World History: China's Changes - From Empire to Republic

On World History we have been looking at how several states during the 1800s tried to cope with the rise of industrialism and imperialism. We have already discussed Russia and Japan, and last time we began looking at China's 'Century of Humiliation'. When we last left off the ruling Qing dynasty was facing its biggest crisis in authority since the dynasty began in the seventeenth-century. Western powers had humiliated China in two wars, the so-called 'Opium Wars', and the state itself had faced domestic unrest - most notably the infamous Taiping Rebellion. With this post we will be looking at how the Qing tried to cope with these issues, and how one of the oldest empires in human history gave way to a republic. This should be read in tandem with the previous World History post, and for further information I would recommend The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence - it covers from the late-Ming all the way up to the Tienanmen Square Massacre in 1989. 

The Re-Emergence of Anti-Manchu Sentiment

The ruling Qing dynasty were not Han Chinese, the largest population in China, but were instead Manchu. After the initial conquest there was an upsurge in anti-Manchu sentiment, but as the decades went along, and as Manchu rulers adopted more Han culture, these sentiments started to abate. These differences, and at times hostilities, never went away. For example, while, normally elite, Han women would have their feet bound elite Manchu women never did so, and Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber references characters bowing 'in the Manchu way'. Even before outright collapse of the Qing Empire there had been underground anti-Manchu groups - the White Lotus Society, which we discussed last time, had hoped to possibly bring back the Han Ming dynasty to replace the Manchu Qing in the 1800s. The decline of the Qing's authority, especially in the context of external invasion, caused a resurgence of anti-Manchu sentiment. Humiliation by the imperial powers was blamed on the Manchus for weakening China - when Japan annexed the Ryukyu islands in 1879 this was used as prime evidence. The Ryukyu king had paid tribute to China for centuries, and Japan had always been seen as a lesser state, so the annexation of the islands by a perceived lesser state provided evidence that the Manchus had weakened China. The leader of the Taiping, Hong Xiuquan, gave a speech declaring:

Can the Chinese still consider themselves men? Ever since the Manchus poisoned China, the flame of oppression has risen up to heaven, the poison of corruption has defiled the emperor’s throne, the offensive odour has spread over the four seas, and the influence of demons has distressed the empire while the Chinese with bowed heads and dejected spirits willingly became subjects and servants.

A big reason why the Taiping had such early success was that they managed to tap into anti-Manchu sentiment - Hong alleged that the Manchu were sent by the devil to corrupt China. This anti-Manchu sentiment would later be tied to republicanism and anti-imperialism. 

Treaty Ports and New Communities

Avenue Petain, Shanghai

Foreign powers carved up China between themselves - the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, the US, and even Austria-Hungary - where they exerted control over areas. Mainly, these were the 'Treaty Ports', the port cities forcibly opened to foreign trade due to the unequal treaties. In these cities imperial powers began enforcing their own culture, and capitalist structures, greatly changing them. These cities would later become China's biggest cities - although Shanghai was already growing by the 1830s it exploded after Britain used it as one of the main ports used for trade. Through these ports Chinese intellectuals could access Western literature, and Christian missionaries used them to begin introducing Christianity to China. Sun Yat-sen, for example, would be baptised in Hong Kong and would later study abroad in Japan and Hawaii. Missionaries would use their presence to attempt to bring about reforms against aspects of Chinese culture - most notably footbinding. However, it should be stressed that missionaries didn't start these critiques, Chinese officials had attempted, or promoted reforms, before them. Li Ruzhen, who we saw last time, wrote metaphorical stories about how men would react if they were dropped in a world where gender roles were reversed. This also caused anti-Christian responses due to the abrasive attacks on local culture - in 1870 thanks to a rumour French missionaries were killed in the Tianjin Massacre causing an international crisis. Elsewhere, port cities would become drastically changed. They grew as rural populations moved there for work creating an urban working populace. How cities looked further started changing. In the areas of cities owned by Europeans they started designing how the city looked based off of European ones. In the French area of Shanghai Avenue Petain was created to resemble a Parisian street, the Monument Street Baptist Church was constructed in Dengzhou in 1872 across from a temple, and HSBC bank proudly boasted a lion representing the British empire outside their Shanghai branch. However, it was very clear that these treaty ports were imperial holdings. Britain sent Sikh troops from India to act as police in Shanghai, for example. Stories further abounded about how parks supposedly barred Chinese from entry. Although not true, it was socially expected that Chinese were the subjects of the imperial powers, so certain areas or recreational sites were barred from Chinese usage.

San Francisco's Chinatown, 1800s

The widespread wars, poverty, and destitution made many Chinese move abroad. With the opening of treaty ports it allowed greater movement for traditionally static communities. Many moved to the growing ports, others started settling in long conquered territories like Tibet and Xinjiang, but many chose to move out of China itself. Most settled in with already established Chinese communities in southeast Asia in Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In Dutch-controlled Indonesia they were used as tax-collectors and managers in the Dutch-owned opium monopolies. Chinese expatriates soon moved across the world - the Caribbean, London, California, Latin America, South Africa, and Australia were just some of the places where they went. In a tale similar to wider histories of immigration most who emigrated were young men hoping to earn money to send back home, or to find their riches abroad before returning home to China. For example, in 1880 100,000 Chinese men lived in California, to 3,000 women. Outside of southeast Asia most ended up working in hard and labour intensive jobs. Strict contracts stopped meant that many in Cuba chose to runaway or commit suicide to get out of their slave-like jobs. Mining, especially gold mining, attracted many emigrants because of the quick money which could be earned, if they survived. As a result, northern Australia, South Africa, and California became sought after places to migrate to - San Francisco was initially called Jinshan, or 'Mountain of Gold', in Chinese. In 1873 the foreign department, the Zongli Yamen, started setting up foreign departments to see how Chinese abroad were being treated - the first embassy was created in Singapore. Racism soon emerged alongside exploitation. The formations of 'Chinatowns' was seen as Chinese workers rejecting the nation, in the US they became associated with decadence and lawlessness thanks to a series of gang wars called the 'tong wars'. Outright hostility and racism broke out quickly - a race riot broke out in San Francisco in 1871 after two police were killed during a tong war battle leading to the deaths of 19, and in 1885 white miners in Wyoming Territory beat a worker to death with a shovel leading to a race riot killing a further 28. Misogyny mixed with racism as Chinese were accused of being feminine with 'sing-song' voices, and in Sonora, Mexico they were accused of 'stealing' women. In 1882 the US Senate passed the first of several legislation restricting Chinese migration viewing them as being inferior so were 'polluting' America.

The Self-Strengthening Movement

The 'Century of Humiliation' gives the implication that Chinese officials were defenceless against imperialistic onslaught, however, this ignores attempts they made to stop this. Even rebellions, like the Taiping Tiangguo, can be seen this way - by replacing the Qing the Taiping viewed themselves as 'saving' China. Court officials involved with foreign wars or stopping rebellions - such as Prince Gong and Li Hongzhang - began looking at why China had seemingly fallen behind. This began a period of attempted reforms which came to be known as the 'Self-Strengthening Movement', and more eager reformers claimed it was the Tongzhi Restoration. They believed that under the Tongzhi Emperor China's power would finally be restored. Echoing the later Meiji Restoration in Japan, Li sent students abroad to study engineering, sciences, and military sciences so they could return with skills which could be applied to China. Feng Guifen strongly advocated for learning languages managing to open an Interpreter's School in 1862, and in 1867 it transformed into a full college inviting foreign lecturers. A key aspect of the Self-Strengthening Movement was inviting Westerners to China to help their military development - Halliday Macartney supervised cannon casting, John Fryer translated technical books, and W.A.P. Martin taught languages and science in Beijing. Li Hongzhang, who became an important reformer after 1874 with the death of Zeng Guofan, amassed a personal staff of foreign advisers. This period also saw, for the only time in the Qing's history, a woman held considerable power - Empress-Dowager Cixi. The mother of Tongzhi she remained a shrewd and powerful figure in China until her death in 1908. A quote by her perfectly sums up her life: Although I have heard much about Queen Victoria, I do not think her life is half as interesting and eventful as mine. Unlike Victoria, Cixi had a much more direct impact on the fate of her state. She became so powerful that she could determine who became emperor; it is widely believed that she forced the suicide of her pregnant daughter-in-law so she could control who came to power.

Cixi

As we refer to it as the 'Century of Humiliation' we can say that this movement failed to 'modernise' China, in contrast to Japan which propelled it to an imperialist power. One of the key reasons was how conservative the movement was, the reformers wanted to reshape China but keep things the same. This idea was known as ti-yong, (essence-use), how could China use Western ideas and technology but without giving up China's essence? This was also seen in Japan, but not as conservatively applied. The Confucian system was left untouched which prevented the economic and social reforms which the reformers wanted to enact. This is effectively seen when Li met with Japanese official Mori Arinori - he questioned how Japan could so quickly 'abandon' its culture. It did not further help that the Tongzhi Emperor died young in 1875 at the age of 18 - officially by smallpox but unofficially by overindulgence and exhaustion in the pleasure quarters of Beijing. With such a top-heavy state a strong ruler was required to enact such reforms which the Qing was lacking. The Self-Strengthening Movement was set-back by the reliance on foreign powers. Anti-Chinese rhetoric prevented Li from sending more students to the US in the 1880s, and although a new navy had been created, Li was wary of its weakness so backed down to foreign powers seizing former tribute states. Within a few years Japan had seized Ryukyu, Britain had seized Burma, and France seized Hanoi. The Self-Strengthening Movement showed its failure with the humiliating defeat by Japan in 1895 during the Sino-Japanese War - Japan managed to annex Taiwan and Liaodong, made Korea a protectorate, build factories in China, and pay money to Japan. This inspired the young Guangxu Emperor in 1898 to 'modernise' China - in a series of so many reforms over a hundred days it became known as the Hundred Days' Reform. Radical in scope they planned rapid industrialisation, a new educational system which went beyond Confucianism, establishing a university in Beijing, updating the military, becoming a constitutional monarch, and planning to curb Cixi's power. These reforms ended in a palace coup. Relying on the military figure Yuan Shikai, his plan was to use the military to arrest Cixi's key allies so he could then oust her from court - instead Yuan told Cixi's allies. Guangxu was placed under house arrest ending the reforms.

Reformers and Revolutionaries

Kang Youwei

As we have seen, there have throughout the 1800s figures pushing to reform the Qing government. The Self-Strengthening Movement and Hundred Days' Reform were just two aspects of this reform. Some focused on specifically social issues, mainly women's issues which we'll discuss later, and others the wider Qing government. Two notable reformers were close allies of Guangxu - Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. Both were strong advocates of constitutional monarchy, and aimed to influence Guangxu in enacting these reforms. Kang was more radical than Liang, but his theories weren't compiled into the Da Tongshu into the 1930s. Although heavily inspired by prevailing social Darwinistic tendencies - he argued for some version of eugenics and believed that Confucianism and Buddhism were 'higher faiths' - he started advocating for radical changes. Inspired by both Buddhism and European socialists, he is seen as one of the first advocates for communism in China. Seeing capitalism as evil he argued that humanity could only be liberated through socialism; the family unit promoted injustice so had to be replaced by a communal child-raising system; that marriage would be a year-long contract which could be renewed when both partners wanted; and that the adoption of new technology could bring this about. The Da Tongshu would later become incredibly influential - Mao Zedong would be especially inspired by this. However, he never got to implement his ideas. The palace coup forcing Guangxu into house arrest caused Kang and Liang to go into exile where they exiled for a constitutional monarchy. A new generation was emerging, one who wanted revolution and not reform.

Sun Yat-sen

One of the most important revolutionaries was Sun Yat-sen, now often referred to as the 'Father of the Nation'. From a Hakka and Cantonese background to a labouring family. He had a global education being educated in Guangdong, Hawaii, and Hong Kong where he became introduced to a wide range of ideas, as well as becoming a doctor. While in Hong Kong he became involved with other student activists which became known as the 'Four Bandits'. Frustrated at the conservatism of the Qing reforms, he even wrote an 8,000-character letter to Li urging more radical reforms, he moved back to Hawaii becoming involved with the Revive China Society. Aligning with poorer Chinese migrants the Revive China Society advocated for revolution and the establishment of a republic. In 1905 he would help found the Revolutionary Alliance to offer a group to overthrow the state, and wrote the influential Three Principles of the People. These were three ideas which would benefit the Chinese people: Minzu, often called 'nationalism' but more literally as 'people', an anti-imperialist idea uniting all the peoples in China, not just the Han; Minquan, 'democracy' or 'People's Power'; and Minsheng, 'People's Livelihood', where everyone has access to mobility and rights, which has been heavily debated. It has been argued that this meant socialism, in 1905 he did make ties with the Second International as an example. There were other revolutionaries. Zou Rong was a contemporary of Sun, but in The Revolutionary Army (1903) argued for a more ethnic nationalism calling the Han 'slaves' of the Manchu. He even argued for the genocide of the Manchus. In 1906 The Communist Manifesto was first translated, and anarchism soon emerged including the New World Society, formed in 1906. Before the eventual overthrow of the empire in 1912 there were several republican uprisings, even by the Revolutionary Alliance. Between 1906 and 1908 there were seven uprisings by them.

The Boxer Rebellion

While this was ongoing imperial forces continued to tear chunks out of China's sovereignty. A group known as the Righteous and Harmonious Fists became increasingly frustrated about how reform was being hampered by Chinese conservatives and foreign imperialists. American missionaries nicknamed them the 'Boxers' due to their combination of spiritualism with physical and marital actions. The end of the Hundred Days' Reform sparked the uprising beginning in Shandong by local militias and impoverished peasants. They appeared to take an anti-Manchu stance, but then began advocating for the rights of the emperor and expelling foreigners. Missionaries and converts were killed, and soon the foreign legations in the cities were put under siege. The 'Boxer Rebellion' lasted for three years and split the Chinese court. Cixi decided to support the rebellion, seeing it as a way to protect her standing, but many officials tried to remain neutral. This was especially the case as the 'Boxers' were incredibly successful. They managed to isolate the legations, and destroy infrastructure isolating Beijing. An alliance of British, Japanese, Russian, American, French, Italian, German, and Austrian invaded and brutally crushed the rebellion. Imperial powers rejoiced in the destruction - the movie 55 Days in Peking would be made decades later to celebrate it.

Women in a Changing China

A statue of Qiu Jin

A key part of the reforms were the role of women. As we saw when we discussed feminism, there was a discussion about women's role in society from women, missionaries, and domestic reformers. In particular, they focused on arranged marriage, footbinding, and a disparity in education. A common trend worldwide was the influence of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, and it would inspire advocates for reform to change society. Kang Youwei, for example, saw the family as an inherently restrictive institute which had to be fundamentally changed if women wished to be liberated. Mao Zedong was very influenced by feminists and feminist writing. In 1919 he would write a short piece called Miss Chao's Suicide discussing the recent suicide of a 'Miss Zhao'. Forced into a marriage she killed herself, so Mao criticised a society which forced women into suicide due to their inability to express their rights. Women were instrumental in trying to bring about change. One notable woman was Qiu Jin. She was forced into marriage and footbinding, but she rebelled and moved to Japan after becoming involved with revolutionary movements. Editing a journal she called for women to rise up against patriarchy to end forced marriage and footbinding, something she would further link to the overthrowing of the Manchu dynasty. In 1906 she would bring 2,000 students back to China, also forming a new journal with feminist poet Xu Zihua, with the intention of forming a revolutionary movement. As the plan to lead an uprising in Anqing resulting in her execution, but she would become a martyr for revolution and feminism. As early as 1923, Xiang Jingyu pressured the recently formed Communist Party to form a women's branch. However, women's emancipation would not come for decades, and still has not been fully achieved.

The End of the Qing

China's final dynasty ended extremely suddenly - so suddenly that Sun Yat-sen was actually raising funds in the US at the time. On 9 October 1911 a bomb exploded in the house of anti-Qing revolutionaries in Wuhan. The next day the local army mutinied; the Revolutionary Alliance had infiltrated the military knowing that a united army could easily prevent their success. The mutiny saw the seizing of Wuhan and the declaration of a Chinese Republic. A fire then started sweeping over China. People rebelled for various reasons - Han restoration, republicanism, local grievances, independence. Sun stayed to raise funds but returned in time to be elected the first president of a republic; he would design a new flag with each colour representing an ethnicity, including the Manchus. However, the revolutionaries were in a weak position so had to rely on Yuan Shikai, the co-crusher of the Hundred Days' Reform, to help bring down the Qing. Yuan gave them a deal - if he was declared president he would secure the army's loyalty and gave the monarchy to stand down. Threatening to kill the emperor he managed to get the Empress-Dowager Longyu to get the six-year-old Puyi to abdicate bringing an end to the Chinese Empire after millennia. 

Puyi in 1922

However, Sun Yat-sen's dream soon turned into a nightmare. Despite his Alliance winning the 1913 elections for the role of prime minister, Yuan ensured that he was soon assassinated. Yuan created links with foreign banks and took out massive loans, something Japan took as an excuse to try and extract more demands from China. Fearing for his life Sun fled to Japan and called for a Second Revolution, something which came quite quickly. In 1915, to solidify his power, Yuan declared himself emperor, but popular opposition forced him to return to presidency a year later. He would die in 1916 but China would remain in crisis.

1919 and After

The years 1916 to 1923 are seen as some of the most revolutionary of the twentieth century, until the 1960s at least, where worldwide new movements emerged challenging old orders - from the Russian Revolution to socialist uprisings Argentina. The Revolutionary Alliance was reconstituted into the Koumintang (KMT) as a way to effectively resist the growing political disintegration in China - Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles was adopted as its ideology. After Yuan Shikai's death a period known as the 'Warlord Era' began - regional leaders carved out their own territories. The newly established Soviet Union offered aid to the KMT seeing it as a way to bring socialism to China, and a leading figure in the movement, Chiang Kai-shek, was sent to Moscow for training. The Treaty of Versailles enraged China - it was ignored and how Japan was allowed to keep German territories in China which had seized. This began a cultural movement known as the May Fourth Movement. This was an intellectual movement by radical students, writers, thinkers, and activists which wanted social change and resistance to imperialism. Blaming Confucianism for holding back society they wanted to resist traditional class roles, bring equality to women, and unite China under a shared desire for equality. It saw many influential thinkers take part including a young Mao Zedong, leading writer and socialist Lu Xun, and anarchist Ba Jing. From this movement, in 1921, the Communist Party would emerge, directly inspired by the October Revolution. Communism would soon emerge as a popular ideology in China with a large and impoverished population, but there would be setbacks. In 1925 Sun Yat-sen died early leaving Chiang Kai-shek in control of the KMT. The initial alliance with the Communist Party remained while the warlords were slowly defeated, but he began moving away from Sun for a more authoritarian system. In 1927 he ordered a mass killing of communists in Shanghai which began the Chinese Civil War, lasting up until 1949.

Conclusion

We have traced the movement of China from a Confucian-based empire to a republic inspired by very different ideas. This period, the 'Century of Humiliation', would directly inspire the rest of China's history throughout the twentieth century. The liberatory ideas of the May Fourth Movement would create an ideology becoming hotly contested in China, and the opposition from Chiang's KMT would create an alternate path. However, this will be discussed in the future when we look at the Second World War, and China's place in it, and the rise of the People's Republic.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Jonathan Spence, In Search for Modern China, (New York: 1990)

-Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950, (Stanford: 1978)

-Immanuel Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, Sixth Edition, (New York: 2000)

-Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, (London: 1986)

-Frances Wood, No Dogs and Not Many Chinese, Treaty Port Life in China, 1843-1943, (London: 1998)

-Chun-tu Hsueh, (ed.), The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives, (Hong Kong: 1983)

-Mao Zedong, 'Miss Chao's Suicide,' Marxists.org, (1919), (Accessed 16/12/2019)

-Jonathan Spence, 'China: 1368-1911', in John Whitney Hall, (ed.), History of the World: Earliest Times to the Present, (East Bridgewater: 2013), 532-559

Thank you for reading. For other World History posts please see our list. For other posts please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: China's Changes - From the Opium War to Taiping

A naval battle from the First Opium War

The last time we discussed China we looked at the Qing, but even then faults were emerging in the empire. Today, we will look at, some, of the period which has been referred to as 'The Century of Humiliation'. From the 1830s until 1949 China saw itself attempt to reform itself in the face of domestic turmoil and imperial aggression which would lead to the rise of republicanism, civil war, and colonialism. Over the next two posts we'll be looking at the immense changes which China underwent during the 1800s and early-1900s. Naturally, we cannot cover everything, but the bibliography at the end will contain the sources which I have used, and they give an interesting narrative of this period. In particular, I would recommend The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence; it covers a huge span of Chinese history, from the late-Ming up to 1989, but it is an easy and informative read. This post, we will look at the the cracks which emerged at the end of the 1700s until the brutal war with the Taiping; next post we'll look at the aftermath of the Taiping until the Warlord Period. From the 1830s until 1949 this period is often referred to as the 'Century of Humiliation.'

The Cracks Begin

It is often seen that imperial intervention is what brought down the Qing - after all the 'Century of Humiliation' is often dated from 1839 with the beginning of the 'Opium War'. However, imperialism exacerbated domestic tensions, and these tensions predate the arrival of imperial ships. Immanuel Hsu has identified six factors about why Qing authority started to wane when the Jiaqing Emperor took over in 1795 after the abdication of Qianlong. The first, administrative inefficiency - strict regulation of administrators meant that, quoting one high courtier, success in government was to 'kowtow more and talk less.' Power was concentrated with the emperor, and such a system succeeded when the emperor was competent - while Qianlong was, his successors were not. However, this administrative inefficiency caused future emperors to be inefficient - they had to contend with an inactive administration preventing efficient rule. Second, corruption was widespread. Qianlong's imperial bodyguard Ho-shen amassed a fortune of 800 million taels (about $1.5 billion), so that, following his execution in 1799, it was joked that 'When Ho-shen fell, Jiaqing feasted.' Third, the degradation of the bannermen. Like the samurai in Tokugawa Japan, the Manchu bannermen had brought military victory to the early-Qing, but through centuries of privileged land ownership, coupled with corruption, meant they stopped being efficient. Fourth, the Qing coffers were running dry. Qianlong loved big displays of power which cost the state over 120 million taels, and constant wars of expansion further drained the treasury. Corruption made this worse, officials purposefully postponed fighting the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1804) so they could get more money. Fifth, rising population. Large landowners controlled arable land, and they kept it despite the growing population. From 1644 to 1812, the land available rose by 50%, whereas the population rose by 100%. As land was not redistributed to accommodate this, it created a poor and unemployed rural population who turned to rebels or bandits. Sixth, intellectual decline. Thanks to tight restrictions on what administrators could do by the late-1700s scholars, who made up the civil service, stopped being administrators. Why bother applying knowledge when bribes and kowtowing could do the same quicker and more safely?

When we think of Qing era revolts we either think of the Ming loyalists of the 1600s, or the revolts which emerged in the mid to late-1800s. However, the late-1700s saw a wave of secret societies emerge or outright rebel. Since the 1300s there had been a Buddhist secret society called the White Lotus; it attracted Han Chinese who were enticed by the idea that soon the new Buddha would arrive. There had been several White Lotus uprisings and movements throughout Chinese history, and one broke out in 1774. Rebels led by a herbalist called Wang Lun rose up to challenge to a general antagonism to the ruling Manchu order - Wang famously stated that 'If I call on Heaven, Heaven will assist me; if I call on Earth, Earth will give me magical strength. Their guns will not fire. What men will dare impede me?' Although Wang Lun's rebellion, after initial early success, was crushed it would inspire other rebellions. In the 1780s, the Heaven and Earth Society rose up in Taiwan and declared a new dynasty 'Obedient to Heaven'; in Gansu province two Muslim revolts emerged opposing the state appointed Muslim officials; and in the southwest Miao tribal people revolted. Most importantly, in 1799 a new White Lotus rebellion emerged directly more political than Wang Lun's rebellion. They directly linked their rising to local tax inequalities and managed to spread across Sichuan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Henan. All these rebellions were eventually crushed, but it showed one thing - Qing rule was being rocked. 

Imperialism and the First Opium War

Lin Zexu, c.1843

For decades the imperialist powers was eyeing up China - now free from the Napoleonic Wars and the rise of Industrial capitalism made China a new market for expansion. As we saw previously, China had rebuffed the Macartney mission in the 1790s, this was an attempt for Britain to open an embassy in Beijing. Europeans, and especially missionaries, were only allowed to operate in either Macau or Canton, and even then they were only allowed to trade with permission from local officials. In 1834 William John Napier arrived at Canton and demanded that he be allowed to trade, he was refused and war almost broke out. These feelings festered for five years, and in the meantime Britain started illegally selling opium. Britain was more reliant on Chinese goods than China was on Britain creating a trade imbalance which Britain disliked. Consequently, Britain decided to sell opium grown in India through Canton to address this; opium had been banned by the Jiaqing Emperor so British merchants became the primary source of opium. Within only a few years the amount of opium sold to China exploded - by 1835 it had passed 30,000 chests and within three years it exceeded 40,000. More and more people became addicted, and a significant chunk of Chinese silver went towards the opium trade. It was decided to stamp out the opium trade, so Lin Zexu was sent to Canton to stamp it out in 1839. As governor-general of Hubei and Hunan he had virtually wiped out opium through ruthless means; he wrote a letter to good friend and outspoken reformer Gong Zizhen that he wished to hang all opium smokers and all peddlers should be beheaded. He quickly set to work against opium. Using a mixture of reason, persuasion, and coercion he quickly started wiping out opium. Students and gentry were told the dangers of opium, and were allowed to anonymously give the names of addicts and distributors. Within three months he had arrested over 1,600 people; had seized over 78,000 pounds of opium; and had seized a further 55,000 opium pipes. Having a weak navy he tried a different approach with Europeans going as far as to write a letter to Queen Victoria urging her as a 'honourable nation' to help 'remove the source of evil'. When foreigners refused to hand over all the opium he had them blockaded, had Chinese workers leave their employment, and even had gongs banged all night to keep them awake. After six weeks 3 million pounds of raw opium were handed over and eventually funnelled into the sea. Lin made a special prayer saying that 'you [the Southern Sea] who wash away all stains and cleanse all impurities...tell the creatures of the water to move away for a time, to avoid being contaminated.' 

A British depiction of the Battle of Chinkiang

The British were enraged about another nation destroying their trade, and wealthy opium merchant William Jardine even returned to Britain to help calls for military action against China. Lin continued to firmly stamp out the opium trade, and was even mobilised locals against the British after they refused to hand over someone who had murdered a villager outside Kowloon near Hong Kong. Angered, Britain sent a fleet under George Elliott which blockaded Canton and Ningbo, and seized Zhoushan in 1840. To avoid war and reopen trade governor-general Qishan saw that Lin was dismissed and banished, an indemnity paid, and that the British could meet the Qing court. However, the prime minister, Lord Palmerston, wanted to dominate China and sent Sir Henry Pottinger to enact this. The Qing were unprepared for the strength of the British military. Steam-powered British ships, like the Nemesis, allowed quick transport and superior firepower compared to the Chinese ships. That does not mean that the Qing did not put up a serious fight - Lin had commissioned scholars to study Western ships, and the invading British army found near-complete warships in Wusong, Xiamen, and Shanghai. However, the British still won an easy victory occupying several ports including Shanghai, Xiamen, Nanjing, and Ningbo. The ensuing Treaty of Nanjing, the first of many Unequal Treaties, was humiliating for the Qing, and is now seen as the beginning of the Century of Humiliation. The Daoguang Emperor himself was forced to agree to pay an indemnity of $21 million, lift restrictions on trade, open five cities (Canton, Shanghai, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Fuzhou) to trade, station British consuls in each port city, and perpetually cede Hong Kong. This was the first setback the Qing had seen since they came to power, and would shatter the image of their security. The earlier mentioned faults in Qing power would come spilling out.

Societal Changes

From a HSBC advert for their Shanghai branch

There were shifts emerging in society even before the humiliating defeat in what is now seen as the First Opium War. Landlessness and unemployment had fuelled the rise of banditry, rebellions, and exoduses to urban areas; pressures in urban areas worsened thanks to corruption and the British purposefully encouraged a surreptitious opium addiction among the unemployed to create a continuous demand for opium; and the image of the Qing had been shattered. Modern Triads emerged during this period as an avenue for the landless and unemployed to find a living, or those in British Hong Kong to resist imperialism. Although we'll discuss life in the treaty ports more next time, it is worth discussing it briefly here. Russia, the US, and France soon joined Britain in having Unequal Treaties signed with China under the threat of war. Especially from the 1850s, an increasing European presence could be found in the treaty ports. Indian troops became a common site and locals in Shanghai combined local traditions with imperial capitalism when the first European banks were opened in Shanghai. Lions were seen as lucky, and HSBC banks had lion statues outside them, so photos show statues with shiny paws after repeated rubbing. Local Chinese were further exploited and discriminated against. The ports became integral parts of colonial empires, albeit more informally; a myth emerged that a Shanghai park had a sign, written in English, saying 'No dogs or Chinese allowed'. Although not true many wanted it to be, and in certain areas it practically was true. Ethnicity made a resurgence. Han nationalism started to emerge as the ruling Qing were Manchu - the weakness of China was increasingly blamed on Manchus, and many rebellious organisations, especially the Triads, were made of only Han. Minorities, often referred to as 'Guest Peoples', also began agitating against Manchu rule. Christian missionaries further made their mark - Christian texts were smuggled out of Canton, and later missionaries followed them. The arrival of a new faith shifted how things were understood in China. We will discuss women more in detail elsewhere but the emergence of women's emancipation can be seen during this time. Scholar Li Ruzhen in 1825 wrote Flowers in the Mirror which sees the characters travel to a world where women rule, and they have to have their feet crushed before being confined to the isolation in a critique of how women were treated.

The Second Opium War

In the 1850s and 1860s the Qing faced major military actions - another war against Europeans, and three major revolts. Britain, America, France, and, to an extent, Russia were seeking treaty reform with the Qing - their expanding economies wanted even more domination over China. In 1856 they got their excuse. Searching for opium shipments China was accused of raiding a British ship in Hong Kong called the Arrow, so to 'defend' themselves Britain went to war. Initially set back by the 1857 Indian Rebellion, which can be read about here, Canton was captured in December 1857 and its governor-general exiled to Calcutta. This shows how much Britain viewed China as its colony - it felt powerful enough to exile another state's officials. Capturing the Dagu forts in the far north the road to Beijing was open so a new treaty was signed. The 1858 Treaty of Tianjin destroyed Chinese autonomy - Christian missionaries were allowed free access to the country, four treaty ports would be opened when the rebellions were crushed, six would immediately be opened, communication would only be done in English, and the character yi (barbarian) was banned. One of the negotiators, Prince Gong, would be inspired by this treaty to bring change to China. However, not everyone at court accepted this and fighting continued.

The Yuanmingyuan today

The second half of the war came to an end in 1860 but was devastating for China. It, arguably, was the most devastating part of the Century of Humiliation until the Rape of Nanjing in 1937. Anglo-French forces wanted to punish China for daring to rebel against the Treaty of Tianjin, so they opted to destroy a cultural icon when they reached Beijing. Originally the Forbidden Palace was chosen as the residence of the emperor, but this was scrapped in favour of the Summer Palaces. As mentioned when we discussed the Qing, the Summer Palaces were one of the greatest icons of Chinese culture. The army destroyed the Yuanmingyuan and looted the Yiheyuan destroying centuries of Chinese culture. The Yuanmingyuan remains destroyed to this day as a symbol of imperialism, and if you visit a museum in Britain or France today and see a Chinese artefact obtained, or dated, from the 1850s/1860s it was looted from the Yiheyuan. The destruction of the Summer Palaces still is a deep rupture in Chinese culture and political thinking. In 1860 the Convention of Beijing made China an informal part of the Euro-American empires: the Treaty of Tianjin was to be ratified, an indemnity of up to 16 million taels had to be paid, opium was legalised, Kowloon was ceded to Britain, and Tianjian (which was close to Beijing) was open to trade. This was not the end of China's troubles.

The Nian and Muslim Revolts

Li Hongzhang in 1896

Although these revolts occurred concurrently with, or after, the Taiping I want to quickly discuss them here. Originating in the north, the Nian Revolt had its roots in the earlier White Lotus Rebellions. The Nian were raiders who took in poor or former peasants, and following floods in Jiangsu in 1851 their numbers boomed. Despite only numbering between 30,000 to 50,000 troops their access to firearms and ability to isolate Beijing while government forces were fighting the Taiping allowed them to be powerful. Their leader Zhang Luoxing became popular thanks to his raiding on other areas to feed local villages, and his attempts to curb rape and raiding. Even though Zhang was killed by General Senggelinqin at Anhui the Nian continued in 1863 the Nian Rebellion continued for another five years. Senggelinqin's massacres of the population became coupled with his continuous falling into traps helped the rebellion drag on. He was replaced by Zeng Guofan, who was integral in toppling to Taiping, and even he failed to defeat them, so his protege Li Hongzhang was given control. Li managed to defeat the Nian in 1868. Meanwhile, heavy taxation and expulsions of Muslims from their land to access mines led to revolts in the west from 1862. Another scholar turned general, Zuo Zongtang, was instrumental in putting it down. Zeng, Li, and Zuo will become very important in our next World History post.

The Taiping 

The Taiping Rebellion remains one of the bloodiest events in history causing up to 30 million people to be killed. It began in a strange way. A member of the Hakka minority Hong Xiuquan was born in the very poor province of Guangxi. His family worked hard to allow their son to go for the examinations, something very difficult for a minority and peasants, but he would end up failing the exams four times. As a young man he had been introduced to Christianity by American missionary Edwin Stevens, theorised by Spence as we're not actually sure, but after having strange dreams years later inspired him to read the text. Hong had dreams where two golden haired men, calling him son and brother, had visited him, and he realised that they were God and Jesus. Hong believed himself to be the son of God, and younger brother of Jesus, who would throw down the corrupt Manchu. Isolated from the rest of China, his influence quickly garnered over 10,000 followers. His harsh criticisms of the Manchu, calling them demons sent by the devil, and preaches of equality, inspired by Christianity, caused his following to grow. In 1850 Lin Zexu was brought back from exile but died on the way to fight Hong, and his successor was roundly defeated. On January 11, 1851 Hong Xiuquan declared himself the Heavenly King of the Taiping Tianguo. In 1853 he took Nanjing and ruled there for a decade. 

The Taiping Tianguo was a state of contrasts. While sexes were rigidly segregated it offered a way to grant women increasing independence. As Hakka women did not bind their feet it allowed them to bolster their armies where Su Sanniang became one of the most important generals of the Taiping. Ono Kazuko has further emphasised how women had considerable power in choosing who they married. This did not mean that women were truly equal - Hong did promote men over women, and said 'Can the Chinese even consider themselves men?' as they had been conquered by the Qing. There were attempts to rebuild society - opium addiction was successfully dealt with, dancing was banned, exams became based on Christianity, a communal bank was opened, and Hong tried to redistribute land equally in the most ambitious land policy until the communists of the 1950s. Why then, despite ruling from Nanjing with a population of over 30 million, did the Taiping fail to oust the Qing? Jonathan Spence identifies several reasons. Hong declared other generals 'kings' but the most capable were killed early on or tried to challenge Hong for power - Yang Xiuqing was killed in a palace coup in 1856 and Shi Dakai was killed by the Qing in 1863 when he tried to form his own kingdom. Losing key allies Hong's rule became increasingly erratic and inefficient. For this reason his land policy fell through losing support of the peasantry. Hong's isolation and aestheticism prevented collaboration with other revolts - his rigid rules in Nanjing alienated many Han. Although Euro-American powers initially toyed with supporting the Taiping in order to create a Christian China, Hong's view on Christianity put them off - the person who converted Hong, American missionary Issacher Roberts, distanced himself from Hong. The 'Ever-Victorious Army' under Auguste Protet and Charles Gordon allied with Qing officials, like Zeng Guofan, to fight the Taiping. Protet would be killed, but Gordon would be Christened 'Chinese Gordon' - he would later be killed trying to put down an anti-colonial rebellion in Sudan. In 1864 Hong died - either from suicide or eating a poisoned mushroom - as Nanjing was starving, people had resorted to eating grass and their dead. With him the Taiping Tianguo came to a close.

Conclusion and Next Time

The first half of the 1800s would be used by reformers to bring change to China. Those involved in the Opium Wars and rebellions would see their defeats as a way to 'modernise' China - the self-strengthening movement would soon emerge. Reform would lead to revolution, and the eventual collapse of the Chinese Empire. Observing the Second Opium War and Taiping Tianguo Karl Marx would observe how institutional government came under threat by the greed of colonial exploitation, and how a revolutionary China would break the international system exploiting it. He would reflect that European conservatives would one day flee from the proletariat hoping to find refuge in a conservative power only to find written on the Great Wall, 'Chinese Republic: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. Before then we have to see the successes and failures of reform, Sun Yat-sen, more colonial exploitation, rebellions, Chinese communities abroad, and civil war.

The sources used are as follows:

-Jonathan Spence, In Search for Modern China, (New York: 1990)

-Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950, (Stanford: 1978)

-Immanuel Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, Sixth Edition, (New York: 2000)

-Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, (London: 1986)

-Frances Wood, No Dogs and Not Many Chinese, Treaty Port Life in China, 1843-1943, (London: 1998)

-Chun-tu Hsueh, (ed.), The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives, (Hong Kong: 1983)

-Jonathan Spence, God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, (New York: 1996)

Thank you for reading, and for other World History posts please see our list here. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: Qing China

Dorgon

The last time we looked at China we focused on the Ming dynasty, here, and how it fell to the new Qing dynasty. From 1644 to the end of the Chinese empire in 1912 the Qing ruled China but what set them apart from prior dynasties were that they were not Han Chinese instead being Manchu. Ruling over a multi-ethnic empire we see an intriguing cultural mix and shifts in society and politics. Today we'll look at the Qing but first we first need to understand who they were and why the Ming fell. As a side note, during this post I will mention The Dream of the Red Chamber a lot so I would recommend reading my post on it here.

Fall of the Ming and Rise of the Qing

Nurhaci

The Qing were descended from Jurchen peoples in modern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces of northern China. Like most peoples the Jurchen had a wide variety of lifestyles ranging from hunters and fishers, to arable farmers, to traders on the Liao River who traded with Chinese emigrants. The Jurchen were united under a chieftain named Nurhaci in 1616 declaring his new state the 'Later Jin', named after another Jurchen dynasty from around four centuries prior. Nurhaci would form the backbone of the Qing state, the Banner system, and would start attacking northern China conquering Liaodong. There he started trying to establish Jurchen rule and legitimacy. Among these he claimed to never let 'the rich accumulate their grain and have it rot away' but would 'nourish the begging poor'. Between 1621 and 1625 he had a new capital to be made, Shenyang (modern Mukden), and passed edicts banning footbinding and enforcing the queue, where the front of the head was shaved and the rest was tied into a ponytail, on the Han population. Following Nurhaci's death in 1636 his son Hong Taji began reforming the new state. As Jurchen had been used as a pejorative so he renamed his people making them Manchus and also renamed the state from the 'Later Jin' to the 'Qing' which translates to 'pure' in keeping with the earlier Ming and Yuan dynasties. Hong started greater conquests and assimilating the conquered Han peoples following various revolts. As this was happening the Ming started collapsing so the new Qing started moving southwards. However, Hong died in 1643 designating his ninth son, a five year old, to succeed him as emperor and for his brother, Dorgon, to act as regent. It would be Dorgon who would conquer China for his nephew and would posthumously be called emperor, although his nephew would claim he had commit crimes and stripped him of his titles.

By 1644 the Ming faced a series of problems leading to their collapse. Under their rule China's economy and population had boomed but these would come crashing down. Harsh weather thanks to the Little Ice Age caused crop failure and floods which became far worse thanks to overpopulation. Silver from Japan and the Americas (via European traders) caused massive amounts of inflation weakening China's economic power. Thanks to this peasant rebellions soared. The Ming were unable to stop this for several reasons. An attempted invasion by Japan though Korea in 1592 weakened the state's power as a series of weak emperors dominated by court factionalism and eunuchs affected this further. Chinese society was also changing. The Ming era economic boom had allowed artisans and merchants to become wealthy which upset the Confucian system which placed them at the bottom which greatly angered the traditional elite. Furthermore, the bureaucracy was chosen by those who scored well in the jinshi exams which were expensive to take and had traditionally, as a result, been limited to the scholar class. However, this economic boom allowed merchants to send their sons to sit the exams, or allowed people to simply buy a degree instead. Through this the bureaucracy became weakened thanks to people buying rather than earning their degrees and even then the conservative nature of the jinshi, a student had to basically learn off by heart the Four Classics as an example, the knowledge needed to pass did not serve well during time of crisis. Thanks to all these mentioned factors it appeared that the 'Mandate of Heaven' by 1644 had left the Ming.

The Long Ming-Qing Transition

A depiction of Li Zicheng

The Ming-Qing Transition is one of the bloodiest events in human history claiming around 24 million lives which left lasting scars for generations. Even when the Qing claimed the Mandate of Heaven in 1644 it took another forty years for Ming rule to be properly wiped out. However, the ones to originally take Beijing were not the Qing but rather a figure named Li Zicheng. From Shaanxi Li was a violent man who joined the military in 1630 and when denied promised supplies mutinied with other soldiers. Li became known as a charismatic leader and started further revolts before in 1644 declaring himself the founder of a new dynasty, the 'Shun' or 'Loyalty', at Xi'an. He proceeded to formally claim the Mandate of Heaven by capturing Beijing. The Ming's last official emperor, the Chongzhen, was now desperate. His last major general, Wu Sangui, was too far away to rescue the royal family so Chongzhen took matters into his own hands. We don't fully know what happened - some accounts say that he personally killed his family to avoid them falling into enemy hands - but what we do know is that Chongzhen hung himself in his garden ending the official Ming dynasty. Li Zicheng's new Shun dynasty was not popular. The Ming themselves were popular, (a report stated that a beggar in Nanjing when he heard the emperor was dead bought a bottle of wine, downed it, and then jumped into the river in grief), and the Shun made enemies quickly. As Li had failed the jinshi he allowed his supporters, especially one called Niu Jinxing, to kill any degree holders they could find and when Li failed to pay his troops they ransacked Beijing. As a result the invading Qing soon gained the support of Wu Sangui as they claimed they were seeking revenge for the fall of the Ming. Using cannons, many accounts refer to the use of cannon and gunpowder warfare (such as Shi Kefa describing the fall of Yangzhou), they took Beijing and Li fled to Xi'an. Li was killed possibly in 1645, we don't know how. Once establish in Beijing the Qing could easily declare that they held the Mandate, however, they had only managed to subdue the North. The remaining parts of the Ming is often referred to as the 'Southern Ming' but this is inaccurate as it implies it was one unified government and entirely in the South. Instead we see five different courts of which the last was in Taiwan. Furthermore, until 1647 another rebel leader called Zhang Xianzhong declared himself emperor of the Xi dynasty in Sichuan. Like Li he was known for brutality maiming thousands of scholars and their families, decimating whole regiments of his own army, and applying a scorched earth policy after burning his capital of Chengdu to the ground. He was eventually defeated in 1647 by Manchu forces.

After Chongzhen's suicide a grandson of the Wanli emperor, the Prince of Fu, declared himself the new Ming emperor in Nanjing. He did, however, correspond with Dorgon: Fu offered presents and subsidiaries in return for the Manchus to return north while Dorgon offered Fu his own kingdom if he renounced his imperial claims. Both refused. In May 1645 the Manchu army marched along the Grand Canal and captured Yangzhou, just north of Nanjing, which was sacked for ten days as a warning for future resistance. A merchant's, Wang Xiuchu, account shows us some of the horrors of the massacre:

Before I'd caught my breath, a young man dressed in red came straight at me with the point of a long sword. I gave him silver, but he also wanted my wife. She, in her ninth month of pregnancy, was crouching on the ground and absolutely refused to rise. So I lied to the man...So he paid no more attention to her. He had already taken a young woman, her daughter, and little boy captive. When the boy cried to his mother for something to eat, the soldier grew angry and bashed in the child's skull with one blow. Then he carried the mother and daughter away.

Seeing the massacre at Yangzhou convinced Nanjing to open its doors to the Manchus. In a twist of fate the Qing under Kangxi would condemn this act; in a Confucian trend it was seen as more honourable to fight for Ming loyalty rather than submit to the new Qing. Fu was taken captive and died a year later in captivity in Beijing. Two brothers, descended from the Ming's founder, established themselves in Fuzhou (a coastal city with access to Taiwan) and Guangzhou (Canton) but both fell to the Qing by 1647. A resistor on the east coast surrendered in 1653 leaving the Prince of Gui, a pampered twenty-one year old grandson of Wanli with no experience with governmental or military affairs, as the last claimant. After fleeing Hunan thanks to Zhang Xianzhong and later Guangdong by the Qing he fled to near the modern Vietnamese border. Meanwhile, Qing conquests in the far south, although spectacular in speed, were only partial so loyal officials in 1648 declared loyalty to Gui and massacred Qing forces in Guangdong in 1650. However, Gui court was described as being filled with 'all manner of betel-nut chewers, brine-well workers, and aborigine whorehouse owners' by K'ung Shang-jen showing the prince was somewhat naive in regards to his position. However, by December the Qing had reorganised and using former Ming generals who had defected in 1633 chased Gui out of Guangdong until he fled to the Kingdom of Burma. The Burmese king decided against offering sanctuary to a Ming court when the Qing was in power so massacred most of Gui's retinue and took the remains as prisoners. In 1661 Wu Sangui led an attack into Burma capturing Gui who was strangled with his son the following year. There was finally Koxinga's revolt but we shall discuss that later.

Wu Sangui

The Ming-Qing transition did not just affect the people in charge. As mentioned earlier many millions of civilians perished during the wars being massacred by rebel, Ming and Qing forces a like. There were vast amounts of suicides as well; as only 10% of the population were literate our accounts are skewed in favour of the elite. We cannot tell if the Nanjing beggar's suicide story is accurate but if it is we can therefore assume that some lower down in society did so as well. Anyone interested in early modern Chinese history will see that many late Ming writers died somewhere around 1646, such as the owner of a supposedly beautiful garden Qi Biaojia, and that is because suicide was seen as being better than serving the Qing. If suicide wasn't liked then life as a monk was the next best thing. We see a culture clash as well. Dorothy Ko has highlighted how footbinding was seen as a sign of culture and civilisation by Ming literati as shown in Shen Defu's (1578-1642) Private Gleanings in the Reign of Wanli who wrote about a suggestion by an official, Qu Jiusi, who suggested sending women with bound feet to corrupt the 'barbarians' in the north. As mentioned earlier Nurhaci banned footbinding and implemented the queue which Dorgon continued when he arrived in Beijing in 1644 much to Han outrage. Long hair was seen as a sign of filial piety and culture so the queue was seen as attacking both, which they also argued the same for footbinding, and many scholars became monks to avoid having a queue. Memories of the Qing conquest would persist with artists and poets subtly insulting Qing rule or openly lamenting how certain cultural aspects, like courtesans, were relics of the Ming. However, we see the blending of cultures. A painting of Dorgon shows him in Manchu dress while surrounded by Han iconography.

Kangxi, r.1661-1722

Kangxi

Kangxi is perhaps one of China's most influential emperors and definitely the Qing's. Although under a regency until 1669 and facing a Ming loyalist revolt during this time he managed to consolidate Qing rule and start a cultural epoch in China. Under Kangxi's father Qing rule in the south was weak so three generals were placed in charge to manage administration and the military who became known as the 'Three Feudatories': Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, and Geng Jimao. Together they ruled an area the same size as the southern US, controlled their domains as their own virtual kingdoms, and earned 10 million ounces of silver a year from taxes and subsidiaries from Beijing to keep them loyal. Kangxi quite rightly feared their power and in 1671 Shang grew ill giving power to his son, Zhixin, and Geng died passing it onto his son, Jiangzhong. Much to the dismay of both his Han and Manchu advisers Kangxi decided to cut them down to size and jumped on the chance when Shang asked if he could retire to Manchuria in 1673. Wu, Geng, and Shang all rebelled, (Shang had to imprison his father who remained loyal to the Qing) and Wu even declared a new dynasty, the Zhou. Those in the south had to decide whether to stay loyal to Kangxi or cast their lot in with one of the Feudatories. Wu strained this further by not declaring himself emperor hinting that he would enthrone any surviving Ming. The War of the Three Feudatories had the potential to destroy the Qing and they almost did if it were not for several reasons put forward by Jonathan Spence. First, Kangxi was intelligent and charismatic which helped unify the court with him banning killings of women and children in rebel areas and his generals were tenacious; second, in his old age Wu had become indecisive and the Feudatories were not unified giving Kangxi's Manchu generals time to counterattack; third, they had difficulty appealing to Ming loyalists considering they themselves had toppled the Ming; and fourth, they themselves were poor leaders, Wu had become accustomed to luxury and had readily engaged in despotism. By 1681 all their leaders were dead and Kangxi replaced the Feudatories with governors and governor-generals. However, he would deeply distrust the centres of the revolt for decades to come and had to deal with Koxinga in Taiwan.

A Dutch depiction of Shang

Zheng Chenggong, called Koxinga thanks to the Dutch on Taiwan, was the son of a pirate and trader made an official by the Ming but had joined the Qing. Koxinga was a product of the emerging global world; born in 1624 to a Japanese mother he had regularly visited Nagasaki and Macao and their home in Xiamen had black slaves as bodyguards from Macao with a chapel depicting Buddhist and Christian images. The younger Zheng remained loyal to the Ming offering his fleet to take loyalists to Taiwan and throughout the 1650s fought the Manchu fleet. In 1661 he attacked the Dutch fortress of Zeelandia finally capturing it in February 1662 killing the men and enslaving the women in order to establish his own dynasty. However, the Qing angry at his revolt executed his family in Beijing. Koxinga led a violent final years flying into rages before dying in 1662 of malaria. As Koxinga had been recruiting followers from the mainland Kangxi's regent, Oboi, started forcibly removing the coastal Chinese population but still over 100,000 had managed to flee to Taiwan. In 1683 Kangxi had used Koxinga's own actions against him. Shi Lang was an admiral of Koxinga's father who remained loyal to the Qing so Koxinga executed some of his family. Shi managed to take Taiwan and Kangxi, weary of war, decided to spare the Zheng family. Their armies were moved to the Russian border and it was decided to keep Taiwan at arms length. The Qing were disinterested in maritime trade so never invested in making it a centre for that purpose which would prove disastrous in the nineteenth century.

A surviving Kangxi dictionary

Although Kangxi was tired of civil war he was not tired of foreign war. As a result under the Qing China would expand to actually be larger than the current People's Republic (Mongolia and Taiwan were both part of the Qing). A constant theme in Chinese history is the threat from the north, as of course the Qing themselves were from the north, and starting under Kangxi were the wars against the Dzungar Khanate. For years China had traded silver and silk for Dzungar horses but in 1687 when the khan Galdan defeated his local enemies Kangxi saw them as a threat. Personally leading an army, something he didn't do during the civil wars, of 80,000 and Galdan was killed in 1697. The Dzungar Wars continued until 1757 when they were finally conquered resulting in a genocide of the Dzungars. After 1701 wars with the Dzungars erupted over who would rule Tibet which was very important for the Qing and China; Buddhism was very important to China and the Qing in particular who were part of the Tibetan branch of Buddhism. This was successful and Tibet was brought into the empire in 1720 allowing him to choose the next Dalai Lama. Not all of Kangxi's foreign relations resulted in war. In 1689 the Treaty of Nerchinsk establishing the border between China and Russia and Kangxi apparently knew a lot of Russian rites during the meeting. Kangxi was also eager to meet Jesuit missionaries, at this stage they were deeply respectful of China, and he wanted to use their knowledge of astrology, maths, and engineering. Matteo Ripa, for one, became very close to Kangxi where in 1723 he brought four converts back to Naples with him with the intention of sending them back to China to convert the empire. Under Kangxi the Qing attempted to bring the Han elite back into the bureaucracy. He made the Southern Tours, which we'll discuss soon, where he attempted to portray himself as a Han intellectual and in 1679 issued the Boxue hongci, a personal invite to Han literati to take part in the exams. To further engage them they were commissioned to make an official history of the Ming resulting in the Ming History Project as well as a new edition of the I Ching. Further projects was the Kangxi zidian in 1719 which was a dictionary project standardising Chinese and was used right until the end of the 1800s. With the end of the domestic wars the economy boomed as well allowing the engagement in luxury to continue not seen since the end of the Ming. When he died in 1722 Kangxi became as influential as his contemporary Louis XIV of France and one of the longest serving rulers.

How the Qing ruled
There was much continuity in regards to rule going from the Ming to the Qing. On top was the emperor and under strong leaders, like Dorgon and Kangxi, administration ran smoothly. Initially eunuch power was curbed but as always as emperors became complacent, despite earlier activity Qianlong spent most of his time smoking opium in his last few years, eunuch power and court factionalism returned. To rule such a large empire one needed a large bureaucracy and to recruit those into the bureaucracy one needed to pass a jinshi exam, or be a military man. The Qing enforced Confucian orthodoxy so women could not partake although as shown in The Dream of the Red Chamber court concubines and other women could exert considerable influence over the court. Despite many individuals loathing the exams it proved a good way for the Qing to find loyal bureaucrats and families would start training sons from a young age to take part in the exams, from at least age five. This is why in Dream the family patriarch Sir Jia bullies his son Baoyu into studying the Classics and why one cousin even dies through stress (as well as other things). Originally only the literati could only take part in the exams but due to the economic boom merchants could later send their sons just like under the Ming before them. Mentioned earlier we have the Banner system. This remained in place until 1912 but after the reign of Qianlong they started to decrease in importance. Initially they were to distinguish groups during battle but became a way to signify ethnicity; there were four Manchu banners, two Han, and two Mongol. Through intermarriage it was possible for a Han bannerman to become a Manchu one.

Women

A shoe used for footbinding

There was both continuity and change from the Ming to the Qing. Like their predecessors the Qing placed emphasis on Confucian morality which left women in a subordinate role to men: they were barred from exams, political power, and were extremely subordinate in inheritance. Also, only a percent of those able to read were women who were often forced into the inner quarters, guikun. A new branch of feminist history under figures like Dorothy Ko has indeed argued there is a false dichotomy between oppression and freedom. For example, despite restriction to the guikun women could use it to exercise their own influence though reading, writing and even using Buddhist theology to undermine Confucianism. In Dream many female characters like Wang Xifeng and Grandmother Jia hold great amounts of power over the Jia household, Xifeng is even chosen instantly to run the affairs of one of the mansions. Ko's work on footbinding is very interesting as well. Throughout the Qing there were edicts against footbinding, there were at least three under Kangxi, as mothers were willing to bind the feet of their daughters - it took until the establishment of the People's Republic for it to be stay banned. Women bound their daughters feet to continue Han identity under Manchu rule and to appeal to male beauty standards which presents a key idea - Han women freely bound their feet but did they truly want to or was it was because they were expected to? Instances of freedom often came with a limitation. The poet Huang Yuanjie (c.1620-c.1669) was very popular but her supporters dismissed critics who said she shouldn't be a travelling poet by saying that she was continuing the legacy of her father, a poet who commit suicide during the Qing conquest. Hence, women were neither free nor oppressed.

Southern Tours

Scroll 3, depicts Kangxi's trip to Mt. Tai

The Southern Tours were a series of tours performed by Kangxi and his grandson Qianlong which shows so many interesting things about Qing rule where parts were beautifully captured in art. Kangxi went on six between 1684 and 1707 while Qianlong loved travelling; he spent a quarter of his reign (about 15 years) on the move amounting to 72 tours across China, as well as his many wars. It is important to note when Kangxi's tours began it was after the Ming had formally been defeated with the conquest of Taiwan. Officially these tours were meant to observe the local canals and infrastructure but in reality it was meant to show the previously rebellious people that Kangxi was one of them. Also, power projection - the grandfather of Dream's author, Cao Yin, hosted the emperor and his retinue costing 50,000 taels to do. The first few tours Kangxi wrote poetry, read Confucius and did tea ceremonies in order to appeal to the local Han Chinese. On the third tour in 1699 at Hangchow he made references to the Classics before doing an archery competition on horseback to show his Manchu roots. His grandson fully embraced touring in what Michael Chang described as a synthesising of Han and Manchu cultures and even then he expanded the tours to include all of China. In 1743 a pilgrimage to the tombs at Mukden to revere his ancestors and many tours he took along with him his mother to show filial piety. He made several trips to a major Buddhist site to Mt. Wutai, especially as his grandfather had gone there - Qianlong deeply respected his grandfather even abdicating so his reign wouldn't be as long as Kangxi's (although he ruled behind the scenes). He also made several visits to Mt. Tai as it was near Confucius's birthplace. Of course, these tours were expensive. His Southern Tours included an entourage almost 10,000 and costing 3 million taels of silver. Qianlong wanted to portray himself as a Han literati but also as a powerful one.

Ethnicity
As mentioned throughout there was a Han-Manchu dynamic in the Qing empire which slowly managed to diminish as the decades went on. However, China was, and still is, an incredibly ethnically diverse region. Due to the Qing placing emphasis on Han relations they were often overlooked, especially those on the periphery of the empire. For example, Kangxi barred land from being confiscated from indigenous Taiwanese peoples but it was perfectly acceptable for those who helped defeat Kongxia's descendants to take the land. The Miao also faced discrimination which resulted in a series of revolts when the Qing started collapsing in the nineteenth century. Qianlong was frustrated at failed attempts to integrate the Miao he declared that 'The Miao barbarians should be kept illiterate!'. A colonisation policy also happened in the frontiers where Han and Manchu were encouraged to settle in non-Han or Manchu regions. The term 'barbarian' was regularly used to refer to anyone non-Han and the Qing tried to prevent the Manchus from being referred to as 'barbarians'.

Culture and the Arts
The culture and arts consumption under the Qing has often been overlooked by the one which occurred under the Ming. Craig Clunas has argued that conspicuous consumption can be used to show power, if you could afford wealthy products that means you are wealthy, and this is shown under the Qing. Although idealised Dream shows this effectively as characters are regularly depicted wearing expensive and extravagant clothing and jewellery - as the emperor's concubine, who is a member of the Jia household, comes to visit the Jias build an entire garden for her. Gardens were very linked with social power in early modern China. Qianlong spent much time in his own garden where he even pretended to be in a market with his retinue. It was under him that the magnificent garden, the Yuanming yuan, was constructed with it being one of the greatest spectacles in China until its destruction at the hands of the British and French during the Second Opium War. Qianlong was also an eager collector of art. It was common to stamp a piece of art before selling it on to show that you had once owned that piece and Qianlong certainly had a large stamp - he has been accused by one historian of basically destroying art because of the size of his stamp. Of course, only the wealthy could engage in this cultural boom. Although Dream does depict some commoners, like the slave Aroma's cousin, engaging in this we have to remember it is highly romanticised. Like under the Ming the growing wealth of the merchants and artisans allowed them to engage in this cultural boom, much to the chagrin of the traditional elite. 

China and Europe

A caricature of the Macartney mission. Notice the offensive depiction of the Chinese showing a shift in views.

Unlike later on during this period Europe was respectful of China although we see this slowly change as the years went on. For example, Kangxi was very pleased to have Jesuits at court due to their respect and knowledge going as far as to declare an Edict of Toleration in 1692. By the start of the eighteenth century we see conflict emerge about whether Chinese converts could continue ancestor worship - the Jesuits thought they could while the Dominicans disagreed. The Dominicans won out and in 1715 the pope issued a Papal Bull banning ancestor worship so an enraged Kangxi banned Christian missions. The Qing were more interested in land and not maritime relations so they were largely disinterested in European affairs, however, Europe was very interested in China. Ever since the days of Marco Polo Europe fantasised about China going as far as to imagine that Chinese porcelain had to be buried for a century to be so good - in fact that is often why we refer to it as 'China'. Qianlong although did invite a French Jesuit, Jean-Denis Attiret, to live in the Yuanming yuan for sometime. A trend named 'chinoiserie' came into being - a desire for all things China. We see the Shugborough dinner service and Kew gardens as part of this, and Voltaire praised Confucianism saying that France had much to learn from China. There was some pushback - Daniel Defoe criticised China but this maybe because he owned his own porcelain factory. By 1800 this respect soon started to drip away as we see with the Macartney Mission which even affects Chinese-British relations today. China viewed itself as the most important state - and for most of its history this was a correct view - so expected foreign visitors as vassals paying homage. Britain had views that it was the most important state and wanted access to the huge potential of a Chinese market. George Macartney was sent to China to ask for a permanent embassy in Beijing, an island to operate from, and relaxation of trade restrictions on British merchants in Guangzhou. Macartney refused to kowtow to the emperor which historically has been seen as the reason for the failed mission but instead it was simply because Qianlong was uninterested in what George III was offering. Britain thought itself important in the Chinese world but China disagreed. Despite arguing that he was humiliated Macartney he made a steady profit from it - he insisted on an annual allowance of £15,000 and profited over £20,000 from the mission. At the time it did not seem important but retroactively it can be seen as a key point in shifting British-Chinese relations. It also remains important today in how Britain views itself with China; in the news if Britain seems to do a deal with China which favours China you will often see a phrase along the lines of 'Britain kowtowing'.

Conclusion
The early Qing greatly shaped China. It expanded its borders and truly reflected the multiethnic aspect of China often overlooked. A constant theme of their rule was balancing their own Manchu identity against that of the Han, and to an extent the minorities in their borders. They shaped Chinese culture, politics, and society setting the stage for how people now view China. From these heights the next time that we will see them it would be the collapse of their empire and how the 'Hundred Years of Humiliation' began.

The next World History post will look at what has been described as the first world war: the Seven Years' War. The sources I have used are as follows:
-Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China, (New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 1990)
-Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, Vol.9. Part One: The Ch'ing Empire to 1800, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)
-Susan Naquin and Evelyn S. Rawski, (eds.), Chinese Society in the Eighteenth Century, (London: Yale University Press, 1987)
-Lynn A. Struve, (ed.), Voices from the Ming-Qing Transition: China in Tigers' Paws, (London: Yale University Press, 1993)
-Richard J. Smith, The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture, (London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015)
-John Keay, China: A History, (London: Harper Press, 2008)
-Michael Chang, A Court on Horseback: Imperial Touring and the Construction of Qing Rule, 1680-1785, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007)
-Dorothy Ko, Teachers of the Inner Chamber: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994)
-Cao Xueqin, The Dream of the Red Chamber, Trans. David Hawkes, (London: Penguin, 1973)

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