Manchu's: The Last Imperial China

to a superior but as a “letter” to an equal, the letter was in Chinese

After being selected as the Last Emperor of China by the ill Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi, Henry Pu yi at his childhood lived a lavish life not knowing of what obligations will face him in growing up. At the age of 6 in the year of 1912, China converts to republic and the Ching Dynasty was forced to abdicate.

At this point in history, the Chinese only wanted fellow Chinese to be ruler of their country. In result of the Manchus not being Chinese, rebellions took place habitually for decades. Nonetheless, this was soon to change. Kangxi was the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty,

Ineffective leadership and very luxurious living of the emperors and government officials also led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. Officials were left in charge of the administration of the dynasty because the two emperors of the time, Tongzhi and Guangxu were still children, and this lack of imperial control gave Cixi the ability to ‘rule from behind the curtain’.

Manchus were the one that took control of China after the Yuan (which was the Mongols) and established themselves as the Qing Dynasty. It is also this dynasty that the modern Chinese started. Around the 18th century, the Qing was at its height. However, by the start of the 19th century until the early 20th century, the Qing Dynasty started going downhill with domestic political and foreign policy problems. Within the nation, there were continuation and changes to the traditional Confucian system; Furthermore, there were rebellions due to foreign competitions that lead to the end of the Qing Dynasty.

The Qing dynasty (1916-1912) is the last imperial dynasty of China, it was consider as the most powerful country during the “golden age” ruled by Kang Xi and Qian Long, and it has over 400 million population and has the 1st ranked GDP in the world at the moment. The Qing has the supreme power at the time and has the significant influence in East Asian. However, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty made a humiliate history of China. The Qing dynasty doesn't fall suddenly, and the collapse of Qing is not just simply because domestic revolution and alien invasion. The failure of the Qing government is worthy to study, we need to take a deep step and explore the root cause of the collapse of Qing.

The Han dynasty was a golden era for China. It saw the greatest land confiscation of the nation’s history and economic success. In this paper I will be focusing on the structure of the national government, the monopolizing of iron and salt, the Yumen Pass and the Yellow Turban rebellion. Join me as we take a trip back in time to visit a time in Chinas history that is highly revered.

Many people argued that Empress Dowager Cixi accelerated the speed of the demise of the Qing dynasty. Cixi might be a blasting fuse but she was not accounted for the final fall of the dynasty. The actions Cixi took had profoundly changed the foundation of feudal China so as to push China forward into a modern stage. Although many historical data suggested that whatever Cixi had done were to consolidate her authority and personal status. But no matter what, the impact on the country was obvious. Cixi broke the previous traditions from Confucianism that had been lasted for centuries. Tensions between the Manchus and Han Chinese had been greatly improved, which made a great contribution to China for later unification. Under the reign of the Empress Dowager, the social structure had undergone a series of changes. Qing 's demise is doomed, this was resulted from issues that had stacked up from previous generations. Moreover, Cixi did her best to secure China’s status in the world in such a chaotic period in history. She made undeniable contributions to China.

The Ming Dynasty ruled China from 1368 until the dynasty commenced deterioration. By the beginning of the 1600s, the Ming began to lose power due to “threats from Barbarians on all sides, political in-fighting,” rebellions, and poor loyalty in the military (Ryder). Likewise, the spread of violence in China contributed to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty (Zarrow). In the year 1644, the Chinese rebels overthrew the dynasty (Williams). At this time, the Ming emperor committed suicide as the rebel armies invaded Beijing (Zarrow). After the rebels overthrew the Ming, the Manchu people stepped in to try and gain power.

The establishment of the Qing dynasty by the Manchu in 1644 brought another foreign dynastic ruler to China since the creation of the Yuan dynasty, which was ruled by the Mongols. The Manchu brought many of their culture and tradition and imposed them on China such as Manchurian style gown for officials, but none of these changes were as significant as the queue. The queue is a hairstyle that consists of a braided pig tail with the front part of the head shaven. During the Qing dynasty, the Manchu imposed the Queue Order on all Han subjects and as a result the queue became a symbol of submission. The purpose of this research is to understand the significance of the queue and why the Manchu rulers wanted to force this hairstyle on the Han people

The Qing Dynasty also known as Manchu Dynasty, occurred for nearly two thousand years, commencing in 1644 and ending in 1911. It was the last of the dynasties in China and collapsed after many revolutions and significant rulers, one including Empress Dowager Cixi. In fact, Empress Dowager Cixi, was one of the most significant figures in China’s history because of her ruthless power, influence and intelligence.

The Abdication of the Manchus was presented to the people in a letter written by the Dowager Empress Longyu on February 24, 1912. In the letter, it is stated that the Emperor wishes to follow the people’s desire and the will of heaven that the people should have a republican form of government. The Emperor “expresses” his feelings that all points of the country should be united. Furthermore, the Emperor and his family’s honor and glory dims in comparison as to the desire of the people (Proclamation).

Mark Selden’s, The Yenan Way in Revolutionary China, explains that Yenan (which was the endpoint of the Long March, and became the center of the Communist revolution form 1936 to 1948) was the stronghold of Communism and Mao’s rise to power. Selden looks at how Mao and the CCP developed policies that brought support from the peasantry. Selden points out that Yenan was isolated from most of the civil war, hence it was a perfect place for CCP to place its HQ and to practice its reforms without any interference. Yenan was so remote, that there was no Japanese incursions even after 1937. The peasantry was not highly politicized prior to the CCP arriving there, but famine, corruption, severe drought had led to general unrest.

Many scholars have noticed the sinicization of the Manchus; however, besides hairstyle and the way of dressing, cultural influence of the Manchus on Han ethnic group have not attracted enough attention. Head flattening is a custom originated from Manchuria and Korean peninsula, and it was recorded several times by official historian to inform the readers about its peculiarity. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, head shape became one of the body features for the soldiers to single out the Manchus from other groups of people during the Taiping Rebellion and the Uprising of Wuchang. A decade after the 1911 Revolution, some residents in Beijing also noticed the soldiers from the Northeast had a skull shape different from theirs. These cases suggest

The 1911 Revolution kicked out the Qing Dynasty and broke the barriers to different developments in China. However, the 1911 Revolution has only provided a framework of a republic and made changes in some particular aspects related to immediate problems and difficulties in society. Hence, the relationship between the revolution and the subsequent development of China was very weak. On one hand, I do not agree with the latter part of the statement that the 1911 Revolution brought new problems to China. The conflicts and problems that China suffered in the early/ mid 1910s were mainly due to the weakness of the military force, conflicting political organizations and disorder in society. On the other hand, I agree with the first part of the