Technology/ Economy
The major technological advances of Qing dynasty are printing technology,industrial production of silk (16th century), magnetized needle (18th century) and paper making industry. The printing technology in China had improved and reach the peak during the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty technology had exceeded all previous dynasties in terms of quantity and variety of publications. The new printing techniques during Qing Dynasty were woodblock color printing and movable type, in which fonts and sizes of movable type had flourished. It was made with bronze or clay and it can give very high quality printing. Chinese advance technology had also inspired the West technology such as bridges with iron chain, a push cart with a sail and magnetism.
Solar quadrant & compass in the 18th centuryPorcelain
basin (1735-50)
Jar (1735-50)
Chinese bowl 19th centurySocial Changes
During Qing Dynasty period, Manchu had more power than Chinese and they banned intermarriage among the Chinese, continued to speak their own language, and their documents were not available to the Chinese. Manchu had made changes in the dress of Chinese in which they required the Chinese men to shave their heads and wear queues. They also required the Chinese to wear Manchu cloths rather than the clothing style of the Ming Dynasty. Chinese women were forbidden to bind their feet. They usually wore lined coats paired with skirts. In contrast Machurain women were allowed to wear overcoats, and full-length robes reaching below their knee. Women during Qing Dynasty fashion white blouse, black skirt and no cosmetics which gave them an austere look. They usually smooth their hair with pomade and plunged long fringe down the middle of their forehead in the shape of a peach leaf, in which different fringes shows different levels of emancipation.
A woman of a rich family in Qing dynasty taken between 1861-1864
Court Woman in Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
1901, Qing Dynasty formal dress
Silk dress worn by women typically when attending weddingsand other special occasions in the late Qing Dynasty
The strong rulers during the Qing Dynasty were Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722 A.D), Yongzheng Emperor (1722-1736 A.D), and Qianglong Emperor (1736-1769 A.D). The governing in Qing Dynasty were adopted from the form of government used during the Ming which is bureaucracy, with only minor adjustments. The positions in the government were all dual positions in which there is one Mancy and one Chinese in the same position, but Manchu had more power. The Qing were ruled by the Emperor as the absolute ruler and the Grand Secretariat, which had been an important policy during Ming had lost its importance during Qing and change to an imperial chancery. The foreign policy during the Qing was isolationism. The government were self sufficient and they were conservative and arrogant. Because of failing to join the industrial revolution that was spreading across the west, China's development fell behind the developing countries and created a big gap between the Western nations. Later in 1840, the Opium War broke out and Qing government was forced to sign treaties, which demanded China for reparation and to open trading ports. Together with corrupt politics and conservatism, the Qing Dynasty was in a devastated situation and the end of the 18th century and the Qing government needed to higher the taxes in order to pay for the reparations.
The image of Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722A.D)
Image of Yongzheng Emperor (1722-1736 A.D) 
Portrait of the Qianlong emperor, (dated 1736) by the Jesuit missionaryDuring Qing Dynasty, Confucianism was their official religion. Most of the buildings of Confucius’ home court were erected. Daoism and Buddhism is also a popular religion during Qing Dynasty. Due to political reasons, the Qing emperors had also mad an alliance with the Mongols and followed Tibetian Lamaism. Christianity had also influence Chinese at the middle of 16th century. In order to win the confidence of the Shunzhi and Kangxi Emperors, The Jesuits and court astronomers spread Christianity in China by avoid touching Chinese customs and beliefs such as ancestor veneration and state sacrifices to Heaven. But though, in 1771, the Jesuits were dissolved and the Christianity in China was not as popular as before.
Xhu-Zi, the founder of Neo- Confucianism
Yin-Yang, symbol of Daoism
Neo-Confucianism was the dominant philosophy during the Qing Dynasty. There were two principal schools of thought which were the Lixue(School Of Principle) and the Xinxue( School of Mind). Though there were thinkers and philosophers who criticized Confucian, in which some of them were either jailed or executed. Philosophers’ ideas during Qing Dynasty were base on sciences in which they refer philosophy to part of sciences. The most important writer and scientist in the early and middle of Qing Dynasty period was Dai Zhen who was a universal scholar, mathematician, philologist, and philosopher. One of his important writing was “The Origin of Goodness” in which he said that beings were lead by breath or matter.
Leaders/Contemporaries
Kangxi Emperor(1662-1722 A.D)
Xangxi Emperor was the second emperor who ruled China during the Qing Dynasty from 1662-1722 A.D. He was born in May 4, 1654 and died in December 20, 1722. Xangxi Emperor is one of the greatest Chinese emperors in history who became emperor since age of 8 and ruled for 61 years which made him the longest-reigning Emperor of China. During his period, Xangxi Emperor compiled the most complete dictionary of Chinese characters called The Kangxi Dictionary. Kangxi was interested in western technology and does not favor the idea of isolationism. He tried bringing Western technology to China and because he is tolerant and conciliatory, he led China to another high peak during the Qing Dynasty. Kangxi supported scholar and education. He arranged groups of young Chinese and Manchus to be tutored by the Jesuits. Kangxi invented a very useful Chinese calendar and he was also the first Chinese emperor who played a western instrument which was piano.
The KangXi Dictionary which was the standard Chinese Dictionary during the 18th and 19th centuriesQianlong Emperor (1736-1796 A.D)
Qianlong Emperor was born in September 25, 1711 and died in February 7, 1799. He was the fourth Qing emperor and the favorite grandson of Kangxi Emperor. The Qianlong Emperor was a successful military leader, major patron of arts, and collector of ceramics. Chinese Turkestan and the West of Chinese were under control of Qianlong. Aside from his interest in art, Qianlong was the preserver and restorer of the Chinese culture. He collected ancient bronzes, bronze mirrors and seals. Under the control of Qianlong, Qing was at peace and prospered. Taxes were light and education was very important during his period. Qianlong also sponsored a compilation of Confucian Classics which was the five ancient Chinese books about Confucius Architecture and arts were flourishing during this period and Qianlong himself even developed a series of beautiful European-style summer palaces. During his period, Qianlong had made two fundamental changes which were to take away power from the Imperial Chancery and gave to a group of personal assistants and established the Imperial House Department which was under his control to control the government finances. Until 1795 when Qianlong abdicated, he was the absolute ruler who ruled the most people which were 300 million people.
Drawing of Qianlong Emperor in his old ageGeorge Washington was born in February 22. 1732 and died in December 14, 1799. He was the first president of the United States. He was elected unanimously by the Electoral College in 1789 and won the reelection in 1792. Before being the president of the United States, he led America’s to victory against Britain in the American Revolutionary War in 1775-1783. During his period of being the President of the United States, he established new government’s executive department, and created a great nation to survive under the war between Britain and France by making his nation a neutral country. He funded the national debt, and created national bank.
Sculpture of George Washington on Mt. RushmoreGregor Johann Mendel was an Austrian monk born in July 20, 1822 and died in January 6 1884. During his life time, Gregor Mendel studied the characteristics of pea plants and found the theories of heredity. He tried crossing different trait of plants and observed that characters could be masked in one generation of peas but could be reappearing in later generation. In other word, if the gene is recessive, it would not show up within the plant, but if it was dominant trait, it will. Dominant will always win over the recessive gene and if that trait is a carrier, the dominant gene will appear. In his second set of experiments, he used two pairs of traits which were for color and shape. This type of crossing was called dihybrid. When he crossed homozygous dominant yellow, round seeds with recessive green wrinkled seeds, he found that 9/16 were yellow and round peas, 3/16 were yellow and wrinkled peas, 3/16 were green and round peas, and 1/16 were green and wrinkled peas. From this information, Mendel developed his second law and called it the law of independent assortment in which members of different pairs of genes behave independently and assort independently during sex cell reproduction. Because of his stunning discovery, he led to the discovery of inheritance, dominant trait, recessive trait, genotype, phenotype, heterozygous, and homozygous and he was called “father of modern genetics”.
Photograph of Mendel taken in1862 with the participants of the journey to the world exhibition in London.The first opium war was during the Qing Dynasty in 1839-42 and the second opium war was in 1856-1860. It was the war between China and Western countries especially British. The first war was between China and British. Opium was being used to stop diarrhea for long time ago, but in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, millions of people from all classes became addicted to opium. The import of opium into China was forbidden by the Chinese government, though the law didn’t work because British merchants kept smuggled opium into China. Later the government tried to stop opium by burning opium in Guangzhou which was confiscated from British merchants. Because of that, British responded by sending gunboats to attack Chinese coastal cities and because China could not compete with the technological and tactical superiority of the British forces, they lose to China and were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. Ports of Guagzhou such as Jimen, Fuzhou and Shanghai. Again in the second opium war, ChinaChina agreed to pay the reparation, open more ports, and legalize the import of opium. were also forced to open to British residence and trade was defeated by British and French.
Summary
The border of Qing Dynasty and modern China is not that different. Because of the improvement of technology and agriculture, Qing were at the peak of economic in the beginning of Qing Period, though it declined around the 18-19 centuries because the government favor isolationism and the effect of opium war. On the other hand, many social changes also occurred in Qing Dynasty because it was controlled by Manchu. The government still used the form of government in Ming Dynasty which was bureaucracy but with some minor adjustment. During the Qing Dynasty, Confucianism was the official religion and Neo-Confucianism was the dominant philosophy. Important leaders in Qing Dynasty were Kangxi Emperor (1662-1722 A.D), Yongzheng Emperor (1722-1736 A.D), and Qianglong Emperor (1736-1769 A.D) and important contemporaries were George Washington and Gregor Mendel. During Qing Dynasty, an important event was the opium war which occurred in 1839-42 and in 1856-1860.
Qing dynasty Corner Tower in Forbidden City, Beijing
Time Line
1644:The Manchus invade northern China and take Bejing, overthrowing the Ming and establishing the Qing Dynasty
1839: First Opium war
1851: The Taiping rebels, led by a village teacher, Hong Xiuquan that lasted 14 years (30 million people were killed)
1856: China is attacked by British and French forces
1900: the anti-western Boxer rebellion is crushed by foreign troops and Cixi flees to the mountains
1911: Sun Yatsen directs an uprising and installs a republic in Wuhan
A "Boxer" in northern Shandong province in 1900
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A timeline of
