III The Qing Dynasty in Trouble

1
III The Qing Dynasty in Trouble

• The process of internal weakening 1800-1911
• Taiping Rebellion
• Further defeats to foreign powers and looming
  partition
• Rising nationalism and the Boxer Rebellion

2
Early Signs of Trouble

• Early signs of decay already in late 19th century
• Death of Qianlong and the Heshen scandal with
  widespread corruption in 1799
• The rebellion of the White Lotus sect
• Put down in 1804
• High cost to the dynasty
• Still new emperors hard working and trouble spots
  remained local

3
Early Signs of Trouble

• Mounting fiscal pressures
• Already by the end of Qianlongs reign in 1796,
  almost all of the countrys treasury was used up
• Problem of corruption, gentry evading (or getting
  exempted from) taxes, imperial building projects,
  military expeditions and rebellions
• British invasion humiliated the Qing, but did not
  affect state revenue or politics otherwise
• Civil unrest grew notably after 1840

4
Early Signs of Trouble

• Why rebellions?
• Rebellions part of normal dynastic cycle
• Regarded as the sign of dynastic decay
• No single reason for the wave of unrest
• No particular general economic hardship (local
  situations more important)
• Economic hardship increased by inflation caused
  by government minting money and the outflow of
  silver, but not enough by itself
• Not caused by dislocation brought by colonialism
  or pre-revolutionary resistance to landlords as
  suggested by communist history writing

5
Early Signs of Trouble

• Usually related to natural disasters in a region
  forcing peasants to desperate acts
• Government failure present in uprisings
• Insufficient aid in disasters
• Corruption and foreign nature of government
  compounded to this
• Government suppression of heretic sects could
  trigger violence
• Rebellion as a feedback system in an autocratic
  system

6
Early Signs of Trouble

• Ethnic dimension also important
• Han minorities conflict caused by
  overpopulation and internal immigration
• Loss to the English barbarians meant loss of face
  to Manchu-Qing
• All these reasons present in rebellions such as
• White Lotus Rebellion 1796 1806 in Yangtze
  (Chang Jiang) Valley and its follow-ups
  throughout early 19th century
• Secret society and minority unrest especially in
  the south and Muslim areas
• The Nian in Shandong and Jiangsu region, etc.

7
Taiping Rebellion

• The greatest challenge to the Qing came from the
  Taiping rebellion (1850 to 1864)
• The greatest of many rebellions and unrest of the
  time (1843 1911)
• Other rebellions also underway simultaneously
• Displayed all the characteristics outlined above

8
Taiping Rebellion

• Led by Hong Xiuquan
• A xiucai thrice failed provincial degree in
  Guangdong
• From the Hakka minority
• Developed a quasi-Christian sect the Heaven
  worshippers (Taiping)
• Saw himself as the adopted little brother of
  Jesus Christ
• Claimed the heavenly mandate to expel devils i.e.
  the Manchu from China

9
Picture 4) Hong Xiuquan (Wikipedia)
10
Taiping Rebellion

• The Taipings
• The Hakka minority in the Guangxi province
  provided an ethnic base for the movement, later
  spread to Han communities
• Evangelic movement for the underdog puritanical,
  ecstatic and communal character typical to many
  folk religions of the era

11
Taiping Rebellion

• Not violent against authorities in the beginning,
  but local banditry and ethnic strife against
  Hakkas led many of them to seek refuge with the
  Taipings
• After the authorities tried to suppress the group
  that had grown alarmingly the Taipings turned to
  revolt
• Armed revolt had been planned

12
Taiping Rebellion

• In 1851 Taiping Tianguo Heavenly Kindom of
  Transcendent Peace was proclaimed
• Victorious in the beginning capture of Nanjing
  1853, threatening Shanghai and Beijing
• Theocracy
• Hong Xiuquan as its leader,
• Derived its institutions from the Rites of Zhou
  (a classical book describing supposed ideal
  institutions of the Zhou dynasty (1045-221
  B.C))

13
Taiping Rebellion

• The Bible replaced Confucian classics for the
  civil examinations
• Women admitted into examinations
• Hong Xiuquan rewrote the Bible when his relation
  to the Christ was not clear in the old version
• Private property ownership abolished
• All land was held and distributed by the state
• A solar calendar replaced the lunar calendar

14
Taiping Rebellion

• The society was declared classless and the sexes
  equal
• Foot binding banned
• Opium, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, polygamy
  (including concubines), slavery, and prostitution
  prohibited
• In practise many rules not implemented, and the
  leadership disregarded most moral rules imposed
  to the rank and file
• Later part more modernist reformist

15
Taiping Rebellion

• In the mid 1850s Taipings controlled the
  economically most productive central-eastern
  parts of China
• Taiping government internally fractured, with
  violent purges and a mentally ill leader -gt no
  effective central government at times
• Sought alliance with the foreign power, but
  failed
• Foreign powers initially neutral to positive
  about a Christian / nationalist rebellion

16
Map 1) Areas of rebellions in mid 1850s
(Fairbank and Goldman China a New History 2005,
215)
17
Taiping Rebellion

• Taiping threat to Shanghai and closure of Yangtze
  River made Powers hostile to their cause
• Foreign mercenary forces fought for Qing (US
  General Ward, UK Captain Charles Gordon)
• After a row of military defeats, Hong Xiuquan
  died in July 1864, Nanjing fell a month later

18
Taiping Rebellion

• The rebellion and Taiping ideology / religion
  ended with its leaders
• What was it all about?
• Seen as proto-socialist in communist history
  writing
• Hardly so in reality
• Traditionalist rebellion influenced by Chinese
  great and little traditions and Christianity

19
Taiping Rebellion

• The rebellion was the biggest war of the 19th
  century World
• The American Civil War at the same time caused
  only some 5 of casualties compared to Taiping
  Rebellion
• Significance of the rebellion
• Weakened the Qing capacity to rule
• Fiscal and structural weakening

20
Taiping Rebellion

• Foreign victories in the second and third Opium
  Wars (1858-1860) were made easier for the French
  and British due to rebellion
• Physical destruction and economic dislocation
• About 20 million direct casualties
• Natural disasters together with the political
  insurrections may have cost as many as 200
  million Chinese lives between 1850 and 1865

21
Taiping Rebellion

• The most important political development was the
  rise of local strongmen with armed units
• Reform-minded Confucian scholars taking
  initiative when central power failed
• Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang also two main
  proponents of reform thinking
• Led the self-strengthening movement (more on
  lecture IV)

22
High Tide of Imperialism

• The new provincial leadership at first capable
  and loyal
• Only later the new power configuration revealed
  its weaknesses
• The 1865 1894 the golden opportunity to reform
  and revival
• The Qing did revive, but only partial success

23
High Tide of Imperialism

• Gradually worsening international situation
• Western Imperialism shifted to a higher gear
  after about 1870
• New powers (Germany, the US, and Italy) appeared
  to the scene also in East Asia
• Partition of Africa after Berlin Conference
  1884-1885 ominous to the Qing

24
High Tide of Imperialism

• Most important was the rise of Japan
• Forced opening to the Western powers and Meiji
  Restoration in 1867
• Japan set to rapid modernisation
• Learned fast also the imperialist manners of the
  Western world-order
• China and Korea natural direction of expansion
• First conflict with Qing already in 1873 over
  Taiwan
• Qing ceded Liuqiu (Ryukyu) island to Japan

25
High Tide of Imperialism

• War with France 1883-1884
• Qing lost tributary control over Vietnam
• Now Japan and the issue of Korea became most
  crucial
• Tributary state of the Qing
• The Hermit Kingdom resisted Western attempts to
  open it
• In 1875 Japan tried to make Korea independent of
  Qing

26
High Tide of Imperialism

• Qing instructed Korea to open its borders to the
  West and bring them in through unequal treaties
  to balance against the Japanese threat
• Playing the barbarian against the barbarian
• Korea opened, but Qing had to cede condominium to
  Japan over Korea

27
High Tide of Imperialism

• In 1894 Tonhak rebellion in Korea against
  foreigners
• Both Qing and Japan send troops
• Led to a war where Japanese defeated Qing
  decisively
• In the initial peace treaty Japan gained control
  over Korea, Taiwan, Fujian, Shandong, Jiangsu and
  Manchuria
• Western powers intervened diplomatically and
  Japan lost all but Korea and Taiwan in the Treaty
  of Shimonoseki in 1895

28
High Tide of Imperialism

• Korea annexed formally as part of Japanese empire
  in 1910
• The defeat led to a scramble over concessions in
  China
• All Western powers demanded colonies and spheres
  of influence from Qing that could not resist
• Manchurian railroad to Russia
• Qingdao and Shandong to Germany

29
High Tide of Imperialism

• Weihaiwei and Kowloon to the UK
• Guangzhou Bay to France
• However, political will to divide China up
  completely lacked (except in Japan and Russia)
• Ruling China directly difficult and costly
• The risk of Great Power conflict over the
  division
• 1901 UK-GER agreement not to partition China
• USA declaration of open doors in China
• To continue free trade in case China was divided
• Earned USA a less imperialist name, but she was
  preoccupied with the Philippines at the same time

30
Picture 2) A cartoon on the partition of Qing in
the late 19th century
31
Map 2) Foreign spheres of influence in the end of
19th century (Suuri Maailmanhistoria 12)
32
High Tide of Imperialism

• Led to the aborted 100 Days reforms in 1898
• As seriously, the Qing had lost its face once
  more
• Reformist and nationalist revolutionary movements
  gained following (see lecture IV)
• Also the Boxer uprising a response to the
  humiliations

33
The Boxer Uprising

• The Boxers
• Began in Shandong province
• Local resentment against missionaries and Chinese
  Christians privileges
• German heavy-handed colonial administration
• A movement to avenge foreign and convert
  Christian transgressions

34
The Boxer Uprising

• Refugee problem in Northern Shandong
• Yellow river flooding 1899, drought in the winter
  of 1900
• Weak presence of military due to War with Japan
  and the fiscal crisis it had caused
• Local disbanded soldiers and militias key groups
  in the rebellion
• Clashes between Christians and non-Christians
  with German involvement

35
The Boxer Uprising

• Even in peace time, friction between the Qing and
  Western powers constant
• Christian missionaries a recurrent cause of
  troubles
• Xenophobia, both Chinese and Western compounded
  to the problem
• Gunboat diplomacy
• Reported incidents in hundreds each year

36
The Boxer Uprising

• Dispute over Liyuan Village Temple
• Christians took over and build a church in Liyuan
  temple site by the consent of the Qing government
• The losing side of the dispute called themselves
  ???, Yihetuan or Boxers United for Justice
• Name lived on and was taken up by a local sect
  that specialised in martial arts (boxing)
• Claimed to posses a ritual that made its
  followers invulnerable

37
The Boxer Uprising

• The name framed the movement as ??, a uprising
  for justice
• Many local young men joined the sect
• Officials either indifferent or supportive of the
  movement
• Sect began to attack Christian converts,
  foreigners and everything foreign
• Also anti-Manchu at the beginning, but this
  changed when the Qing endorsed the rebellion as
  anti-foreign

38
The Boxer Uprising

• The Qing court divided over the handling the
  rebellion
• First tried to suppress it, then condoned
• Factional split in the court, conservatives won
• Attempt to turn rebellion into popular uprising
  against the foreign powers
• At the high of the uprising the Qing declared war
  on all foreign powers in 1900

39
Picture x) A scene of the 8 nation forces in
action against the Boxers (Wikipedia)
40
The Boxer Uprising

• 8 power expedition to Beijing in late 1900
• Southern provinces declined to join the war
• Japan deployed most of the troops
• Beijing taken, the Court fled to Xian
• Peace in 1901 (the Boxer Protocol)
• Heavy indemnity
• Many conservatives purged and executed in the
  court
• Opened a road to Qing constitutional and other
  reforms, but also loss of face once more

41
Conclusion

• The later part of the 19th century was a series
  of defeats and humiliation for the Qing
• Set the stage for increasing demands for domestic
  reform
• Two lines reformist and revolutionary
• Combined with the rise of anti-Manchu nationalism
• Closer in the lecture IV

42
Exercise III

• What kind of reasons do you find in texts for
  rebellion in the late 19th century China? (Both
  social causes and aims of the rebels)
• How do the imperialists justify their actions in
  the texts?