The Last Chinese Dynasty

27.1: The Last Chinese Dynasty

27.1.1: The Qing Dynasty

At the peak of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), China ruled more than one-third of the world’s population, had the largest economy in the world, and by area was one of the largest empires ever.

Learning Objective

Describe the lifespan of the Qing Dynasty

Key Points

  • The Qing dynasty was the last imperial dynasty in China. What would become the Manchu state was founded by Nurhaci, the chieftain of a minor Jurchen tribe known as Aisin Gioro in Jianzhou (Manchuria) in the early 17th century. Originally a vassal of the Ming emperors, Nurhachi embarked on an intertribal feud in 1582 that escalated into a campaign to unify the nearby tribes. In 1635, Nurchaci’s son and successor Huangtaiji changed the name of the Jurchen ethnic group to the Manchu.
  • In 1618, Nurhachi announced the Seven Grievances and began to rebel against the Ming domination, effectively a declaration of war. Relocating his court to Liaodong in 1621 brought Nurhachi in close contact with the Khorchin Mongol domains on the plains of Mongolia. The Khorchin proved a useful ally in the war. Two of Nurhaci’s critical contributions were ordering the creation of a written Manchu script based on the Mongolian and the creation of the civil and military administrative system, which eventually evolved into the Eight Banners.
  • At the same time, the Ming dynasty was fighting for its survival. Ming government officials fought against each other, against fiscal collapse, and against a series of peasant rebellions. In 1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng. During the turmoil, the last Ming emperor hanged himself on a tree in the imperial garden outside the Forbidden City. Li Zicheng, a former minor Ming official, established a short-lived Shun dynasty.
  • Under the reign of Dorgon, whom historians have called “the mastermind of the Qing conquest” and “the principal architect of the great Manchu enterprise,” the Qing continued to subdue all areas previously under the Ming. The decades of Manchu conquest caused enormous loss of lives and the economy of China shrank drastically. In total, the Qing conquest of the Ming (1618–1683) cost as many as 25 million lives.
  • The Qianlong reign (1735–96) saw the dynasty’s apogee and initial decline in prosperity and imperial control. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, virtually guaranteeing eventual fiscal crisis. Corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system.
  • The early Qing emperors adopted the bureaucratic structures and institutions from the preceding Ming dynasty but split rule between Han Chinese and Manchus, with some positions also given to Mongols. Like previous dynasties, the Qing recruited officials via the imperial examination system until it was abolished in 1905. To keep routine administration from subsuming the running of the empire, the Qing emperors made sure that all important matters were decided in the Inner Court, dominated by the imperial family and Manchu nobility.

Key Terms

Forbidden City
The Chinese imperial palace from the Ming dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty (1420 to 1912). It is located in the center of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. It served as the home of emperors and their households as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government for almost 500 years.
Ten Great Campaigns
A series of military campaigns launched by the Qing Empire of China in the mid to late 18th century during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–96). They included three campaigns to enlarge the area of Qing control in Central Asia and seven police actions on frontiers already established.
Revolt of the Three Feudatories
A rebellion lasting from 1673 to 1681 in the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) during the early reign of the Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722). The revolt was led by the three lords of the fiefdoms in Yunnan, Guangdong, and Fujian provinces against the Qing central government.
Eight Banners
Administrative/military divisions under the Qing dynasty into which all Manchu households were placed. In war, they functioned as armies, but the system was also the basic organizational framework of Manchu society. Created in the early 17th century by Nurhaci, the armies played an instrumental role in his unification of the fragmented Jurchen people (later renamed the Manchus) and in the Qing dynasty’s conquest of the Ming dynasty.
Seven Grievances
A manifesto announced by Nurhaci in 1618. It enumerated grievances and effectively declared war against the Ming dynasty.
Qing dynasty
The last imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. Its multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the territorial base for the modern Chinese state.

 

Rise to Power

The Qing dynasty (1644–1911) was the last imperial dynasty in China. It was founded not by Han Chinese, who constitute the majority of the Chinese population, but by a sedentary farming people known as the Jurchen. What would become the Manchu state was founded by Nurhaci, the chieftain of a minor Jurchen tribe known as Aisin Gioro in Jianzhou (Manchuria) in the early 17th century. Originally a vassal of the Ming emperors, Nurhachi embarked on an intertribal feud in 1582 that escalated into a campaign to unify the nearby tribes. By 1616, he sufficiently consolidated Jianzhou to be able to proclaim himself Khan of the Great Jin, in reference to the previous Jurchen dynasty. In 1635, Nurchaci’s son and successor Huangtaiji changed the name of the Jurchen ethnic group to the Manchu.

In 1618, Nurhachi announced the Seven Grievances, a document that enumerated grievances against the Ming, and began to rebel against the Ming domination. Nurhaci’s demand that the Ming pay tribute to him to redress the grievances was effectively a declaration of war, as the Ming were not willing to pay a former tributary. Shortly after, Nurhaci began to invade the Ming in Liaoning in southern Manchuria. After a series of successful battles, he relocated his capital from Hetu Ala to successively bigger captured Ming cities in Liaodong Peninsula: first Liaoyang in 1621, then Shenyang (Mukden) in 1625.

Relocating his court to Liaodong brought Nurhachi in close contact with the Khorchin Mongol domains on the plains of Mongolia. Nurhachi’s policy towards the Khorchins was to seek their friendship and cooperation against the Ming, securing his western border from a powerful potential enemy. Further, the Khorchin proved a useful ally in the war, lending the Jurchens their expertise as cavalry archers. To guarantee this new alliance, Nurhachi initiated a policy of inter-marriages between the Jurchen and Khorchin nobilities. This is a typical example of Nurhachi initiatives that eventually became official Qing government policy. During most of the Qing period, the Mongols gave military assistance to the Manchus.

Two of Nurhaci’s critical contributions were ordering the creation of a written Manchu script based on the Mongolian after the earlier Jurchen script was forgotten and the creation of the civil and military administrative system, which eventually evolved into the Eight Banners, the defining element of Manchu identity. The Eight Banners were administrative/military divisions under the Qing dynasty into which all Manchu households were placed. In war, the Eight Banners functioned as armies, but the banner system was also the basic organizational framework of Manchu society. The banner armies played an instrumental role in his unification of the fragmented Jurchen people and in the Qing dynasty’s conquest of the Ming dynasty.

At the same time, the Ming dynasty was fighting for its survival. Ming government officials fought against each other, against fiscal collapse, and against a series of peasant rebellions. In 1640, masses of Chinese peasants who were starving, unable to pay their taxes, and no longer in fear of the frequently defeated Chinese army began to form huge bands of rebels. The Chinese military, caught between fruitless efforts to defeat the Manchu raiders from the north and huge peasant revolts in the provinces, essentially fell apart. Unpaid and unfed, the army was defeated by Li Zicheng – now self-styled as the Prince of Shun. In 1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng when the city gates were opened from within. During the turmoil, the last Ming emperor hanged himself on a tree in the imperial garden outside the Forbidden City. Li Zicheng, a former minor Ming official, established a short-lived Shun dynasty.

 

A Ming dynasty map of Shanhaiguan, the final decisive Manchu vs. Ming battle.

Decisive Battle of Shanhai Pass in 1644 that led to the formation of the Qing dynasty 

At the Battle of Shanhai Pass, Qing Prince-Regent Dorgon allied with former Ming general Wu Sangui to defeat rebel leader Li Zicheng of the Shun dynasty, allowing Dorgon and the Manchus to rapidly conquer Beijing and replace the Ming dynasty.

 

Qing Empire

Under the reign of Dorgon, whom historians have called “the mastermind of the Qing conquest” and “the principal architect of the great Manchu enterprise,” the Qing eventually subdued the capital area, received the capitulation of Shandong local elites and officials, and conquered Shanxi and Shaanxi, then turned their eyes to the rich commercial and agricultural region of Jiangnan south of the lower Yangtze River. They also wiped out the last remnants of rival regimes (Li Zicheng was killed in 1645). Finally, they managed to kill claimants to the throne of the Southern Ming in Nanjing (1645) and Fuzhou (1646) and chased Zhu Youlang, the last Southern Ming emperor, out of Guangzhou (1647) and into the far southwestern reaches of China.

Over the next half-century, all areas previously under the Ming dynasty were consolidated under the Qing. Xinjiang, Tibet, and Mongolia were also formally incorporated into Chinese territory. Between 1673 and 1681, the Kangxi Emperor suppressed the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, an uprising of three generals in Southern China denied hereditary rule of large fiefdoms granted by the previous emperor. In 1683, the Qing staged an amphibious assault on southern Taiwan, bringing down the rebel Kingdom of Tungning, which was founded by the Ming loyalist Koxinga in 1662 after the fall of the Southern Ming and had served as a base for continued Ming resistance in Southern China. The Qing defeated the Russians at Albazin, resulting in the Treaty of Nerchinsk. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains lasted until 1860.The decades of Manchu conquest caused enormous loss of lives and the economy of China shrank drastically. In total, the Qing conquest of the Ming (1618–1683) cost as many as 25 million lives.

 

Dorgon (1612 – 1650), also known as Hošoi Mergen Cin Wang, the Prince Rui, was Nurhaci’s 14th son and a prince of the Qing Dynasty Because of his own political insecurity, Dorgon ruled in the name of the emperor at the expense of rival Manchu princes, many of whom he demoted or imprisoned under one pretext or another. Although the period of his regency was relatively short, Dorgon cast a long shadow over the Qing dynasty.  

The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia. The early rulers maintained their Manchu ways and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of bureaucratic government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the tributary system in dealing with neighboring territories.

The Qianlong reign (1735–96) saw the dynasty’s apogee and initial decline in prosperity and imperial control. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, virtually guaranteeing eventual fiscal crisis. Corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Still, by the end of Qianlong Emperor’s long reign, the Qing Empire was at its zenith. China ruled more than one-third of the world’s population and had the largest economy in the world. By area it was one of the largest empires ever.

 

Government

The early Qing emperors adopted the bureaucratic structures and institutions from the preceding Ming dynasty but split rule between Han Chinese and Manchus, with some positions also given to Mongols. Like previous dynasties, the Qing recruited officials via the imperial examination system until the system was abolished in 1905. The Qing divided the positions into civil and military positions. Civil appointments ranged from an attendant to the emperor or a Grand Secretary in the Forbidden City (highest) to prefectural tax collector, deputy jail warden, deputy police commissioner, or tax examiner. Military appointments ranged from a field marshal or chamberlain of the imperial bodyguard to third class sergeant, corporal, or first or second class private.

The formal structure of the Qing government centered on the Emperor as the absolute ruler, who presided over six boards (Ministries), each headed by two presidents and assisted by four vice presidents. In contrast to the Ming system, however, Qing ethnic policy dictated that appointments be split between Manchu noblemen and Han officials who had passed the highest levels of the state examinations. The Grand Secretariat, a key policy-making body under the Ming, lost its importance during the Qing and evolved into an imperial chancery. The institutions inherited from the Ming formed the core of the Qing Outer Court, which handled routine matters and was located in the southern part of the Forbidden City.

In order to keep routine administration from taking over the empire, the Qing emperors made sure that all important matters were decided in the Inner Court, dominated by the imperial family and Manchu nobility and located in the northern part of the Forbidden City. The core institution of the inner court was the Grand Council. It emerged in the 1720s under the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor as a body charged with handling Qing military campaigns against the Mongols, but soon took over other military and administrative duties and centralized authority under the crown. The Grand Councillors served as a sort of privy council to the emperor.

 

Attributions