of a Multi-Ethnic State
Under the reign of the Qianlong
Emperor the image of a multiethnic
Chinese empire began to emerge,
comprising not only Han Chinese
(the majority ethnic group and the
dominant language group in China),
but also Mongols, Tibetans, and
Manchus, among others, each with
their indigenous religious traditions.
Tibetan Buddhism, the Manchu
shamanistic cult, and the religions of
the Mongols were all well supported
during the Qianlong Emperor’s
reign.
Map of the Manchu Empire
The Qianlong Emperor as a
Universal Ruler
The Qianlong Emperor was the first Qing
emperor to feel at ease with both his Manchu
and his Chinese identities. He began to
conceive of himself as a “universal ruler.”
He deliberately represented himself differently
to each of the various constituents that
formed his multiethnic empire.
to the Tibetans, he portrayed himself as a
reincarnation of one of the most important
bodhisattvas of Tibetan Buddhism, Manjusri;
for the Mongols he took on the role of a steppe
prince who understood their steppe traditions;
Portrait of the Qianlong
to the Han Chinese he portrayed himself as a
scholar and great patron of Chinese learning and emperor as the Tibetan
art.
Bodhisattva Manjusri
Patronage of the Arts
The Qianlong Emperor’s ambitions were all vast
in scale. In addition to patronizing the arts, he
also commissioned compendia of all the great
literary works of the time, and the number of
ancient Chinese paintings and artifacts collected
during the Qianlong Emperor’s reign was
unprecedented.
The collections of the national palace museums
in Beijing and Taipei were largely formed under
the Qianlong Emperor and, today, are the largest
repositories of important Chinese artifacts.
The Qianlong emperor viewing paintings
The Prosperous Age
For the first 200 years of the Qing dynasty, China’s economy was in
a period of expansion. The economic growth that had begun under
during the previous Ming dynasty (1368-1644) continued under the
Manchus, up until the time of the Opium War in the 1840s.
New markets were being founded, and merchants were extending
their businesses across provincial lines and even into the South
China Sea.
Domestically, China enjoyed a dynamic, commercializing economy,
and in some small ways, even an industrializing economy.
A Predominantly Farming Economy
China’s economy during the Qing
dynasty was still largely a farming
economy.
Eighty percent of the population
lived in the countryside at the end
of the Qing dynasty, and most
people had some relationship to
farming or to something that was a
byproduct of farming.
On the other hand, by the late Ming
dynasty and into the Qing dynasty,
approximately eighty percent of the
population lived within a day’s
journey of a market town.
Cotton merchant in Suzhou
Paper Money and Bimetallic Currency
Although China was one of the first
societies to introduce paper money
(around the 11th century), for most of
its history before modern times, as well
as during the Qing dynasty, China also
used bimetallic currency, meaning that
both copper and silver were in
circulation.
Copper coins (with an opening cut out
in the middle, used to tie several coins
together) were used for everyday
transactions, and silver was used for
larger transactions and for paying taxes
to the government.
Chinese copper coin, Jiaqing
reign (1796-1820)
Commodities and Markets
China did not have a single central
market during the Qing dynasty, but
it was big enough to have many
important markets and goods
moving amongst them.
Some goods — particularly specialty
items — moved across great
distances. Medicinal herbs from the
mountains in West China moved
East, where they were used for
medicines and salves. Cotton
moved from North China to cotton
weavers in Central China.
Location and spatial distribution of
Qing dynasty market towns
Early Banks and Long-distance Trade
Qing-dynasty private bank
China had a huge market and a large
number of commodities that were
moving both within local marketing
systems and over longer distances.
But conducting this kind of business with
heavy, metal money became
problematic, especially for long-distance
trade.
Remittance banks were developed to
take cash deposits and issue a
remittance certificate that could be
redeemed elsewhere. By the 18th
century there was a vast network of
such banks.
The Importance of the Grand Canal
The Qing state facilitated the movement
of goods to market by locating Beijing,
its capital, far to the north, away from
the rich and prosperous rice growing
areas of southern China.
The Grand Canal was a major conduit
for grain, salt, and other important
commodities.
Any taxes that were paid in kind were
paid in grain, which was shipped along
the Grand Canal. Thus, control of the
Grand Canal was of critical importance
to the Qing government.
Map of the Grand Canal
Looking Ahead
In 1800, the Qing dynasty was at the height of its power. China had
experienced a long period of peace and prosperity under the rule of
the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors. Its borders were
secure, its culture and intellectual achievements were the envy of
the world.
A little over a century later, the Qing dynasty collapsed, bringing to
an end more than 2000 years of imperial history.
One reason for the rapid decline and fall of the Manchu dynasty
was pressure from the Wes …
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