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)
For other World History posts please see our
list. For future blog posts please see our
Facebook or catch me on Twitter
@LewisTwiby
No comments:
Post a Comment