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The
Qing Dynasty
Like the Mongols in the 13th century, the Manchu were barbarians who succeeded
in ruling the whole of China, but, unlike the 13th-century conquerors,
the sinicized Manchu made their rule more acceptable to the Chinese. As
a result, Qing rule lasted 267 years, compared with 89 years for the Yuan.
The Manchus took Peking with relative ease in 1644, but they did not gain
control of the whole of China until 1683. Thereafter, the Manchus enjoyed
more than a century of peace and prosperity. By the end of that period
the dynasty had reached the height of its power. Two strong emperors who
were considered models of all Confucian ideals ruled for much of this
period: the emperors K'ang-hsi (1661-1722) and Ch'ien-lung (1735-96).
By recruiting the well-educated in government and promoting Confucian
scholarship, these two Manchu rulers firmly established themselves as
Confucian rulers in China. Outside China, both were successful conquerors.
All of the qing Empire¡¯s vast territories, including Mongolia in the
north, Xinjiang in the northwest, and Tibet in the southwest, were incorporated
into the expanding Chinese Empire during this period.
The qing adopted the Ming system of government with two exceptions: the
insertion of Manchu power at the head of the Chinese state, and the creation
of the Grand Council in the emperor Yong Zheng's reign. The Grand Council
superseded the Grand Secretariat and became the most powerful body in
the government. In provincial government, the Qing created 18 provinces
from the 15 Ming provinces. A governor, usually Chinese, headed each province,
and a governor-general, usually a Manchu before the 19th century, headed
every two provinces. Local landlords and administrators were generally
left alone if they submitted to the new rule.
The Kang Xi Era marked the height of Jesuit success in China, with more
than 200,000 converts. Thereafter, Jesuit influence waned rapidly because
of the rivalry between the Jesuits and other Catholic missionaries and
the so-called Rites Controversy, which concerned the Jesuits' willingness
to tolerate the converts' performance of ceremonies honoring Confucius.
The pope denounced the Jesuit view and prohibited the ceremonies.
The long period of peace and prosperity had some adverse effects on Chinese
society. There was a shortage of land, resulting from an increase in the
population from 100 million to 300 million at the end of the 18th century.
Decadence and corruption spread in the imperial court. There was a decline
of the Manchu military spirit, and the Qing military organization deteriorated.
The long and illustrious reign of the emperor Ch'ien-lung was marred by
the first of many serious rebellions in the Qing era, the White Lotus
Rebellion from 1796 to 1804. It was not put down for ten years, and China
entered the 19th century rocked by revolt. More devastating were the incursions
of Western powers, which shook the foundation of the empire.
19th Century Invasions and rebellions. The first of many Sino-Western
conflicts in the 19th century was the first Opium War, fought from 1839
to 1842. It was more than a dispute over the opium trade in China; it
was a contest between China as the representative of ancient Eastern civilization
and Britain as the forerunner of the modern West. Free trade advocates
in the West had protested against the restrictive trading system in force
at Canton. They demanded free trade in China, the opening of more ports
to Westerners, and the establishment of treaty relations. The Treaty of
Nanjing, which ended the first Opium War, opened five ports to the British--the
first of the "treaty ports" where Western nations were granted
various privileges. A second Opium War, also known as the Arrow War, fought
from 1856 to 1860, pitted China against Great Britain and France.
The Opium Wars disrupted the old life and economy of southern China. A
number of peasant revolts occurred in the 1840s, coming to a head in the
Taiping Rebellion, the biggest rebellion in Chinese history. The leader
of the Taipings was Hong Xiuquan, from a village near Canton. Believing
that God had chosen him to save the world, he adopted a confused version
of Christianity as his guiding doctrine and set out to overthrow the Manchus
and change society. The combination of religious fervor and anti-Manchu
sentiment attracted a following that rose to over 30,000 within a short
time. In 1852 the Tai Ping Tian Guo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace)
was proclaimed. In 1853 the rebels took the city of Nanjing and made it
their capital. Other revolts erupted at about the same time: the Nien
Rebellion in the northeast and Muslim rebellions in the southwest and
the northwest. Fearing a linkup among the rebels that would engulf all
of China, the Qing government created regional armies manned entirely
by Chinese and commanded by Chinese of the scholar-gentry class. The commanders
of the new forces, all loyal supporters of the dynasty such as Zeng Guofan,
Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang suppressed the rebels with the help of
Western weapons and leadership. They annihilated the Taipings in 1864,
the Niens by 1868, and the Muslims by 1873.
The internal rebellions were suppressed, but external threats continued.
After a brief period of "cooperation" in the 1860s, foreign
powers renewed their assault on China, reacting to widespread anti-foreign
violence. Again, China became embroiled in a series of conflicts: the
Tianjin Massacre with France in 1870, the Ili crisis with Russia in 1879,
the Sino-French War from 1884 to 1885, and the Sino-Japanese War from
1894 to 1895. Each brought further humiliation and greater impairment
of sovereignty. In the last two incidents territory was lost, and an indemnity
had to be paid to the victor
in the Sino-Japanese War.
Opium Wars
China in the 19th century was beset by internal turmoil. It was easy prey
to more powerful nations that wanted to exploit every advantage to profit
from trade. Chief among these advantages was the opium trade. Official
Chinese resistance to opium resulted in two trade wars in which Great
Britain, France, the United States, and Russia gained significant commercial
privileges. These conflicts were the first Opium War from 1839 to 1842
between China and Britain and the second Opium War (1856-60) fought by
China against Britain and France.
Opium had been introduced into China in the 7th century. By the early
18th century opium addiction had become such a severe problem that the
government tried to prohibit trade in it. The prohibition was a failure.
When the British discovered the value of the opium trade in 1773, they
determined to benefit. The Chinese paid the British for the opium, and
the British in turn used the money as part payment for goods bought from
the Chinese.
In 1839 the Chinese government made a concerted effort to suppress the
opium trade. All the opium warehouses in Canton were confiscated. This
serious effort, followed by a minor military incident, led to hostilities.
In February 1840 the British sent an expedition against Canton.
The conflict, in which the more powerful British were victorious, was
ended by the Treaty of Nanjing, which was signed on Aug. 29, 1842, and
a supplemental treaty of Oct. 8, 1843. These treaties provided for payment
of an indemnity of 21 million dollars by the Chinese, cession of five
ports for British trade and residence, and the right of British citizens
in China to be tried in British courts. It was at this time that Britain
gained control of Hong Kong.
In October 1856 the Canton police boarded a British-registered ship, the
Arrow, and charged its crew with smuggling. This incident led to the second
war. In this war the British were joined by the French, and an Anglo-French
force occupied Canton late in 1857. The Treaty of Tianjin in 1858 temporarily
halted the fighting, opened new trading ports, allowed residence in Peking
for foreign emissaries, gave freedom of movement to Christian missionaries,
and permitted travel in the interior.
The Chinese refusal to ratify the treaty led to an Anglo-French attack
on Peking and the burning of the Summer Palace. In 1860 the Chinese signed
the Convention of Peking by which they promised to observe the 1858 treaty.
Taiping Rebellion In terms of casualties, it was one of the worst civil
wars in history. More than 20 million--possibly more than 30 million--died,
and 17 provinces were ravaged by the Taiping Rebellion. This was the most
serious of several internal disturbances that took place in China between
1850 and 1873 and that seriously weakened the Ch'ing Dynasty and helped
prepare the way for the revolutions of the 20th century.
The leader of the rebellion was Hong Xiuquan, an unsuccessful civil-service
candidate who came under the influence of fundamentalist Christianity.
Thinking of himself as a son of God sent to reform China, he helped found
the Association of God Worshipers in about 1846. Preaching that all property
should be held by the people, he attracted many followers in Guangxi Province.
By January 1851, when the rebellion began, Hung's ranks had swelled from
several thousand ragged peasants to more than 1 million disciplined and
eager soldiers. They took the city of Nanjing in March 1853 and made it
their capital. For several years the rebel armies dominated the Yangtze
River valley. They failed, however, to take Shanghai, where the defenders
were commanded by an American named Frederick Townsend Ward and the British
general known as Chinese Gordon . By 1862 the movement was losing steam,
weakened by internal strife and defections. Nanjing fell in July 1864
to the army of Gen. Zeng Guofan, and Hung committed suicide. Sporadic
resistance continued for four more years.
Late 19th Century Revolutionary ideas and organizations
The reforms that were sponsored by the imperial government were too little
and too late. A drastic change was necessary. The idea of overthrowing
the Manchus was suggested by Liang Qichao in his concept of Xin Min (new
people). Publishing a magazine in Japan, where he had fled after the Hundred
Days, Liang called for the Chinese people to renew themselves and also
indicated that the Chinese nation was distinct and separate from the ruling
dynasty of the Manchus. Although he did not advocate overthrowing the
dynasty, the message was quickly picked up by the more radical leaders
who were already leaning toward revolution.
One such leader was Sun Yat-sen, who is now revered as the father of modern
China by Nationalists and Communists alike. Born into a peasant family
near Canton, the traditional stronghold of anti-Manchu rebels Sun followed
a traditional Chinese path during his early years. He was educated in
Hawaii, converted to Christianity, and had a short-lived medical career
before switching to politics and attempting to propose a reform program
to Li Hongzhang in 1894. After forming a secret revolutionary society
and plotting an unsuccessful uprising in Canton in 1894, Sun began a long
period of exile outside China. He gained wide recognition as a revolutionary
leader in 1896, when his arrest in the Chinese legation in London and
subsequent rescue were reported sensationally in newspaper articles. In
1905, in Japan, he brought together several revolutionary groups and formed
the Revolutionary Alliance Society. Its program consisted of the now famous
Three People's Principles: nationalism, freeing all China from foreign
control; democracy, overthrowing the Manchus and introducing a democratic
political system; and people's livelihood. Although Sun he could not live
in China, members of the alliance infiltrated many social organizations
there. The revolutionary spirit that had been developed by Sun became
especially high among students' and soldiers' groups.
The Empress Dowager
CIxi (1835-1908). Known in the West as the empress dowager, Cixi dominated
the political life of China for nearly 50 years. As ruler acting for child
emperors, she and her cohorts brought a measure of stability to their
nation. But, under her, the government was dishonest and did not make
changes that were needed to benefit the people. This eventually led to
the end of the Qing Dynasty, which ruled from 1644 to 1911, and a revolution.
Cixi was born in Peking on Nov. 29, 1835. She became a consort of the
emperor Xianfeng (ruled 1850-61) and mother of the emperor T'ung-chih.
When Tongzhi became emperor in 1861, he was only 6. She and another consort
became co-regents along with a brother of the former emperor. Under this
three-way rule the Taiping Rebellion was ended. Other disturbances were
put down, and some modernization was brought to China. Cixi gradually
increased her power within the ruling coalition, and even when the emperor
matured she continued to control the government. After the young emperor's
untimely death, she saw to it that her 3-year-old nephew was named as
heir, though this violated succession law. Thus the two dowagers continued
acting as regents. The other dowager died--presumably murdered--in 1881,
and Cixi ruled alone. From 1889 to 1898 she lived in apparent retirement
in the summer palace. The new emperor's attempts at reform after losing
the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), however, brought her back into action--determined
to stave off any changes. In 1899 she backed the officials promoting the
Boxer Rebellion. After China's defeat at the hand of foreign troops, she
fled the capital and accepted humiliating peace terms. She returned in
1902 and belatedly tried to install the reforms she had once opposed.
Before her death, on Nov. 15, 1908, she had the emperor poisoned. His
successor was a 2-year old who was forced from the throne four years later.
Boxer Rebellion
In the summer of 1900 members of a secret society roamed northeastern
China in bands, killing Europeans and Americans and destroying buildings
owned by foreigners. They called themselves Yi He Quan or "Righteous
and Harmonious Fists." They practiced boxing skills that they believed
made them impervious to bullets. To Westerners they became known as the
Boxers, and their uprising was called the Boxer Rebellion. Most Boxers
were peasants or urban thugs from northern China who resented the growing
influence of Westerners in their land. They organized themselves in 1898,
and in the same year the Chinese government--then ruled by the Qing Dynasty--secretly
allied with the Boxers to oppose such outsiders as Christian missionaries
and European businessmen. The Boxers failed to drive foreigners out of
China, but they set the stage for the successful Chinese revolutionary
movement of the early 20th century.
Foreigners had entered China during an era of imperialism. In the late
1800s Great Britain and other European nations, the United States, Russia,
and Japan scrambled for spheres of influence there. In some cases they
seized Chinese territories, but usually they only sought the riches of
trade and commercial enterprise. At the same time, Roman Catholic and
Protestant missionaries tried to convert the Chinese to Christianity.
These outsiders were resented and feared by the Chinese, who saw Western
religion and business practices as a threat to their traditional ways.
By May of 1900, Boxers were wandering the countryside and attacking Western
missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity. In June an expeditionary
force, made up of Russian, British, German, French, American, and Japanese
troops, was organized to proceed to Peking (now Beijing), put down the
rebellion, and protect Western nationals.
The Chinese dowager empress Cixi, the aunt of Emperor Guangxu, ordered
her troops to block the advance of this expedition. The foreigners were
turned back.
Meanwhile, Boxers were rampaging in Peking, burning down churches and
the houses of Westerners, and killing Chinese Christians. Foreign troops
then seized Chinese coastal forts to insure access to Peking. Enraged,
the dowager empress ordered the death of all foreigners in China. The
German minister to China was assassinated, and Boxer rebels began an eight-week
attack on the walled foreign compound in Peking. In response, the allied
foreign governments sent some 19,000 soldiers to Peking, capturing the
city on Aug. 14, 1900. The invaders looted the city and routed the Boxers,
while the empress and her court fled to the north. By the time the rebellion
ended, at least 250 foreigners had been killed. It took a year for the
parties to the conflict to agree on a settlement, which was entitled the
Peace of Peking. This protocol, which was signed in September 1901, was
dictated by the Western powers and Japan in such a way as to humiliate
China. Heavy fines were levied against the Chinese government, and existing
commercial treaties were amended in favor of the Western powers. The foreign
coastal defenses were dismantled. The failure of the Boxer Rebellion to
eject the West and the humiliation of the Chinese by the terms of the
Peace of Peking generated more support for nationalist revolutionaries.
In 1911 the Qing Dynasty collapsed. Revolutionaries led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen
then took over the Chinese government, ending more than 2,000 years of
monarchy.
