Day 1 Notes
Manchu conquest of China
When it comes to the Ching Dynasty, people assimilate the rise and fall doctrine to it
Unique dynasty because it wasn’t as ethnically Chinese.
As a result, the dynasty they came up with was not a repeat of other Chinese dynasties.
Should be thought of as a Central Asian Empire.
Great kinship with the Mongols. Great kinship with other groups.
They were not just exploiters, they wanted to make it better, they themselves are changed in the process. We can’t be helped to be influenced by this 2000 year old China.
Who were the Manchu’s?
Three groups of people
Some were nomadic,
Some were agricultural
Some believed in ancestor worship
Some of them believed in animism
There was one group of Manchu’s – Long White Mountain – They came from the area along the long white mountain, this was considered a sacred peak, only certain Chinese were allowed to go there. This branch of the Manchu people were the ones that conquered China. They knew China very well
They knew war as well as the fact that they were established trade.
Nurhaci (he is the architect of the conquest, but never actually saw it) – lived from 1559-1626, member of the long white mountain Manchu’s. Part of the reason he got into the idea of conquering China was his love of Chinese novels. I am going to carry out the great enterprise, aka the impossible feat.
Great Wall was built during the Ming Dynasty
The way Nurhaci came about conquering China was through terrorism and bribery.
Would offer Ming Generals awards at the same time as threatening them.
Also promised a moral government. He said the Ming Dynasty is no longer a moral government, it lost the Mandate of Heaven.
The haircut order (Nurhaci’s grandson) – once you are conquered you have to change to the Manchu hairstyle, all men in China were required to either lose your hair or lose your head. Very easy to know who came over to the Manchu side and do away with the problem of loyalty.
They also said no more foot binding for the women. They couldn’t change it because women never went out.
Manchu’s had made the promise of bringing morality back to government.
In some ways they brought a veneer way of Confucian government.
Yes you can observe mourning for three years, but you must remain at your post. This went against old style Confucian government.
Ming loyalism After Manchu have conquered the Ming, a rash of suicide broke out because of a desire to stay with the old tradition.
Some refused to serve, they refused to admit defeat
Becoming a Buddhist monk was a way of a loophole to supporting the old Ming Dynasty.
Kangxi
Brilliant/energetic guy.
He understands that he needs the cooperation of the Chinese elite in order to rule
Transform himself into a Confucian ruler.
He reduced taxes so he could be more popular with the people.
He froze the tax base, no matter what the population of China, taxi is going to be this much
He created a set of special examinations – he wanted to recognize Ming scholarly works, they were set in place only to recognize talent. He appealed to their vanity and once identified he targeted them and offered them appointments, used their desire to serve as historians in writing the Ming Dynasty history. By doing this he would be able to convert a couple of Ming hardliners to his side.
He makes Ming loyalism permissible in his court.
Yongzheng – (1723-1735)
Grown man when he is on the throne.
His reign is really short, but really important.
Great innovator, manager, believes in Astrology, believes in the system on phrenology
Grand Council – he had a cabinet of people that were his personal advisors. This group of people he would govern collaboratively with. He would also allow them a great level of informality.
Came up with a system of communications, rulership is about document flow, who has seen the document, who can write on the document etc.
Solves the problem of taxation. Because of his father’s