S02: From Empire to Nation-State

• Why and how did the Qing fall so quickly?
• From empire to nation-state: How did China hold on to most of the Qing empire? What’s distinctive about China?
• How to remember the 1911 revolution? Was it a rupture or continuity?

• The Jurchen adopted the name “Manchu” in 1635; they were previously known as the Jurchen.
• They founded the Jin dynasty (1115-1234) and lived in Manchuria (today Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang provinces).
• They gathered wild ginseng, valued by the Ming Chinese, and traded pine nuts, pearls, and furs for Chinese porcelain, tea, and silk.
• Frequent intermarriages and families speaking Chinese, Korean, Jurchen, Mongolian, Russian, and Tibetan.

China proper

• Sedentary population and agriculture
• Rise of cities and market towns
• Complex bureaucracies
• Defined territorial boundaries

Inner Asia

• Mobility across large geographical scale
• Extra-local interactions
• Non-fixed property regime
• Dispersed aristocratic hierarchies
• Multi-resource economics

• The middle imperial period in China (6th to 15th century) was marked by a complex web of alliances, conflicts, and cultural exchanges between Chinese and steppe societies.
• Chinese imperial dynasties, including the Sui Dynasty (581–618), Tang Dynasty (618–907), Song Dynasty (960–1279), faced challenges from northern steppe groups such as the Xiongnu, Turks, and Mongols.

• Hereditary occupation in civil / military service
• Manchu language and identity, with distinct privileges

• In 1645, Manchu leader Prince Dorgon issued a decree requiring Chinese men to adopt the “queue”, a common hairstyle in central and northeast Asia for centuries
• The order was met with opposition from many Chinese, who saw it as a humiliating act of degradation and a marker of submission to a foreign dynasty.
• Overtime, the queue was seen as an essential aspect of Chinese identity – both positively and negatively.

• In 1626, Nurhaci suffered a defeat that led to his death months later. His son Hong Taiji became the dominant leader.
• In 1635, Hong Taiji banned the term “Jurchen” and introduced “Manchu” for certain banners.
• In 1636, he renamed the dynasty Qing, meaning “pure,” and declared himself emperor to conquer Ming territory.

• The Jurchen could no longer read the Kitan script from the Jin dynasty, leading many in the region to adopt the Mongolian script.
• Approximately one-third of Jurchen vocabulary consisted of borrowed Mongolian words.
• In 1599, Nurhaci mandated that his subjects write Jurchen using the Mongolian script.

• Buddhism in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including Bhutan, Nepal, India, Tibet, Mongolia, Sichuan, Qinghai, etc.
• Four major schools, namely Nyingma (8th century), Kagyu (11th century), Sakya (1073), and Gelug (1409)
• Cultural Tibet bigger than Tibetan Autunomous Region in China today

• Today: Inner Mongolia (4 million) and independent Mongolia (3.4 million, as of 2024)
• Historically made of various tribal confederation: the Khalkh, Oirats, Buryats and Kalmyks, Barga, and the Chahar (together with other southern Mongols).
• Khalkh (or Khalkha) Mongols as the majority in Mongolia and their language

• The Manchus extended the banner system to Mongolia, where local banners retained social structure of the Mongol tribes
• The Manchus also patronized Jebtsundamba Khutughtu, the spiritual head of the Gelug (Yellow Hat) lineage of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia
• First title awarded to Zanabazar (1635–1723) by the Fifth Dalai Lama

• To strengthen ties with Mongolians, Qing emperors showed deference to Dalai Lama’s authority in Mongolia
• In return, Dalai Lama venerated Qing emperors as the incarnation of Bodhisattva and patrons of Tibetan Buddhism

• The Dzungar Campaign (1755-1758) was initiated by the Qing Dynasty to eliminate the Dzungar Khanate in present-day Xinjiang.
• Qing forces involved large-scale battles, strategic sieges, and significant military resources.
• A large portion of the Dzungar population, with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 600,000, died, with lasting effects on the demographics and cultural landscape of Central Asia.

• How should the Qing govern the newly conquered regions and peoples?
• What shared identities, if any, should be created?

• What are we looking at?
• Who painted these portraits? Who was the audience?
• What messages did the imperial portrait send?

• Danger of anachronism: Does ethnicity have its roots in the ancient and premodern past, or is it a product of Western modernity?
• Is “ethnic consciousness” a prerequisite to ethnic identity? How can it be demonstrated?
• Is “race / ethnicity” a phenomenon or a concept?

• Silver outflow: Trade surplus with England turned deficit in 1826
• Increasing opium smuggling
• Growing users and addicts: “the magistrate or governor who did not smoke opium was an exception”

• 21 million silver taels of indemnity
• End of Canton system whereby all foreign trade was confined to the port of Guangzhou (Canton), with foreign merchants restricted to a specific area
• Era of treaty ports: five coastal cities opened for foreign trade
• Extraterritoriality: foreign nationals subject to home laws for offenses in China
• Britain granted “most favored nation” status

External

• Opium War: Burden of indemnity payments
• Economic displacement after opening of new treaty ports
• Opium addiction and rural poverty

Domestic

• Population growth: From 150 million in 1650 to 300 million in 1800
• Official corruption
• State involution and declining fiscal capacity

• 1855-1858: Second Opium War against England and France
• 1858: Outer Manchuria ceded to Russia
• 1860: Treaty of Beijing

• 1850-1864: Taiping Civil War
• 1851-1868: Nian Rebellion in Anhui, Shandong, and Henan
• 1855-1872: Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan
• 1867-1876: Dungan Revolt in Xinjiang

• 1855: Yellow River changed course; Grand Canal flooded.
• 1873-1876: three year drought
• 1876-1879: Great North China Famine in five provinces, claiming at least 9.5 million lives.

• Traditional economic centers decimated by civil war and internal migration
• Depressed agricultural yield; labor more expensive than land
• Shift of domestic trade from hinterland to coast
• Treaty ports as centers of commercial boom and self-strengthening initiatives

• War triggered by domestic rebellion: Tonghak (Eastern Learning) movement invited Qing intervention
• From civil war to international war: Japan declared war on the Qing on August 1, 1894
• Destruction of Li Hongzhang’s Beiyang Fleet on Yalu River

• 200 million silver taels in indemnity
• Change in status of Korea: no longer a Qing tributary, but an independent nation (later officially annexed)
• Taiwan ceded to Japan as colony
• “Carving up China”: Loss of Liaodong peninsula and creation of foreign “spheres of influence”
• Right to set up foreign industrial factories in Qing

• The late-nineteenth-century court was divided into two factions: the emperor’s party and the empress dowager’s party.
• The Sino-Japanese War was a greater shock, even more so than the Opium War (1839–1842).
• Young reform-minded intellectuals, like Liang Qichao, highlighted the urgent need for modernization and Westernization.
• More than importing Western technology, the Qing needed more radical reform to prioritize constitutionalism, like Japan.

• Intellectuals into statesmen: Kang Youwei appointed to Foreign Office, Tan Sitong to he Grand Council
• Opening of “pathways of words”: soliciting reform suggestions
• Replacing Six Boards with Western-style cabinet ministries
• Introduction of an independent judiciary

After gaining an audience with Emperor Guangxu, Kang Youwei and his students influenced the launch of the Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898:

• Kang Youwei
• Liang Qichao
• Tan Sitong

• How did they define China and its people?
• How did they define the time they live in?
• What needs to be changed? Why? How?
• What’s the place of Chinese tradition and/or culture?
• How would you compare and contrast these three thinkers?

• Kang says he lives in a world of “disorder”. What is its root cause?
• What is China’s relationship with the world? What does Kang say about other societies?
• What is the “Grand Commonality”? How do we get there?

• Leader of Hundred Days Reform
• Loyalist, constitutional monarchy
• “Grand Commonality”: global utopia of human equality and solidarity
• Blend of Confucianism, Buddhism, liberalism, utopianism and socialism/communism

• Liang sees “renewing the people” as an imperative for renewing China. But what people?
• Is renewing the people the same thing as Westernization? What does Liang say about “tradition”?
• “The main deficiency in our citizens is their lack of public morality”. What morality should they learn?
• How does Liang’s vision compare with that of his teacher, Kang Youwei?

• Need for comprehensive reform, but revolution as a recipe for disorder
• Constitutionalism as a source of progress.
• “Chinese nation (zhonghua minzu)”: Narrow nationalism of ethnically pure Han vs. Greater nationalism
• Nation-state as the only effective unit of struggle in social Darwinist world

• Is Confucius / Confucianism against reform?
• Why should change begin with a change of human relations?
• According to the Confucian philosopher Mencius, three fundamental bonds – between father and son, lord and subject, and husband and wife – constitute three of the five cardinal relationships. How should these relationships be reformed?

• Confucius as reformer, sympathetic to constitutional monarchy
• Re-interpretation of Confucian values as based on equality
• Not just legal reform, but reform of culture and minds
• Uneasy synthesis of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity

• Departure from traditional Confucian statecraft: Minimal state finance, maximal popular livelihoods
• New view of the state: Pursuit of “wealth and power”
• At the same time, confucian tradition as resource for present issues
• Philological scholarship as statecraft solution: “Seek truth from facts”
• Restoring Confucianism vs. Pursuing robust reform

• Rise of modern, activist, and fiscally efficient state
• Bureaucracy streamlined: Six Boards replaced by cabinet ministries
• New ministries: Trade, Education, Interior, Posts and Communication, etc.
• New sales tax on consumer goods; provincial revenue contributions
• Nationalization of profitable industries, mines, shipping lines

• Translation of Western legal texts
• Synthesizing Western law and Chinese tradition
• End of collective responsibility and cruel punishments
• New institituional structure: Ministry of Justice, Imperial Supreme Court
• New laws: criminal code, company law, citizenship (nationality by bloodline), etc.

• Creating centralized modern army to supplant Eight Banners and remnants of Taiping regional militia
• 1903: Commission on Military Reorganization
• Creation of Beiyang Army – first national army and China’s strongest military force
• Rise of Yuan Shikai (1859-1916) and key warlords of early Republican era

• Abolished in 1905
• End of traditional pathway to official service for over a millennium
• Establishment of Western-curriculum schools in all localities
• Modern school diploma replaced exam degree as credential for official service and social mobility

• 1905-1906: Overseas tour and study of political systems
• 1907: Commission to Study Constitutional Government established
• 1908: “Principles of the Constitution”, elected assemblies on local (1908) and provincial (1909) levels
• 1910: Provisional National Assembly convened in Beijing

The regime that a revolution destroys is almost always better than the one that immediately preceded it, and experience teaches that the most dangerous time for a bad government is usually when it begins to reform.

The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856)

What did the Qing accomplish?

• Multinational, universal empire
• Expansion of geographical scope of “China”
• Incorporation of non-Han peoples
• Small government: centrality of indigenous elites and groups in imperial governance

China, earliest civilization of East Asia,
Admiring America and chasing Europe
The old nation is under new construction.
The Five Colored Flag flutters high,
The glory of the Republic
shines over mountains and rivers.
My compatriots,
let us sing for civilization,
the universal peace shall forever be protected.