Archaeology of Asia Essay
The period of Qing Dynasty appeared as the last imperial dynasty in China, and it occurred between 1644 and 1911. This period comprised of many cultures where the Chinese and non-Chinese all lived under the leadership of Manchu who lived in the northeast in a region that was known as Manchuria. Ming Dynasty seeks help from the people of Manchuria and from that, the Manchu people took advantage of the condition in China where they established their dynasty in China. They adopted the Ming dynasty, employed people from the Ming dynasty and in the process, they dominated the country where they started ruling as the leaders. To ensure control over the Chinese people, Qing made sure that half of the officials were from Manchu while all the others were from China. This led to China being ruled by foreigners who were the Manchu people. The leadership of Manchu during the Qing Dynasty led to several transformations both to the people in China and to the economy until the fall of Qing dynasty which occurred due to several reasons.
The beginning of Qing Dynasty was ironic to the Chinese people because they had worked hard to avoid foreign invaders from ruling their country. From the experience of the preceding two dynasties, the Chinese leaders had tried to strengthen the navy with the aim of foreign people invading the country. Ming in its ruling formed an alliance with the tribes in Manchu as a way to minimize rebellion from the internal people, and this gave the Manchu the opportunity to overthrow the Han Chinese rule and took the government in their hands. The first years of Manchu leadership led to a flourished country where the economy of the country raised with many people joining the country. At first, Manchu maintained order by establishing a harsh discipline that was to be followed by the Chinese people. The leaders executed anyone who was a suspect of treason as a way to instil discipline o the Chinese people and to ensure peace and development.
The development of the Qing dynasty occurred quickly with the period being known as the Golden Age of Qing power. The period was the longest recorded in China which had few emperors compared to other periods in China. The period had many territories that acquired various forms. The first form of the territory included three lords that controlled border areas. Those who rebelled were defeated, and the land was taken by the Kangxi emperor (Roberts, 87). This was the longest tenure of Chinese leadership which went for 65 years and has never been reported ever since. The empire of the Chinese grew strong in the first decades of its ruling was it later became weak with the invasion of the British people. The Qing Dynasty had started with a strong rule, and social stability was at a high degree. This made the acting officials during that period more corrupt which led to economic dislocations, unlike the way the economy had been established by Manchu leaders. The country also developed social unrest and increased rebellion from the internal and external people due to the political unrest state experienced in the state.
From the song to Qing Dynasty, the changes that occurred to the people of China during this period are well illustrated. The first reigns of Qing Dynasty had three emperors and went for 133 years. During this period, China was peaceful and prospered in all actions it was involved in. The Qing emperor had developed policies to ensure that social economy was revived and class contradictions were alleviated. It was in this period when the Manchu leaders tried to create a multi-ethnic community that comprised of people from different regions. The Qing emperor aimed at growing to increase the population of people from the Ming Dynasty where everything during the Qing tripled including the population which grew from 150 million people to 450 million. Many of those who were not from China origin adopted the Chinese culture as they were embraced by the leadership of Qing Dynasty. The economy of China also developed and became well established which was an indication that the Qing Dynasty supported the growth and prosperity of its people. During the same period, the leadership allowed westernization with the aim of minimizing internal rebellion as well as increasing control of the Chinese people.
To ensure that the Qing Dynasty was successful, it adopted the form of government that was used during the Ming Dynasty but made some changes to make it more functional for its people. The positions in the government comprised of one Machu and one Chinese person but the Machu had more power compared to the Chinese. The organization of military used during the Qing Dynasty was the best used in Chinese leadership, and it was the best-used in the whole world. The troops of the military were organized in banners where each of the troop was a separate unit. From the troops, the fighting men were obtained, and they were under the emperor. They troop was also loyal to the leadership, and whenever Manchu wanted any single talent, it was selected from the troop as they were full of talents.
To the outside world, China became isolated because it did not want to be involved in any form of trade with other countries. The only thing China traded with other countries is tea and silver and did not allow foreign investors to interfere with the Chinese currency. Chinese culture later outlawed Christianity as a way to avoid invasion by European countries. This is because the Qing Dynasty did not want external influence in its leadership which it prevented at all cost. Trading and Christianity were the only ways that could encourage foreign countries to invade China, and this was controlled by minimizing trading and outlawing Christianity.
Qing Dynasty was very successful in all its operation and acted as the best ruler in the China. The dynasty dominated China but preserved their identity despite the fact that all summers were spent in Manchuria which did not accommodate the Chinese people. Manchu banned the intermarriage between the Chinese people and the Manchuria people and did not communicate the Chinese language despite being part of the country (Ge, 673). This exhibited cultural differences because these people were not ready to interact completely with the Chinese people where they even did not make their documents available to the Chinese people. The military duties of the Chinese troop and the Manchu troop were different which made the Qing Dynasty to have more power over the Chinese people.
Culture
The Qing Dynasty led to changes in the dress code of the Chinese people. This is where men were required to shave their heads unlike the earlier ruling and also they were expected to wear queues. The Chinese men were also forced to wear Manchu clothes while the Chinese women were forced to avoid bidding the feet of their men. Men were forced to shave their hair in a queue hairstyle, and the rest of the hair was to be tied in a long ponytail. This was a change of the norms where during the Ming Dynasty; men were allowed to stay with their hair. This was the expectation of the Manchu ruling, but it did not work for the people where the ruling was withdrawn in the year 1668. Qing Dynasty created a period of peace which led to growth in all aspects of the Chinese country. All areas experienced changes and growth and the public works in the country were all repaired and maintained. The taxes that every Chinese was expected to pay were minimized compared to other dynasties that preceded the Qing Dynasty. In cases such as famine in the country, Qing dynasty reduced the tax paid even further to allow more survival of the people in the country.
During the Qing dynasty, porcelain production became of importance where new colors such as a combination of black and yellow and new shades of green were officiated. Painting became part of the Chinese people which had not been the case during other dynasties. The three philosophies that were used during the Qing Dynasty were Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. This is because the Qing leaders were strict followers of Buddhism and even outlawed Christianity to ensure that all the Chinese people followed the same religion. Art became part of the Chinese people where it flourished very well during this era. This led to increased painting, sculpture modelling poetry and creation of porcelain. The Manchu people were ranked as the highest in the society since they comprised of the majority leaders of the country (GE, 679). Discrimination became part of the Chinese people where the Han Chinese was discriminated against. This was evident where Han Chinese people were denied right to marry people from Manchu, and this contributed to an increased rebellion of the leaders which contributed to the down fall of Qing dynasty.
By mid 18th century, the economy of China reached peak which was as a result of the leadership from Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Yongzheng. This period was given the name ‘the golden age of three emperors, and it is in this period when culture and science were greatly embraced by the Chinese people. This ensured that science and culture became more prosperous than any other period reported in Chinese history which created fame and respect for China as a country. The architecture was the most recognized field of science during Qing Dynasty period, and some people adopted art where they developed porcelain.
China was a strict country that did not recognize western countries as it believed to be the centre of the world which made the Chinese people feels superior to all other nations in the world. China had the strongest regional power until the 19th century when it allowed the British people in the country. This is where trading was initiated between the two countries, but until now, Chinese never appreciated the trade as they termed it as unimportant to them which led the Europeans people obey the Chinese law of trade. The Europeans did not consider China as a country of weak trade despite their view of trade as unimportant, and they retained their belief of China being the region with the greatest power of expansion. British people were the only European power that was interested in trading in China.
The introduction of the western people in China led to many changes in the country. This is where the Britain developed an interest in trading with China after they were allowed to enter the country. The main interest was to trade tea and silk with China while importing opium from the country. Since opium was new to the Chinese people, it was accepted easily and led to Chinese people getting addicted to opium which made them change the land that was initially used for food to produce opium. The demand for opium in China grew to the extent that China did not get enough opium from Britain (Fang, 416). This led to the country converting their agricultural land to grow opium as a way to meet the demands of the people in China. This led to reduced agricultural land as the lands that were initially used for growing foodstuff were converted to growing opium.
The trading of China and Britain led to more of the Chinese money being used for payment of opium until in the year 1839 when opium trade was abolished in China. The abolishing of opium created a war in Britain as they were used to trading with the Chinese people which forced the two countries to form a treaty as a way to stop the war (Fang, 420). This is the era that is known in China to have forced trade where the British people forced to trade with the Chinese people who had no value for trading. The opium war that occurred when the British people were stopped to trade with the Chinese people reduced the country to semi-colonial, semi-imperial. This is where the influences of the European people were experienced, and the European people were allowed to come to China where the introduced the art of science to the Chinese people. The boarders of China were expanded during the reign of Qianlong, and it is during this time that China prospered to a great. During this time, many challenges also affected the people of China and the government at that time tried its best to suppress the challenges, but it did not manage to alleviate the poverty that was as a result of the challenges.
Qing Empire was prosperous in the first 120 years of leadership but later ended in record-breaking wars and natural disasters. This is because since 1800 to the end of Qing Empire, more than 30 million Chinese had been killed which was an indication of poor and bad leadership. After the middle period of this leadership, the social contradictions that occurred in the country led to the fall and decline of Qing Dynasty. This was due to corrupt rulers that had recently joined the leadership, and they led to increased rebellions and uprisings of the population. By the year 1840, Opium war broke out which subjected the Qing court to many troubles both from within and from other countries that shared a common interest with China. China was forced to advocate for treaties with European trading countries, and through this, the Europeans colonized China due to its political unrest state and increased rebellion of the leaders.
The weakening of China was caused by several internal rebellions including the T’ai P’ing which was the most recognized internal rebellion. The problems and uprisings in China increased the aggression of Japanese. The Russian people also formed treaties with China which led to the formation of China/Russia boarder that facilitated the trading of the two countries. The Westernization movement tried to save the collapsing Qing Dynasty, but their efforts did not bear fruits which led to the end of Qing Dynasty by 1912.
Conclusion
Qing Dynasty was the period that went for long in China which was characterized by three leaders. This period was ruled by foreign leaders who had taken advantage of the political state of China, and when they were invited for collaboration, they took power in their hand. During this period, peace and economic rise were experienced at the beginning of the emperor but due to political unrest, the period ended in a very bad state. During this time, there was the submission of nomadic people which led to an increased rate of discrimination among the Chinese people. Intermarriage was allowed, but for the Han Chinese and Manchu people, it was not allowed. The transformation experienced during this period according to the song was due to political differences which led to a rebellion from the internal and external people. This led to Europeans taking advantage of the differences, and as a way to ensure peace in the country, they dominated in China.