Transcript Document

The Manchu and the
Qing Dynasty (1645-1911)



2015/7/21
Barfield, Thomas, The Perilous Frontier,” Ch. 7, "Steppe
Wolves and Forest Tigers," pp. 250-294;
 OR
Pamela Crossley, “Thinking about Ethnicity in Early Modern
China,” Late Imperial China 11.1 (1990);
 OR
Rawski, Evelyn S., “Imperial Women” in The Last Emperors,
pp. 127-159
1
The Manchu and the
Qing Dynasty (1645-1911)











Introduction
The Rise of the Manchu
The establishment of the Qing
The Qing Dynasty
Succession
Marriage Patterns
Recruitment of Palace Women
Imperial Women
Manchu Women
Manchu impact on Chinese women
The End of the Qing
2015/7/21
2
Introduction



The Ming rulers were always very nervous about the possible
return of the Mongol were fighting them and so used a less
aggressive policy against the Jurchen.
 The Ming tried to pacify them by giving them honorary titles
and trade agreements but not to all of their demands.
 They tried to keep the Jurchen divided by supporting
different tribes against each other.
The Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644 ) had to collect higher taxes to
finance its wars against the Mongol and so faced rebellions.
 There were peasant rebellions that they could not control.
The Jurchen, who had ruled China under the dynastic name of
Jin (Gold)金 Gold (1122-1234 ), took this opportunity to again
unite.
2015/7/21
3
Introduction (2)

Li Zicheng 李自成 , the leader of the most powerful Chinese
rebel armies entered Beijing and declared a new Shun 顺 dynasty
(April to May, 1644).
 He then led an army of 60,000 to confront Wu Sangui 吳三
桂; the general guarding the mountain pass, Shanhaiguan (山
海關).
 Wu, caught between Li and the Manchu, decided to ally with
the Manchu and led the Manchu into China.
 Wu was first rewarded by the Manchu but later revolted
against them and tried to establish his own dynasty but
died the same year. (The last Ming loyalists battled for
another seventeen years.)
2015/7/21
4
The rise of the Manchu


2015/7/21
The Jurchen lived in today’s Helongjiang
and Jilin.
They began to use the name Manchu after
Nurhaci, founder of the Manchu state, f努
爾哈赤 (1559-1626), formally adopted the
name Manchu (1635) for the territory
under his rule.
 It is possible that the using the name
Manchu, instead of Jurchen, dated
back to 1605 which is why Nurhaci
took the name of Manchu when he
established the state.
 Nurhaci’s son and successor,
Huang Taiji 皇太極 (r.1626-1643),
forbade the people to call
5
The rise of the Manchu (2)

2015/7/21
Nurhaci was the son of a noble family
in present-day North Korea.
 He had been a hostage in the
household of the Ming general – in
charge of peace and relations with
the Jurchen – and was educated in
the Confucian classics.
 When young, he traveled to Beijing
to pay homage to the Ming rulers,
to trade, and to receive honorary
titles in return for helping them
against the Japanese in Korea.
6
The Rise of Manchu (3)

Early Manchu history, under Nurhaci, can be divided into:
 Tribal phase –
 Ends in 1619 when he tried to control and unite the tribes
using traditional methods such as marriage alliances and
the Chinese tributary system.
 Border conquest phase –
 Ends at his death (1626) when he was continuing to unite
the tribes and, at the same time, incorporate Chinese
territory.
2015/7/21
7
The Rise of the Manchu (4)


In 1609, Nurhaci broke off from the Ming dynasty claiming that
the Ming had attacked and humiliated members of his family and
had tried to wreck his economic base.
 During the next 10 years, he increased his power by
dominating neighboring Jurchen and Mongol tribes or by
allying with them through marriage.
He established a two-tier government:
 Separate quarters for Jurchen were set up in towns.
 The Chinese were treated as servants.
 Jurchen were required to have weapons but Chinese and
Mongol were forbidden to do so.
2015/7/21
8
The Rise of the Manchu (5)



In 1616, Nurhaci declared himself
the ruler of a second Jin (Gold)
dynasty – descendants of the
Jurchen rulers.
He had organized his troops and
their families into 8 banners -large civil-military units that
replaced the former hunting
groups.
The banners became
administrative units for
registration, conscription, and
taxation.


2015/7/21
Qing Flag: 1862-1890
Qing Flag: 1890-1911/12
9
The Establishment of the Qing


2015/7/21
Huang Taiji (r.1626-1643), succeeded
Nurhaci, and declared a Qing dynasty.
He centralized power and diluted the power
of the tribal leadership by:
 Making the tribes subordinate to the
dynasty.
 Removing senior leaders of the banners.
 Reducing banner autonomy.
 Creating additional banners (3
Mongolian banners and 1 Chinese) and
attaching them to directly to the Central
Government.
 Increasing the number and authority of
10
the Chinese bureaucracy.
The Establishment of the Qing (3)

Huang Taiji consolidated the empire and laid the groundwork
for the conquest of the Ming.
 As emperor of the Manchu state, he continued the expansion
of Manchuria, pushing deeper into Mongolia and raiding
Korea and Ming China.
 He added another 8 Mongol and 8 Chinese banners (for
those who came over to the Manchu, in, or before 1644).
 The eventual conquest of China was achieved by these 24
banners in which less than 16% of the soldiers were of
Manchu origin (1648).
2015/7/21
11
The Qing Dynasty


The Qing Dynasty is considered the most successful of all
conquest dynasties.
 Its boundaries are those of today’s China.
The conquest of the Ming was won by a multi-ethnic force so it
was important to bind them to the Qing government.
 Early Qing rulers claimed both Manchu and Mongol descent
by intermarriage with the Mongol -- especially with the
descendants of Genghis Khan.
 They organized the tribes in southern Mongolia and
incorporated them into the banner system.
 The old tribes became the new banners and established
Mongol leaders received positions of rank in the Qing
administration , leading their own people.
2015/7/21
12
Qing Dynasty (2)


Qing rulers focused on preserving their lineage and culture but
also promoted the cultures of the many different peoples they
ruled.
 Most Qing rulers were multilingual; they studied Mongolian,
Manchu and Chinese. Some even learned Tibetan and Uighur.
 Like all non-Han rulers, they incorporated Han-type
bureaucracies but at the same time they changed the Chinese
model to suit their own circumstances.
 They concentrated on controlling an empire with different
races across Inner and East Asia.
 Different laws applied to different peoples and officials were
recruited from different groups.
All ethnic groups resisted Sinicization and developed their own
written languages.
2015/7/21
13
Qing Dynasty (3)



As a non-Han dynasty, Qing adopted ideas of ruler-ship from
the cultures of their subject peoples.
 The Qing emperor was also referred to as the “Great Khan”.
He was identified as the ruler of five peoples – Manchu, Mongol,
Tibetans, Uyghurs and Chinese.
 These five languages were accepted as the official languages.
Qing’s success, in empire building, was due to its ability to
understand the different cultures and peoples within its empire
and to administer them appropriately.
 While they tried to be fair, they always gave special privileges
to the banner nobles and imperial kinsmen who formed
boards that were above the Han Chinese bureaucracy.
 The eunuchs were supervised by bond servants from the
banner companies.
2015/7/21
14
Qing Dynasty (4)
The Qing tried to change Han society:
 They required the people to adopt a Manchu hairstyle.
 They passed a law forbidding the footbinding of women –the
law was repealed three years later as it was not effective.
 Manchu women were forbidden to have their feet bound.
 The Qing embraced many Chinese elements:
 Manchu marriage practices were changed from levirate to
serial monogamy with concubinage.
 Funeral practices were changed from cremation to burial.
 Filial piety was raised to new heights.
 The Confucian classics were used in civil service
examinations.
 The rulers patronized Chinese art and literature.
15
2015/7/21

Succession



The succession issue was first raised in 1622 when Nurhaci’s
sons asked their father whom he had chosen to succeed him.
Nurhaci said:
 Naming a successor would give that person added power
which he might abuse.
 The eight banner lords should select the best leader among
themselves.
 Authority should be shared by the four senior banner
leaders – his three sons and his nephew.
When Nurhaci died in 1626, the immediate danger was that if
they followed his suggested system there was a possibility of a
division of the empire with each banner leader becoming an
independent ruler.
2015/7/21
16
Succession (2)




Nurhaci’s will provided that each of his three sons by Abaha –
his third empress — Dorgon, Dodo, and Aige — receive a
banner; it was also rumored that he had named Dodo as heir.
The older sons were afraid that the three sons of the Empress,
together with the mother, would dominate the government.
 They forced the Empress to commit suicide and be buried
with Nurhaci and gave banners only to Dorgon and Dodo.
 The youngest son, Aige, was denied a banner because of
his youth.
During the struggles over succession, the eighth son, Huang Taiji
seized authority.
Huang Taiji took Aige’s banner for himself, then asked the eldest
and most powerful of Nurhaci’s son to lead the banner leaders in
electing him.
2015/7/21
17
Succession (3)


Huang Taiji’s death started another succession crisis.
 Banner nobles and officials met to elect his successor.
 The large number of Nurhaci’s sons made fraternal/lateral
succession a possibility.
Huang Taiji’s eldest son, Hooge 豪格; 1609-1648), was a major
contender against his uncle, Dorgon 多爾袞 (1612-50) , 14th son
of Nurhaci and brother of Huang Taiji.
 Dorgon was a great military leader and was supported by a
number of banner leaders, but Hooge was also supported by
Chinese officials who recognized lineal succession.
 The struggle was along banner lines but both candidates
had equal numbers of banners.
 Rival claims split the Manchu elite.
2015/7/21
18
Succession (4)


A compromise was reached in which the 5-year old son of
Huang Taiji, Fulin (Emperor Shunzi 順治: 1643-1661), instead
of the eldest, was named emperor with Dorgon as a co-regent.
Dorgon consolidated his personal power and removed his coregent in 1647 on charges of usurping imperial prerogatives.
 He ruled from 1644 until his death on a hunting trip (1650).
 It was rumored that he married the mother of Shunzi,
Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang 孝莊文皇后 (1613-1688).
 She was of the lineage of Genghis Khan.
 The emperor disliked Dorgon and stripped him of his titles
upon his death (he was rehabilitated during the reigns of the
next emperors and given the posthumous rank of Emperor).
2015/7/21
19
Succession (5)



Shunzhi died of smallpox in his twenties but had designated as
heir, a younger son, Kangxi 康熙, (r.1661-1722), as the young
boy already had smallpox.
 The designation of an heir broke with the tradition of
election.
Shunzhi had selected four regents as Kangxi was not yet seven
so power was in the hands of the Grand Empress Dowager
Xiaozhuang 孝莊文皇后 and the four regents.
None of the regents were members of the imperial lineage:
 One died soon after his granddaughter was made empress;
 Two fought with each other.
2015/7/21
20
Succession (6)
The fourth regent, Oboi, soon took over and became as
powerful as Dorgon used to be.
 Instead of centralizing power under the emperor, Oboi
tried to preserve and increase the powers of the Manchu
banner elite under the pretense of returning to
traditional Manchu customs.
In 1669, with the help of his grandmother (the Grand Empress
Dowager Xiao Zhuangwen 孝莊文皇后) Kangxi was able to
arrest Oboi, and take control.
Kangxi is known as one of the greatest emperors in Chinese
history; his reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning
Emperor of China.



2015/7/21
21
Succession (7)



The Kangxi emperor installed his first son by the Empress as
heir but found him unfit for office and demoted him.
 A fierce power struggle began among the other sons for the
position and Kangxi said, “at my deathbed some of you will
fight each other for the throne, swinging your swords over
my corpse!”
After Kangxi’s death, the fourth son announced that he was his
father’s dying choice and declared himself emperor, Yongzheng.
 He then arrested those brothers whom he suspected would
not support him.
As emperor, he announced that he would put the name of his
successor in a sealed box to be opened upon his death.
2015/7/21
22
Succession (8)


Of the 11 Manchu emperors who ruled from 1644 to 1911 only
one (the Daoguang 道光 emperor, son of Jiaqing 嘉慶 emperor)
was the son of an empress.
 The birth mothers of emperors Yongzheng 雍正 , Qianlong
乾隆 , Jiaqing 嘉慶 came from lowly servant backgrounds.
The rejection of the eldest-son succession principle, and the
secret naming of the heir to be announced after the emperor’s
death resulted in fierce succession struggles.
 The contest for succession divided brother from brother,
with the victor exterminating his rivals.
 Although the emperor could only have one empress at a time,
there would be a number of empress dowagers as the first act
of an emperor was to name his birth mother as empress
dowager.
2015/7/21
23
Marriage Patterns


Manchu marriages with Mongol nobles increased as the Qing
armies expanded into central Asia in the late 17C and early 18C.
 25% of empresses, 16% of princes’ wives, and 55% of
princesses’ spouses were Mongol.
Empresses and principal wives of princes and husbands of
princesses came from a small number of favored houses.
 Of the 641 Manchu clans, only 31 were favored with
marriage.
 The number of empresses and concubines, important
enough to have biographies, ranged from Kangxi with 40
to Guangxu with only 3 – Kangxi lived a long life and
Guangxu did not.
2015/7/21
24
Marriage Patterns (2)

For political purposes, the early Manchu emperors took wives
descended from the descendants of Genghis Khan, so that their
descendants would also be seen as legitimate heirs of the
Mongolian Yuan dynasty.
 The imperial family only married with banner families.
 All Manchu, not only the imperial family, were forbidden to
marry Han Chinese who were not in the Eight Banners.
 Any who disobeyed this rule would be punished and their
offsprings expelled from the lineage.
 Han Chinese, not in the banners, could be taken in as
concubines.
2015/7/21
25
Recruitment of Palace Women


Recruitment of women into the palace was done every three
years through drafting of daughters of officials in the banners.
 Except for certain individuals, every girl, between the ages
of 13 to 14 sui. had to appear in Beijing for consideration
before her marriage.
 After 1653, young girls between 13-14 had to be presented
to the palace in Beijing before they could be betrothed.
 Those who caught the emperor’s eye would be selected
for the harem.
 Some were be chosen to be wives for the princes, others
served in the palace for a five-year term.
Palace maids selected through a separate draft could be
promoted into the harem – 16% became imperial consorts.
2015/7/21

26
Imperial Women

The influence of imperial women was feared by the Manchu.
 In the struggle for power, Nurhaci’s senior widow, Abahai,
was forced to commit suicide and was buried with her
husband.
 Huang Taiji might have been acceptable as his mother had
died by the time he became the leader of the Manchu and
there would be no strong maternal influence during his rule.
 The mother of Yongzhen emperor was separated from her
son soon after his birth, so Yongzhen was raised by another
imperial woman (d.1689) who was of noble ancestry and
whose only daughter had died.
 Yongzhen was very close to his foster mother.
2015/7/21
27
Imperial Women (2)
To prevent palace women and their families from power, palace
regulations made it almost impossible for an imperial consort to
remain close to her natal kin.
 Visits home were rare and demanded that her parents and
grandparents kneel before her.
 Imperial permission was needed for meetings with parents –
when a woman was pregnant or when her parents were
elderly.
 Special permission was needed for them to send servants to
their family homes as messengers.
 They were forbidden to give or receive gifts from family
members.
 Motherhood usually brought promotion to the woman but the
title of Empress Dowager was usually conferred upon her by her
son should he become emperor.
28
2015/7/21

Imperial Women (3)

The women who survived the power struggles became very
influential:
 After the death of Huang Taiji (1643), the mother of the
infant (Fulin: Shunzi), who was descended from Genghis
khan became very important.
 She allied herself with prominent Manchu nobles who were
not imperial kinsmen but had been active in the conquest.
 She brought up her grandson, the future Kangxi emperor,
and helped him get rid of the regent, Oboi, and rule in his
own right.
 Her political role during her son’s infancy and the regency of
her grandson could be compared with that of Empress
Dowager Cixi who dominated the last 50 years of the dynasty.
2015/7/21
29
Imperial Women (4)

Two regents, Cian (1837-1881) and Cixi (1835-1908), dominated
the final years of the Qing and ruled together after the death of
Emperor Xianfeng together with the emperor’s half-brothers.
 Cian was the daughter of a Duke and was the empress of
Xianfeng emperor (r.1850-1861).
 She became a regent as she was the former empress.
 She had been named empress at the age of 16.
 She had no sons and so the 6 year-old son of a
concubine (Cixi) succeeded to the throne as Emperor
Tongzhi (1856-1875).
 Cixci, Xianfeng’s concubine, became regent as she was the
biological mother of empeor Tongzhi.
 As Empress Dowager, Cixi was de facto ruler during the
last years of the Qing dynasty.
2015/7/21
30
Manchu Women

Manchu women had greater freedom and authority.
 They were forbidden to bind their feet and walked in public
places, rode horses, practiced archery and participated in
hunts.
 Princess Hexiao — the youngest daughter of Qianlong —
dressed in man’s clothing, practiced archery and
accompanied her father on hunts.
 The emperor was recorded as saying that if she had
been a boy he would have made her the heir.
 Women were occasionally active on the battlefield: a few
were even named banner lieutenant during the conquest.
 They held key roles in religious services at court.
 Manchu and Mongol nobles of both sexes had the right to
divorce.
2015/7/21
31
Manchu Impact on Chinese Women




The Manchu tried but was not able to stop footbinding in the
early Qing.
The lecture on Mongolorization of women showed that the
Manchu reduced the number and pattern of widow suicide.
During the Qing, prostitution was abolished and all sex work
were considered criminal acts.
All
Manchu Impact on Chinese Women:
Prostitution



For centuries the state managed sex workers.
 The sex service was a form of slavery like that of comfort
women during the Second World War.
In the Han dynasty, the wives and daughters of some criminals
were sentenced to serve in state-managed military brothels.
 Their status would be passed on to their descendants –
hereditary prostitution.
Beginning with the Sui dynasty (580-618 ), state managed sex
workers were referred to as yue ren 樂人 (singers, dancers, maids,
etc.) and worked within yue hu 樂戶 – music households.
33
Manchu Impact on Chinese Women:
Prostitution (2)


The practice of sentencing wives and daughters to prostitution
continued from the Tang through the Ming.
 In some periods of history, prisoners of war and their
families were similarly sentenced.
Under Ming law, there were two kinds of prostitution – the one
supervised by the state and private unofficial ones that were
regarded as unlawful.
 The private ones were:
 Widows, discarded concubines, and divorced women who
had to survive by becoming prostitutes under the pretense
of being Daoist and Buddhist nuns.
 The wives or daughters of poor men to help earn money
for the family.
34
Manchu Impact on Chinese Women:
Prostitution (3)




Yuan law prohibited commoner males from forcing a wife,
concubine, adopted daughter or a domestic slave to be a
prostitute.
 The man was also prohibited from forcing a wife concubine
or adopted daughter to sing and dance to entertain others.
In the Ming, the emperor periodically announced amnesties to
release descendants of political prisoners from their status.
Emperor Yongzheng of the Qing abolished the yue hu
households and made them commoners in 1723.
 All former sex workers were held to the same standard of
chastity as the commoners.
 Prostitutes, their pimps (often their husbands), and those
who used their services all became criminals.
 All sex work became criminal acts.
The result was the complete prohibition of prostitution.
35
The End of the Qing


The two Opium wars with the West (1839-1842) (1856-1860),
the internal rebellions such as the Taiping 太平 Rebellion (18511864) and the Boxer Uprising from (1899-1901) made the Qing
weak politically and economically.
 By 1908, both Cixi and Emperor Guangxu died leaving a
powerless and unstable central authority.
Puyi was named emperor at the age of two the day before the
deaths of Cixi and Guangxu.
 His father was regent and ruled together with an "Imperial
Family Cabinet” – a ruling council of the Imperial
Government almost entirely consisting of relatives of Puyi’s
lineage.
2015/7/21
36
The End of the Qing (2)



With permission from Empress Dowager Longyu (wife of
Emperor Gungxu and niece of ED Cixi), negotiations were held
with the rebels led by Sun Yatsen.
 Empress Dowager Longyu issued the edict abdicating the
child emperor Puyi.
In 1931, the Japanese created a puppet state named Manchuguo
with Puyi as emperor.
 By this time Manchuria was overwhelmingly Han Chinese,
and even among the Manchu, this project failed to generate
much genuine interest.
Manchuguo was abolished at the end of World War II and the
land was given back to China.
2015/7/21
37
The End of the Qing (3)


The reasons for the decline and fall of the Qing were different
from those that brought down the earlier dynasties.
 Externally, Qing China was drawn into modern world politics
by the West whose culture was in many ways equal to hers
and whose technology was superior.
 Internally, the population explosion created social and
economic problems which the Qing was unable to cope.
The feeling of nationalism and the development of a “Han
identity” by the majority population, influenced by western
thought made it impossible to accept a foreign conquest dynasty
– Manchu -- to rule China.
2015/7/21
38
The End of the Qing (4)





The reformists had tried to had tried to establish a constitutional
monarchy like that in Japan and in England.
When this effort failed and Guangxu was imprisoned by Cixi
they gave up the idea and decided to form a new nation.
The new communists and nationalists believed that China was
backward because of feudalism – the oppression of men and
women by Confucian practices, especially that of women
through footbinding and the lack of education.
The liberation of women, therefore, became part of the
liberation of society from feudal practices.
The women’s movement, therefore, had to be supported by all
regardless if they were communists or nationalists.
2015/7/21
39