Qing Dynasty(1644 1911 A.D)

Government

• Form of military organization that the Qing used was one of the best in the world.

• Adopted the form of government used by the Ming (w/ only minor adjustments).

• They organized their troops under banners, each of which was a separate unit. The number of banners grew from 8 in the beginning to 24.

• The emperor owned the men.• The men were incredibly loyal to the emperor.

Ex. One Manchu and one Chinese were in the same position, with the Manchu having more power.

Eight Banner System

• Established by Nurhachi in the early seventeenth century

• “banners”: military units

• For the Banner Soldiers: A salary system was instituted, ranks standardized, and the Eight Banners became a sort of hereditary military caste, though with a strong ethnic inflection.

• Banner soldiers took up permanent positions, either as defenders of the capital, Beijing, where roughly half of them lived with their families, or in the provinces, where some eighteen garrisons were established.

• The largest banner garrisons: Beijing, followed by Xi'an and Hangzhou.

Hierarchy (BANNER SYSTEM)

• The banners had a hierarchical structure:

The smallest unit was niru (or 佐領 zuoling in Chinese; 300 men). The next was jalan (or 參 領 canling); 5 niru and 5 jalan consisted a gūsa (banner). Of course, these were ideal numbers and their actual sizes varied substantially.

Effectiveness• Although the banners were instrumental in the Qing Empire

takeover of China proper in the 17th century from the Ming Empire, they began to fall behind in rising western powers in the 18th century, and were to ultimately become highly ineffective in modern warfare by the second half of the 19th century. The later banners proved unable to defeat Western powers, such as Britain, in the Opium Wars and were also seriously challenged by the Taiping Rebellion.

PLAIN YELLOW BANNER

BORDERED YELLOW BANNER

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PLAIN WHITE BANNER

BORDERED WHITE BANNER

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PLAIN RED BANNER

BORDERED RED BANNER

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PLAIN BLUE BANNER

BORDERED BLUE BANNER

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Strategy (part I)

• Successful as foreign rulers in China.

• They maintained their domination of the Chinese by preserving their own identity.

• They spent their summers in their homeland of Manchuria, which was closed to the Chinese.

• They banned intermarriage among the Chinese.

• Continued to speak their own language.

• Did not make their documents available to the Chinese.

Strategy (part II)

• They retained military strength over the Chinese by separating the duties of the Chinese troops and of the Manchu troops. The Chinese were not trained as a striking force.

• To keep the Mongols away, they first immobilized and divided the Mongols under a similar fashion as the Ming had done.

Clothing

• Required the Chinese men to shave their heads and wear queues.

• They also required them to wear Manchu clothes rather than the clothing style of the Ming Dynasty.

• The Qing did not require the Chinese women to change their dress, yet they did forbid them to bind their feet. This proved impossible to enforce and in 1668 A.D. the

ruling was withdrawn.

Agriculture

• A custom the Qing did not attempt to change.

• The Qing favored an isolationist policy, which proved fatal.

• The lack of trade hurt China

economically.

History of

Qing Dynasty

“Latter Jin”

• One of the Five Dynasties during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period in China

• Set up by Nurhachu, leader of the Man Ethnic Minority.

• Man people were the offspring of the Nuzhen people who had always been living in Northeast China. After reunifying all the Nuzhen tribes, Nurhachu proclaimed himself emperor in 1616. Thus a new regime called Latter Jin was founded in Hetu Ala (in current Liaoning Province) during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644).

Formation of the Manchu State

• Nurhachi- formed the Manchu State in the early 17th century

- 1609 - he declared himself Emperor of the Later Jin - he expanded the state's economic and human resources as well as technology by enslaving the Chinese inhabitants of Manchuria- 1625 – he established his capital at Shenyang

- 1626 - the following year he suffered his first major military defeat to the Ming general Yuan Chonghuan

- Nurhaci died the same year. One of his most important achievements was the creation of eight banner units responsible for the civil and military administration of all its troops and their families.

After Nurhachi• Hong Taiji

- son of Nurhachi, continued to build on his father’s foundation - adopted many Ming political institutions into his Manchu state, but also provided for Manchu domination of those institutions through a quota system - Mongols surrendered to the Manchus and gave the great seal of the Yuan Emperor to Hong Taiji- 1636 - Hong Taiji renamed the state Qing (pure) suggesting ambitions beyond Manchuria - In a series of military campaigns, he won the submission of Inner Mongolia, Korea and took control of the Amur River (Heilongjiang) region

Conquest of China• April 1644 - Beijing was sacked by a coalition

of rebel forces led by Li Zicheng

• Ming dynasty officially came to an end when the last Ming emperor committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree on the hill overlooking the Forbidden City

• Li Zicheng led an army of 60,000 strong to confront Wu Sangui, the general commanding Ming's 100,000 strong garrison guarding Shanhaiguan 

• Wu, caught between two enemies, decided to cast his lots with the Manchus and made an alliance with Dorgon, regent to the then six-year old Shunzhi, son of Huang Taiji who had passed away the year before.

• May 27, 1644 - Together the two armies met Li Zicheng's rebel forces in battle

• June 6 - Even though the rebel forces were routed, Wu's army was so weakened by the day's fighting that he had no choice but to join the Manchus forces as they captured Beijing and began their conquest of the whole of China.

• The process took another seventeen years of battling Ming loyalists, pretenders and rebels.

….Forbidden City

Kangxi and Consolidation

• Controlling newly won empire a daunting task - The vastness of China's territory meant that there were only

enough banner troops to garrison key cities forming the backbone of a defense network that relied heavily on surrendered Ming soldiers.

• Kangxi - Personally led China on a series of military campaigns against Tibet,

the Jüün Ghar, and later Russia. - He arranged the marriage of his daughter to the Khan Gordhun to avoid

an invasion

- Civil order and recognition by the people of Qing was Kangxi's foremost agenda.

By the end of the 17th century, China was at its most powerful since the early Yuan Dynasty.

The Yongzheng & Qianlong emperors

• Yongzheng

– was a very hardworking ruler – His first big step towards a stronger regime came when he

brought the State Examination System back to its original standards

– 1724 - he cracked down on illegal exchange rates of coins, which was being manipulated by officials to fit their financial needs

– was known as harsh, and in many ways, ruthless – did show trust in Han officials, and appointed many of his

proteges to prestigious positions

– Nian Gengyao was appointed to lead a military campaign

– Yonzheng's reign saw more consolidation of territory, a toughened stance towards corrupt officials, and the creation of a Military Affairs Department

– Yongzheng died in 1735, shortly after he ordered his third son, Hongshi, to commit suicide. This was followed by the succession of his son Hongli as the Qianlong Emperor.

– Qianlong was known as an able general. Succeeding the throne at the age of 23, Qianlong personally led the military in campaigns near Xinjiang and Mongolia. Revolts and uprisings in Sichuan and parts of southern China were successfully calmed.

– Around fourty years into Qianlong's reign, the Qing government saw a return of rampant corruption. Officials such as Ho Shen was arguably one of the most corrupt in the entire Qing Dynasty. He was eventually executed by Qianlong's son Jiaqing (r. 1796 -1820).

The Rule of Empress Dowager Cixi

• The Qing dynasty then proceeded to deal with problem of modernization, which it attempted with the Self-Strengthening Movement

• In the late 19th century a new leader emerged. Empress Dowager Cixi, who was the mother of child emperor Tongzhi, and Aunt ofGuangxu successfully controlled the Qing government and was the de facto leader of China for close to 40 years. She was known for her "behind the curtain" participation in politics.

• 10 years into the reign of Guangxu (r. 1875 - 1908), western pressure was so big on China that she forcefully gave up all sorts of power

• In 1898 Guangxu attempted the Hundred Days' Reform ( 百日维新 / 戊戌变法 ), in which new laws were put in place and some old rules were abolished. Newer, more progressive-minded thinkers like Kang Youwei was trusted and recognized conservative-minded people like Li Hongzhang were removed from high positions. but the ideals were stifled by Cixi and Guangxu was jailed in his own palace

• Cixi, on the other hand, only concentrated on her own power and well being. At the occasion of her 60th Birthday she spend over 30 million taels of silver for the decorations & events, an unthinkable amount even by today's terms.

• In 1901, following the murder of the German Ambassador, the Alliance of Eight Nations ( 八國聯軍 ) entered China as a united military force for the second time. Cixi reacted by declaring war on all eight nations, only to see Beijing under their control within a short period of time. Along with the Guangxu Emperor, she fled to Xi'an. As a military compensation, the Alliance listed scores of demands on the Qing Government, including an initial hitlist which had Cixi as No. 1. Li Hongzhang was sent to negotiate and the Alliance backed down from several of the demands.

Rebellion and Unrest

• 19th Century - Qing control weakened - Prosperity diminished - China suffered massive social strife, economic stagnation,

and explosive population growth • starting with the reign of the Daoguang

Emperor (r. 1820 - 1850), Western penetration and influence was more freely allowed into the country

• Britain's desire to continue its illegal opium trade with China collided with imperial edicts prohibiting the addictive drug, and the First Opium War erupted in 1840. China lost the war; subsequently, Britain and other Western powers, including the United States, forcibly occupied "concessions" and gained special commercial privileges.

• Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanjing.

Fall of the Dynasty

• Mass civil disorder had also begun and continuously grown.

• 1908 - Cixi and the Guangxu emperor both died, leaving a relatively powerless and unstable central authority

• October 10, 1911 – Wuchang Uprising

• Numerous provinces began "separating" from Qing control

After The Fall Of Qing Dynasty

• The unorganized political and economic systems combined with a widespread criticism of Chinese culture led to questioning and doubt about the future.

• China's turbulent history since the overthrow of the Qing may be understood at least in part as an attempt to understand and recover significant aspects of historic Chinese culture and integrate them with influential new ideas that have emerged within the last century.

• In the 1930s, Imperial Japan invaded Manchuria (Manchu's homeland) and founded Manchukuo in 1934, with Puyi, as the nominal regent and emperor.

• After the invasion by the Soviet Union, Manchukuo collapsed in 1945.

Order

Name NotesReign Time (years)

1Emperor Taizu(Nurhachu)

Founder of the Latter Jin regime which later turned into the Qing regime; He created the military organization called Banner System.

1616 - 1626

2Emperor Taizong(Huang Taiji)

The eighth son of Nurhachu; actually the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He moved the capital to Shenyang.

1626 - 1643

3Emperor Shunzhi(Fulin)

Son of Huang Taiji; In his reign, the Qing army defeated the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and moved the capital into Beijing.

1643 - 1661

4Emperor Kangxi(Xuanye)

The third son of Emperor Shunzhi; One of the greatest emperors in the Qing Dynasty; His reign was the beginning of the heyday of the Qing Dynasty.

1661 - 1722

5Emperor Yongzheng(Yinzhen)

The fourth son of Emperor Kangxi; A fairly wise and competent emperor who maintained the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty

1722 - 1735

6Emperor Qianlong(Hongli)

Son of Emperor Yongzheng; Inheriting the prosperity brought by his predecessors, his reign reached the zenith of the Qing Dynasty.

1735 - 1796

7Emperor Jiaqing(Yongyun)

Son of Emperor Qianlong; He prosecuted the infamous corrupt official, He Shen, who used to be a favorite chancellor of Emperor Qianlong. 

1796 - 1820

9Emperor Xianfeng(Yizhu)

Son of Emperor Daoguang; In his reign, the Qing Dynasty apparently began to decline. The well-known Taiping Rebellion broke out in that period.

1850 - 1861

10Emperor Tongzhi(Zaichun)

Son of Emperor Xianfeng and Empress Dowager Cixi; died early1861 - 1875

11Emperor Guangxu(Zaitian)

Grandson of Emperor Daoguang; a progressive emperor who tried lots of methods to save the declining Qing Dynasty

1875 - 1908

12Emperor Xuantong(Puyi)

The last emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the last feudal monarch of China; He was imprisoned at Shenyang till 1959 when Chairman Mao remitted him.

1908 - 1911

8Emperor Daoguang(Minning)

Son of Emperor Jiaqing; His reign saw the outbreak of the First Opium War in 1840, from which China entered the modern history. 

1820 - 1850

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