Extra information

Qing governmental structures

 Local governments
• 18 Provinces (China proper) + other regions
Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi
Gansu, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi,
Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Jiangsu, Jiangxi,
Zhejiang, Fujian, Anhui
• governor (province)
• governor-general(provinces)
• magistrate (prefecture, county [district])
Qing’s Central Government Agencies
(The Metropolitan Offices)

•The Grand Secretariat

•The Grand Council
•The Six Boards ( Ministries )
 The Grand Secretariat
The Emperor (The Hanlin Academy)

The Grand Council

Personal finance rites war punishment works

The 18 provinces + other regions

 Six Boards (Ministry)
• The Board of Personnel (Civil Appointments)
• The Board of Revenue (Finance)
• The Board of Rites (ceremonies, rituals, ‘foreign relations’)
• The Board of War (defense)
• The Board of Punishments (judicial and penal processes)
• The Board of Works (infrastructure)
Beijing /
forbidden city
plan
source: Wiki
The Forbidden City

source: topchinatravel.com
 Extra information
Wars and Treaties of
the later Qing
 China’s “Century of Humiliation”
• First Opium War (1839-1842)
–Treaty of Nanjing
• Second Opium (Arrow) War (1856-1860)
—Treaty of Tientsin, and Convention of Beijing
• The Sino–French War (1884-1885)
–Treaty of Tientsin
• First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)
—The Treaty of Shimonoseki
• The Boxer War (1899-1901)
—the Boxer Protocol
Chinasage.info
Picture of Current Affairs,
1903 (Shijutu)
Source: The Alarming News about Russia (1903-1904)
Carving the Chinese Melon
• British—lower Yangzhi, Canton
• Germany—Qingdao
• Russia—Manchuria
• Japan—Ryokyo, Korea, Taiwan
• French—Indo-China, Guangzhouwan
 Week 5

Reforms:

Self Strengthening
Movement
 Three major reform movements

•The Self-Strengthening Movements, 1861-1898

oAfter the Second Opium War
•The Hundred Day’s Reform Movement, 1898
oAt the time of the Western imperial scramble of China
•The New Policies, 1901-1911
oAfter the Boxer War
• Involving
• one powerful woman—Empress Dowager Cixi—who controlled
the political powers throughout these years.
• two palace coup d'état
• three minor emperors: Tongzhi (reign 1861–1875), Guangxu (reign
1875–1908), and Xuantong (Puyi, reign 1908-1911)
• half century attempts of reforming the Qing’s military,
economic, political, and education systems in order to face
up to the challenges posed by Western imperial powers, to
make China strong and wealthy again
 Reform?
• Several groups of scholar-official (the power holders) attempted, through
reforms, to save the dynastic imperial nation.
• Most of them came from Statecraft School of Confucianism which emphasizes
on practical learning and morality. They try to save the Qing nation through
practical policy making—reforming military, economic and political,
educational structures.
• They faced oppositions from the arch-conservatives like Woren who belonged
to the Neo-Confucianism school. The conservative believed China was at the
centre of the world, achieved high civilisation; foreigners (not educated in
Chinese culture, thus barbarians, know not the great ways of China) should be
expelled. Learning from foreigners was unthinkable to them.
• Empress Dowager Cixi played the two sides off. She was not whole heartedly
convinced the need to reform, cared more on preserving her own political
power and on her on enjoyment.
The Self Strengtheners, 1861-1898
 Self-strengtheners (who)
• Central Government (1861-1890)
•Prince Gong (Manchu)
•Wen Xiang (Manchu)
• Local Government (1861-1890)
•Zheng Guofan (Han)
•Li Hongzhang (Han)
•Zuo Zongtang (Han)
•Zhang Zhidong (Han)
Prince Gong (1833-1898)
progressive minded; led central
government’s projects in reforms

Taken by Felice Beato on 2 November 1860 after the signing of the

Convention of Beijing; source: Wikipedia, entry: Prince Gong
Wen Xiang
1816-1876
leading central government’s
reform projects

By John Thomson - Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript

Library
Zeng Guofan
(1811-1872)
mainly in Hunan

Source: from the book Search for Modern

China (by Jonathan Spence, 1990)
Li Hongzhang (1823-1901)
first in Jiangsu (Kiangsu) then in
the north, mainly in Tianjin
(Tientsin)

Source: from the book Li Hung-Chang: His Life and Times.

(Archibald Little, (1903, London: Cassell & Company).
Zuo Zongtang (1812-1885)

In Fujian
Source: by Boiarskii 1874-75, Thereza Christina Maria
Collection, National Library of Brazil
Zhang Zhidong
(1837-1909)
Source: Wikipedia, entry Zhang Zhidong
 1861 Coup d'état
• Amid Taiping Rebellion and, in the wake of the Second Opium War, on
21 August 1861 Xianfeng Emperor died at Rehe (Jehol), his six years
old son ( Tongzhi) ascended the throne.
• Eight ministers appointed themselves as Council of Regents of the boy
emperor.
• Prince Gong and Empress Cixi together launch a coup and taking
control of the empire
• Implications: starting of Empress Cixi’s 48 yeas reign of the Qing
dynasty. She presided over and played a role in the down of the
dynasty and the modernisation efforts.
• Prince Gong gained a degree of power and able to stat reform from
the centre.
Chengde (Jehol, Rehe) Summer Palace source: Wikipedia entry Chengde
Empress Dowager Cixi
The third woman to control
dynastic imperial political
authority in Chinese history.

by Yu Xunling, (Source: from the book Two Years in the

Forbidden City by Derling
• Empress Dowager Cixi
• ruling behind the curtain
• playing off reformers and
conservative
by Yu Xunling, (Source: from the book Two
Years in the Forbidden City by Derling)
Diplomatic related institutions
 institution,
Office in Charge of Affairs of All Nations,
(Zongli Yamen, Tsungli Yamen) 1861, central
• Functioned as foreign office in charge of foreign affairs
• Before it: the Qing had no the so called ‘foreign office’; interactions with
foreign countries were through three institutions:
• Board of Rites—tributary relations with Vietnam, Korea and others
• Court of Colonial Affairs—in charge relations with Russia and Mongolia
• Canton: Trade controlled in one port Canton, local authorities in charge of it.
• Now: Western powers were in China, had to deal with them, so the new
institution
• Function: receiving foreign representatives, payment of indemnities, opening
of new ports
• Organization: directed by a board of high metropolitan officials; five bureaus
(British, Russian, French, American, Coastal Defence); Inspectorate-general of
Customs and language school
 institution,College of Foreign Languages (Tongwen
Guan, Tungwen Kuan), 1862, central
• For training language experts (translators, interpreters) in foreign service
• Before it: communication mainly through Chinese interpreters speaking
pidgin English; missionaries were helpful
• Now: Europeans are a force to be reckoned with; to understand them one has
to know their language first;
• Function: for establishing a reserve of their own trusted translators and
interpreters; for translating new knowledge developed in the West and for
diplomatic occasions
• W. A. P. Martin the President from 1869, a major figure in making the college
working; 1879, 163 students; more than language, astronomy, mathematics,
chemistry, and physiology—liberal arts college; 1873 establishing its own
press publishing translated books.
• 1902 absorbed into the Imperial University which is the precursor of today’s
Beijing University— one step futher in westernising its education system.
Front gate of the
Zongli Yamen
Source: Enrique Stanko Vráz Bílý ďábel v
Pekingu, toulky a dobrodružství v Číně
(Toužimský a Moravec, Praha 1940)
Faculty of the
Chinese Imperial
University, W. A. P.
Martin centre.

Source: The Lore of Cathay

or the Intellect of China.
(Fleming H. Revell Company)
Foreign helper
W. A. P. Martin,1827-1916
American Presbyterian missionary
Source: The Lore of Cathay or the Intellect of China. (Fleming H. Revell Company)
Institution, The Maritime Customs Service, central
• For collecting tax of foreign trade in the ports
• Before it: The Qing government collected it themselves
• Starting point: Shanghai walled city was occupied by the small Sword
Society in 1854 during Taiping War. The customs superintendent
based there became dysfunctional. British consul in Shanghai
Rutherford Alcock stepped in to collect on Qing’s behalf. Other ports
followed. It continued on as Qing was too weak to resume it.
• Inspector General Robert Hart in service for 48 year (1863-1911)
ensuring its functioning and initiated other works for the Qing.
Hart and lady visitors
Special Collections, Queen’s University Belfast, MS 15.6.9.7

Foreign helper
Robert Hart (1835-1911) as young
man with watch, 1854
Special Collections, Queen’s University Belfast, MS 15/6/1/B2
Foreign help
Robert Hart with Lady Hart
and children, c.1878:
Special Collections, Queen’s University Belfast
Foreign helper
Robert Hart, 1908
Special Collections, Queen’s University
Belfast, MS 15/6/1/B33
Militaristic Self-Strengthening
• Most self-strengtheners believed the Qing was only fallen
behind the West in terms of weaponry power and military
organization. They established factories to produce gun
power, guns and other weaponries:
• Weaponry production
• 1864 small gun factory in Suzhou (Soochow) by Li Hongzhang
• 1865 Jiangnan Arsenal at Shanghai by Zen Guofan and Li
• 1867 Tianjin Machine Factory—industrialisation
• 1867 Nanjing Arsenal by Li
• 1867 Tianjin Machine Factory
• Military ship building
• 1866 Foochow Dockyar and Fuzhou by Zuo Zongtang
• Military and naval institutions
• 1880 Naval Academy at Tianjin
• 1885 Board of Admiralty
• 1888 Beiyang (Peiyang) Fleet established under Li Hongzhang control
• Purchasing of weaponry and ships
• 1863, Lay-Osborn flotilla (Horatio Lay and Captain Sherard Osborn
Tianjin Machine Factory, 1890s, Source Wikipedia, entry ‘Tianjin Modern Industry’
Gun transportation
at Jiangnan Arsenal
Source: Wikipedia, entry ‘Jiangnan Shipyard’
 The Foochow Arsenal
1867 to 1871, under construction

Source: Canadian Centre for Architecture

Light industrialisation / national infrastructure

• Catching up with the West on machine production—industrialisation

• Transport infrastructure
• 1875 China Merchants Steam Navigation Company (government supervised
merchant undertaking)
• 1881 railway north of Tianjin—transformation infrastructure
• Communication infrastructure
• 1879 telegraph line between Dagu and Tianjin
• 1881 Imperial Telegraph Administration, line between Shanghai and Tianjin
 Com

75th Anniversary of China

Merchants Steam Navigation
Company Commemorative Issue
(1948)
Source: knowledge.taibif.tw
• Energy infrastructure
• 1877 Kaiping Coal Mines at Tianjin
• 1887 Mints at Canton and Tianjin
• 1887 Mo-ho Gold Mines
• 1890 Ta-yeh Iron mines; Hanyang Ironworks, Ping-hsiang coal mines
• Light industries
• 1878 Textile Factory in Gansu by Zuo Zongtang—garment
• 1878 Shanghai Cotton Cloth Mill by Li Hongzhang—garment
• 1886 textile mill at Canton
• 1889 cotton mill and iron factory at Canton
• 1891 Lung-chang Paper Mill at Shanghai
• 1891 Kweichow Ironworks
• 1893 General office for machine textile manufacturing
• 1893 cotton and textile plants at Wuchang
• 1894 Match compiles in Hubei (Hupeh) province
• 1894 Hubei Textile Company
Kaiping Coal Mines
Source: dianliwenmi.com
Dispatching of students abroad to study
• 1872, 30 teenage boys to the United States to study at Hartford
Connecticut. Other batches followed. Between 1872-81, 120 sent out
• 1872, military officers were sent to Germany to study
• 1875-1876, naval school of Fuzhou Dockyard sent students to study in
France and Britian
• 1884, 13 naval student to study shipbuilding in Britain, France, and
Germany; 9 student to Britain to learn navigation
Yung Wing, 1828-1912
First Chinese graduate of Yale (1854)

Source:Portrait of Yung Wing used as frontispiece in his

1909 book, My Life in China and America
Failed reform movements?
• The reformers attempted to preserve the social order they were familiar with and
in which they were the privileged power holder and shouldered the responsibility
of governing
• How do we measure failure and success?
• It terms of their aims—to strengthen or save the Qing imperial state, they failed.
• In the War with France (1884-5) and with Japan (1895) the Qing lost both; but these did not
destroy the Qing directly.
• We think they failed also because the Qing dynasty was toppled in 1911.
• But how much was the Qing’s fall related to the reform projects? There are many
contributing factors of the Qing’s fall. Was the success/failure of reform part of it?
• Bureaucratic culture –corruption and nepotism—and conservatism prevented the
institutions from reaching its potential, but the institution did function the role of
strengthening the military power

• Another two waves of reforms to come: the Hundred Day Reform (1898) and the
New Policies (1901).
The Hundred Day’s Reform Movement, 1898
• Guangxu emperor attempted to take back the control of the political
power from his aunt Empress Dowager Cixi and to start reforms to
save the nation.
• He recruited some ministers and the two scholars Kang Youwei and
Laing Qichao to start reforming, political structure (constitutional
monarchy), education system, and bureaucratic system– much
deeper reform than the Self-Strengthening Movements.
• Cixi and conservative stopped the reform after 103 days of its
starting.
• Most of the programmes were implemented in the New Policy reform
Portrait of the Guangxu Emperor
(1871 -1908) in his study

Source: Palace Museum Beijing

Kang Youwei (1858-1927)
Confucius as a Reformer

Kan attempted to provide a Confucian

justification for institutional reforms

Source: Wikipedia, entry ‘Kang Youwei’

Liang Qichao (1873-1929)
Source: Wikipedia, entry ‘Liang Qichao’