Society And Culture Of China Under The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Emperor K’ang-hsi was one of the greatest Chinese emperors of all time. Ruling from 1662 to 1722 he was also one of the longest ruling emperors in Chinese history and for that matter the world. K’ang-hsi brought China to long-term stability and relative wealth after years of war and chaos. Jonathan Spence writes from the eyes of K’ang-hsi getting his information from K’ang-hsi’s own writings. Though a little biased towards himself this book still provides important insight into his mind. Emperor of China is divided into six parts; In Motion, Ruling, Thinking, Growing Old, Sons, and Valedictory.

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’.

The Next piece is an image form Guo Xi who was a master from the Northern

Qin Shi Huang was born in 259 BC and eventually ascended to the throne of the kingdom of Qin at the age of 21 creating a war and declaring himself China’s first emperor (Source 1). Although he did bring unification to China, Qin Shi Huang was a forbidding and brutal dictator who abused his power and dishonoured his people and country. This assignment will clearly highlight the negative aspects of Qin Shi Huang, including: the banning of Confucius, how he enforced of unnecessarily strict laws and how his arrogance and ignorance eventually took over.

Despite being the shortest ruling dynasty at fifteen years, the Qin dynasty served a vital role in the development of China’s civilization (51). The Qin dynasty was prefaced by a period of instability caused by an ineffective political system and war between several regions all vying to overtake the others. After the Qin kingdom rose as the victor, King Cheng established for himself the title of Shi huangdi, or emperor, and looked to create a political system that would prevent the empire from fragmenting again. To achieve such a centralized government, Shi Huangdi sacrificed his people’s intellectual freedom and lives and produced a connected and standardized China, whose efficiency and strength still impacts the vision

The Qianlong Emperor is one of the most notable emperors in Chinese history due to the complexity of his reign. Qianlong was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty from 1735 to 1796. This is one of the longest in Chinese History. The first 40 years were some of his greatest achievements, however the last 20 years were met with fraud, corruption, and a declining popularity. In this essay, I will argue that despite having a major blemish to his reign, the Qianlong Emperor was a successful emperor. I am defining and measuring successfulness based on 1) the ability to grow the empire 2) whether or not they have good intentions for empire and 3) control and security over the empire. The Qianlong Emperor’s greatest successes shine through his militaristic campaigns, foreign relations, and his protection and his advocating for art. However, it is also stained by corruption and bad management.

There was many dynasties and empires to come about between 200 BCE and 600 CE. One specific dynasty was the Han dynasty. This dynasty was involved in the unification of China. This dynasty was formed by Lia Bang and lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE, with an interruption phase from 9 CE to 23 CE.The Han dynasty was between decentralized and centralized. Han Wudi was the greatest emperor of this dynasty, who pursued centralization and expansion. There was constant attacks from Xiongnu nomads of C. Asia; however, Han Wudi briefly came to control Xiongnu. Wang Mang, the regent for a two year old emperor, took power himself. He tried to redistribute land, but the wealthier people that did not want to get some of their land taken away assassinated him. In the later Han dynasty, emperors manage with struggles to control resentment. Another succession to come about was the Roman empire. The Roman empire started out as a republic, but soon Julius Caesar Seized Rome in 49 B.C.E. Julius Caesar centralized control but was eventually assassinated in 44 B.C.E. After Julius came Octavian, who ran a monarchy that was disguised as a republic. Octavian continued expansion and integration of the empire. There was an extreme amount of poor people; in fact, one third of the population was in slavery. One of the only things that was attempted was giving them bread and circuses to distract them. There was no policy developed for them. The Roman empire went through many rulers. Although these

The Roman Empire and Han Dynasty in China are two kingdoms that, despite the geographical difference between them, managed to achieve great success and failure in equal measure. Both were characterized by imperial dynasties that were headed by the emperors and they held large territories. Both of these kingdoms faced various challenges after their formation that became a major stabling block, but due to good leadership, they both managed to overcome and achieve success. Nevertheless, due to different reasons, both the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty declined and fell. This paper

d. Contact with the West increased in the 17th century, but in the early 18th century, the Qing rulers restricted trade to land outside the walls of . The 1793 British mission to expand trade did not succeed, and the emperor Qianlong explained in a letter to George III that China British manufactured goods.

Qin Shi Huangdi, the first Qin emperor, was a proactive and ambitious emperor who implemented a central bureaucratic system that oversaw the evolution and unification of China at the cost of public sentiment. The Qin Dynasty is considered among the most influential dynasties as it laid the foundation for the massive cultural and economic development of China that took place during the Han Dynasty, but it also failed to achieve many of its pro-commoner ideological goals. In fact, socioeconomic disparity was not alleviated and despite the notion of enriching the lives of the common people, it was under Qin rule in which public resentment of the authoritarian government peaked as there were countless peasant revolts against the iron-handed bureaucratic rule of China. Because a paranoid emperor alone wielded political clout and influence, the tumultuous few years of Qin reign was rife with paranoia and suspicion among the masses. Although the Qin Dynasty is seldom thought as possessing the same glaring discrepancy between ideology and state that the Communist regime in post-World War II China had despite the similarities, the failure of the flawless egalitarian state models in socioeconomic and political aspects during the Qin Dynasty mirrored the developments in early Communist China.

The family structure of the Ming and Qing dynasty revolved entirely around the concept of Filial Piety. Filial Piety, had a focal point aimed at the relationship between the father and the duties of his children to him. The father was the leader of the house who in turn passed this position to his eldest son. Furthermore, it was the sole responsibility of the children to take care of his or her parents as they grew old in age. Over time these family lines grew and became known as clans. Not only did the clans take care of one another, the also had many members from various ranks within the hierarchy of society. When a member of the clan climbed the ranks in society, it brought great promise and or wealth to the entire clan. However, women

New agricultural techniques, porcelain, metallurgy, printing, and naval technology were few of the technological elements that reinforced the established features of social order. New agricultural techniques helped in the expand of their agricultural potential, the dynasties gained reputation from porcelain technology which moderately diffused to other societies producing porcelain in large quantities, metallurgical techniques as well diffused to lands beyond China, printing produced texts quickly and popular works appeared in huge quantities, and naval technology included of the magnetic compass which soon became common for mariners to use. Population growth, patriarchal social structures, and gunpowder were technological elements reinforcing established features of political order. Population growth reflected the capacity of economy and distribution of food, patriarchal social structures included of concern to preserve family fortunes and foot binding, and gunpowder was an element used for military effectiveness. These aspects provided a fundamental change in traditions because they changed their whole concepts of how to use goods as in previous Chinese eras.

Even though the Qin Dynasty deprived the civilization of education, it created a strong bureaucratic system that limited feudal power and developed a cooperative population. Each Warring state followed a different political system, before it was conquered by Qin. The First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, felt it was necessary to legitimize his power to unify the city states and for a cooperative population. In the Qin Dynasty, “the institution of emperor had a special meaning in China as the repository of imperial legitimacy” (Feng 2013, 249). In other words, the first emperor was given the title of being a “mythical ruler” that had godly powers and is the righteous leader of the empire based on the Mandate of Heaven

Rhoads Murphey describes the history of China history is on the succession of dynasties that ruled it over a period of time until around 1912 when Republic of china was formed before rising to the current People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949. In China, a dynasty was made up of Kings or emperors that came from the same family. They ruled in succession where a king could be inherited by his son or his immediate relatives. Although china’s history is majorly regarded on the basis of dynastic ruling, other small kingdoms were established that ruled different part of china. For example, in 200AD, the fall of great Han dynasty triggered formation of smaller kingdoms all over the china which were later united by a short lived Sui Dynasty that reigned between 580 and 618 AD.

The purpose of this paper is to tell the history of the Ming Dynasty’s impact on the Chinese Empire, and to explain why the Chinese Empire was in fact an empire.