Packet #19
Early Modern Era Asia
Qing Dynasty and the Tokugawa Shogunate
Packet #19
This packet will include:
 The decline of the Ming Dynasty
 The Rise of the Qing Dynasty
 Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate
The Decline of the Ming Dynasty:
 From 152s to the 1560s pirates and smugglers operated almost at will along the
east coast of China.
 The Ming emperors lived extravagantly - they received news about life outside of
Beijing through their eunuch servants. All outside conduct was done through
eunuch intermediaries. Corruption and inefficiency spread rampant.
 When a series of famine struck China during the early 17th century, the government
was unable to organize effective relief efforts. Peasants staged revolts.
 Manchu forces invaded from the north in search of opportunities for expansion in
China.
 In 1644, rebel forces captured the Ming capital at Beijing. Manchu invaders allied
with an army loyal to the Ming, crushed the rebels, and recovered Beijing. The
Manchus portrayed themselves as avengers who saved the capital from dangerous
rebels. They displaced the Ming dynasty.
The Qing
 The Qing lasted from the 17th century until it collapsed in the early 19th century. It
was the LAST of all the Chinese Dynasties.
 Manchuria was north of the great rule. This is also called the Manchu Dynasty.
Manchurians poured into China. The Manchurians had a centralized state and a
powerful military force. For almost forty years they waged
campaigns against Ming loyalists and other rebels in
southern China until by the early 1680s the Manchus had
consolidated the Qing dynasty’s hold throughout the land.
 The Manchus (1644-1911), invaders from Manchuria to the
northeast
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a. Overwhelmed the Chinese forces; proclaimed
the Qing dynasty, 1644
b. Originally pastoral nomads, organized
powerful military force
c. Captured Korea and Mongolia first, then China
d. Remained an ethnic elite; forbade
intermarriage with Chinese
Kangxi (1661-1722) and his reign
a. Confucian scholar; effective, enlightened ruler
b. Conquered Taiwan; extended to Mongolia, central Asia, and Tibet
Qianlong (1736-1795) and his reign
a. A sophisticated and learned ruler, poet, and artist
b. Vietnam, Burma, and Nepal made vassal states of China
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c. He paid less attention to imperial affairs and delegated many
responsibilities to his favorite eunuchs.
d. Under his rule, however, China was peaceful, prosperous, and
powerful
e. The son of heaven and the scholar-bureaucrats
Political:
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Both the previous Ming and the now Qing dynasties presided over a tightly
centralized state, which they administered through a bureaucracy staffed by
Confucian scholars.
The Wing had made a conscious effort to mimic Chinese culture generations before
and, unlike the Mongols, bolstered many aspects of Chinese government into include
using the Confucian civil service exam system. They even had their own sons take
the exam.
Like the Mongols however they also wanted to preserve their own ethnic and
cultural identity.
Emperor considered "the son of heaven"
a. Heavenly powers and an obligation to maintain order on the earth
b. Privileged life, awesome authority, and paramount power
Governance of the empire fell to civil servants, called scholar-bureaucrats
a. Schooled in Confucian texts, calligraphy
b. Had to pass rigorous examinations with strict quotas
The examination system and Chinese society
a. Civil service exam intensely competitive; few chosen for government
positions
b. Scholar gentry class dominated China’s political and social life.
c. Others could become local teachers or tutors
d. System created a meritocracy with best students running the country
e. Wealthy families had some advantages over poor families
f. Confucian curriculum fostered common values
Social
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China remained highly patriarchal. Filial piety was central to the Chinese family unit.
The Manchu determination to preserve much of the Chinese political system was
paralleled by an equally conservative approach to Chinese society as a whole.
Gender
a. Parents preferred boys over girls; marriage was to continue male line
b. Female infanticide; widows encouraged to commit suicide
c. Foot-binding of young girls increased
d. Lowest status person in family was a young bride
e. Patriarchal authority over females became tighter than ever.
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f. Women could not divorce, but men could put aside their wives in
cases where there was no offspring or where the wife was guilty of
adultery, theft, disobedience etc.
Economic:
 China was predominantly agricultural.
 Spanish merchants from the Philippines introduced American food crops to China.
American maize, sweet potatoes, peanuts permitted Chinese farmers to take
advantage of uncultivated soil. Increased crops and food supply supported
population growth
a. Increasing population placed pressure on Chinese resources.
f. Population growth: 100 million in 1500, 225 million in 1750
Global Trade:
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The sector of Chinese society over which the Qing exercised the least control was
also the most dynamic. The commercial and urban expansion that had begun in the
Song era gained new strength in the long peace China enjoyed during the first
century and a half of Qing rule.
Regional diversification in crops such as tea was matched by the development of
new ways to finance agricultural and artisan production.
Until the end of the 18th century, both the state and the mercantile classes profit
enormously from the great influx of silver that poured into China in payment for its
exports of tea, porcelain and silk textiles.
Profits from overseas trade gave rise to a wealthy new group of merchants, the
compradors, who specialized in the import export trade on China’s south coast. In
the 19th century, these merchants proved to be one of the major links between China
and the outside world.
Manufacturing and trade benefited from abundant, cheap labor
a.
b.
c.
d.
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China exported large quantities of silk, porcelain, lacquerware, and tea
The silk industry was especially well organized.
China had VERY FEW imports.
Chinese goods were paid in silver.
China’s economic expansion took place largely in the absence of technological
innovation. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese engineers had produced a
veritable flood of inventions and China was the world’s leader in technology. Yet by
early Ming times, technological innovations had slowed imperial armed forces
adopted European cannon and advanced firearms
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SILVER: China’s economy was huge and had a growing demand for silver.
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Enormous silver deposits were discovered in Bolivia and Japan in the mid-sixteenth
century
1570s: the Chinese government consolidated taxes into a single tax to be paid in
silver
value of silver skyrocketed
foreigners with silver could purchase more Chinese products than before
The return of Christianity to China
1. Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), an Italian Jesuit in the Ming court
a. A learned man who mastered written and oral Chinese
b. Impressed Chinese with European science and mathematics
c. Popular mechanical devices: glass prisms, harpsichords, clocks
2. Confucianism and Christianity
a. Jesuits respectful of Chinese tradition, but won few converts
b. Chinese had problems with exclusivity of Christianity
3. End of the Jesuit mission
a. Rival Franciscan and Dominican missionaries criticized Jesuits' tolerance
b. When the pope upheld critics, emperor Kangxi denounced Christianity
c. Jesuits had been an important bridge between Chinese and western cultures,
introducing each to the achievements of the other.
The Unification of Japan: The Tokugawa Shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate
1. Tokugawa Ieyasu: After a period of civil war and
disorder. Tokugawa Ieyasu established the
Tojugawa Shogunate in 1600. He wanted to
stabilize the region and prevent civil war. HE did
this by increasing his control over the daimyos,
insisting that they spend every other year in the
capital of Edo (Tokyo).
2. Japan was one of the largest producing silver
counties in the world.
a. The Shoguns used the wealth generated by
silver to defeat feudal lords.
3. Relationships with the outside owrld were also
closely controled. Japanese were forbidden from
going abroad and from constructing large ships.
Europeans were expelled from Japan and foreign merchants were not allowed to
trade in Japanese ports (the only exception was a small number of Chinese and
Dutch ships). Despite all these restrictions, the Japanese economy grew, and
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agricultural production increased and the population grew. In these major peaceful
times, the samurai became government administrators.
4. First need to control the daimyo, the powerful local lords
a. Each daimyo was an absolute lord within his domain
5. Control of foreign relations
a. The shoguns adopted policy of isolation from outside world, 1630s
b. Foreign trade was under tight restriction at the port of Nagasaki
c. Despite the policy, Japan was never completely isolated
Japanese Society and Economy: Isolationism
 At first European presence was accepted in Japan. Around 300,000 Japanese
converted to Christianity. It was after the unification under the Tokugawa
Shogunate that suspicion grew.
 Japanese Shoguns looked with suspicion upon foreigners from Europe, who in the
early 1600s arrived in Japan in increasing numbers. Fearing aggression from these
foreign devils, one shogun ordered the massacre of Christian missionaries and their
Japanese converts and forbade Europeans from trading with Japan. Although there
were no more massacres, other shoguns also adopted anti-foreign and isolationist
policies. For more than 200 years, Japan was closed to the world.
 The Japanese were banned from traveling abroad. They permitted only the Dutch,
who appeared less interested in spreading Christianity, to trade at a single site.
 They maintained their trading ties with China. Silver was brought into China from
Japanese mines.
 The Shogunate invested heavily in agricultural and industrial enterprises in the
state. Japanese state and local authorities acted to protect and renew Japan’s forests,
while millions of families in the 18th century took steps to have fewer children by
practicing later marriage, contraception, abortion, and infanticide.
 This slowed Japan’s population growth. This protected their resources and didn’t
lead to a depletion of their resources—this set in motion the foundation of an
industrial revolution in Japan (setting the stage years later for their creation of a
military state that would try to dominate the Pacific #WWII).
Sakoku Edict of 1635 Primary SourceThe key points of the Edict of 1635 included:The Japanese were to be kept within
Japan’s own boundaries. Strict rules were set to prevent them from leaving the country, and if any such attempt was made, they
would face penalty of death. Europeans that entered Japan illegally would face the death penalty as well.
Catholicism was strictly forbidden. Those found practicing the Christian faith were subject to investigation, and anyone associated
with Catholicism would be punished. To encourage the search for those who still followed Christianity, rewards were given to those
who were willing to turn them in. Prevention of missionary activity was also stressed by the edict; no missionary was allowed to enter,
and if apprehended by the government, he would face harsh sentences.
Trade restrictions and strict limitations on goods were set to limit the ports open to trade, and the merchants who would be allowed
to engage in trade. Relations with the Portuguese were cut off entirely; Chinese merchants and those of the Dutch East India
Company were restricted to enclaves in Nagasaki. Trade was also conducted with China through the semi-independent vassal
kingdom of the Ryukyus, with Korea via the Tsushima Domain, and with the and also Ainu people through the Matsumae Domain.
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Vocabulary
Manchus
Kangxi
Quinlong
Silver
Compradors
Matteo Ricci
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa
Shogunate
Sakoku Edict
Japanese
Isolationism
Definition
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Qing Dynasty
Social
Political
Economic
Environmental
Social
Political
Economic
Environmental
Tokugawa Shogunate