MEAS 1009 RISING CHINA I

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MEAS 1009 RISING CHINA I

• Responsible teacher Senior Research Fellow Lauri
  Paltemaa (laupalt_at_utu.fi)
• Lectures Wed 16-18, PUB 2
• Tutorials CEAS Class Room, Tue, Group I 12-13,
  Group II 13-14, Group III 14-15
• Taken as lectures, exercises based on the reader
  and other material (course folder in the CEAS
  office)
• Http//aasia.utu.fi/en/studying

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RISING CHINA I

• Objectives of the course The course introduces
  students to modern history of China, i.e. from
  the Opium War to the present. The central theme
  in the course is how China lost and is now
  regaining its leading international status
  through an arduous process of reforms and
  revolutions.

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The Ancient Glory of the Middle Kingdom

• The Great Qing before 1840s
• What kind of a society and state was the Chinese
  empire before Western intrusion?
• Views have changed overtime and are still changing

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European Views on China

• For the Europeans before the Napoleonic Wars
  China was a source of admiration and inspiration
• Enlightenment thinkers (such as Voltaire,
  Leibniz, Adam Smith and Benjamin Franklin)
  generally favourable for China
• The emperor seen as the ideal enlightened
  philosopher-ruler, prosperity and order instead
  of European class society and feudal privileges
• Exception Montesquieu
• Chinoiserie en vogue in the mid 18th century

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Picture 1) Chinoiserie in Potsdam (a Chinese
villa)
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European Views on China

• After the overthrow of the French Ancient Regime,
  new democratic ideals and industrial society in
  making made China appear anachronistic and
  backward
• Generational change in perceptions in the early
  19th century

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European Views on China

• European thinkers lost interest in China as a
  model and began to construct it as a backward
  other
• The later part of the 19th century with rising
  nationalism, imperialist rivalry, social
  Darwinism
• However, it was Europe that had changed, not China

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European Views on China

• The study of Chinese modern history (from Opium
  War 1840 to the present) relates to such
  questions as
• Was imperialism justified, did China deserve to
  become its subject?
• What did Western colonialism mean to China
  advancing vs. hindering social progress
• The question of modernity (is there only one way
  / model to become modernized)

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European Views on China

• Now that China is again regaining its previous
  international position, this history plays an
  important part in national myths and narratives
  of its rightful rise and relation to the West
• Changing China may force us to change ways of
  thinking our own modern histories

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The Great Qing Empire

• To begin with, China (or the Great Qing Empire,
  ???) before the 19th century was the most
  prosperous, biggest and advanced economy on the
  planet
• Managed through (by the standards of the time)
  rational and sophisticated bureaucracy with
  codified state ideology

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The Great Qing Empire

• The traditional state
• Qing-dynasty
• Ruled by the Manchus from the north,
• Alien rulers ruling through and over Han-Chinese
  bureaucracy
• Came to power in 1644 (although it took until
  1683 to root out direct resistance and never
  accomplished full legitimacy)

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The Great Qing Empire

• Had co-opted the Ming bureaucracy and kept it
  largely intact upon conquest
• Dual rule of Manchus watching over predominantly
  Han administration
• Banner troops garrisons in the most important
  cities, otherwise Han troops
• Two major Emperors in the peak of Qing rule Kang
  Xi (1662-1723) and Qian Long (1736-1796) (
  Kang-Qian Golden Age)

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Picture 2) Kang Xi (1662-1723) and Qian Long
(1736-1796) emperors (Wikipedia)
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The Great Qing Empire

• Kang Xi Stabilised and consolidated Manchu
  administration through the defeat of rebellions
  (most important the Revolt of the Three
  Feudatories 1674-1681)
• Defeat of Tibetians, Dzungars, Russians, and Ming
  Loyalists
• Establishing rules of succession
• Expanded Qing empire

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The Great Qing Empire

• Qianlong continued the trend
• Defeat of Xinjiang Muslims
• Making Tibet a Qing protectorate
• At the height of its power the Qing Dynasty ruled
  over 13 million square kilometres of territory
• To this were added the vassal nations Korea,
  Burma, Vietnam, Japan (in theory if not in
  practise)
• China was the metropolitan centre for East Asian
  cultural, political and economic life

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Map 1) Qing Empire at around 1800 (Wikipedia)
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Ruling China

• Political System bureaucratic despotism
• The most important administrative body of the
  Qing dynasty was the Emperor
• Presided over six ministries (or boards), each
  headed by two presidents
• Trung Council (Grand Council) which was a body
  composed of the emperor and high officials for
  policy making
• Officials formed a meritocracy, selected based on
  three level national examinations
• Manchus selected based on clan and family
  background (hereditary aristocracy)

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Ruling China

• Court politics important
• Inner and outer courts outer court to manage
  matters of imperial household, inner court policy
  matters
• Inner court dominated by the imperial family and
  Manchu nobility
• Grand Council central policy-making body of the
  inner court
• Factional struggles in the court destabilised the
  whole political system from time to time

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Ruling China

• Boards Board of Civil Appointments, Board of
  Finance, Board of Rites (foreign affairs, civil
  exams), Board of War, Board of Works, and Board
  of Punishments
• Below them state bureaucracy had provincial,
  prefectural and county (magistrate) level
  administrations
• The Qing state was extremely small state
  administration consisted of only some 30 000
  officials (excluding the army, hired hands, etc)

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Ruling China

• Minority areas (Mongolia, Tibet, and Eastern
  Turkmenistan) ruled under their own Court of
  Colonial Matters
• The emperor acted as the Mongol khan, patron of
  Tibetan Buddhism, and protector of Muslims

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Ruling China

• (Neo)-Confucian state ideology / moral philosophy
• Based on the teachings of Kongzi (551 479 BCE)
  and Mengzi (372 289 BCE)
• Neo-Confucian Developed by Zhu Xi in the 13.
  century
• Incorporated Buddhist and Taoist cosmology to
  earlier Confucian political philosophy
• Accordingly the universe sought to reach proper
  order of things

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Ruling China

• All things and their order in the universe were
  reflections of their innate qualities, principles
  (li), which they (including especially humans in
  their social setting) sought to fulfil
• This applied also to politics and society
• The Emperor ruling under the mandate of Heaven
• Social hierarchy as the proper order
• Benevolence (ren) and benevolent government
  (renzheng) the ideals, these to be reached
  through internalising proper social norms (rites,
  li)
• This required years of arduous book study and
  training ones inner self

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Ruling China

• Five relations
• Emperor minister, father son, husband wife,
  elder brother younger brother, friend friend
• Formed the basis of hierarchical network of
  relations with their obligations, particularism
  more respect and care to those close to you
• Family especially important
• Male chauvinist
• Filial piety most valued the emperor as the
  father of the people

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Ruling China

• Were interpreted as supporting an autocratic
  society ruled by the best
• However, Confucian tradition can be given more
  democratic interpretations
• The Mandate of Heaven and right to rebel
  against non-benevolent rule (Mengzi)

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Traditional Society

• Traditional society
• Apart from the Manchu, no aristocracy existed as
  such
• Instead, educated national gentry acted as the
  social elite
• Offices were not hereditary
• It was rare of a same family to have many
  generations of officials

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Traditional Society

• For families training a son for officialdom (not
  a daughter, of course) was an investment that
  could yield generously if successful
• About 2 of the population had passed some level
  of exams
• Apart from holding an office, land ownership the
  second source of social status
• Land private property, no serfdom or slavery (in
  the Han society, at least)
• However, tenantry, scarcity of good land and the
  reliance on agriculture made the poor probably as
  worse off as serfs in feudal Europe

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Traditional Society

• State reach not very penetrating, the lowest
  state level administration in county level yamen
• Yamen administered the government business of the
  town or region
• Typically some 250 000 for one magistrate
• Typical responsibilities included local finance,
  capital works, judging of civil and criminal
  cases, and issuing decrees and policies,
  maintaining public order and organising disaster
  relief if needed and showing Confucian example

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Picture 3) Official Session in a Chinese Yamen,
Guangzhou, before 1889 (Wikipedia)
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Traditional Society

• Normally local communities (villages, towns with
  clans, guilds, temples) were left to self-rule
• Local gentry, village elders, etc. acted as the
  partner to the local state responsible for
  running the local governance (registering
  residents, collecting taxes, keeping up public
  order, public works, etc)
• Clans and lineages important especially in the
  South

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Traditional Society

• Baojia -system of local responsibility to report
  the behaviour of local people to upper levels
  (applied to clans and temples, etc. as well)
• Local Magistrates rotated regularly -gt local
  gentry and permanent staff became powerful while
  the centres ability to rule weakened

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Traditional Society

• Peasantry mainly small land owners areas, renting
  the rest
• Tenants common
• Numbers increased due to lack of new land, large
  geographical variation
• Land situation got worse in relative terms as
  population grew during the Qing rule
• Population growth 100 million in 1368 to 300
  million in 1800

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Traditional Society

• In agrarian society population growth meant
  growth of agricultural production at first, but
  when good land got scarce, growth rates dwindled
  and problem of overpopulation appeared
• While population tripled 1680-1780, arable land
  only doubled
• Growth in internal migration to less arable areas
  and overseas accelerated in the 19th century

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Traditional Society

• Bad crops, increasing official squeeze, and
  recurring natural disasters prone to lead to
  economic hardship and local unrest
• Loss of land loss of livelihood
• If official relief aid was not forthcoming, the
  destitute could turn into banditry and rebellion
• The human debris of the landless poor a major
  resource of social unrest

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Traditional Society

• Such groups easily gravitated to millennial clans
  or banditry
• By the early 19th century Chinese countryside was
  in many places beyond state control,
• Low-key disorder wide-spread (banditry, feuding
  villages, cults, etc.)

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Traditional Society

• The local gentry also faced more competition when
  the number of offices did not grow at the speed
  of the population growth
• Decrease in social mobility
• Led to corruption (buying offices) and the
  gradual growth of parasitic middle-lower gentry
  (educated elite without proper jobs)
• Idle gentry provided leadership for unrest

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Traditional economy

• Traditional economy
• An agrarian economy
• Substance based small-farming and handicrafts at
  the core
• Cotton clot (handicraft) the biggest industry,
  silk industry also substantial and advanced, as
  was pottery (porcelain)

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Traditional economy

• Growing and developing economy
• Signs of a capitalist mode of production appeared
  by the 18th century in many products and areas
• Production for export markets in production
  chains from raw material to end product
• Large scale proto-factory production
• Free labour market
• Specialisation of work force
• Cash cropping (concentrating on market crops, not
  for subsistence)
• Production for export (silk, chinaware, tea)

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Traditional economy

• Rivers and channels provided transportation
  networks for trade
• Domestic trade well-developed, local
  specialities, raw materials, and edible crops
  transported all over the empire through waterways
• Helped to make agriculture more and more
  commercialised in central locations
• At the same time trade mostly localised Qing
  China consisted of many natural trading areas
  with fewer contacts to other regions

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Traditional economy

• Also Chinese banking system developed in the 19th
  century (Ningbo and Shanxi as the banking
  centres)
• During the 19th century the economy became
  increasingly monetized, imported silver important
  in this respect (Mexican Dollars)

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Traditional economy

• Prosperous economy
• At the peak of Qianlong reign, state revenues so
  much of surplus that annual taxation was
  cancelled four times
• Differences to the West
• 1) economic growth was extensive, i.e. it was
  based on added manpower, not technological
  innovation and higher efficiency, which was just
  starting to take place in Europe
• 2) Capital mainly invested on land -gt low rate of
  return

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Traditional economy

• 3) A strong bourgeoisie missing,
• 4) No industrial technology (steam engine)
• 5) Low interest in natural and economic sciences
• Chinese science and engineering advanced, but
  problem-solving, not theory-building oriented
• Emphasis on moral philosophy in education, not
  natural science
• Oversupply of cheap workforce did not encourage
  the development of labour-saving technologies

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Traditional economy

• 6) Trade and industry and, therefore traders and
  industrialists, were regarded as secondary, even
  inferior, in Confucian world order
• 7) Organisation of economy not modern
• Traditional guilds, secret societies (banghui,
  help society), clan based organisations common
  in economy

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Conclusions

• The Needham Paradox Despite the fact that
  traditional China had advanced economy and
  technology, the country declined in the 19th
  century
• A primary reason for the decline was that the
  country lost its edge by suppressing
  technicians and merchants whose power posed a
  threat to the Emperor

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Conclusions

• Or was it that Qing was too successful?
• No need to compete with regional rivalries, until
  it was too late?
• Or was it that the Western intrusion derailed
  Chinese progress to capitalism and industrial
  society that was underway? (The Sprouts of
  capitalism argument)
• Whatever is the answer, if any of these, the
  relation with the West dictated much of the
  developments during the 19th century
• -gt Lecture II

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Exercise 1 (18.9.)

• Based on the sources in the course folder, answer
  these questions
• What factors mitigated against Chinese absolute
  monarchy from turning into tyranny in Abbe Hucs
  eyes?
• What kind of signs of decay of Qing Dynasty do
  you find in the sources?
• How would you characterize the social structure
  of the late Qing?