Era 5 and 6 in East Asia
The Qing Dynasty
WHGCEs
Era 5
Craig
Benjamin
Introduction:
The Qing
Dynasty
• When the Ming Dynasty fell,
Manchus poured into China from
their homeland of Manchuria,
north of the Great Wall
• Quickly overwhelmed the Chinese
rebel forces, seized Beijing, and
proceeded to occupy all of China
• Victors then proclaimed a new
dynasty – the Qing (or ‘Pure’)
– which ruled China until the
20th Century (1644-1911)
• Destined to be the last
dynasty to rule China: their
dynastic era is the subject of
today’s lecture
To Include:
• Part One: Qing
Political History
• Part Two:
Population Growth
and Economic
Development
• Part Three: The
Opium War and
Unequal Treaties
• Part Four:
Frustrated Reform
and the End of the
Qing Dynasty
Qing Imperial Concubine
• Manchus most probably were pastoral nomads, although many
had adopted a sedentary agricultural lifeway in the rich
farmlands of southern Manchuria
• Remote ancestors had traded with China since the Qin Dynasty
• Also been frequent clashes between Chinese and Manchus over land and
resources along the borderlands of southern Manchuria and northern China
Part One: Qing Political History
Origins of the Qing
The Rise of the Manchus
Under Nurhaci
• During the late-16th and early-17th
centuries, an ambitious chieftain
named Nurhaci (r. 1616-1626)
unified the Manchu tribes into a
centralized state
• He promulgated a code of laws and
organized a powerful military force
• During the 1620s and 30s, the
Manchu army expelled Ming
garrisons in Manchuria, captured
Korea and Mongolia, and began
launching small-scale invasions of
northern China
Conquest of China
• By 1644 the Manchus had captured Beijing, and then moved to
extend their authority throughout China
• For almost the next 40 years they waged military campaigns against
Ming loyalists and other rebels all over southern China
• Finally, by the early 1680s, the Manchus had consolidated the
Qing Dynasty’s hold throughout all of China
Reenactment of the Battle of
Shengjing. The battle took place
during one of the expeditions of
conquest led by founding
emperor Nurhaci (1559-1626)
Manchu Support
Amongst the Chinese
• Establishment of the Qing dynasty
partly due to Manchu military prowess, but also partly to
Chinese support for the Manchus
• During the 1630s and 40s, many Chinese generals deserted the
Ming Dynasty because of its corruption and inefficiency
• Confucian scholar-bureaucrats also worked against the
Ming because they detested the eunuchs who dominated the
imperial court
• Manchu ruling elites were well schooled in Chinese language
and Confucianism, and they generally enjoyed more respect
from scholar-bureaucrats than did the Ming emperor and
administration
Above: Models wearing Qing imperial costumes
• Manchus careful to preserve their own ethnic and cultural identity
• They not only outlawed intermarriage between Manchus and
Chinese, but also forbade Chinese from traveling to Manchuria
or learning the Manchurian language
Qing authorities also forced
Chinese men to shave the front of
their heads and grow a
Manchurian-style queue as a sign
of submission to the dynasty
Manchus and Chinese
Two Great
Manchu
Emperors
• Until the 19th C strong
imperial leadership muted
tensions between Manchu
leaders and Chinese subjects
• Long reigns of two
particularly effective rulers –
Kangxi (1661-1722) and
Qianlong (1736-1795) –
helped the Manchus
consolidate their hold on
China
Qing dynasty Corner Tower,
Forbidden City, Beijing
Kangxi the Confucian Ruler
• Kangxi was a Confucian
scholar and an enlightened
ruler
• He was a great reader and
also wrote poetry
• He studied the Confucian
classics and tried to apply
their teachings to his policies
• EG, he organized flood
control and irrigation
projects because of the
Confucian rule that rulers
need to look after the
welfare of their subjects
• Also generously patronized
Confucian schools and
academies
Kangxi the Conqueror
• Kangxi also a conqueror, and under him the Qing constructed a
vast empire
• Conquered the island of Taiwan where Ming loyalists had retreated after
their expulsion from S. China, and absorbed it into the empire
• Like the Han and Tang, he tried to head off problems with militarized nomads by
extending Chinese influence into
Central Asia
• Eventually his conquests in
Mongolia and Inner Asia
extended almost to the
Caspian Sea
• Also turned Tibet into a
Chinese protectorate
Qing Military Led by
Kangxi Invade Taiwan
A map of
the Qing
Dynasty
Empire
• Kangxi’s grandson Qianlong continued this expansion of Chinese
influence
• Sought to consolidate Kangxi’s conquests in Central Asia by
establishing military garrisons in Turkestan (present-day Xinjiang
Province)
• Qianlong also encouraged Chinese merchants to settle in Central Asia
in the hope they would stabilize the region
• He also made Vietnam, Burma and Nepal vassal states of the Qing
Qianlong
the
Conqueror
Two of the Qianlong's Manchu
bodyguards (1760) carrying their
archery equipment and wearing
sheathed daos
Qianlong the
Intellectual
• Qianlong’s reign was
the high point of the
Qing Dynasty
• Like Kangxi, his
grandson was a
sophisticated and
learned man
• He reportedly
composed more than
10,000 poems, and
was a connoisseur of
painting and
calligraphy
The Qianlong Emperor’s
Southern Inspection Tour,
Scroll Twelve: Return to the
Palace (detail), 1764—1770, by
Xu Yang (fl.c.1750—after
1776) and assistants.
Handscroll, color on silk
Palace Museum, Beijing.
• During Qianlong’s long, stable and prosperous
reign, China was an incredibly wealthy state
• Imperial treasury contained so much money
that on at least four different occasions, the
emperor cancelled all tax collections for
the year
Porcelain Goose
Wealthy
Qing
China
(R) Stylized
Qing security
guard
(L) Door God,
Qing Dynasty
Woodblock print
Decline of the
Qing Leadership
• Throughout the reign of Qianlong,
China remained a wealthy and wellorganized state
• However, towards the end of
his reign, Qianlong began
paying less attention to
imperial affairs, and
delegated many government
responsibilities to his favorite
eunuchs
• His successors continued this
practice, devoting themselves more
to hunting and their harems than
affairs of state
• By the 19th Century the Qing
Dynasty faced serious
difficulties
Part Two: Population
Growth and Economic
Development
Agriculture
• China was a predominantly agricultural country, which fitted
well with the Confucian idea that the land was the source of
everything worthwhile
• Qing Emperor himself reinforced the central importance of
agriculture by personally plowing the first furrows of the season
• Yet only a fraction of China’s land is suitable for farming (today
about 11%)
• To feed the country’s large population, farmers relied on intensive
and productive market-garden agriculture
• On this strong farming foundation, China built the most
commercialized economy of the pre-industrial world
•
Introduction of American
By intensively cultivating every parcel
Crops
of land, Chinese peasants were able to
increase their annual yields of rice,
wheat and millet until the 17th C
• From the mid-17th C, as farmers
reached the upper limits of
agricultural productivity, Spanish
merchants from the Philippines began
to introduce American food crops into
China
• Maize (pictured right) sweet potatoes
and peanuts allowed Chinese farmers
to grow crops in soils that had
previously been uncultivated
• Led to an increased food supply and
higher populations
Continuing Population Growth
• In spite of regular epidemics of the plague, which killed millions,
China’s populations rose rapidly
- In 1500 it was 100 million
- In 1600 it was 160 million
- In 1650 it fell to 140 million (because of war and rebellion)
- In 1700 it had returned to 160 million
- By 1750 it surged to 225 million (a 40% increase in 50 years!)
Problems of Rapid
Population Growth
• This rapid demographic growth set the stage for
economic growth, but also economic and social
problems, because agricultural growth could not keep
pace long term
• Acute problems did not occur until the 19th Century,
but per capita income
was already declining
during the reign
of Qianlong
Opportunities for
Entrepreneurs
• While an increasing population placed pressure on
Chinese resources, the growing commercial market
offered opportunities for entrepreneurs
• Because of demographic expansion, entrepreneurs
had access to a large labor force that was occupationally and
geographically mobile, so they could recruit workers at very
low cost
• As we saw last time, after the mid-16th century Chinese economy
also benefited from the
influx of Japanese and American
silver, which stimulated trade
and financed further expansion
Chinese entrepreneurs continue to
benefit from a vast labor force today –
Chicken processors near Shanghai
Maritime
Trade Policies
of the Qing
Under the Ming, we saw
how Zheng He led seven
major maritime
expeditions across the
Indian Ocean Basin
•
But after the reign of Yongle, the Ming
withdrew its support for expensive maritime
expeditions, and even tried to prevent Chinese
subjects from trading with foreigners
• In order to try and pacify S. China in the
17th C, Qing government tried to end
maritime activity altogether
•
Imperial edict of 1656 forbade ‘even a plank
from drifting to sea’
• In 1661 Kangxi ordered an evacuation of
the southern coastal regions
Effectiveness
of These
Policies?
•
•
Policies had a limited effect - small Chinese vessels continued to trade actively
with Japan and SE Asia
When Qing forces pacified S. China in the 1680s, government authorities rescinded
the strictest measures
• But from then on, Qing authorities closely supervised activities of
foreign merchants in China
•
Allowed Portuguese to only operate in the port of Macau; British agents had to
deal exclusively with the official merchant guild in Guangzhou
Discouragement of Chinese Merchants
• As well as limiting the activities of foreign merchants, the Qing
also discouraged the organization of large-scale commercial
ventures by Chinese merchants
• Without government approval it was impossible to maintain
shipyards that could construct vessels like the massive ninemasted ships that Zheng He had sailed across the Indian Ocean
• Also impossible to organize large trading companies like the
English East India Company or the Dutch VOC
Continuing
Chinese
Trade
View of the Dutch trading
Capital at Batavia
• Despite these government policies, thousands of Chinese
merchants continued to link China into the global trading network
• Chinese merchants especially prominent in Manila, where they
exchanged silk and porcelain for American silver that came
across the Pacific Ocean in the Manila galleons
• Also active at the Dutch colonial capital of Batavia where they
supplied the VOC with silk and porcelain in exchange for silver
and Indonesian spices
• Under the Qing, merchants established a substantial
Chinese presence throughout SE Asia
• Chinese merchants were active in the Philippines,
Borneo, Sumatra, Malaya, Thailand and elsewhere in SE
Asia
• They sought a range of exotic tropical products in these
regions for Chinese consumers
Chinese Merchants
in South East Asia
Lack of
Technological
Innovations
• Much of this economic expansion
took place in the absence of
technological innovations
• Under the Song Chinese engineers
produced a flood of extraordinary inventions, and China was by far the
world’s leader in technological innovation
• Yet under the Ming and Qing, innovation slowed, and ideas were
borrowed from the West instead
• EG, imperial forces adopted European canons and
firearms for their own use (thus borrowing gunpowder
technology that had originated in China but been refined
in Europe) – pictured above
• Little innovation in agricultural or industrial technologies
under the Qing
Governmental
Fear of Change
• Part of the reason for this
slowdown was government
emphasis on stability
• Under the Song, imperial
government had encouraged
innovation as the foundation
for military and economic
strength
• But Ming and Qing
governments favored political
and social stability over
innovation, which they feared
would lead to unsettling
change
Official Portrait: Emperor
Qianlong and his son Yongzhen
as Confucian scholars
China Loses Technological
Ground to Europe
• Abundance and ready (and cheap) availability of skilled workers
also discouraged technological innovation
• If employers wanted to increase production, it was cheaper to hire
more workers rather than make large investments in new technology
• In the short term this maintained relative prosperity in China
and helped maintain high employment rates
• But in the long term this meant
that China lost technological
ground to Europeans, who
embarked on a round of
stunning innovations
beginning in the
mid-18th Century
Part Three: The
Opium War and
Unequal Treaties Cohongs
• In 1759 Qianlong moved to restrict European commercial
presence in Guangzhou
• Chinese authorities attempted to control both the activities of
merchants and terms of trade
• Foreign merchants could deal only with specially licensed
Chinese firms known as cohongs
• Not only was this inconvenient for the Europeans, but they
had to cope with a market in which there was little
demand for European products
• Because of this, Europeans paid for Chinese silk, porcelain,
lacqueware and tea mainly with silver bullion
• Seeking increased profits in the 18th Century, officials of the East
European Company looked for alternatives to silver to exchange
for Chinese goods
• They settled on a profitable but illegal drug called opium
• British grew opium in India and shipped it to China, where company
officials exchanged it for Chinese silver coin
• Silver then flowed back to British-controlled Calcutta and
London, and company officials used it to buy Chinese products
in Guangzhou
Opium
Chinese Opium Smokers
• Opium trade expanded rapidly:
- In the early 19th C trade volume
was 4,500 chests, each weighing
60 kgms (133 lbs)
- By 1839, 40,000 chests of opium
were entering China per year,
satisfying the habits of drug
addicts
• With the help of opium, the East
India Company easily paid for
luxury Chinese products
Value of
the
Opium
Trade
Impact
on China
• Trade was illegal, but continued
unabated for decades because
the Chinese made little effort to
enforce the law (corrupt officials
also benefited)
• But by the late-1830s the
Chinese government was
aware that this was causing a
major economic (as well as
drug) problem
• Opium trade was draining
massive amounts of silver
bullion from China, and
having major social
consequences in S. China
Chinese
Attempts to
Halt the Trade
• When government officials took
steps to stop the illicit trade in
1838, British merchants started
losing money
• Efforts were stepped up in
1839 by placing the
incorruptible official Lin Zexu
in charge of attempts to
destroy the opium trade
altogether
• Commissioner Lin acted
quickly, confiscating and
destroying 20,000 chests of
opium
• His uncompromising
policy ignited a war that
ended in a humiliating
defeat for China
Lin Zexu
The Opium War (1839-1842)
• Outraged by Chinese action against them, British commercial
agents pressed the British government for a military response
• Ensuing conflict known as the Opium War made it obvious
who now possessed global military power
• In the opening stages of the war, British naval gunboats
demonstrated clear superiority
• Equipped only with
swords and knives, and
occasionally muskets,
Chinese coastal towns
could not defend
themselves against
gunboats and well-trained
English military forces
armed with rifles
The Gunboats Strike!
• But the Chinese refused to sue for peace, so British forces broke the stalemate
by attacking China’s jugular with steam-powered gunboats - the Grand Canal
• In May 1842 a British armada of 70 ships advanced up the Yangtze River,
and by the time it arrived at the intersection of the Grand Canal, the
Chinese sued for peace
• China experienced similar military setbacks throughout the
century, against Britain and France (1856-58), France again
(1884-85) and Japan (1894-95)
Unequal
Treaties
Treaty of
Nanjing (1842)
• In the wake of these
confrontations China was
forced to sign several unequal
treaties, which curtailed Chinese sovereignty and guided Chinese
relations with foreign states until 1943
• Treaty of Nanjing (pictured above):
- ceded Hong Kong to Britain
- opened five ports (including Guangzhou and Shanghai) to
commerce and residence
- compelled the Qing to grant ‘most favored nation’ status to
Britain
- made British residents not subject to Chinese law
• Later France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, AustriaHungary, the United States and Japan all concluded similar unequal treaties
with China
• Collectively these treaties legalized the Opium trade, permitted the
establishment of Christian missions throughout China, opened treaty ports,
and prevented Qing government from levying tariffs on imports of foreign
goods
• By 1900, 90 Chinese ports were under foreign control, foreign merchants
controlled much of China’s economy, Christian missionaries were active across
the country, and foreign gunboats patrolled Chinese waters
China
Under
Foreign
Control
• Debilitation of the Chinese
empire in the late 19th C was as
much due to internal problems
as foreign intrusion
• Large-scale rebellions in the 19th
C reflected increasing poverty
and discontent
• Between 1800 and 1900 China’s
population rose from 330 to
475 million, which strained
China’s resources
• Concentration of arable land in
the hands of elite families,
widespread corruption of
government officials, and
increasing drug addiction all led
to widespread peasant discontent
• Rebellions erupted in Nian
(1851-68) and Tungan (1862-64)
• But the most dangerous of
all was the Taiping
Rebellion which brought
the Qing dynasty to the
brink of collapse
Internal Problems
Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)
Demands for Reform
• Appeal by schoolteacher Hong Xiuquan for the destruction of the
Qing and the radical transformation of Chinese society appealed
to millions in 1850
• Many Chinese despised the Manchu ruling class as foreigners, and
the Taiping reform program contained radical features that
appealed to the discontented subjects:
- Abolition of private property
- Creation of communal wealth to be shared according to need
- Prohibition of footbinding and concubinage
- Free public education
- Simplification of the written language and literacy for the masses
- The establishment of democratic political institutions
- The building of an industrial society
- The equality of men and women
Hong Xiuquan
Capture
of
Nanjing
After sweeping through SE
China, Hong and his followers
captured Nanjing in 1853 and
made it the capital of their
Taiping (‘Great Peace’)
Kingdom
• From Nanjing they campaigned throughout China, and as they
passed through the countryside whole villages and towns joined
them (sometimes voluntarily, sometimes under coercion)
• By 1855 a million Taipings were poised to attack Peking (Beijing)
but Qing forces repelled them
• By 1860 (firmly entrenched in the Yangtze Valley) the Taipings
threatened Shanghai
• Conservatives naturally sided with the government; after imperial forces of
Manchu soldiers failed to defeat the Taipings, the Qing created regional armies
of Chinese soldiers led by scholar-bureaucrats
• With the aid of European military advisors, these regional armies gradually
overcame the Taipings
• In June 1864, Hong committed suicide
• Nanjing fell a few months later and government forces slaughtered 100,000 rebels
• Rebellion was soon over, but it had cost 20-30 million lives and caused massive
declines in agricultural production, so that peasants had to resort to eating
grass and cannibalism
End of
the
Rebellion
Part Four: Frustrated
Reform and the End of
the Qing Dynasty
Shanghai waterfront, 1870
• Taiping Rebellion
changed the course of
Chinese history
• Dealing with aggressive
foreign powers and
lands ravaged by
domestic rebellion, Qing
rulers realized that
reform was necessary if
their empire was to
survive
• From 1860 to 1895 Qing
authorities tried to
recreate an efficient and
benevolent Confucian
government to solve
social and economic
problems, while at the
same time adopting
foreign technology to
strengthen state power
Beijing Street, 1870
Self-Strengthening Movement
• Most imaginative reform was the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s
and 70s
• Funded by money from the Qing authorities, local leaders all over China were
encouraged to raise troops, levy taxes and establish bureaucracies
• Using the slogan ‘Chinese learning at the base; Western learning for use’ SelfStrengthening Movement leaders tried to blend traditional Chinese culture
with European industrial technology
• While maintaining Confucian values, leaders also built modern shipyards,
railways, weapons factories, steel mills and science and technology academies
Old and New Qing Army – 1860-1870
Failure of the Self-Strengthening
Movement
• Although it laid foundation for eventual
industrialization, the Movement brought
only superficial change
• Did not introduce enough
industrialization to bring real economic
and military strength to China
• And it was based on a contradiction:
industrialization would bring social
change to an agrarian land, and education
in European curricula would undermine
Confucianism
• Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) – a
former concubine who was the effective
ruler of China during the last 50 years of
the Qing – also diverted funds from the
Movement (intended for the navy) to
build a magnificent marble boat to grace
the lake in the Imperial Palace
Empress Dowager Cixi
The Empresses’ Marble Boat, Imperial Palace
Dismantling of the
Qing Empire
• Foreign powers maintained their
hold on Chinese affairs, despite the
Movement
• Imperial states dismantled the
Qing Empire between 1885 and
Qing Empire in 1894 (Top)
1895:
- 1885 France incorporated Vietnam
into its colonial empire
- 1886 Britain incorporated Burma
into its empire
- 1895 Japan forced China to grant
independence to Korea, Taiwan
and parts of Manchuria
Japan ‘liberates’ Manchuria, 1895
Carved into Spheres of Interest
• By 1898, foreign powers had carved China itself into spheres of
economic interest (only mistrust amongst foreigners prevented
the total dismemberment of China)
• Powerless to resist foreign demands,
the Qing government granted
exclusive rights for railway and
mineral development to:
- Germany in Shandong Province
- France in the southern border
provinces
- Britain in the Yangtzi River valley
- Japan in the SE coastal provinces
- Russia in Manchuria
The Hundred
Days Reforms
• Setbacks sparked the
ambitious but abortive
Hundred Days Reform in
1898
• Scholars Kang Houwei and Liang
Qichao published treatises
reinterpreting Confucianism and
justifying radical change in the
imperial system
• Sought to remake China as a
powerful industrial state
Emperor Guangxu
• Impressed with their
ideas, the young emperor
Guangxu launched a
sweeping series of reforms
to transform China into a
constitutional monarchy
Failure of the
Reform Agenda
Liang Qichao
•
•
The reform agenda included:
Guaranteeing civil liberties
Eliminating corruption
Remaking the educational system
Encouraging foreign influence in China
Modernizing the military
Empress Cixi
Stimulating economic development
But the young emperor’s aunt Cixi nullified the reform decrees,
imprisoned the emperor in the Forbidden City and executed six
leading reformers, while Kang and Liang fled to Japan
• Cixi then threw her support behind an antiforeign
uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion
• Movement headed by militia groups who called
themselves the Society of Righteous and
Harmonious Fists (called The Boxers by foreign
newspapers)
• In 1899 the movement went on a rampage to rid
China of ‘foreign devils’, killing foreigners,
Chinese Christians and any Chinese who had
ties to foreigners
The Boxer
Rebellion
• 140,000 Boxers besieged foreign embassies in Beijing in the summer
of 1900
• Heavily armed force of British, French, Russian, US, German and
Japanese troops quickly crushed the Boxer movement in bloody
retaliation for the uprising
• Chinese government had to pay a punitive indemnity and allow
foreign troops to be permanently stationed in China (at embassies
and along routes to the sea)
Crushing
of the
Rebellion
US Marines fight
the Boxers in the
Siege of Beijing
• Because Cixi had
supported the Boxers,
many Chinese now saw
their government as
morally bankrupt
• Revolutionary movements
soon gained widespread
support throughout the
country, including from
conservatives
• Cixi died in November
1908, one day after the
mysterious death of the
emperor himself
• In her last act, Cixi
appointed the two-year old
Puyi to the imperial throne
• But revolution broke out in
the fall of 1911, and by
early 1912 the last Qing
emperor had abdicated his
throne (aged 6!)
Conclusion
• With the abdication of the last
emperor of China, over three thousand
years of dynastic rule came to an end
in 1911
• Qing and Ming conservatism had caused
China to withdraw from the world at
precisely the same moment Western
powers were aggressively engaging in it
• With 85% of the surface of the globe
now under European control, the
problem facing China and other East
Asia nations at the beginning of the
20th C was how to respond to European
imperialism
• Eventually, as we need to explore in
Eras 7 and 8, it took an industrial
revolution in Japan, a communist
revolution in China, and two global
wars before East Asian states were able
to once again gain control of their own
destinies