Chinese Dynasties of the Mongol Yuan and the Manchu Qing - Case Study Example

Client Chinese Dynasties of the Mongol Yuan and the Manchu Qing In comparing the Mongolian Yuan dynasty with the Manchu, Qing dynasty, one can see some similarities and some important differences. While the Manchu created an iron fist that would control the Han Chinese and lead them with fear, the Mongolian rule was begun with the embracement of the Chinese culture by the first ruler, Kublai Kahn, but followed by a series of inconsistent rulers who would change the status of the Chinese culture in reference to the government leaving a wake of instability. The Manchu segregated themselves culturally from the Han in order to maintain a ruling identity. The Mongols, initially, sought to segregate themselves and maintain different cultural identities, but eventually integrated with the society and adopted many of the ways of the Chinese. By concerning itself with the maintenance of power as a conquering force, and subjugating the Chinese people under a heavy handed rule, the Manchu dynasty would be a longer, more successful rule than the Mongol dynasty. During the time of the Song dynasty in China, a great growth of the country would take place. As advances in science, the arts, and in philosophy would expand, so to did the population double in size. All of these things are signs of a thriving civilization. However, these advancements were diminished by a government that did not recognize 1 Client Last Name the need for a global attitude. Expansion of the government itself did not occur in order to meet the demands of a greater population. As the country of China and its people thrived, the roots of the country, the core government, did not sustain enough strength to hold onto its nation. In an attempt to expand and promote new growth, Wang Anshi created what is known as the ‘New Laws’. “Wang not only tried to expand channels of revenue and the apparatus of local order, but explicitly argued that the state must enlarge itself and in effect absorb into an expanding bureaucracy the growing wealthy and educated elite.” (Embree, p. 348) According to Ainslee T. Embree and Carol Gluck, in their book, Asia in Western and World History, if Wang Anshi’s reforms had taken place they would have rivaled advancements made in industry and state building that did not occur again until the late 19th and early 20th century. However, after the fall of North China, Wang’s reform party would be defeated and the advanced concept of ‘growth of the state’ would end. The Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi that gained wide support among the elite in the period that followed- far from being a mere ‘inward turn’ toward self- cultivation and metaphysics - in important part expresses and ratifies the resulting new relation of state and elite, by locating gentlemanly virtue and status in a life outside of office and by transplanting world reforming impulses of earlier Song political thinking into a context of individual, private, and local action. (Embree, p. 348) A general lack of interest in forward motions of modernity would stagnate the growth of the country as the growth of the population and the needs of that population would set the stage for a conqueror to destroy a dynasty which had undergone many losses of territory. 2 Client Last Name This lack of interest in appropriate growth and addressing the needs of the people by expanding the governmental ability to respond would set the stage for the Mongols to conquer China, territory by territory. By 1279, the Mongols had completely overthrown the Song government and taken control of China. The conquering Mongols did what the Chinese could not do for themselves in reunifying the country. During the time of the Mongol government, there was a great difference between the number of Mongols and the large population of Chinese. Kublai Kahn, the first Mongol ruler of China gave respect to the Chinese culture, attempting to maintain both cultures of Mongol and Chinese. On the advise of the Chinese nationals within his government, he used Chinese tradition and named his dynasty Yuan. The influence of the Chinese had begun even before the time of Kublai Kahn: Before the conquest of China, Yeh-lü Chu-tsai (1189-1243), an advisor to the Mongol Khan Ögödei, reformed the financial administration along the lines of its Chinese form. In 1271, Kublai Khan adopted a Chinese dynastic name, and in 1315, under the Emperor Ayurbarwada (Jen-tsung, 1311-1320), the civil service examination was reinstituted. All of these indicate a steady Chinese influence upon Mongolian rule. At the same time, the Mongols chose not to impose their own pastoral lifestyle, social structure, or religion on the Chinese. (Hooker) As he reigned over the Chinese, “Kahn and his court soon forgot the warrior skills of their forefathers, and in 1368, less than a hundred years later, the Yuan, a shadow of their former selves, were driven out of China by the Ming.” (Leffman, p. 993) Under the rule of Kublai Kahn, the Chinese were exposed, in a unique period of 3 Client Last Name history for the Chinese, to the world beyond their borders. Traders of varying nationalities brought their goods and traded to the Chinese for what they had to offer. The Venetian explorer Marco Polo served Kublai Kahn within his government on diplomatic missions and as governor over Yangzhou. The globalization of Chinese trade and the introduction of foreign nationals into the government changed, for a time the monocultural national existence to a multicultural view. “The Mongol conquest was a forerunner to the Western imperialism of the nineteenth century China, when Chinese society was again laid open to the culture shock of discordant foreign influences.” (Fairbank, p. 119) Chinese society was, most often, a closed society throughout history. In this hundred years of Mongol reign, however, the Chinese would experience a global affect on their trade. The reign of Kublai Kahn was successful, but after his death in 1294, the following rulers were inconsistent, first running the government by Chinese tradition, and then by Mongol tradition. This inconsistency was a sign of instability, leading to a general lack of control. Because of this, “after Kublai’s long and percipient reign, the succeeding Mongolian emperors to the end of the dynasty in 1368 were mostly short-lived and ineffectual, often puppets of competing factions.” (Franke, p.624) The Mongol control of china lasted less than a hundred years. The Qing Dynasty, which was the resulting dynasty of the Manchu conquest over the Ming Dynasty, was the final reigning dynasty in China. Beginning in 1644, it would span several centuries until its end in 1912. With an iron hand, and a will to rule, the 4 Client Last Name Manchu conquest would occupy the Han Chinese and rule over the people for 268 years. As they nation changed and the government was weakened by the onslaught of age, a use of Western powers encouraged by trade efforts would help to sustain them until the dynasty of the Qing could last no more. The early years of the Qing Dynasty were fraught with issues of ethnicity. The conquering Manchus were at odds with the population of the Han for ethnic control over the customs of the country. One of the most difficult orders from the Manchu to assert their will over their new subjects was an order called the Queue Order. This order mandated that the Han men adopt the hairstyle of the Manchu by shaving their heads, leaving only the back section to be put into a ponytail. Cutting this ponytail would be considered treason and be enough to incur a penalty of death. At the end of the dynasty, the queue would become a powerful symbol of rebellion. “At the beginning of the twentieth century, when Chinese nationalism turned against the alien ruler, cutting off the queue became a revolutionary act.” (Michael, p.163) Symbol of oppression in the beginning of their rule would turn into a symbol of freedom at the end of their rule. To further assert their will and maintain control over China, the Manchus set up the ’Eight Banners’ system. This militarized system was a way to denote lineage of the Manchu men by heritage and skill sets admired by their culture. They prohibited intermarriage between Manchus and Chinese, and Manchu women were forbidden to have their feet bound after the fashion of upper-class Chinese. They forbade their banner people to take up farming or any of the crafts so as to maintain their military profession. (Michael, p. 163) 5 Client Last Name In these efforts to maintain cultural identity and suppress the associations of the Han Chinese, the government created a Manchu elite that would serve as a symbol of their domination. However, this would work against themselves in the long run. “The fields allotted to the garrisons were thus cultivated by Chinese peasant farmers, and the Manchu soldiers, once peace reigned, led a drone like existence.” and “ through inactivity and lack of training the banner garrisons by the latter part of the eighteenth century militarily useless.(Michael, p. 163). In this way, the military culture of the ‘banner men’, which would intend to build a cultural elite, would defeat itself in its inability to find a formidable and meaningful purpose. However, while these acts of the Manchu would cause cultural problems, they did continue to assert power over the conquered people of China. The success of the dynasty can be attributed to a ruthless attitude that suppressed the people and held military sway over their lives. The Manchu was a fist over the people in the early years of having conquered the Han. The Manchu were outnumbered by the Han, and by use of edicts like the Queue Order and the Eight Banners, the culture of the Manchu would suppress the Han and rule them with fear. As the years past within the Qing Dynasty, the manner in which control would be maintained would have to change. With a weakened military, it was necessary to turn to trade in order to garner Western interest in maintaining the government. Chinese craftsmanship became popular during the 18th and 19th century which developed a demand in Western countries. This, of course, caused a resulting deterioration in the 6 Client Last Name quality of merchandise, but the trade continued and encouraged relationships with foreign governments. The Manchu government was not without its difficulties. In its attitude of stubborn ethnic identity, it would refuse to adopt the use of gunpowder which had been developed and used by the Song and Ming dynasties. This caused a lack of military capability when invaders from Western countries would encroach upon them. The lack of modernity of the Qing attitude was potently defeating. Rebellions such as the Taiping Rebellion, which lasted from 1860 to 1864, and the anti imperialist Boxer Rebellion, that lasted from 1900 to 1901, would threaten the government and its security. British General Charles George Gordon would be credited with saving the Manchu dynasty from the Taiping Rebellion as an example of Western assistance to the Manchu. Without this assistance, the government would have fallen under the weight of rebellion and been changed by its people. However, not all Europeans agreed with this policy of saving the Qing dynasty. A considerable number of Europeans, including a French admiral, had given up their lives to win back China for the Manchu Dynasty, although at the outset public opinion was in favor of strict neutrality, and there were many, even then, who thought China would be well rid of her degenerate rulers. (Bland, p. 67) The last dynastic rulers of China were considered out of touch with the people and had lost a great deal in military strength and power, leaving them open to a fall of the empire. In 1908, Puyi, who was two, became the last emperor of China of the Qing dynasty, with his father, Zaifeng, Prince Chun as regent. He would be the last of the 7 Client Last Name Manchu rulers of dynastic rule. As rebellions and instability rocked the country, an agreement was signed in 1912 abdicating the child emperor. Thus the last dynasty of China ended. The Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty ruled as conquerors. The Mongols ruled as a culture that was being absorbed by its conquered people. The Manchu ruled without confusion over their cultural identity. The Mongols lost much of who they were during their time in China. Power developed out of fear has a sustaining strength, where power that is flexible may break. As in evidence by the disintegration of the Song dynasty and then the short lived Mongol Yuan dynasty, political power must be maintained by the example of the Qing in a consistent strength, remaining flexible in the methods relevant to the time, in order to keep power. If the Song had kept an eye on the needs of the growth within their country, invaders would not have been able to take over territory. If the Mongols had behaved as conquerors with a consistent form of government, they may have maintained control of China. A conquering nation cannot expect its conquered people to support a foreign rule. Therefore, the Manchu take over of the Chinese government lasted longer than the Mongol rule because its aim was to survive in spite of the people of China. In violently and actively seeking to subjugate the people, the Manchu were able to oppress thoughts of rebellion. While this kind of oppression and imperialism is cruel, it is effective. History shows that eventually, oppressed people will rise against a government that doesn’t meet their needs. How quickly this happens depends on the stability and power of the oppressing governing party. 8 Client Last Name Works Cited Bland, John Otway Percy and Backhouse, Edmund. China Under the Empress Dowager. Philadelphia: J. P. Lippencott Company, 1910. 1 December 2008 Embree, Ainslee T. and Gluck, Carol. Asia in Western and World History. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies. 1997. 1 December 2008. Fairbank, John King and Goldman, Merle. China. Boston: President and Fellows of Harvard University, 1992. 30 November 2008. < http://boo ks.google.com/books?id=GrdQVBpczIsC&pg=RA1PA170&dq=fall+of+the+Son g+in+China> Franke, Herbert, et al. The Cambridge History of China. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1994. 1 December 2008. Hooker, Richard. (1996). The Mongolian Empire: The Yuan. World Civilizations: The Chinese Empire. 1 December 2008. Leffman, David, et all. China. London: Penguin Books Ltd. 2003. 30 November, 2008. Michael, Franz H. China Through the Ages. Boulder: Westview Press, 1986. 30 November 2008 from 10 Read More