The Qing Dynasty

1
The Qing Dynasty

• 1644-1911

2
The Founding of the Qing

• Late Imperial Continuity between the Qing and
  Ming
• Interaction between Chinese and neighbors
• Chinese World Order (Tributary System)
• Passive defense
• Active defense

3
Jurchen - Manchuria

• Nurgaci (Nurhachi, 1559-1626)
• Hong Taiji (r. 1626-1643)
• Made use of Chinese artillery experts
• Proclaimed the Qing dynasty
• Banner Troops
• Alliance with Mongols and Chinese
• Organized by ethnicity with unique color

4
Overthrow of the Ming

• Ming collapsed due to internal rebellion
• Led by Li Zicheng
• Ming General Wu Sangui
• Stationed at Shanhaiguan
• Sided with Manchus
• Qing proclaims they had come to punish rebels
  claims to be legitimate successor
• Reestablishes Exam System
• Reestablishes Traditional Chinese Government
• Forty years to pacify all China

5
Qing Legitimacy

• Manchus comprised no more than 2 of population
• Mandate of Heaven did not dictate emperor had
  to be Chinese
• How to maintain ethnic identity
• Forbidden to intermarry
• Maintained dress, family rituals, diet,
  lifestyle
• Manchu women forbidden from binding feet

6
The Qing Emperors Nianhao
7
Reign of Kangxi

• Completed Manchu conquest of China
• Destroyed Russian Cossack base signed Treaty of
  Nerchinsk
• Occupied Tibet installed pro-Chinese Dalai Lama
• Very much Manchu but not anti-Chinese

8
Yongzheng

• Succession dispute throne seized in coup by
  fourth son
• Increased trend toward despotism
• Five-man Grand Council
• Expanded secret memorial communication
• Simplified tax system
• Combined land and corvee tax
• Name of heir kept in box

9
Qianlong

• Achieved greatest prosperity and expansion
• To foster loyalty among Mongols and Tibetans drew
  on Buddhist tradition
• Tangkas portray him as Manjusri
• Complete Library of Four Treasuries
• 3462 complete works in 36,000 volumes
• Suppressed anti-Manchu writings

10
Eighteenth-Century Governance

• State and Society formed a continuum without
  fixed boundary
• Officials and local elite shared values
• Cooperation and harmony between official and
  elite
• Promotion of Village lectures based on Confucian
  Morality
• Corporate lineages run village granaries and
  education elsewhere government officials would

11
A Buoyant Economy

• Population Growth
• 300 million by end of 18th century
• Increase in Agricultural Yield
• Specialized strains of rice
• Irrigation terracing storage
• Better fertilizers
• Introduction of New World Crops, e.g. sweet
  potato, peanuts, corn
• Land Reclamation

12
Population Growth
13
Manufacturing

• Ceramics, brewing, paper, mining, metal, silk,
  and cotton textile
• Chinese Shipping predominated
• Balance of Trade in Chinas Favor
• New World silver flows into China to pay for
  highly desired Chinese goods
• Growth of Market Towns and sophisticated banking
  system

14
Social Change

• Market prevails over traditional status
• Wealthy merchants
• Impoverished Chinese scholar-elite and bannermen
  (Qing military)
• Frustrations of Exam System
• Strict quotas give little chance for success
• Large number of exams
• Eight-legged essay
• cheating

15
Dynastic Decline

• Laxity and Corruption
• Heshen (1750-1799)
• White Lotus Rebellion
• Millenarian movement
• Maitreya (Buddha of the Future)