Imperial China

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Imperial China

• 221 B.C. 1911 A.D.

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China before Qin Dynasty

• The Yellow Emperor
• Xia and Shang Dynasties
• 2070 B.C. - 1046 B.C.
• Zhou Dynasty
• 1046 B.C. - 256 B.C.
• Spring and Autumn period
• 770 B.C. - 476 B.C.

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Confucius

• born in 551 B.C.
• died in 479 B.C.

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In China Today
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Confucianism

• Concerned primarily with restoring social
  stability and order
• a system of social and ethical philosophy
• li
• rituals, norms, institutions, or mores
• ren
• humaneness, kindness, benevolence, or virtue

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Five Relationships

• father-child
• ruler-subject
• husband-wife
• elder brother-younger brother
• friend-friend

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Qin Dynasty

• 221 B.C. - 206 B.C.
• Qin Shi Huangdi
• unified China
• built a centralized bureaucratic apparatus
• prefectures and counties
• persecuted Confucianism
• Han Dynasty (206 B.C. 220 A.D.) promoted
  Confucianism as state ideology

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Civil Service Exam System

• 605 A.D. to 1905 A.D.
• composition based on Confucian classics

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Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644)
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Chinas Tributary System

• Traditional system for managing foreign relations
• The Middle Kingdom worldview
• Ming dynasty had the most extensive tributary
  system
• tributes from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast
  Asia, and even West Asia and Africa

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Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1912)

• Ming dynasty fell in 1644 amid peasant uprisings
  and Manchu invasion
• Manchu and Han Chinese

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Ming and Qing Emperors
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Mandate of Heaven
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Western invasions (1839-1900)

• Opium War (1839 - 1842)
• The Second Opium War (1856 - 1860)
• Russias territorial gains
• Northeast China (1858 - 1860)
• Northwest China (1881 - 1884)
• Sino-French War (1883 - 1885)
• Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 95)
• 8-nation forces (1900)

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The Treaty System

• large amount of indemnity
• dozens of treaty ports open to foreign
• trade
• gunboats
• missionaries
• territorial losses
• tariffs

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Weakness fully exposed

• Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - 1895
• Chinese navy destroyed
• Taiwan ceded to Japan
• large indemnity
• most-favored-nation
• more treaty ports
• Korea
• start of Japanese empire

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The scramble for concessions
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The scramble for answers

• radicalization of domestic politics
• the Hundred Days of Reform in 1898
• ambitious reform program
• examination system
• bureaucracy
• modernization
• suppressed by conservatives in Qing court
• reformist leaders fled to Japan

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The Boxer Uprising in 1900

• Peasants in Northern China
• support from high officials of Qing court
• destruction of anything foreign
• siege of the legation quarter in Beijing

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8-nation forces invaded Beijing

• Harsh settlement
• station troops in Beijing
• huge indemnity
• Russian troops in Manchuria
• until 1905

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Imperialism in China
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Radicalization of politics
status quo
modern monarchy
Qing court
Reformers
Peasants
Revolutionaries
republic
pre-1841 China
Marxism?
nationalism?
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Legacies of Imperial Era

• enormous size
• ideological and moral commitment
• strong personal leadership at the apex
• nationwide governing bureaucracies
• merit-based civil service exam system
• combination of executive and judicial power
• low status of merchants
• culturalism (civilization) v. nationalism