The Ming and Qing Dynasties

The Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

● The Ming Dynasty tried to rid China of Mongol
influence and return to traditional Chinese culture.
The Civil Service Exam was brought back (for all
government workers, based on Confucianism), and
the Great Wall of China was completed.
● Emperor Yongle (ruled 1402 – 1424) widened the
size of the Grand Canal to improve trade within
China.
○ Yongle also built the “Forbidden City”; his
imperial home, in his capital of Beijing. No one
could enter or leave the city without his
permission!
The Forbidden City

● 178 acres, 800 buildings, and stables for elephants!

● It took approximately 1,000,000 laborers to build.
● Yellow is the predominant color, as it was the color of royalty.
● Legend says that it has 9,999 rooms, but there are actually 8,707. The
Emperor slept in a different room each night to prevent assassination
attempts.
● Was the home of 24 Ming and Qing Emperors from 1420 – 1911.
Zheng He (1405-1433)
● Ming Emperor Yongle desired to send ships to
the west of China. Yongle appointed Zheng He,
a trusted official, to command these western
voyages.
● Zheng He led 7 great expeditions to India, the
Middle East, and even Eastern Africa.
How Does Zheng He Compare to Other
Explorers?
Navigator Number of Ships Number of Crew
Zheng He (1405-1433) 48-317 28,000

Columbus (1492) 3 90

Da Gama (1498) 4 160

Magellan (1521) 5 265

Why did the Ming stop overseas
exploration?
● In 1435 Zheng He died. The new Emperor, Yongle’s son, Emperor Hongle, banned
any further sea voyages.
● Why did Emperor Hongle ban any further voyages?
○ Being a believer of Confucius, he ranked merchants on the lowest scale of
society, arguing that they didn’t create anything or advance society forward.
○ As the voyages were not for trade, they cost China more money than they
brought in.
○ Chinese ethnocentrism caused them to look down upon Europeans as
barbarians.
■ This attitude eventually led to a policy of isolationism.
Decline of the Ming
● Population pressure led to peasant uprisings.
○ Many Chinese felt the Mings had lost the Mandate of Heaven.
○ In 1644, the Manchus invaded and conquered China.
The Qing
Dynasty
(1644-1912)
Qing translates as
“pure”. This was the
LAST Chinese
dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty: Manchu
● The Manchu were mostly nomads from
Manchuria in northeast China, although
some had turned to agriculture in southern
Manchuria.
● Nurhaci (reigned 1616- 1626) unified the
Manchu tribes into a unified state, imposed
a law code, and organized a strong military.
In the 1620s-1630s, the Manchu captured
Korea and Mongolia.
The Qing Dynasty: Manchu
● During the same time, many Chinese generals deserted the Ming due to
corruption. Confucian scholar-bureaucrats also worked against the Ming as
they despised the eunuchs who served the royal court. They respected the
Manchu more, who were schooled in the Chinese language and Confucian
philosophy.
● In 1644, Chinese rebels captured the Ming capital at Beijing. Manchu invaders
allied with the army loyal to the Ming, crushed the rebels, and recovered
Beijing. The Manchus portrayed themselves as avengers who saved the Ming
Dynasty, but instead, they simply replaced the Ming rule with their own!
The Qing Dynasty: Manchu
● The Manchu government:
○ Outlawed intermarriage between Chinese and Manchus, and forbade
Chinese from traveling to Manchuria and learning the Manchurian
language. Chinese men were forced to shave the front of their heads.
○ Day to day government fell to Confucian scholar-bureaucrats
appointed by the emperor. They had to pass rigorous civil service
exams. [The exams often lasted 3 full days with no interruptions. If
someone died during the exams, his body was wrapped in a straw mat
and tossed over the walls of the school!]
■ *The exams provided an avenue for social mobility and were open
to all males regardless of age or social class.
The Qing Dynasty: Manchu
● Emperor Kangxi (1661 – 1722)
○ Sponsored Confucian schools
○ Conquered the island of Taiwan
○ Imposed a protectorate over Tibet
● Emperor Qianlong (1736 – 1795)
○ made Vietnam, Burma, and Nepal
vassal states of the Qing
Christianity in China
● When Marco Polo went back to Europe, he
reported that there were a large number of
Christians in southern China, in Beijing (the capital
of the Yuan Empire), and in major trading cities that
he visited. The Pope sent a missionary to Beijing in
1294. The Mongols were tolerant of various
religions, and they allowed the Catholics to build
churches. However, the Chinese resented the
Mongols, and when they rebelled against the
Mongols, they also attacked Christians. During the
Ming Dynasty, most Christians were expelled.
Christianity in China
● Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, Catholics
came to China again. During the European
Counter-Reformation, Jesuits came as
missionaries to Asia under the authority of the
Pope. In 1582, a Jesuit named Ricci landed in
Macau. He then went to Beijing. He said that by
1605, there were a thousand converts. By 1615,
there were 10,000. Some of these converts were
members of the Ming court. The number of
Catholics increased during the Qing Dynasty
(1636–1911).
The Opium Wars
● In the years leading up to the Opium Wars, foreign trade was strictly controlled
by the Chinese using the “Canton System.”
○ The British ran a three-country trade system: British goods to India, Indian
cotton and British silver to China, and Chinese tea and other goods to
Britain.
○ The British felt this system was ‘unbalanced’ and sought to shift the
balance in their favour by selling a new product to China instead of cotton:
opium.
Opium
Production
in India
Opium
Smokers
in China
Opium Routes
 For centuries,
The Scourge of Opium opium had been
used in China
and Eurasia for
medicinal and
some
recreational
purposes, but
with the
purposeful flow
inwards to
China, addiction
became a
problem.
Production and Storage of Opium in India
for Trade with China
Opium Trade
● By 1790 the Chinese government realized
that the opium trade and addition was a
problem.
● In 1800, it banned both the production and
importation of opium.
● In 1813, the Chinese government outlawed
the smoking of opium and imposed a
punishment of beating offenders 100 times.
The British East India Company Fights Back
The British East India Company
licensed private British and
American traders to bring the
opium in via Chinese smugglers.
1810-1838: The Height of Trade
● Increase from 4,500 chests of opium per year to 40,000 chests of Opium per
year.
● Britain’s profit increased from two million ounces of silver flowing out of China
in exchange for opium in the early 1820s to about nine million ounces in the
early 1830s.
Addiction: Not Just How Many, but Who
“[In] 1838, Lin Tse-hsu was insisting that at least 1 per cent of China’s population
used [opium]. But these figures…were not as important as the appearance of
ubiquitous opium smoking. In urban centres or along the routes of trade and in
densely-populated river deltas, its existence could not be ignored. Since addiction
was costly, it went with leisure time and extra income. Therefore, it was usually
found among wealthy members of the gentry, officials of the central government
(some said one-fifth were addicts), yamen clerks (Lin Tse-hsu estimated a four-fifths
addiction rate) and soldiers….the court was terrified at the thought that the entire
government was rotten with addiction.”

John King Fairbank (ed.) The Cambridge History of Modern China, Vol. 10,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978, p. 174.
China’s Options
Focus on the Users
Argument
•Chinese government could
legalize and tax the use of opium.
•This would stem the flow of silver
out of China, discourage
non-addicts from trying the drug
(due to price).
Focus on the Pushers
Argument
•Without swift action there would
be no one working enough to pay
taxes.
•Focus on morality: opium as
“evil.”
•Focus on the pushers.
Lin Zexu’s Argument Wins the Day
● Strictly and efficiently enforced 1836 ban by arresting over 1,600 Chinese
dealers and destroying tens of thousands of pounds of opium.
● Demanded that foreign firms hand over their opium stores in exchange for tea,
halted trade, and seized the merchants’ supplies if they refused to comply.
Lin Zexu’s Argument Wins the Day
“By what right do they then in return use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese
people? Even though the barbarians may not necessarily intend to do us harm, yet in
coveting profit to an extreme, they have no regard for injuring others. Let us ask,
where is your conscience? I have heard that the smoking of opium is very strictly
forbidden by your country; that is because the harm caused by opium is clearly
understood. Since it is not permitted to do harm to your own country, then even less
should you let it be passed on to the harm of other countries -- how much less to
China!”

Excerpt taken from Lin Zexu’s letter to Queen Victoria in 1839.

Lin Zexu’s Accomplishments
● Foreign merchants handed over more than 20,000 chests
(2.6 million pounds) of opium in 6 weeks.
● Seized and destroyed the opium on British ships around China.
● Pressured the Portuguese to move the British out of Macau into Hong Kong.

These accomplishments in Lin Zexu’s fight against opium came with costs. These
events would lay the groundwork for the British declaration of war in November
1839.
The Opium Wars
● In 1839--still with no declaration of war having emanated from either side--a
dramatic military confrontation in Canton.
○ Two British frigates took on 29 Chinese vessels that were blockading the
harbor.
○ The British ships were steam driven and used both engines and sails to
maneuver. They were also made of iron and had superior weaponry on
board.
○ 15 Chinese sailors were killed, whereas only one British soldier was
wounded.
● Most battles took place at sea.
The Treaty of Nanjing, 1842
The Chinese and British sign the Treaty of Nanjing, ending the conflict.
● China pays a huge indemnity of 20 million silver dollars: 12 million for Britain’s
war costs, 3 million to compensate English merchants for their debts, and 5
million as compensation for opium that Lin Zesu destroyed.
● Five new Chinese treaty ports (Guangzhou, Shanghai, Xiamen/Amoy, Ningbo,
and Fuzhou) where British merchants and their families could reside there.
○ These treaties are called unequal treaties.
● Extraterritoriality for British citizens residing in these treaty ports, meaning
that they were subject to British, not Chinese, laws.
● “Most favored nation” clause that any rights gained by other foreign countries
would automatically apply to Great Britain as well.
● Led to increased Christian missionary work and legalization of the opium trade.
The Treaty of Nanjing, 1842
The First Sino-Japanese War
● In 1894, Japan went to war with China and
defeated China. Japan annexed Korea and
created its own sphere of influence in China.
● Sphere of Influence:
○ a country or area in which another
country has power to affect
developments although it has no formal
authority
Spheres of Influence
● By 1899, Americans feared they might be
prevented from trading with China. The
Americans proposed that all nations
should have equal trading rights in China.
● America’s “Open Door” Policy discouraged
European powers from further dividing up
China and helped keep China “open” to
trade.
○ This policy was accepted in exchange
that China would not be colonized.
Responses to Imperialism
● The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) and the Boxer Rebellion (1900)
○ These were among the most violent efforts on the part of Chinese “secret
societies” which tried to drive out the Westerners and overthrow the
Manchus.
○ Both rebellions were put down by Western troops.
The Boxer Rebellion
● Began in late June of 1900 in northern China
where violence erupted toward European
investors that built railroads, mines, and had
taken over large cities in China.
● Chinese nationalist uprising against
foreigners, the representatives of alien
powers, and Chinese Christians. Expulsion of
all foreigners from China was the ultimate
objective of the uprising.
The Boxers
● In 1899 the Boxers, also referred to as
the Society of the Righteous and
Harmonious Fists, a secret society of
Chinese, began a campaign of terror
against Christian missionaries in the
northeastern provinces.
● Although the Boxers were officially
denounced, they were secretly supported
by many of the royal court, including the
dowager empress Cixi (Tz'u Hsi).
Boxers/The Harmonious Fists
The Boxer Rebellion
● On June 21, 1900, after the
Empress declared war on all
foreign powers, the Boxers
began a two-month assault on
the legations in Beijing.
● An international force of
Japanese, Russian, German,
American, British, Italian and
Austro-Hungarian troops put
down the uprising by August 14.
○ This spelled the end of the
Qing Dynasty.
The Last Emperor of China
● Child Emperor Pu Yi (1908-1911)
○ Was replaced by a Republic in 1911 under
the leadership of Sun Yat-sen

Sun Yat-sen
● Founded the Republic of China based on the
“Three Principles of the People”
○ Nationalism
○ Liberalism
○ People's’ Livelihoods