Hello and welcome back to History? It’s not such a mystery. Today we will be discussing 10 influential objects and times during the Qing Dynasty of China, which ran from 1644-1912.
Opium – opium wars
In the mid 19th century, Britain was trading with China, however the Chinese wanted nothing in return for the goods that Britain bought from them. Due to this, Britain was losing money as they were buying goods, but there was no money going back into Britain. They searched for a product that they could sell, and then they began importing and selling opium in China. Opium is a narcotic drug that is very easy to get addicted to. As more and more opium was imported into China, the price became much cheaper and so was available to the general public. This instigated a period of time where men were unmotivated and lazy due to addiction, and therefore work was stopping and produce was not being manufactured. Many poor families began to starve due to the men bringing in no income for the household. Because of the seclusion of the Qing dynasty from western civilisations, they had nowhere to turn when they started running low on food.
Britain defeating the Chinese during the Opium wars of 1839-42 and 1856-60 and taking control of Hong Kong, along with imposing new treaties helped show to China's neighbouring countries that the once-mighty China was much weakened and now vulnerable. China then began to lose power in outer regions, and foreign countries rose up and started regaining power.
Weaponry – Taiping rebellion
Weaponry throughout the Qing dynasty was very different to weaponry in Western civilisations at the time. The Qing weapons consisted of swords and bows, and primitive grenades and muskets. Due to this, and the exclusion of foreigners, China had no idea about the weaponry being developed and used in Western countries, giving them a severe disadvantage. Despite this, the first machine gun was invented during the Qing dynasty, by Dai Zi, who managed to develop a continuously shooting gun that could hold up to 28 bullets.
The Taiping rebellion is said to be the second bloodiest war, and the worst civil war in history. It was caused by Hong Xiu Quan and the differences in social classes, and so led to a radical change in social and economic structure. Before the rebellion, the trade market was highly exclusive- Cohongs and the British East India Company (with the opium) were practically in control of the market.
Hong Xiu Quan believed that he was the brother of Jesus and created his own group called the Society of God Worshippers (the Taiping tian guo). He led them to revolt, and failed due to his society being made up of everyday people. Casualties are estimated at 20-30 million dead within the 14 years of war, second to the estimated 60 million of World War II.
The rebellion did end up causing havoc, and new technology and industry was to be incorporated into Chinese culture.
Confucianism – religion, beliefs
Confucianism is sometimes described as a philosophy or a religion, but is more centered on humanitarian beliefs. The main principle of Confucianism is de, your virtue. This is made of the ren (humaneness / benevolence), li (ritual norms), zhong (loyalty to one's true nature), shu (reciprocity), and xiao (filial piety). In the Qing dynasty, Confucianism became very widely popular, with over 1500 temples constructed by 1912. When the queue hairstyle was introduced and demanded, many protested due to their beliefs of filial piety, but to avoid prosecution they adopted the hairstyle.
Queue hairstyles – men
The queue hairstyle is a style for men where the hair on top of the scalp is grown long (often braided) while the front portion of the head is shaved. The easily-recognisable hairstyle signified submission of the Han Chinese to Qing rule, and helped the Manchu leaders identify the Han who refused to accept the Qing ruling.
The Manchu ordered compliance to the new style. It was admitted that followers of Confucianism might have difficulty obeying, due to an excerpt in the Classic of Filial Piety, where Confucius said “We are given our body, skin and hair from our parents; which we ought not to damage. This idea is the quintessence of filial duty”
The slogan adopted by the Qing was "Not shave your forehead and lose your head, or shave your forehead and keep your head". People who resisted this order found the Manchus striking back with deadly force, massacring all who refused to obey. The three massacres at Jiading District are some of the most infamous, with estimated death tolls in the tens or even hundreds of thousands.
It took 10 years of military enforcement until all of China was utterly compliant.
Mandate of heaven – rulers
During the Zhou dynasty, China slowly moved away from worship of their celestial lord Shangdi, and instead begun worshipping Tian, or heaven, and so created the Mandate of Heaven. According to this idea, only one legitimate ruler of China at a time was allowed, and this ruler was named the Son of Heaven, and held approval of the gods. This approval could be lost if a king ruled unfairly, resulting in his downfall. Many signs signified the ruler losing the Mandate of Heaven, including natural disasters, famine and overthrow. The Mandate of Heaven did not require a ruler to be born noble, and had no time limitations to this rule. Instead, they were simply expected to be good and just in order to keep the Mandate.
Emperors and achievements.
The Emperors of the Qing, or Manchu, dynasty had many achievements. Under the ruling of Emperor Qianlong, the Qing empire reached the biggest size, of around 13 million square kilometres. The population was at an estimated 400 million people at this time.
Foreign trade also increased during this period, from little-to-no trade and the amount increased by about 4% each year during the Dynasty. During the rule of Emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng, the Gujin Tushu Jicheng, also known as Imperial Encyclopaedia, was written. It contains 10,000 volumes, and around 800,000 pages, covering numerous topics about the Chinese history.
Also during the reign of Qianlong, the second emperor, the Peking opera was opened and first performed at.
Blue and white porcelain – art
Porcelain was one of the objects exported out of China into Britain. In the 1640s, rebellions in China and wars between the Ming dynasty and the Manchus damaged many pottery kilns, and during the time of 1656–1684 the Qing government stopped trade by closing its few ports. Chinese exports almost ceased and other sources were needed to fulfil the continuing Eurasian demand for blue and white. In Japan, Chinese potter refugees were able to introduce refined porcelain techniques. Due to China being unopen for trade, the DEIC, Dutch East India Company, looked unto Japan to supply the blue-and-white porcelain for the trade. The Chinese kilns gradually were rebuilt and recovered, and nearly wiped out the Japanese porcelain export business by around 1740.
Bound feet – women
In 1638 the Manchu emperor Hong Taiji authorised that the Chinese custom of foot-binding was not to be accepted. He said, “Those who imitate the clothes of another country or order their women to bind their feet have their bodies in our dynasty but their hearts in another country.” A small foot in China was similar to a tiny waist in England, and represented wealth and beauty. The most desirable bride had a three-inch foot, a golden lotus. Having a daughter with bound feet signified that the family was wealthy enough to afford their daughter to not work in the fields. Chinese philosophers later fretted that disabled women would produce feeble sons, endangering the Chinese as a people, and tried to decrease the practice of foot-binding.
Labourers / Children – poverty
Foreign Danger – Yihetuan Movement/Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion was an anti-foreigner uprising that happened between Nov 1899 and Sep 1901. Ordinary villagers reacted badly against the increasing foreign influence, and labelled themselves the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists. Called the Yihetuan Movement, Yihetuan means “The militia united in righteousness”. Due to common beliefs that China was the centre of the civilised world, they very much so disliked being pushed around by foreigners, especially as the government was seemingly doing nothing to avoid this. This was due to the losses the government obtained during the two Opium Wars, which opened China to further ‘foreign invasion’. The people of China formed a spiritualist, or martial arts movement that included many mystical or magical elements such as the belief that the "Boxers" were impervious to bullets. 230 foreigners were killed during the rebellion and in response to that, 20,000 European troops marched over, and after sieges the Empress was forced to flee dressed in peasant clothing. This signalled the beginning of the end of Imperial China and the Qing Dynasty.