View source for Qing dynasty

{{Short description|Manchu-led dynasty of China (1644–1912)}}
{{Redirect|Qing}}
{{Distinguish|text=the [[Qin dynasty]], the first dynasty of imperial China}}
{{pp-move}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox country
| native_name            = <!-- {{native name list|tag1=zh|name1=大清|tag2=mnc|name2={{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᡩᠠᡳ᠌ᠴᡳᠩ<br />ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ|style=text-align:left}}}} -->
| conventional_long_name = Great Qing
| life_span              = 1636/1644{{efn|name="year"|Sources consider the start year of the Qing dynasty differently, including 1644,<ref name="StartYear">"Ritual Music in the Court and Rulership of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)" (p. 136): "[1636] was the start of the Qing dynasty, although historians usually date the Qing dynasty started in 1644 when the Manchus conquered Beijing and north China."</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Oxford History of Modern China |first=Jeffrey N. |last=Wasserstrom |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-19-264830-3 |page=ix}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Patterns of Modern Chinese History |first=Charles |last=Desnoyers |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2017 |isbn=978-0-19-994645-7}}</ref>{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p=292}} 1636,<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Board of Rites and the Making of Qing China |first=Macabe |last=Keliher |publisher=University of California Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-520-97176-9 |page=ix}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Tarikh-i Hamidi: A Late-Qing Uyghur History |first=Eric |last=Schluessel |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-0-520-97176-9 |page=xv}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Our Great Qing: The Mongols, Buddhism, and the State in Late Imperial China |first=Johan |last=Elverskog |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-8248-6381-4 |page=17}}</ref> and 1616.<ref>{{Cite book |title=A HISTORY OF FINE ARTS ECONOMY OF CHINA |last=Li |first=Xiangmin |publisher=American Academic |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-63181-470-9 |page=282}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Images of Women in Chinese Thought and |first=Robin |last=Wang |publisher=Hackett |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-87220-651-9 |page=285}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Convergence of East-West Poetics |first=Zhanghui |last=Yang |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-04-009828-8 |page=37}}</ref>}}–1912
| era                    = [[History of Asia#Late modern|Late modern]]
| demonym                = [[Chinese people|Chinese]]
| ethnic_groups          = {{hlist|[[Han Chinese|Han]]|[[Miao people|Miao]]|[[Manchus]]|[[Mongols]]|[[Tibetans]]|[[Uyghurs]]|''[[Ethnic groups in Chinese history|others]]''}}
| event_pre              = [[History of the Qing dynasty#Hong Taiji|Proclaimed]]
| date_pre               = 1636
| event_start            = [[Transition from Ming to Qing|Ming–Qing transition]]
| year_start             = 1644–1662
| event1                 = {{nowrap|[[Dzungar–Qing Wars]]}}
| date_event1            = 1687–1758
| event2                 = [[Ten Great Campaigns]]
| date_event2            = 1747–1792
| event3                 = [[First Opium War]]
| date_event3            = 1839–1842
| event4                 = [[Taiping Rebellion]]
| date_event4            = 1850–1864
| event5                 = [[Second Opium War]]
| date_event5            = 1856–1860
| event6                 = [[Self-Strengthening Movement]]
| date_event6            = 1861–1895
| event7                 = [[First Sino-Japanese War]]
| date_event7            = 1894–1895
| event8                 = [[Hundred Days' Reform]]
| date_event8            = 1898
| event9                 = [[Boxer Rebellion]]
| date_event9            = 1900–1901
| event10                = [[Late Qing reforms]]
| date_event10           = 1901–1911
| event_end              = [[Xinhai Revolution]]
| year_end               = 1911–1912
| event_post             = [[Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor|End of monarchy]]
| date_post              = {{nowrap|12 February 1912}}
| p1                     = Later Jin (1616–1636){{!}}Later Jin
| p2                     = Ming dynasty
| p3                     = Dzungar Khanate
| p6                     = Kingdom of Tungning
| s1                     = Republic of China (1912–1949){{!}}Republic of China
| s2                     = Bogd Khanate
| s3                     = Uryankhay Republic
| s4                     = Tibet (1912–1951){{!}}Tibet
| image_flag             = Flag of the Qing Dynasty (1889-1912).svg
| flag_type              = [[Flag of the Qing dynasty|Flag]] (1889–1912)
| flag_border            = no
| image_symbol           = Seal of Qing dynasty.svg
| symbol_type            = Imperial seal
| national_anthem        = {{lang|de|[[鞏金甌]]}}<br />("Cup of Solid Gold"){{center|[[File:Gǒng Jīn'ōu.ogg]]}}
| image_map              = Qing dynasty in 1760.svg
| image_map_caption      = The Qing dynasty at its greatest extent in 1760, with modern borders shown for the rest of the world. Territory claimed but not controlled is shown in light green.
| capital                = [[Beijing]]
| largest_city           = Beijing
| official_languages     = {{hlist|[[Manchu language|Manchu]]{{sfnp|Söderblom Saarela|2021}}|{{nowrap|[[Mandarin (late imperial lingua franca)|Mandarin Chinese]]{{sfnp|Norman|1988|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=wOPArZVCk-wC&q=official%20language 133–134]}}}}}}
| government_type        = [[Absolute monarchy]]
| title_leader           = [[List of emperors of the Qing dynasty|Emperor]]
| leader1                = [[Chongde Emperor]]
| year_leader1           = 1636–1643 (proclaimed in Shenyang)
| leader2                = [[Shunzhi Emperor]]
| year_leader2           = 1644–1661 (first in Beijing)
| leader3                = [[Xuantong Emperor]]
| year_leader3           = 1908–1912 (last)
| title_representative   = [[Regent]]
| representative1        = [[Dorgon]], Prince Rui
| representative2        = {{nowrap|[[Zaifeng]], Prince Chun}}
| year_representative1   = 1643–1650
| year_representative2   = 1908–1911
| deputy1                = {{nowrap|[[Yikuang]], Prince Qing}}
| deputy2                = [[Yuan Shikai]]
| year_deputy1           = 1911
| year_deputy2           = 1911–1912
| title_deputy           = [[Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet|Prime Minister]]
| legislature            = {{ubli|[[Deliberative Council]] {{nwr|(1636–1733)}}|[[Advisory Council (Qing dynasty)|Advisory Council]] {{nwr|(1910–1912)}}}}
| stat_year1             = 1700
| stat_area1             = 8800000
| ref_area1              = <ref name="Taagepera1997">{{Cite journal |last=Taagepera |first=Rein |author-link=Rein Taagepera |date=September 1997 |title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia |url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt3cn68807/qt3cn68807.pdf |url-status=live |journal=[[International Studies Quarterly]] |volume=41 |issue=3 |page=500 |doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053 |issn=0020-8833 |jstor=2600793 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200707203055/https://escholarship.org/content/qt3cn68807/qt3cn68807.pdf |archive-date=2020-07-07 |access-date=2020-07-24}}</ref>
| stat_year2             = 1790
| stat_area2             = 14700000
| ref_area2              = <ref name="Taagepera1997" />
| stat_year3             = 1860
| stat_area3             = 13400000
| ref_area3              = <ref name="Taagepera1997" />
| stat_year4             = 1908
| stat_area4             = 11350000
| ref_area4              = <ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wang |first1=Jianqiang |last2=Chen |first2=Jiahua |last3=Wang |first3=Yonhzhong |publisher=Ningbo chubanshe |year=2018 |isbn=9787552632859 |page=8 |language=zh |script-title=zh:歷史與時事學法指導 |author-mask=Wang Jianqiang (王堅強); |author-mask2=Chen Jiahua (陳家華); |author-mask3=Wang Yongzhong (王永中)}}</ref>
| population_estimate    = 426,000,000<ref name="Broomhall1907" />
| population_estimate_year = 1907
| currency               = {{hlist|[[Qing dynasty coinage|Cash]]|[[Tael]]|[[Paper money of the Qing dynasty|Paper money]]}}
}}
{{Contains special characters|Manchu}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| c = 清朝
| p = Qīngcháo
| tp = Cingcháo
| w = {{tonesup|Chʻing1 chʻao2}}
| mi = {{IPAc-cmn|q|ing|1|-|ch|ao|2}}
| bpmf = {{bpmfsp|ㄑㄧㄥ|ㄔㄠˊ}}
| suz = Tshin záu
| y = Chīng Chìuh
| ci = {{IPAc-yue|c|ing|1|-|c|iu|4}}
| j = Cing¹ Ciu⁴
| poj = Chheng tiâu
| tl = Tshing tiâu
| altname = Dynastic name
| poj2 = Tāi-chheng
| tl2 = Tāi-tshing
| p2 = Dà Qīng
| tp2 = Dà Cing
| w2 = {{tonesup|Ta4 Chʻing1}}
| mi2 = {{IPAc-cmn|d|a|4|-|q|ing|1}}
| bpmf2 = {{bpmfsp|ㄉㄚˋ|ㄑㄧㄥ}}
| y2 = Daaih Chīng
| ci2 = {{IPAc-yue|d|aai|6|-|c|ing|1}}
| j2 = Daai⁶ Cing¹
| mnc = {{unbulleted list|ᡩᠠᡳ᠌ᠴᡳᠩ|ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ}}
| mnc_rom = 
| mnc_a = Daiqing gurun
| mnc_v = Daicing gurun
| mong = {{unbulleted list|ᠳᠠᠢᠢᠴᠢᠩ|ᠤᠯᠤᠰ}}
| mon = Дайчин Улс
| monr = Daiqing ulus
| c2 = 大清
| l2 = Great Qing
}}
{{History of China}}
{{History of Manchuria}}

The '''Qing dynasty''' ({{IPAc-en|tʃ|ɪ|ŋ}} {{respell|CHING}}), officially the '''Great Qing''',{{efn|See [[Names of the Qing dynasty]].}} also known as the '''Qing Empire''' or '''Qing China''', was a [[Manchu]]-led [[Dynasties of China|imperial dynasty of China]] and an [[early modern]] empire in [[East Asia]]. The last [[imperial dynasty]] in [[Chinese history]], the Qing dynasty was preceded by the [[Ming dynasty]] and succeeded by the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]. At its height of power, the empire stretched from the [[Sea of Japan]] in the east to the [[Pamir Mountains]] in the west, and from the [[Mongolian Plateau]] in the north to the [[South China Sea]] in the south. Originally emerging from the [[Later Jin (1616–1636)|Later Jin dynasty]] founded in 1616 and proclaimed in [[Shenyang]] in 1636, the dynasty seized control of the Ming capital [[Beijing]] and [[North China]] in 1644, traditionally considered the start of the dynasty's rule.{{efn|name="year"}} The dynasty lasted until the [[Xinhai Revolution]] of October 1911 led to the abdication of the last emperor in February 1912. The multi-ethnic Qing dynasty [[Legacy of the Qing dynasty|assembled the territorial base for modern China]]. The Qing controlled the most territory of any dynasty in Chinese history, and in 1790 represented the [[List of largest empires#Empires at their greatest extent|fourth-largest empire in world history]] to that point. With over [[Population history of China|426&nbsp;million citizens in 1907]],<ref name="Broomhall1907">{{Cite book |last=Broomhall |first=Marshall |title=The Chinese Empire: A General and Missionary Survey, Volumes 678–679 |publisher=Morgan at Scott |year=1907 |pages=2–3}}</ref> it was the [[Estimates of historical world population|most populous country]] at the time.

[[Nurhaci]], leader of the [[Jianzhou Jurchens]] and [[House of Aisin-Gioro]] who was also a [[vassal]] of the Ming dynasty,<ref name="Peterson">The Cambridge History of China: Volume 9, The Ch'ing Empire to 1800, Part 1, by Willard J. Peterson, p. 29</ref>{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=14–15}} [[Jurchen unification|unified Jurchen clans]] (known later as Manchus) and founded the Later Jin dynasty in 1616, renouncing the Ming overlordship. As the founding [[Khan (title)|Khan]] of the Manchu state he established the [[Eight Banners]] military system, and his son [[Hong Taiji]] was declared Emperor of the Great Qing in 1636. As Ming control disintegrated, [[Late Ming peasant rebellions|peasant rebels]] captured Beijing as the short-lived [[Shun dynasty]], but the Ming general [[Wu Sangui]] opened the [[Shanhai Pass]] to the Qing army, which [[Battle of Shanhai Pass|defeated the rebels]], seized the capital, and took over the government in 1644 under the [[Shunzhi Emperor]] and his [[prince regent]]. While the Qing became the new rulers of China, resistance from [[Southern Ming|Ming rump regimes]] and the [[Revolt of the Three Feudatories]] delayed the [[Transition from Ming to Qing|complete conquest]] until 1683, which marked the beginning of the [[High Qing era]]. As an emperor of Manchu ethnic origin, the [[Kangxi Emperor]] (1661–1722) consolidated control, relished the role of a [[Confucian]] ruler, patronised [[Buddhism]], encouraged scholarship, population and economic growth.

To maintain prominence over its neighbors, the Qing leveraged and adapted the traditional [[tributary system of China|tributary system]] employed by previous dynasties, enabling their continued predominance in affairs with countries on its periphery like [[Joseon Korea]] and the [[Lê dynasty]] in Vietnam, while [[Qing dynasty in Inner Asia|extending its control]] over [[Inner Asia]]. The Qing dynasty reached its apex during the reign of the [[Qianlong Emperor]] (1735–1796), who led the [[Ten Great Campaigns]] of conquest, and personally supervised [[Qianlong Emperor#Cultural achievements|Confucian cultural projects]]. After his death, the dynasty faced internal revolts, economic disruption, official corruption, foreign intrusion, and the reluctance of Confucian elites to change their mindset. With peace and prosperity, the population rose to 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, soon leading to a fiscal crisis. Following China's defeat in the [[Opium Wars]], Western colonial powers forced the Qing government to sign [[unequal treaties]], granting them trading privileges, [[extraterritoriality]] and [[treaty ports]] under their control. The [[Taiping Rebellion]] (1850–1864) and the [[Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)|Dungan Revolt]] (1862–1877) in western China led to the deaths of over 20 million people, from famine, disease, and war.

The [[Tongzhi Restoration]] in the 1860s brought vigorous reforms and the introduction of foreign military technology in the [[Self-Strengthening Movement]]. Defeat in the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] (1894–1895) led to loss of [[Suzerainty#Imperial China|suzerainty]] over Korea and [[Treaty of Shimonoseki|cession of Taiwan]] to the [[Empire of Japan]]. The ambitious [[Hundred Days' Reform]] in 1898 proposed fundamental change, but was poorly executed and terminated by the [[Empress Dowager Cixi]] (1835–1908) in the [[Wuxu Coup]]. In 1900, anti-foreign [[Boxers (group)|Boxers]] killed many Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries; in retaliation, the [[Eight-Nation Alliance]] invaded China and imposed a [[Boxer Indemnity|punitive indemnity]]. In response, the government initiated unprecedented [[Late Qing reforms|fiscal and administrative reforms]], including elections, a new legal code, and the abolition of the [[imperial examination]] system. [[Sun Yat-sen]] and revolutionaries debated reform officials and constitutional monarchists such as [[Kang Youwei]] and [[Liang Qichao]] over how to transform the Manchu-ruled empire into a modernised Han state. After the deaths of the [[Guangxu Emperor]] and Cixi in 1908, Manchu conservatives at court blocked reforms. The [[Wuchang Uprising]] on 10 October 1911 led to the Xinhai Revolution. The [[abdication]] of the [[Xuantong Emperor]] on 12 February 1912 brought the dynasty to an end.

== Names ==
{{Main|Names of the Qing dynasty}}
{{See also|Names of China}}
Hong Taiji proclaimed the ''Great Qing'' dynasty in 1636.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yamamuro |first=Shin'ichi |title=Manchuria Under Japanese Domination |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0812239126 |page=246 |translator-last=Fogel|translator-first=J. A. }}</ref> There are competing explanations as to the meaning of the [[Chinese character]] {{zhi|c=清|p=Qīng|l=clear, pure|out=p}} in this context. One theory posits a purposeful contrast with the Ming: the character {{zhi|c=明|p=Míng|l=bright|out=p}} is associated with fire within the [[Wuxing (Chinese philosophy)|Chinese zodiacal system]], while {{zhi|c=清|p=Qīng|out=p}} is associated with water, illustrating the triumph of the Qing as the conquest of fire by water. The name possibly also possessed Buddhist implications of perspicacity and enlightenment, as well as connection with the bodhisattva [[Manjusri]].{{sfnp|Crossley|1997|pp=212–213}}
Early European writers used the term "Tartar" indiscriminately for all the peoples of Northern Eurasia but in the 17th century Catholic missionary writings established "Tartar" to refer only to the Manchus and "[[Tartary]]" for the lands they ruled—i.e. [[Manchuria]] and the adjacent parts of [[Inner Asia]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dong |first=Shaoxin |title=Foreign Devils and Philosophers Cultural Encounters between the Chinese, the Dutch, and Other Europeans, 1590–1800 |publisher=Brill |year=2020 |isbn=978-9004418929 |editor-last=Weststeijn |editor-first=Thijs |location=Leiden |pages=82–83 |chapter=The Tartars in European Missionary Writings of the Seventeenth Century |access-date=14 March 2021 |chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004418929/BP000004.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508232543/https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004418929/BP000004.xml |archive-date=8 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Woolley |first=Nathan |title=Celestial Empire: Life in China 1644–1911 |pages=107 |year=2016 |publisher=National Library of Australia |isbn=9780642278760}}</ref> as ruled by the Qing before the [[Ming–Qing transition]].

After conquering [[China proper]], the Manchus identified their state as "China", equivalently as {{zhi|t=中國|p=Zhōngguó|l=middle kingdom|out=p}} in Chinese and {{tlit|mnc|Dulimbai Gurun}} in Manchu.{{efn|{{tlit|mnc|Dulimbai}} means 'central' or 'middle', {{tlit|mnc|gurun}} means 'nation' or 'state'}} The emperors equated the lands of the Qing state (including, among other areas, present-day Northeast China, Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Tibet) as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multi-ethnic state, and rejecting the idea that only Han areas were properly part of "China". The government used "China" and "Qing" interchangeably to refer to their state in official documents,{{sfnp|Zhao|2006|pp=4, 7–10, 12–14 and 24 n. 4}} including the Chinese-language versions of treaties and maps of the world.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bilik |first=Naran |date=2007 |title=Names Have Memories: History, Semantic Identity and Conflict in Mongolian and Chinese Language Use |journal=Inner Asia |volume=9 |issue=1 |page=34 |doi=10.1163/146481707793646629}}</ref> The term 'Chinese people' ({{zhi|t=中國人 |p=Zhōngguórén}}; Manchu: {{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᡩᡠᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳ<br />ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ {{zwj}}ᡳ<br />ᠨᡳᠶᠠᠯᠮᠠ}} {{tlit|mnc|Dulimbai gurun-i niyalma}}) referred to all the Han, Manchu, and Mongol subjects of the Qing Empire.{{sfnp|Zhao|2006|pp=4, 7–10, 12–14}} When the Qing [[Ten Great Campaigns#The Zunghars and pacification of Xinjiang (1755–1759)|conquered Dzungaria in 1759]], it proclaimed within a Manchu-language memorial that the new land had been absorbed into "China".<ref name="Dunnell2004">{{Cite book |last1=Dunnell |first1=Ruth W. |url={{Google books|6qFH-53_VnEC|plainurl=yes}} |title=New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde |last2=Elliott |first2=Mark C. |last3=Foret |first3=Philippe |last4=Millward |first4=James A. |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-1134362226}}</ref>{{rp|77}} The Qing government expounded an ideology that it was bringing the "outer" non-Han peoples—such as various populations of Mongolians, as well as the Tibetans—together with the "inner" Han Chinese into "one family", united within the Qing state. Phraseology like {{zhi|c=中外一家|p=Zhōngwài yījiā|out=p}} and {{zhi|c=內外一家|p=nèiwài yījiā|out=p}}—both translatable as 'home and abroad as one family'—was employed to convey this idea of Qing-mediated trans-cultural unity.<ref name="Dunnell2004" />{{rp|76–77}}

==History==
{{Main|History of the Qing dynasty}}
{{For timeline}}

===Formation===
{{further|Manchuria under Ming rule|Jurchen unification|Timeline of the Jurchens#17th century}}
The Qing dynasty was founded not by [[Han Chinese]], who constituted a majority of the population, but by [[Manchus]], a sedentary farming people descended from the [[Jurchens]], a [[Tungusic people]] who lived in the region now comprising the Chinese provinces of [[Jilin]] and [[Heilongjiang]].{{sfnp|Ebrey|2010|p=220}}

====Nurhaci====
[[File:Minggunbattle.jpg|thumb|Manchu cavalry charging Ming infantry at the 1619 [[Battle of Sarhū]]]]
The early form of the Manchu state was founded by [[Nurhaci]], the chieftain of a minor Jurchen tribe{{snd}}the Aisin-Gioro{{snd}}in [[Jianzhou Jurchens|Jianzhou]] in the early 17th century. Nurhaci may have spent time in a Han household in his youth, and became fluent in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] languages and read the Chinese novels ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' and ''[[Water Margin]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Swope |first=Kenneth M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WRaoAgAAQBAJ&q=three+kingdoms+nurhaci+romance&pg=PA16 |title=The Military Collapse of China's Ming Dynasty, 1618–44 |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1134462094 |edition=Illustrated |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mair |first1=Victor H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agI7CwAAQBAJ&q=three+kingdoms+nurhaci+romance&pg=PT159 |title=Chinese Lives: The People Who Made a Civilization |last2=Chen |first2=Sanping |last3=Wood |first3=Frances |publisher=Thames & Hudson |year=2013 |isbn=978-0500771471 |edition=Illustrated}}</ref> As a vassal of the Ming emperors, he officially considered himself a guardian of the Ming border and a local representative of the Ming dynasty.<ref name="Peterson" /> Nurhaci embarked on an intertribal feud in 1582 that escalated into a campaign to [[Jurchen unification|unify the nearby tribes]]. He also began organizing the [[Eight Banners]] military system which included Manchu, Han, and [[Mongols|Mongol]] elements. By 1616, however, he had sufficiently consolidated Jianzhou so as to be able to proclaim himself [[Khan (title)|Khan]] of the [[Later Jin (1616–1636)|Later Jin dynasty]] in reference to the [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|previous Jurchen-ruled Jin dynasty]].{{sfnp|Ebrey|2010|pp=220–224}}

Two years later, Nurhaci announced the "[[Seven Grievances]]" and openly renounced the sovereignty of Ming overlordship in order to complete the unification of those Jurchen tribes still allied with the Ming emperor. After a series of successful battles, he relocated his capital from [[Hetu Ala]] to successively bigger captured Ming cities in Liaodong: first [[Liaoyang]] in 1621, then [[Mukden]] (Shenyang) in 1625.{{sfnp|Ebrey|2010|pp=220–224}} Furthermore, the Khorchin proved a useful ally in the war, lending the Jurchens their expertise as cavalry archers. To guarantee this new alliance, Nurhaci initiated a policy of inter-marriages between the Jurchen and Khorchin nobilities, while those who resisted were met with military action. This is a typical example of Nurhaci's initiatives that eventually became official Qing government policy. During most of the Qing period, the Mongols gave military assistance to the Manchus.<ref>Bernard Hung-Kay Luk, Amir Harrak-Contacts between cultures, Vol. 4, p. 25</ref>

====Hong Taiji====
Nurhaci died in 1626, and was succeeded by his eighth son, [[Hong Taiji]]. Although Hong Taiji was an experienced leader and the commander of two Banners, the Jurchens suffered defeat in 1627, in part due to the Ming's newly acquired [[Hongyipao|Portuguese cannons]]. To redress the technological and numerical disparity, Hong Taiji in 1634 created his own artillery corps, who cast their own cannons in the European design with the help of defector Chinese metallurgists. One of the defining events of Hong Taiji's reign was the official adoption of the name "Manchu" for the united Jurchen people in November 1635. In 1635, the Manchus' Mongol allies were fully incorporated into a separate Banner hierarchy under direct Manchu command. In April 1636, [[Mongol nobility]] of Inner Mongolia, Manchu nobility and the Han [[Mandarin (bureaucrat)|mandarin]] recommended that Hong as the khan of Later Jin should be the emperor of the Great Qing.{{sfnp|Rawski|1991|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gAIcwz3V_JsC&pg=PA177 177]}}<ref>Tumen jalafun jecen akū: Manchu studies in honour of Giovanni Stary By Giovanni Stary, Alessandra Pozzi, Juha Antero Janhunen, Michael Weiers</ref> When he was presented with the [[Imperial Seal of China|imperial seal]] of the [[Yuan dynasty]] after the defeat of the last [[Khagan]] of the Mongols, Hong Taiji renamed his state from "Great Jin" to "Great Qing" and elevated his position from Khan to [[Emperor of China|Emperor]], suggesting imperial ambitions beyond unifying the Manchu territories. Hong Taiji then proceeded to [[Second Manchu invasion of Korea|invade Korea]] again in 1636.

[[File:Sura han ni chiha. Currency of the farther East. No.850.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Coins of Hong Taiji in Manchu script]]
Meanwhile, Hong Taiji set up a rudimentary bureaucratic system based on the Ming model. He established six boards or executive level ministries in 1631 to oversee finance, personnel, rites, military, punishments, and public works. However, these administrative organs had very little role initially, and it was not until the eve of completing the conquest ten years later that they fulfilled their government roles.{{sfnp|Li|2002|pp=60–62}}

Hong Taiji staffed his bureaucracy with many Han Chinese, including newly surrendered Ming officials, but ensured Manchu dominance by an ethnic quota for top appointments. Hong Taiji's reign also saw a fundamental change of policy towards his Han Chinese subjects. Nurhaci had treated Han in Liaodong according to how much grain they had. Due to a Han revolt in 1623, Nurhaci turned against them and enacted discriminatory policies and killings against them. He ordered that Han who assimilated to the Jurchen (in Jilin) before 1619 be treated equally with Jurchens, not like the conquered Han in Liaodong. Hong Taiji recognised the need to attract Han Chinese, explaining to reluctant Manchus why he needed to treat the defecting Ming general [[Hong Chengchou]] leniently.{{sfnp|Li|2002|p=65}} Hong Taiji incorporated Han into the Jurchen polity as citizens obligated to provide military service. By 1648, less than one-sixth of the bannermen were of Manchu ancestry.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=China |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/China |access-date=21 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727034401/https://www.britannica.com/place/China |archive-date=27 July 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Claiming the Mandate of Heaven===
{{See also|Transition from Ming to Qing}}
[[File:Dorgon, the Prince Rui (17th century).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Dorgon (1612–1650)]]
Hong Taiji died suddenly in September 1643. As Jurchen leaders were chosen by a council of nobles, there was no clear successor. The leading contenders for power were Hong Taiji's oldest son [[Hooge (prince)|Hooge]] and Hong Taiji's half brother [[Dorgon]]. A compromise installed Hong Taiji's five-year-old son, Fulin, as the [[Shunzhi Emperor]], with Dorgon as regent and de facto leader of the Manchu nation.

Meanwhile, Ming government officials fought against fiscal collapse, against each other, and against a series of [[Ming dynasty#Rebellion, invasion, collapse|peasant rebellions]]. They were unable to capitalise on the Manchu succession dispute and the resulting boy emperor. In April 1644, Beijing was sacked by a contentious rebel coalition led by [[Li Zicheng]], a former minor Ming official, who established a short-lived [[Shun dynasty]]. The last Ming ruler, the [[Chongzhen Emperor]], committed suicide when the city fell to the rebels, marking the effective end of the dynasty.

Li Zicheng then led rebel forces numbering some 200,000 to confront Ming general [[Wu Sangui]], stationed at [[Shanhai Pass]] of the [[Great Wall]] to defend the capital against the approaching Manchu-led armies. Wu, to survive, had to ally with one of his adversaries against the other; one was a Han Chinese peasant army twice his size, but he chose the other. Wu may have resented Li Zicheng's attack on officials and the social order; Li had taken Wu's father hostage and it was said that Li took [[Chen Yuanyuan|Wu's concubine]] for himself. On the other hand, the Manchus had adopted a Chinese-style form of government and promised stability. Wu and Dorgon allied to defeat Li Zicheng in the [[Battle of Shanhai Pass]] on 27 May 1644.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|p=32}}

The newly allied armies captured Beijing on 6 June. The [[Shunzhi Emperor]] was invested as the "[[Son of Heaven]]" on 30 October 1644. The Manchus, who had positioned themselves as political heirs to the Ming, held a formal funeral for the Chongzhen Emperor. However, completing the conquest of [[China proper]] took another seventeen years of battling Ming loyalists, pretenders and rebels. The last Ming pretender, [[Zhu Youlang, Prince of Gui|Prince Gui]], sought refuge with [[Pindale Min]], the king of [[Burma]], but was turned over to a Qing expeditionary army commanded by Wu Sangui, who had him brought back to [[Yunnan]] and executed in early 1662.

The Qing had taken shrewd advantage of Ming civilian government discrimination against the military and encouraged the Ming military to defect by spreading the message that the Manchus valued their skills.{{sfnp|Di Cosmo|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8piRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 6]}} Banners made up of Han Chinese who defected before 1644 were classed among the Eight Banners, giving them social and legal privileges. Han defectors swelled the ranks of the Eight Banners so greatly that ethnic Manchus became a minority{{snd}}only 16% in 1648, with Han bannermen dominating at 75% and Mongol bannermen making up the rest.{{sfnp|Naquin|Rawski|1987|p=141}} Gunpowder weapons like muskets and artillery were wielded by the Chinese Banners.{{sfnp|Di Cosmo|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8piRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 23]}} Normally, Han Chinese defector troops were deployed as the vanguard, while Manchu bannermen were used predominantly for quick strikes with maximum impact, so as to minimise ethnic Manchu losses.{{sfnp|Di Cosmo|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8piRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 9]}}

This multi-ethnic force conquered Ming China for the Qing.{{sfnp|Rawski|1991|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gAIcwz3V_JsC&pg=PA175 175]}} The three Liaodong officers who played key roles in the conquest of southern China were Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, and Kong Youde, who governed southern China autonomously as viceroys for the Qing after the conquest.{{sfnp|Di Cosmo|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8piRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 7]}} Han bannermen made up the majority of governors during the early Qing, stabilising their rule.{{sfnp|Spence|1990|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=vI1RRslLNSwC&pg=PA41 41]}} To promote ethnic harmony, a 1648 decree allowed Han Chinese civilian men to marry Manchu women from the Banners with the permission of the Board of Revenue if they were registered daughters of officials or commoners, or with the permission of their banner company captain if they were unregistered commoners. Later in the dynasty the policies allowing intermarriage were done away with.{{sfnp|Wakeman|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_8nXLwSG2O8AC/page/n489 478]}} The Qing's depiction of itself as a [[Chinese empire]] was not hindered by the imperial house's Manchu ethnicity, especially after 1644, when the name "Chinese" was given a multiethnic meaning.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Remaking the Chinese Empire: Manchu-Korean Relations, 1616–1911|last = Wang|first = Yuanchong|publisher = Cornell University Press|year = 2018|isbn = 9781501730511|location = Brighton|page = 30}}</ref>
[[File:Mongolia in 1636.svg|thumb|Qing and Central Asia in 1636]]
The first seven years of the young Shunzhi Emperor's reign were dominated by Dorgon's regency. Because of his own political insecurity, Dorgon followed Hong Taiji's example by ruling in the name of the emperor at the expense of rival Manchu princes, many of whom he demoted or imprisoned. Dorgon's precedents and example cast a long shadow. First, the Manchus had entered "South of the Wall" because Dorgon had responded decisively to Wu Sangui's appeal, then, instead of sacking Beijing as the rebels had done, Dorgon insisted, over the protests of other Manchu princes, on making it the dynastic capital and reappointing most Ming officials. No major Chinese dynasty had directly taken over its immediate predecessor's capital, but keeping the Ming capital and bureaucracy intact helped quickly stabilize the regime and sped up the conquest of the rest of the country. Dorgon then drastically reduced the influence of the eunuchs and directed Manchu women not to [[Foot binding|bind their feet]] in the Han Chinese style.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|p=38}}

However, not all of Dorgon's policies were equally popular or as easy to implement. The controversial July 1645 [[Queue Order]] forced adult Han Chinese men to shave the front of their heads and comb the remaining hair into the [[Queue (hairstyle)|queue]] hairstyle which was worn by Manchu men, on pain of death.{{sfnp|Wakeman|1985|pp=646–650}} The popular description of the order was: "To keep the hair, you lose the head; To keep your head, you cut the hair."{{sfnp|Spence|2012|p=38}} To the Manchus, this policy was a test of loyalty and an aid in distinguishing friend from foe. For the Han Chinese, however, it was a humiliating reminder of Qing authority that challenged traditional Confucian values.{{sfnp|Wakeman|1985|p=648|loc=n. 183}} The order triggered strong resistance in [[Jiangnan]].{{sfnp|Wakeman|1985|pp=651–680}} In the ensuing unrest, some 100,000 Han were slaughtered.{{sfnp|Faure|2007|p=164}}{{sfnp|Ebrey|1993|p={{page needed|date=October 2010}}}}{{sfnp|Wakeman|1977|p=83}}
[[File:Qing Dynasty 1760.jpg|thumb|Qing expansion and [[Qing conquest of the Ming|conquest of the Ming]]]]
On 31 December 1650, Dorgon died suddenly, marking the start of the Shunzhi Emperor's personal rule. Because the emperor was only 12 years old at that time, most decisions were made on his behalf by his mother, [[Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang]], who turned out to be a skilled political operator. Although his support had been essential to Shunzhi's ascent, Dorgon had centralised so much power in his hands as to become a direct threat to the throne. So much so that upon his death he was bestowed the extraordinary posthumous title of Emperor Yi ({{lang|zh|義皇帝}}), the only instance in Qing history in which a Manchu "prince of the blood" ({{lang|zh|親王}}) was so honoured. Two months into Shunzhi's personal rule, however, Dorgon was not only stripped of his titles, but his corpse was disinterred and mutilated.{{refn|This event was recorded by Italian [[Jesuit]] Martin Martinius in his account ''{{lang|la|Bellum Tartaricum}}'' with original text in Latin, first published in Rome 1654. First English edition, London: John Crook, 1654.}} Dorgon's fall from grace also led to the purge of his family and associates at court. Shunzhi's promising start was cut short by his early death in 1661 at the age of 24 from [[smallpox]]. He was succeeded by his third son Xuanye, who reigned as the [[Kangxi Emperor]].

The Manchus sent Han bannermen to fight against Koxinga's Ming loyalists in Fujian.{{sfnp|Ho|2011|p=135}} They removed the population from coastal areas in order to deprive Koxinga's Ming loyalists of resources. This led to a misunderstanding that Manchus were afraid of water. Han bannermen carried out the fighting and killing, casting conquest of the Mingdoubt on the claim that fear of the water led to the coastal evacuation and ban on maritime activities.{{sfnp|Ho|2011|p=198}} Even though a poem refers to the soldiers carrying out massacres in Fujian as "barbarians", both Han [[Green Standard Army]] and Han bannermen were involved and carried out the worst slaughter.{{sfnp|Ho|2011|p=206}} 400,000 Green Standard Army soldiers were used against the Three Feudatories in addition to the 200,000 bannermen.{{sfnp|Ho|2011|p=307}}

===Kangxi Emperor's reign and consolidation===
{{see also|Revolt of the Three Feudatories|High Qing era}}
[[File:Portrait of the Kangxi Emperor in Court Dress.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|The [[Kangxi Emperor]] ({{reign|1661|1722}})]]
The 61-year reign of the [[Kangxi Emperor]] was the longest of any emperor in Chinese history, and marked the beginning of the [[High Qing era]], the zenith of the dynasty's social, economic and military power. The early Manchu rulers established two foundations of legitimacy that help to explain the stability of their dynasty. The first was the bureaucratic institutions and the [[neo-Confucian]] culture that they adopted from earlier dynasties.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=32–33}} Manchu rulers and Han Chinese [[scholar-official]] elites gradually came to terms with each other. The [[Imperial exams#Qing dynasty (1636–1912)|examination system]] offered a path for ethnic Han to become officials. Imperial patronage of the ''[[Kangxi Dictionary]]'' demonstrated respect for Confucian learning, while the [[Sacred Edict]] of 1670 effectively extolled Confucian family values. His attempts to discourage Chinese women from [[foot binding]], however, were unsuccessful.

The second major source of stability was the [[Inner Asia]]n aspect of their Manchu identity, which allowed them to appeal to the Mongol, Tibetan and Muslim subjects.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Kuzmin |first1=Sergius L. |last2=Dmitriev |first2=Sergey |year=2015 |title=Conquest dynasties of China or foreign empires? The problem of relations between China, Yuan and Qing |url=https://www.academia.edu/25907401 |journal=International Journal of Central Asian Studies |volume=19 |pages=59–92 |access-date=14 November 2017 |via=Academia}}</ref> Qing emperors adopted different images for these subjects in their multi-ethnic empire. The Qing used the title of Emperor (''Huangdi'' or ''hūwangdi''),<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Board of Rites and the Making of Qing China|author = Macabe Keliher|publisher = University of California Press|year = 2019|isbn = 9780520971769|page = 3}}</ref> along with [[Son of Heaven]] and ''[[Ejen]]'' in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Manchu language|Manchu]]. Like [[Kublai Khan]] of the Mongol-led [[Yuan dynasty]] and [[Yongle Emperor]] of the [[Ming dynasty]], Qing rulers like the [[Qianlong Emperor]] portrayed the image of themselves as [[Chakravarti (Sanskrit term)|Buddhist sage rulers]] (wheel-turning kings), patrons of [[Tibetan Buddhism]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Farquhar |first1=David |year=1978 |title=Emperor As Bodhisattva in the Governance of the Qing Empire |journal=Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=5–34 |doi=10.2307/2718931 |jstor=2718931}}</ref> to maintain legitimacy for Tibetan Buddhists.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kapstein |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1y8qAwAAQBAJ |title=Buddhism Between Tibet and China |publisher=Wisdom |year=2014 |isbn=9780861718061 |page=185}}</ref> Mongol subjects also commonly referred to the Qing ruler as [[Bogda Khan]],<ref>{{Cite book|title = China's Challenges and International Order Transition|author = Huiyun Feng|publisher = University of Michigan Press|year = 2020|isbn = 9780472131761|page = 151}}</ref> while Turkic Muslim subjects (now known as the [[Uyghurs]]) commonly referred to the Qing ruler as [[Khagan#Chinese khagans|Chinese khagan]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/s/saksaha/13401746.0012.004/--qing-dynasty-and-its-central-asian-neighbors?rgn=main;view=fulltext|title=The Qing Dynasty and Its Central Asian Neighbors |date=2014 |doi=10.3998/saksaha.13401746.0012.004 | access-date=September 17, 2023 |last1=Onuma |first1=Takahiro |journal=Saksaha: A Journal of Manchu Studies |volume=12 |doi-access=free |hdl=2027/spo.13401746.0012.004 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Kangxi's reign began when the young emperor was seven. To prevent a repeat of Dorgon's monopolising of power, on his deathbed his father hastily appointed four regents who were not closely related to the imperial family and had no claim to the throne. However, through chance and machination, [[Oboi]], the most junior of the four, gradually achieved such dominance as to be a potential threat. In 1669, Kangxi disarmed and imprisoned Oboi through trickery{{snd}}a significant victory for a fifteen-year-old emperor. The young emperor faced challenges in maintaining control of his kingdom, as well. Three Ming generals singled out for their contributions to the establishment of the dynasty had been granted governorships in southern China. They became increasingly autonomous, leading to the [[Revolt of the Three Feudatories]], which lasted for eight years. Kangxi was able to unify his forces for a counterattack led by a new generation of Manchu generals. By 1681, the Qing government had established control over a ravaged southern China, which took several decades to recover.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=48–51}}

[[File:The Emperor at the Kherlen river.jpg|thumb|The Qing army in [[Khalkha]] (1688)]]
To extend and consolidate the dynasty's control in Central Asia, the Kangxi Emperor personally led a series of military campaigns against the [[Dzungars]] in [[Outer Mongolia]]. The Kangxi Emperor expelled [[Galdan]]'s invading forces from these regions, which were then incorporated into the empire. In 1683, Qing forces received the surrender of [[Formosa]] (Taiwan) from [[Zheng Keshuang]], grandson of [[Koxinga]], who had conquered Taiwan from the [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] colonists as a base against the Qing. Winning Taiwan freed Kangxi's forces for a series of battles over [[Albazin]], the far eastern outpost of the [[Tsardom of Russia]]. The 1689 [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]] was China's first formal treaty with a European power and kept the border peaceful for the better part of two centuries. Galdan was ultimately killed in the [[Dzungar–Qing War]];{{sfnp|Perdue|2005}} after his death, his Tibetan Buddhist followers attempted to control the choice of the next [[Dalai Lama]]. Kangxi dispatched two armies to [[Lhasa (prefecture-level city)|Lhasa]], the capital of Tibet, and installed a Dalai Lama sympathetic to the Qing.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=62–66}}

===Reigns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors===
[[File:Budala5.jpg|thumb|The [[Putuo Zongcheng Temple]] in [[Chengde]], built during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor on the model of the [[Potala Palace]] in [[Lhasa]]]]

The reigns of the [[Yongzheng Emperor]] ({{reign|1723|1735}}) and his son, the [[Qianlong Emperor]] ({{reign|1735|1796}}), marked the height of Qing power. However, the historian Jonathan Spence notes that the empire at the end of Qianlong's reign was "like the sun at midday". Despite "many glories", "signs of decay and even collapse were becoming apparent".{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=97, 101}}

After the death of the Kangxi Emperor in the winter of 1722, his fourth son, Prince Yong ({{lang|zh|雍親王}}), became the Yongzheng Emperor. He felt a sense of urgency about the problems that had accumulated in his father's later years.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|p=72}} In the words of one recent historian, he was "severe, suspicious, and jealous, but extremely capable and resourceful",{{sfnp|Hsü|1990|p=35}} and in the words of another, he turned out to be an "early modern state-maker of the first order".{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p=68}} First, he promoted Confucian orthodoxy and cracked down on unorthodox sects. In 1723, he outlawed Christianity and expelled most Christian missionaries.{{sfnp|Hsü|1990|pp=35–37}} He expanded his father's system of [[Official Communications of the Chinese Empire#Memorials|Palace Memorials]], which brought frank and detailed reports on local conditions directly to the throne without being intercepted by the bureaucracy, and he created a small [[Grand Council (Qing dynasty)|Grand Council]] of personal advisors, which eventually grew into the emperor's de facto cabinet for the rest of the dynasty. He shrewdly filled key positions with Manchu and Han Chinese officials who depended on his patronage. When he began to realise the extent of the financial crisis, Yongzheng rejected his father's lenient approach to local elites and enforced collection of the land tax. The increased revenues were to be used for "money to nourish honesty" among local officials and for local irrigation, schools, roads, and charity. Although these reforms were effective in the north, in the south and lower Yangtze valley there were long-established networks of officials and landowners. Yongzheng dispatched experienced Manchu commissioners to penetrate the thickets of falsified land registers and coded account books, but they were met with tricks, passivity, and even violence. The fiscal crisis persisted.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=80–83}}
[[File:Battle of Oroi-Jalatu.jpg|thumb|Campaign against the [[Dzungar Khanate]] in the [[Dzungar–Qing Wars|Qing conquest of Xinjiang]] (1755–1758)]]

Yongzheng also inherited diplomatic and strategic problems. A team made up entirely of Manchus drew up the 1727 [[Treaty of Kyakhta]] to solidify the diplomatic understanding with Russia. In exchange for territory and trading rights, the Qing would have a free hand in dealing with the situation in Mongolia. Yongzheng then turned to that situation, where the Zunghars threatened to re-emerge, and to the southwest, where local [[Miao people|Miao]] chieftains resisted Qing expansion. These campaigns drained the treasury but established the emperor's control of the military and military finance.{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=83, 86}}

[[File:LordMacartneyEmbassyToChina1793.jpg|thumb|[[George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney|Lord Macartney]] saluting the Qianlong Emperor]]
When the Yongzheng Emperor died in 1735, his son Prince Bao ({{lang|zh|寶親王}}) became the Qianlong Emperor. Qianlong personally led the [[Ten Great Campaigns]] to expand military control into present-day [[Xinjiang]] and [[Mongolia]], putting down revolts and uprisings in [[Sichuan]] and southern China while expanding control over Tibet. The Qianlong Emperor launched several ambitious cultural projects, including the compilation of the ''[[Siku Quanshu]]'', the largest collection of books in Chinese history. Nevertheless, Qianlong used the [[literary inquisition]] to silence opposition.<ref>{{Cite news |script-title=zh:康乾盛世"的文化專制與文字獄 |url=https://big5.china.com.cn/city/txt/2007-03/08/content_7927803.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105193242/http://big5.china.com.cn/city/txt/2007-03/08/content_7927803.htm |archive-date=5 January 2009 |access-date=2008-12-30 |work=china.com |language=zh}}</ref> Beneath outward prosperity and imperial confidence, the later years of Qianlong's reign were marked by rampant corruption and neglect. [[Heshen]], the emperor's handsome young favorite, took advantage of the emperor's indulgence to become one of the most corrupt officials in the history of the dynasty.<ref>Schoppa, R. Keith. ''Revolution and its Past: Identities and Change in Modern Chinese History''. Pearson Hall, 2010, pp. 42–43.</ref> Qianlong's son, the [[Jiaqing Emperor]] ({{reign|1796|1820}}), eventually forced Heshen to commit suicide.
[[File:Xu Yang - Commerce on the water.jpg|thumb|''[[Prosperous Suzhou]]'' (1759) by [[Xu Yang (Qing dynasty)|Xu Yang]]]]

Populations in the first half of the 17th century did not recover from civil wars and epidemics, but the following years of prosperity and stability led to steady growth. The Qianlong Emperor bemoaned the situation by remarking, "The population continues to grow, but the land does not." The introduction of new crops from the Americas such as the potato and peanut improved nutrition as well, so that the population during the 18th century ballooned from 100&nbsp;million to 300&nbsp;million people. Soon farmers were forced to work ever-smaller holdings more intensely.

In 1796, the [[White Lotus Society]] raised open rebellion, saying "the officials have forced the people to rebel". Others blamed officials in various parts of the country for corruption, failing to keep the famine relief granaries full, poor maintenance of roads and waterworks, and bureaucratic factionalism. There soon followed uprisings of "new sect" Muslims against local Muslim officials, and Miao tribesmen in southwest China. The [[White Lotus Rebellion]] continued until 1804, when badly run, corrupt, and brutal campaigns finally ended it.{{sfnp|Spence|1990|pp=112, 114, 116}}

===Rebellion, unrest, and external pressure===
[[File:Destroying Chinese war junks, by E. Duncan (1843).jpg|thumb|British Steamship destroying Chinese war [[junks]] (E. Duncan; 1843)]]

During the early Qing, China continued to be the hegemonic imperial power in East Asia. Although there was no formal ministry of foreign relations, the [[Lifan Yuan]] was responsible for relations with the Mongols and Tibetans in Inner Asia, while the [[Tributary system of China|tributary system]], a loose set of institutions and customs taken over from the Ming, in theory governed relations with East and Southeast Asian countries. The 1689 [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]] stabilised relations with the [[Tsardom of Russia]]. However, during the 18th century, European empires gradually expanded across the world and developed economies predicated on maritime trade, colonial extraction, and technological advances. The dynasty was confronted with [[Westphalian sovereignty|newly developing concepts of the international system]] and state-to-state relations. European trading posts expanded into territorial control in what is now India and Indonesia. The Qing response was to establish the [[Canton System]] in 1756, which restricted maritime trade to [[Guangzhou]] and gave monopoly trading rights to [[Hong (business)|private Chinese merchants]]. This was successful for a time, and the [[British East India Company]] and the [[Dutch East India Company]] had long before been granted similar monopoly rights by their governments.

In 1793, the British East India Company, with the support of the British government, sent a [[Macartney Mission|diplomatic mission]] to China led by [[George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney|Lord Macartney]] in order to open trade and put relations on a basis of equality. The imperial court viewed trade as of secondary interest, whereas the British saw maritime trade as the key to their economy. The Qianlong Emperor told Macartney "the kings of the myriad nations come by land and sea with all sorts of precious things", and "consequently there is nothing we lack..."{{sfnp|Têng|Fairbank|1979|p=19}}
[[File:Foreign factory site.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|View of the Canton River, showing the [[Thirteen Factories]] in the background (1850–1855)]]

Since China had little demand for European goods, Europe paid in silver for Chinese goods, an imbalance that worried the [[mercantilist]] governments of Britain and France. The [[History of opium in China|growing Chinese demand for opium]] provided the remedy. The British East India Company greatly expanded its production in Bengal. The [[Daoguang Emperor]], concerned both over the outflow of silver and the damage that opium smoking was causing to his subjects, ordered [[Lin Zexu]] to end the opium trade. Lin confiscated the stocks of opium without compensation in 1839, leading Britain to send a military expedition the following year. The [[First Opium War]] revealed the outdated state of the Chinese military. The Qing navy, composed entirely of wooden sailing [[junks]], was severely outclassed by the modern tactics and firepower of the [[British Royal Navy]]. British soldiers, using advanced muskets and artillery, easily outmaneuvered and outgunned Qing forces in ground battles. The Qing surrender in 1842 marked a decisive, humiliating blow. The [[Treaty of Nanjing]], the first of the "[[unequal treaties]]", demanded war reparations, forced China to open up the [[Treaty Ports]] of [[Shamian Island|Canton]], [[Amoy]], [[Fuzhou]], [[Ningbo]] and [[Shanghai]] to Western trade and missionaries, and to cede [[Hong Kong Island]] to Britain. It revealed weaknesses in the Qing government and provoked rebellions against the regime.

The [[Taiping Rebellion]] (1849–1864) was the first major [[anti-Manchu sentiment|anti-Manchu movement]]. Amid widespread social unrest and worsening famine, the rebellion not only posed the most serious threat to Qing rule, but during its 14-year course, between 20 and 30&nbsp;million people died.{{sfnp|Platt|2012|p=xxii}} The rebellion began under the leadership of [[Hong Xiuquan]] (1814–1864), a disappointed civil service examination candidate who, influenced by reading the [[Old Testament]] in translation, had a series of visions and announced himself to be the son of God, the younger brother of Jesus Christ, sent to reform China.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Taiping Rebellion |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Taiping-Rebellion |access-date=2021-11-07}}</ref> In 1851, Hong launched an uprising in [[Guizhou]] and established the [[Taiping Heavenly Kingdom]] with himself as its king. Within this kingdom, slavery, concubinage, arranged marriage, opium smoking, footbinding, judicial torture, and the worship of idols were all banned. However, success led to internal feuds, defections and corruption. In addition, British and French troops, equipped with modern weapons, had come to the assistance of the Qing army. Nonetheless, it was not until 1864 that Qing forces under [[Zeng Guofan]] succeeded in crushing the revolt. After the outbreak of this rebellion, there were also revolts by the [[Hui people|Muslims]] and [[Miao people]] of China against the Qing, most notably in the [[Miao Rebellion (1854–1873)|Miao Rebellion]] (1854–1873) in [[Guizhou]], the [[Panthay Rebellion]] (1856–1873) in [[Yunnan]], and the [[Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)|Dungan Revolt]] (1862–1877) in the northwest.
[[File:Regaining the Provincial Capital of Ruizhou.jpg|thumb|Qing forces defeating Taiping armies]]

The Western powers, largely unsatisfied with the Treaty of Nanjing, gave grudging support to the Qing government during the Taiping and Nian rebellions. China's income fell sharply during the wars as vast areas of farmland were destroyed, millions of lives were lost, and countless armies were raised and equipped to fight the rebels. In 1854, Britain tried to re-negotiate the Treaty of Nanjing, inserting clauses allowing British commercial access to Chinese rivers and the creation of a permanent British embassy at Beijing.

[[File:Prince Gong.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Prince Gong|Yixin, Prince Gong]]]]
In 1856, Qing authorities, in searching for a pirate, boarded a ship, the ''Arrow'', which the British claimed had been flying the British flag, an incident which led to the [[Second Opium War]]. In 1858, facing no other options, the [[Xianfeng Emperor]] agreed to the [[Treaty of Tientsin]], which contained clauses deeply insulting to the Chinese, such as a demand that all official Chinese documents be written in English and a proviso granting British warships unlimited access to all navigable Chinese rivers.

Ratification of the treaty in the following year led to a resumption of hostilities. In 1860, with Anglo-French forces marching on Beijing, the emperor and his court fled the capital for the [[Chengde Mountain Resort|imperial hunting lodge at Rehe]]. Once in Beijing, the Anglo-French forces looted and burned the [[Old Summer Palace]] and, in an act of revenge for the arrest, torture, and execution of the English diplomatic mission.{{sfnp|Hevia|2003}} [[Prince Gong]], a younger half-brother of the emperor, who had been left as his brother's proxy in the capital, was forced to sign the [[Convention of Beijing]]. The humiliated emperor died the following year at Rehe.

===Self-strengthening and frustration of reforms===
Following the death of the Xianfeng Emperor in 1861, and the accession of the 5-year-old [[Tongzhi Emperor]], the Qing rallied. In the [[Tongzhi Restoration]], Han Chinese officials such as [[Zuo Zongtang]] stood behind the Manchus and organised provincial troops. [[Zeng Guofan]], in alliance with Prince Gong, sponsored the rise of younger officials such as [[Li Hongzhang]], who put the dynasty back on its feet financially and instituted the [[Self-Strengthening Movement]], which adopted Western military technology in order to preserve Confucian values.Their institutional reforms included China's first unified ministry of foreign affairs in the [[Zongli Yamen]], allowing foreign diplomats to reside in the capital, the establishment of the [[Imperial Maritime Customs Service]], the institution of modern navy and army forces including the [[Beiyang Army]], and the purchase of armament factories from the Europeans.{{sfnp|Wright|1969|pp=196–221}}

The dynasty gradually lost control of its peripheral territories. In return for promises of support against the British and the French, the [[Russian Empire]] took large chunks of territory in the Northeast in 1860. The period of cooperation between the reformers and the European powers ended with the 1870 [[Tianjin Massacre]], which was incited by the murder of French nuns set off by the belligerence of local French diplomats. Starting with the [[Cochinchina Campaign]] in 1858, France expanded control of Indochina. By 1883, France was in full control of the region and had reached the Chinese border. The [[Sino-French War]] began with a surprise attack by the French on the Chinese southern fleet at Fuzhou. After that the Chinese declared war on the French. A [[Keelung Campaign|French invasion of Taiwan was halted]] and the French were defeated on land in Tonkin at the [[Battle of Bang Bo]]. However Japan threatened to enter the war against China due to the Gapsin Coup and China chose to end the war with negotiations. The war ended in 1885 with the [[Treaty of Tientsin (1885)|Treaty of Tientsin]] and the Chinese recognition of the French protectorate in Vietnam.{{sfnp|Hsü|1990|pp=328–330}} Some Russian and Chinese [[Gold mining|gold miners]] also established a short-lived [[proto-state]] known as the [[Zheltuga Republic]] (1883–1886) in the [[Amur River]] basin, which was however soon crushed by the Qing forces.<ref>{{Cite web |title=California on the Amur, or the 'Zheltuga Republic' in Manchuria (1883–86) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291758359 |access-date=September 9, 2023}}</ref>

In 1884, Qing China obtained concessions in [[Korea]], such as the [[Chinese concession of Incheon]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fuchs |first=Eckhardt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pZlBDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA97 |title=A New Modern History of East Asia |publisher=V&R |year=2017 |isbn=9783737007085 |page=97}}</ref> but the pro-Japanese Koreans in [[Seoul]] led the [[Gapsin Coup]]. Tensions between China and Japan rose after China intervened to suppress the uprising. The Japanese prime minister [[Itō Hirobumi]] and Li Hongzhang signed the [[Convention of Tientsin]], an agreement to withdraw troops simultaneously, but the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] of 1895 was a military humiliation. The [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]] recognised Korean independence and ceded Taiwan and the [[Pescadores]] to Japan. The terms might have been harsher, but when a Japanese citizen attacked and wounded Li Hongzhang, an international outcry shamed the Japanese into revising them. The original agreement stipulated the cession of [[Liaodong Peninsula]] to Japan, but Russia, with its own designs on the territory, along with Germany and France, in the [[Triple Intervention]], successfully put pressure on the Japanese to abandon the peninsula.
[[File:Empress-Dowager-Cixi1.jpg|thumb|upright|Oil painting of Empress Dowager Cixi by [[Hubert Vos]] ({{circa|1905|lk=no}})]]

These years saw the participation of [[Empress Dowager Cixi]] in state affairs. Cixi initially entered the imperial palace in the 1850s as a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor, and became the mother of the future Tongzhi Emperor. Following his accession at the age of five, Cixi, Xianfeng's widow [[Empress Dowager Ci'an]], and Prince Gong (a son of the Daoguang Emperor), staged [[Xinyou Coup|a coup]] that ousted several of the Tongzhi Emperor's regents. Between 1861 and 1873, Cixi and Ci'an served as regents together; following the emperor's death in 1875, Cixi's nephew, the [[Guangxu Emperor]], took the throne in violation of the custom that the new emperor be of the next generation, and another regency began. Ci'an suddenly died in the spring of 1881, leaving Cixi as sole regent.{{sfnp|Crossley|2010|p=117}}

From 1889, when Guangxu began to rule in his own right, until 1898, the Empress Dowager lived in semi-retirement, spending the majority of the year at the [[Summer Palace]]. In 1897, two German Roman Catholic missionaries were murdered in southern [[Shandong province]] (the [[Juye Incident]]). Germany used the murders as a pretext for a naval occupation of [[Jiaozhou Bay]]. The occupation prompted a [[Scramble for China]] in 1898, which included the [[Kiautschou Bay concession|German lease of Jiaozhou Bay]], the [[Kwantung Leased Territory|Russian lease of Liaodong]], the [[Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory|British lease of the New Territories of Hong Kong]], and the [[Leased Territory of Guangzhouwan|French lease of Guangzhouwan]].
[[File:China imperialism cartoon.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|Britain]], [[German Empire|Germany]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], [[French Third Republic|France]], and Japan dividing China]]

In the wake of these external defeats, the Guangxu Emperor initiated the [[Hundred Days' Reform]] in 1898. Newer, more radical advisers such as [[Kang Youwei]] were given positions of influence. The emperor issued a series of edicts and plans were made to reorganise the bureaucracy, restructure the school system, and appoint new officials. Opposition from the bureaucracy was immediate and intense. Although she had been involved in the initial reforms, the Empress Dowager [[Wuxu Coup|stepped in to call them off]], arrested and executed several reformers, and took over day-to-day control of policy. Yet many of the plans stayed in place, and the goals of reform were implanted.{{sfnp|Reynolds|1993|pp=35–36}}
[[File:Within historic grounds of the Forbidden City in Pekin, China, on November 28 celebrated the victory of the Allies., ca. - NARA - 532582.jpg|thumb|The foreign armies of the [[Eight-Nation Alliance]] celebrating their victory in the [[Battle of Peking (1900)|Battle of Peking]], within the walls of the [[Forbidden City]] on 28 November 1900]]

Drought in North China, combined with the imperialist designs of European powers and the instability of the Qing government, created background conditions for the [[Boxer Rebellion|Boxers]]. In 1900, local groups of Boxers proclaiming support for the Qing dynasty murdered foreign missionaries and large numbers of Chinese Christians, then converged on Beijing to besiege the Foreign Legation Quarter. A coalition of European, Japanese, and Russian armies (the [[Eight-Nation Alliance]]) then entered China without diplomatic notice, much less permission. Cixi declared war on all of these nations, only to lose control of Beijing after a short, but hard-fought campaign. She fled to [[Xi'an]]. The victorious allies then enforced their demands on the Qing government, including compensation for their expenses in invading China and execution of complicit officials, via the [[Boxer Protocol]].{{sfnp|Spence|2012|pp=223–225}}

===Reform, revolution, collapse===
[[File:YuanShikaiPresidente1915.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Yuan Shikai]]]]
[[File:China 1911 en.svg|thumb|Qing territory in 1911]]
The defeat by Japan in 1895 created a sense of crisis which the failure of the 1898 reforms and the disasters of 1900 only exacerbated. Cixi in 1901 moved to mollify the foreign community, called for reform proposals, and initiated the [[Late Qing reforms]]. Over the next few years the reforms included the restructuring of the national education, judicial, and fiscal systems, the most dramatic of which was the abolition of the imperial examination system in 1905.{{sfnp|Reynolds|1993|pp=5–11}} The court directed [[Preparative Constitutionalism|a constitution to be drafted]], and [[1909 Chinese provincial elections|provincial elections]] were held, the first in China's history.{{sfnp|Hsü|1990|pp=412–416}} Sun Yat-sen and revolutionaries debated reform officials and constitutional monarchists such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao over how to transform the Manchu-ruled empire into a modernised Han Chinese state.{{sfnp|Rhoads|2000|p=121 ff}}

[[File:2ndPrinceChun1.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Zaifeng, Prince Chun]]]]
The Guangxu Emperor died on 14 November 1908, and Cixi died the following day. [[Puyi]], the oldest son of [[Zaifeng, Prince Chun]], and nephew to the childless Guangxu Emperor, was appointed successor at the age of two, leaving Zaifeng with the regency. Zaifeng forced Yuan Shikai to resign. The Qing dynasty became a [[constitutional monarchy]] on 8 May 1911, when Zaifeng created a "responsible cabinet" led by [[Yikuang]], Prince Qing. However, it became known as the "[[Cabinet of Prince Qing|royal cabinet]]", as five of its thirteen members, were part of or related to the royal family.<ref>Chien-nung Li, Jiannong Li, Ssŭ-yü Têng, "The political history of China, 1840–1928", p. 234</ref>

The [[Wuchang Uprising]] on 10 October 1911 set off a series of uprisings. By November, 14 of the 22 provinces had rejected Qing rule. This led to the creation of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]], in [[Nanjing]] on 1 January 1912, with [[Sun Yat-sen]] as its provisional head. Seeing a desperate situation, the Qing court brought Yuan Shikai back to power. His [[Beiyang Army]] crushed the revolutionaries in Wuhan at the [[Battle of Yangxia]]. After taking the position of [[Chancellor (China)|Prime Minister]] he created [[Cabinet of Yuan Shikai|his own cabinet]], with the support of [[Empress Dowager Longyu]]. However, Yuan Shikai decided to cooperate with Sun Yat-sen's revolutionaries to overthrow the Qing dynasty.
[[File:Pitched battle between the imperial and revolutionary army Wellcome L0040013.jpg|thumb|A pitched battle between the imperial and revolutionary armies in 1911]]

On 12 February 1912, Longyu issued the [[Puyi#Abdication|abdication]] of the child emperor Puyi leading to the fall of the Qing dynasty under the pressure of Yuan Shikai's Beiyang army despite objections from [[Royalist Party|conservatives]] and royalist reformers.{{sfnp|Billingsley|1988|pp=56–59}} This brought an end to over 2,000 years imperial governance in China, and began a period of instability. In July 1917, there was an [[Manchu Restoration|abortive attempt]] to restore the Qing led by [[Zhang Xun]]. Puyi was allowed to live in the Forbidden City after his abdication until 1924, when he moved to the [[Foreign concessions in Tianjin#Japanese concession (1898–1945)|Japanese concession in Tianjin]]. The Empire of Japan [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria|invaded Northeast China]] and founded [[Manchukuo]] there in 1932, with Puyi as its [[Emperor of Manchukuo|emperor]]. After the [[Soviet invasion of Manchuria|invasion of Northeast China]] to fight Japan by the [[Soviet Union]], Manchukuo fell in 1945.

==Government==
{{Main|Government of the Qing dynasty}}
{{see also|List of diplomatic missions of the Qing dynasty}}
[[File:Qing Dynasty Mandarin.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A Qing dynasty mandarin]]
The early Qing emperors adopted the bureaucratic structures and institutions from the Ming, but split rule between Han and Manchus, with some positions also given to [[Mongols]].{{sfnp|Spence|2012|p=39}} Like previous dynasties, the Qing recruited officials via the [[imperial examination system]], until the system was abolished in 1905. The Qing divided the positions into civil and military positions, each having nine grades or ranks, each subdivided into a and b categories. Civil appointments ranged from an attendant to the emperor or a Grand Secretary in the Forbidden City (highest) to being a prefectural tax collector, deputy jail warden, deputy police commissioner, or tax examiner. Military appointments ranged from being a field marshal or chamberlain of the imperial bodyguard to a third class sergeant, corporal or a first or second class private.{{sfnp|Jackson|Hugus|1999|pp=134–135}}

While the Qing dynasty tried to maintain the traditional [[tributary system of China]], by the 19th century Qing China had become part of a European-style community of [[sovereign state]]s{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=211}} and established official [[diplomatic relations]] with [[Dates of establishment of diplomatic relations with the Qing dynasty|more than twenty countries around the world]] before its downfall, and since the 1870s it established [[legation]]s and [[consulate]]s.

===Central government agencies===
The formal structure of the Qing government centred on the Emperor as the absolute ruler, who presided over six Boards (Ministries{{efn|{{lang-zh|c=六部|p=lìubù|links=no}}}}), each headed by two presidents{{efn|{{zhi|first=t|t=尚書|s=尚书|p=shàngshū}}; {{Lang-mnc|m={{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᠠᠯᡳᡥᠠ<br />ᠠᠮᠪᠠᠨ}} |v=aliha amban|a=aliha amban}}}} and assisted by four vice presidents.{{efn|{{zhi|p=shìláng|c=侍郎}}; {{Lang-mnc|m={{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᠠᠰᡥᠠᠨ ᡳ<br />ᠠᠮᠪᠠᠨ}} |v=ashan i amban|a=ashan-i amban}}}} In contrast to the Ming system, however, Qing ethnic policy dictated that appointments were split between Manchu noblemen and Han officials who had passed the highest levels of the [[Imperial examination|state examinations]]. The [[Grand Secretariat]],{{efn|{{zhi|first=t|p=nèigé|t=內閣|s=内阁}}; {{Lang-mnc|m={{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᡩᠣᡵᡤᡳ<br />ᠶᠠᠮᡠᠨ}} |v=dorgi yamun|a=dorgi yamun}}}} which had been an important policy-making body under the Ming, lost its importance during the Qing and evolved into an imperial [[Chancery (medieval office)|chancery]]. The institutions which had been inherited from the Ming formed the core of the Qing "[[Outer Court]]", which handled routine matters and was located in the southern part of the [[Forbidden City]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhu |first=Jianfei |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zk8IeVWD210C&dq=%22qing%22+%22outer+court%22&pg=PA133 |title=Chinese Spatial Strategies: Imperial Beijing, 1420–1911 |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-36620-0 |page=133}}</ref>
[[File:The emperor of China from 'The Universal Traveller'.jpg|thumb|upright|''The emperor of China from The Universal Traveller'']]

In order not to let the routine administration take over the running of the empire, the Qing emperors made sure that all important matters were decided in the "[[Inner Court]]", which was dominated by the imperial family and Manchu nobility and which was located in the northern part of the Forbidden City. The core institution of the inner court was the [[Grand Council (Qing dynasty)|Grand Council]].{{efn|{{zhi|first=t|p=jūnjī chù|t=軍機處|s=军机处}}; {{Lang-mnc|m={{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᠴᠣᡠ᠋ᡥᠠᡳ<br />ᠨᠠᠰᡥᡡᠨ ᡳ<br />ᠪᠠ}} |v=coohai nashūn i ba|a=qouhai nashvn-i ba}}}} It emerged in the 1720s under the reign of the [[Yongzheng Emperor]] as a body charged with handling Qing military campaigns against the Mongols, but soon took over other military and administrative duties, centralising authority under the crown.{{sfnp|Bartlett|1991}} The Grand Councillors{{efn|{{lang-zh|first=t|p=jūnjī dàchén|t=軍機大臣|s=军机大臣|links=no}}}} served as a sort of [[privy council]] to the emperor.
[[File:Qing Dynasty-2000 wen-1859.jpg|thumb|upright|2000–[[Chinese cash (currency)|cash]] [[Great Qing Treasure Note]] banknote from 1859]]

From the early Qing, the central government was characterised by a system of dual appointments by which each position in the central government had a Manchu and a Han Chinese assigned to it. The Han Chinese appointee was required to do the substantive work and the Manchu to ensure Han loyalty to Qing rule.<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Rise of the Manchus |url=https://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/imperial3.html#regain |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218120420/http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/imperial3.html#regain |archive-date=18 December 2008 |access-date=2008-10-19 |publisher=University of Maryland}}</ref> While the Qing government was established as an [[absolute monarchy]] like previous dynasties in China, by the early 20th century however the Qing court began to move towards a [[constitutional monarchy]],<ref>{{Cite book |first=Albert H. Y. |last=Chen |title=The Changing Legal Orders in Hong Kong and Mainland China |publisher=City University of Hong Kong Press |year=2021 |isbn=9789629374501 |page=372}}</ref> with government bodies like the [[Advisory Council (Qing dynasty)|Advisory Council]] established and a [[1909 Chinese parliamentary election|parliamentary election]] to [[Preparative Constitutionalism|prepare for a constitutional government]].<ref>{{Cite book |first=David |last=Atwill |title=Sources in Chinese History: Diverse Perspectives from 1644 to the Present |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2021 |isbn=9780429560347 |page=272}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=Jianlang |author-mask=Wang Jianlang (王建朗) |script-title=zh:两岸新编中国近代史．晚清卷 |publisher=Shehui kexuewen xianchubanshe |year=2016 |page=530 |language=zh}}</ref>

There was also another government institution called [[Imperial Household Department]] which was unique to the Qing dynasty. It was established before the fall of the Ming, but it became mature only after 1661, following the death of the [[Shunzhi Emperor]] and the accession of his son, the [[Kangxi Emperor]].{{sfnp|Rawski|1998|p=179}} The department's original purpose was to manage the internal affairs of the imperial family and the activities of the [[Forbidden City#Inner Court or the Northern Section|inner palace]] (in which tasks it largely replaced [[Chinese eunuch|eunuchs]]), but it also played an important role in Qing relations with [[History of Tibet#Khoshuts, Zunghars, and Manchus|Tibet]] and [[Mongolia during Qing rule|Mongolia]], engaged in trading activities (jade, [[ginseng]], salt, furs, etc.), managed textile factories in the [[Jiangnan]] region, and even published books.{{sfnp|Rawski|1998|pp=179–180}} [[Salt in Chinese History#Prosperity, culture, corruption, reform in the Qing dynasty|Relations with the Salt Superintendents and salt merchants]], such as those at Yangzhou, were particularly lucrative, especially since they were direct, and did not go through absorptive layers of bureaucracy. The department was manned by ''[[Booi Aha|booi]]'',{{efn|{{lang-zh|p=bāoyī|c=包衣|links=no}}; {{Lang-mnc|m={{ManchuSibeUnicode|lang=mnc|ᠪᠣᡠ᠋ᡳ}} |v=booi|a=boui}}}} or "bondservants", from the Upper Three [[Eight Banners|Banners]].{{sfnp|Torbert|1977|p=27}} By the 19th century, it managed the activities of at least 56 subagencies.{{sfnp|Rawski|1998|p=179}}{{sfnp|Torbert|1977|p=28}}

=== Military ===
{{main|Military of the Qing dynasty}}
[[File:Great Rear Attack by Our Second Army at Weihaiwei.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|Japanese troops defeat Qing forces in Korea 1895.]]

The Qing dynasty was established by conquest and maintained by armed force. The founding emperors personally organised and led the armies, and the continued cultural and political legitimacy of the dynasty depended on the ability to defend the country from invasion and expand its territory. Therefore, military institutions, leadership, and finance were fundamental to the dynasty's initial success and ultimate decay. The early military system centred on the [[Eight Banners]], a hybrid institution that also played social, economic, and political roles.{{sfn|Elliott|2001|p=40}} The Banner system was developed on an informal basis as early as 1601, and formally established in 1615 by [[Jurchen people|Jurchen]] leader [[Nurhaci]] (1559–1626), the retrospectively recognised founder of the Qing. His son [[Hong Taiji]] (1592–1643), who renamed the Jurchens "[[Manchu people|Manchus]]," created eight Mongol banners to mirror the Manchu ones and eight "Han-martial" ({{Lang-zh|c=|s=|t={{linktext|??}}|p=Hànjun|labels=no}}) banners manned by Chinese who surrendered to the Qing before the full-fledged [[Qing conquest of Ming|conquest of China proper]] began in 1644. After 1644, the Ming Chinese troops that surrendered to the Qing were integrated into the [[Green Standard Army]], a corps that eventually outnumbered the Banners by three to one.

The use of gunpowder during the [[High Qing]] can compete with the three [[gunpowder empires]] in western Asia.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA95#v=onepage&q&f=false Millward 2007], p. 95.</ref> Manchu imperial princes led the Banners in defeating the Ming armies, but after lasting peace was established starting in 1683, both the Banners and the Green Standard Armies started to lose their efficiency. Garrisoned in cities, soldiers had few occasions to drill. The Qing nonetheless used superior armament and logistics to expand deeply into Central Asia, defeat the [[Dzungar people|Dzungar Mongols]] in 1759, and complete their conquest of [[Xinjiang]]. Despite the dynasty's pride in the [[Ten Great Campaigns]] of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), the Qing armies became largely ineffective by the end of the 18th century. It took almost ten years and huge financial waste to defeat the badly equipped [[White Lotus Rebellion]] (1795–1804), partly by legitimizing militias led by local Han Chinese elites. The [[Taiping Rebellion]] (1850–1864), a large-scale uprising that started in southern China, marched within miles of Beijing in 1853. The Qing court was forced to let its Han Chinese [[Zongdu|governors-general]], first led by [[Zeng Guofan]], raise regional armies. This new type of army and leadership defeated the rebels but signaled the end of Manchu dominance of the military establishment.[[File:Qing new army 1905.jpg|thumb|The [[New Army]]]]

The military technology of the European [[Industrial Revolution]] made China's armament and military rapidly obsolete. In 1860 British and French forces in the [[Second Opium War]] captured Beijing and sacked the [[Old Summer Palace|Summer Palace]]. The shaken court attempted to modernise its military and industrial institutions by buying European technology. This [[Self-Strengthening Movement]] established [[shipyard]]s (notably the [[Jiangnan Shipyard#Kiangnan Arsenal|Jiangnan Arsenal]] and the [[Foochow Arsenal]]) and bought modern guns and battleships in Europe. The Qing navy became the largest in East Asia. But organisation and logistics were inadequate, officer training was deficient, and corruption widespread. The [[Beiyang Fleet]] was virtually destroyed and the modernised ground forces defeated in the 1895 [[First Sino-Japanese War]]. The Qing created a [[New Army]], but could not prevent the [[Eight Nation Alliance]] from invading China to put down the [[Boxer Rebellion|Boxer Uprising]] in 1900. The [[Wuchang Uprising|revolt]] of a New Army corps in 1911 led to the [[Xinhai Revolution|fall of the dynasty]].

===Administrative divisions===
[[File:China Proper Map William Mackenzie c1866.png|thumb|The Eighteen Provinces of [[China proper]] in 1875]]
[[File:Empire Chinois, Japon (1832).jpg|thumb|Qing China in 1832]]
{{main|Administrative divisions of the Qing dynasty}}
{{further|Administration of territory in dynastic China#Qing dynasty (1644–1912)}}
[[File:Qing Dynasty 1820.png|thumb|Qing territory {{circa|1820}}, with provinces in yellow, military governorates and protectorates in light yellow, tributary states in orange]]
The Qing reached its largest extent during the 18th century, when it ruled China proper (eighteen provinces) as well as the areas of present-day [[Northeast China]], [[Inner Mongolia]], [[Outer Mongolia]], [[Xinjiang]] and [[Tibet]], at approximately {{cvt|13000000|sqkm}} in size. There were originally 18 provinces, all in China proper, but this number was later increased to 22, with Manchuria and Xinjiang being divided or turned into provinces. [[Taiwan]], originally part of [[Fujian]], became a province of its own in the 19th century,<ref>Davidson, James W. (1903). ''The Island of Formosa, Past and Present : history, people, resources, and commercial prospects : tea, camphor, sugar, gold, coal, sulphur, economical plants, and other productions''. London and New York: Macmillan. {{OL|6931635M}}. pp. 247, 620.</ref> but was ceded to Japan following the [[First Sino-Japanese War]] in 1895.<ref>"Treaty of Peace between China and Japan (Treaty of Shimonoseki)". Ch'ing Dynasty Treaties and Agreements Preserved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (Taiwan). National Palace Museum. 17 April 1895. 中國將管理下開地方之權並將該地方所有堡壘軍器工廠及一切屬公物件永遠讓於日本...台湾全岛及所有附属各岛屿...澎湖列岛 [China shall yield to Japan in perpetuity the rights to administer the following regions as well as all fortresses, munition factories, and public properties thereof ... the entire island of Taiwan and all appertaining islands ... Penghu archipelago]</ref>

===Territorial administration===
The Qing organisation of [[Province (China)|provinces]] was based on the fifteen administrative units set up by the Ming dynasty, later made into eighteen provinces by splitting for example, [[Huguang]] into Hubei and Hunan provinces.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-10-14 |title=Political System |url=https://qinghistorysg.com/political-system/ |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=新加坡清史研究学会 |language=zh}}</ref> The provincial bureaucracy continued the Yuan and Ming practice of three parallel lines, civil, military, and [[censorate]], or surveillance. Each province was administered by a [[Provincial governor of Imperial China|governor]] and a [[provincial military commander]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Theobald |first=Ulrich |date=July 3, 2013 |title=xunfu 巡撫 (www.chinaknowledge.de) |url=http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Terms/xunfu.html |access-date=2025-09-04 |website=China Knowledge |language=en}}</ref> Below the province were [[Prefecture (China)|prefectures]] operating under a prefect, followed by [[Zhou (country subdivision)|subprefectures]] under a subprefect. The lowest unit was the [[Counties of the People's Republic of China#History|county]], overseen by a [[county magistrate]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Guy |first=Kent |title=Qing Governors and Their Provinces |date=August 3, 2015 |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=9780295997506 |pages=7 |language=en}}</ref> The eighteen provinces are also known as "China proper". The position of [[Viceroy (China)|viceroy]] was the highest rank in the provincial administration. There were eight regional viceroys in China proper, each usually took charge of two or three provinces. The [[Viceroy of Zhili]], who was responsible for the area surrounding Beijing, is usually considered as the most honourable and powerful viceroy among the eight.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Fu |first1=Chonglan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YjulDwAAQBAJ&q=Regional+viceroys+in+Qing+dynasty |title=Introduction to the Urban History of China |last2=Cao |first2=Wenming |date=2019-07-25 |publisher=Springer Nature Singapore |isbn=978-981-13-8207-9 |pages=314 |language=en}}</ref>

By the mid-18th century, the Qing had successfully put outer regions under its control. [[Amban|Imperial commissioners]] and garrisons were sent to Mongolia and Tibet to oversee their affairs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Melvyn C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=26gwDwAAQBAJ |title=A History of Modern Tibet, Volume 2: The Calm Before the Storm: 1951-1955 |date=2009-04-13 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-25995-9 |pages=XXIII |language=en}}</ref> These territories were also under supervision of a central government institution called [[Lifan Yuan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dunnell |first1=Ruth W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qFH-53_VnEC |title=New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde |last2=Elliott |first2=Mark C. |last3=Foret |first3=Philippe |last4=Millward |first4=James A. |date=2004-07-31 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-36222-6 |language=en}}</ref> [[Qinghai]] was also put under direct control of the Qing court. Xinjiang, also known as Chinese Turkestan, was subdivided into the regions north and south of the [[Tian Shan]] mountains, also known today as [[Dzungaria]] and [[Tarim Basin]] respectively, but the post of Ili General was established in 1762 to exercise unified military and administrative jurisdiction over both regions.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Yao |first=Wang |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gR5dEAAAQBAJ |title=The Story of Xinjiang Revealed through Old Maps (1759–1912) |date=2021-08-18 |publisher=Bridge 21 Publications |isbn=978-1-62643-078-5 |language=en}}</ref> Dzungaria was fully opened to Han migration by the Qianlong Emperor from the beginning. Han migrants were at first forbidden from permanently settling in the Tarim Basin but were the ban was lifted after the invasion by [[Jahangir Khoja]] in the 1820s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wai |first=Hung Tak |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7IhEQAAQBAJ |title=Redefining Heresy and Tolerance: Governance of Muslims and Christians in the Qing Empire before 1864 |date=2024-08-21 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |isbn=978-988-8842-83-4 |language=en}}</ref> Likewise, [[Manchuria]] was also governed by military generals until its division into provinces, though some areas of Xinjiang and Northeast China were lost to the [[Russian Empire]] in the mid-19th century.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Vasilyev |first1=Dmitry V. |last2=Валентинович |first2=Васильев Дмитрий |last3=Asanova |first3=Svetlana A. |last4=Алексеевна |first4=Асанова Светлана |date=2023-03-15 |title=Shelter for the Afflicted: Migration from Xinjiang to Russia in the 1860s-1880s |journal=RUDN Journal of Russian History |language=ru |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=34–46 |doi=10.22363/2312-8674-2023-22-1-34-46 |issn=2312-8690|doi-access=free }}</ref> Manchuria was originally separated from China proper by the Inner [[Willow Palisade]], a ditch and embankment planted with willows intended to restrict the movement of the Han Chinese, as the area was off-limits to civilian Han Chinese until the government started colonising the area, especially since the 1860s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Janhunen |first=Juha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfJiAAAAMAAJ |title=Manchuria: An Ethnic History |date=1996 |publisher=Finno-Ugrian Society |isbn=978-951-9403-84-7 |pages=95 |language=en}}</ref>

With respect to these outer regions, the Qing maintained imperial control, with the emperor acting as Mongol khan, patron of [[Tibetan Buddhism]] and protector of Muslims. However, Qing policy changed with the establishment of Xinjiang province in 1884. During the [[Great Game]], taking advantage of the [[Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)|Dungan revolt]] in northwest China, [[Yakub Beg of Yettishar|Yakub Beg]] invaded Xinjiang from Central Asia with support from the British Empire, and made himself the ruler of the kingdom of [[Kashgar]]ia. The Qing court sent forces to defeat Yaqub Beg and Xinjiang was reconquered, and then the political system of China proper was formally applied onto Xinjiang. The [[Kumul Khanate]], which was incorporated into the Qing dynasty as a vassal after helping Qing defeat the Zunghars in 1757, maintained its status after Xinjiang turned into a province through the end of the dynasty in the [[Xinhai Revolution]] up until 1930.{{sfnp|Millward|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA190 190]}} In the early 20th century, Britain sent [[British Expedition to Tibet|an expedition force]] to [[Tibet]] and forced Tibetans to sign a treaty. The Qing court responded by asserting Chinese sovereignty over Tibet,<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 January 1906 |title=<untitled> |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/01/19/101830147.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200326005354/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/01/19/101830147.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2020 |access-date=13 June 2018 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> resulting in the 1906 Anglo-Chinese Convention signed between Britain and China. The British agreed not to annex Tibetan territory or to interfere in the administration of Tibet, while China engaged not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet.<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting Tibet |year=1906}}</ref> The Qing government also turned Manchuria into three provinces in the early 20th century, officially known as the "[[Northeast China|Three Northeast Provinces]]", and established the post of [[Viceroy of the Three Northeast Provinces]] to oversee these provinces.

==Society==
===Population growth and mobility===
The population grew in numbers, density, and mobility. The population in 1700 was roughly 150&nbsp;million, about what it had been a century before, then doubled over the next century, and reached a height of 450&nbsp;million on the eve of the Taiping Rebellion in 1850.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p=91}} The spread of New World crops, such as maize, peanuts, sweet potatoes, and potatoes decreased the number of deaths from malnutrition.&nbsp; Diseases such as [[smallpox]] were brought under control by an increase in inoculations. In addition, infant deaths were decreased due to campaigns against [[infanticide]] and improvements in birthing techniques performed by doctors and midwives and an increase in medical books available to the public.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=91–92}} European population growth in this period was greatest in the cities, but in China there was only slow growth in cities and the lower Yangzi. The greatest growth was in the borderlands and the highlands, where farmers moved to take advantage of large tracts of marshlands and forests.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p=92}}

The population was remarkably mobile, perhaps more so than at any time in Chinese history. Millions of Han Chinese migrated to [[Yunnan]] and Guizhou in the 18th century, and also to Taiwan. After the conquests of the 1750s and 1760s, the court organised agricultural colonies in Xinjiang. This mobility also included the privately organised movement of Qing subjects overseas, largely to Southeast Asia, to pursue trade and other economic opportunities.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p=92}}

Manchuria, however, was formally closed to Han settlement by the [[Willow Palisade]], with the exception of some bannermen.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Edmonds |first=Richard L. |year=1979 |title=The Willow Palisade |journal=Annals of the Association of American Geographers |volume=69 |issue=4 |pages=599–621 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-8306.1979.tb01285.x |issn=0004-5608 |jstor=2563132}}</ref> Nonetheless, by 1780, Han Chinese had become 80% of the population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Richards |first=John F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HQ5KbXYhEB8C&pg=PA141 |title=The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World |year=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-23075-0 |pages=141, 144}}</ref> The relatively sparse populatikon made the  territory vulnerable to Russian annexation. In response, the Qing officials proposed in 1860 to open parts of Guandong to Chinese civilian farmer settlers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee |first=Robert H. G. |url=http://archive.org/details/manchurianfronti0000leer |title=The Manchurian frontier in Chʼing history |year=1970 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-54775-9 |location=Cambridge, MA |page=103}}</ref> Late 19th century Manchuria was opened up to Han settlers, resulting in more extensive migration.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2012 |title=China's narrative of Han expansion |url=https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1095073/chinas-narrative-han-expansion |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108115146/https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1095073/chinas-narrative-han-expansion |archive-date=8 November 2021 |access-date=2021-11-08 |website=South China Morning Post}}</ref> By the  dawn of the 20th century, largely in an attempt to counteract increasing Russian influence, the Qing had abolished the existing administrative system in Manchuria, reclassified all immigrants to the region as "Han" instead of "civilians", and replaced provincial generals with provincial governors. From 1902 to 1911, 70 civil administrations were created in Manchuria, owing to the region's growing population.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matsuzato |first=Kimitaka |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwW6DQAAQBAJ |title=Russia and Its Northeast Asian Neighbors: China, Japan, and Korea, 1858–1945 |year=2016 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4985-3705-6 |pages=27–28}}</ref>

===Social status===
According to statute, Qing society was divided into relatively closed estates, of which in most general terms there were five. Apart from the estates of the officials, the comparatively minuscule aristocracy, and the degree-holding scholar-officials, there also existed a major division among ordinary Chinese between commoners and people with inferior status.{{sfnp|Rowe|2002|p=485}} They were divided into two categories: one of them, the good "commoner" people, the other "mean" people who were seen as debased and servile. The majority of the population belonged to the first category and were described as ''liangmin'', a legal term meaning good people, as opposed to ''jianmin'' meaning the mean (or ignoble) people. Qing law explicitly stated that the traditional [[four occupations]] (scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants) were "good", or having a status of commoners. On the other hand, slaves or bondservants, entertainers (including prostitutes and actors), tattooed criminals, and those low-level employees of government officials were the "mean people". Mean people were legally inferior to commoners and suffered unequal treatments, such as being forbidden to take the imperial examination.{{sfnp|Naquin|Rawski|1987|p=117}} Furthermore, such people were usually not allowed to marry with free commoners and were even often required to acknowledge their abasement in society through actions such as bowing. However, throughout the Qing dynasty, the emperor and his court, as well as the bureaucracy, worked towards reducing the distinctions between the debased and free but did not completely succeed even at the end of its era in merging the two classifications together.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}}

====Qing gentry====
{{main|Qing literati}}
Although there had been no powerful hereditary aristocracy since the [[Song dynasty]], the gentry, like their British counterparts, enjoyed imperial privileges and managed local affairs. The status of scholar-officials was defined by passing at least the first level of civil service examinations and holding a degree, which qualified him to hold imperial office, although he might not actually do so. The gentry member could legally wear gentry robes and could talk to officials as equals. Informally, the gentry then presided over local society and could use their connections to influence the magistrate, acquire land, and maintain large households. The gentry thus included not only males holding degrees but also their wives and some of their relatives.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=109–110}}

[[File:Qing era brush container.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A brush container, a symbol of gentry culture during the Qing]]
The gentry class was divided into groups. Not all who held office were literati, as merchant families could purchase degrees, and not all who passed the exams found employment as officials, since the number of degree-holders was greater than the number of openings. The gentry class also differed in the source and amount of their income. Literati families drew income from landholding, as well as from lending money. Officials drew a salary, which, as the years went by, were less and less adequate, leading to widespread reliance on "squeeze", irregular payments. Those who prepared for but failed the exams, like those who passed but were not appointed to office, could become tutors or teachers, private secretaries to sitting officials, administrators of guilds or temples, or other positions that required literacy. Others turned to fields such as engineering, medicine, or law, which by the nineteenth century demanded specialised learning. By the nineteenth century, it was no longer shameful to become an author or publisher of fiction.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=112–113}}

The Qing gentry were marked as much by their aspiration to a cultured lifestyle as by their legal status. They lived more refined and comfortable lives than the commoners and used sedan-chairs to travel any significant distance. They often showed off their learning by collecting objects such as [[Gongshi|scholars' stones]],
porcelain or pieces of art for their beauty, which set them off from less cultivated commoners.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p=111}}

====Qing nobility====
{{main|Royal and noble ranks of the Qing dynasty}}

===Family and kinship===
[[File:Chan Clan Ancestral Hall 1930s.jpg|thumb|The [[Chen Clan Ancestral Hall]], built in 1894]]
During the Qing, the building block of society was [[patrilineal kinship]]. A shift in marital practices, identity and loyalty had begun during the Song, when the civil service examination began to replace nobility and inheritance as a means for gaining status. Instead of intermarrying within aristocratic elites of the same social status, they tended to form marital alliances with nearby families of the same or higher wealth, and established the local people's interests as first and foremost which helped to form intermarried townships.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=114–116}} The neo-Confucian ideology, especially the Cheng-Zhu thinking favored by Qing social thought, emphasised patrilineal families and genealogy in society.{{sfnp|Sneath|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=kWMaAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115 101]}}

The emperors and local officials exhorted families to compile genealogies in order to stabilise local society.{{sfnp|Xu|2005|p=335}} The genealogy was placed in the ancestral hall, which served as the lineage's headquarters and a place for annual ancestral sacrifice. A specific [[Chinese character]] appeared in the given name of each male of each generation, often well into the future. These lineages claimed to be based on biological descent but when a member of a lineage gained office or became wealthy, he might use considerable creativity in selecting a prestigious figure to be "founding ancestor".{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=116–117}} Such worship was intended to ensure that the ancestors remain content and benevolent spirits (''[[Shen (Chinese religion)|shen]]'') who would keep watch over and protect the family. Later observers felt that the ancestral cult focused on the family and lineage, rather than on more public matters such as community and nation.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}}

Inner Mongols and Khalkha Mongols in the Qing rarely knew their ancestors beyond four generations and Mongol tribal society was not organised among patrilineal clans, contrary to what was commonly thought, but included unrelated people at the base unit of organisation.{{sfnp|Sneath|2007|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=kWMaAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT112 98]}} The Qing tried but failed to promote the Chinese Neo-Confucian ideology of organising society along patrimonial clans among the Mongols.{{sfnp|Sneath|2007|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=kWMaAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT119 105–106]}}

===Religion===
{{Further|Religion in China#Qing dynasty}}
Manchu rulers presided over a multi-ethnic empire and the emperor, who was held responsible for "[[all under heaven]]", patronised and took responsibility for all religions and belief systems. The empire's "spiritual centre of gravity" was the "religio-political state".{{sfnp|Goossaert|Palmer|2011|p=3}} Since the empire was part of the order of the cosmos, which conferred the [[Mandate of Heaven]], the emperor as "Son of Heaven" was both the head of the political system and the head priest of the [[Imperial cult#Imperial China|State Cult]]. The emperor and his officials, who were his personal representatives, took responsibility over all aspects of the empire, especially spiritual life and religious institutions and practices.<ref>{{Citation |title=Religion, the State, and Imperial Legitimacy |access-date=15 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412193226/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/irc/emperor.htm |archive-date=12 April 2021 |url-status=live |chapter=Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late Imperial China (1644–1911) |chapter-url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/irc/emperor.htm |publisher=Columbia University}}</ref> The [[county magistrate]], as the emperor's political and spiritual representative, made offerings at officially recognised temples. The magistrate lectured on the Emperor's [[Sacred Edict]] to promote civic morality; he kept close watch over religious organisations whose actions might threaten the sovereignty and religious prerogative of the state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Teiser |first=Stephen F. |title=The Spirits of Chinese Religion |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1996 |editor-last=Lopez |editor-first=Donald S. Jr. |page=27 |chapter=Introduction |access-date=15 June 2021 |chapter-url=http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/main/spirits_of_chinese_religion.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150824055938/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/main/spirits_of_chinese_religion.pdf |archive-date=24 August 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

====Manchu and imperial religion====
{{Further|Shamanism during the Qing dynasty}}
[[File:Yonghe Gong sign.jpg|thumb|Placard (right to left) in Manchu, Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian [[Yonghe Temple|Yonghe Lamasery]], Beijing]]
The Manchu imperial family were especially attracted by Yellow Sect or [[Gelug]] Buddhism that had spread from Tibet into Mongolia. The [[Fifth Dalai Lama]], who had gained power in 1642, just before the Manchus took Beijing, looked to the Qing court for support. The Kangxi and Qianlong emperors practiced this form of Tibetan Buddhism as one of their household religions and built temples that made Beijing one of its centres, and constructed a replica Lhasa's [[Potala Palace]] at their summer retreat in [[Rehe]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harrison |first=Henrietta |title=China |publisher=London: Arnold; New York: Oxford University Press |year=2001 |isbn=0340741333 |pages=36–42}}.</ref>

[[Shamanism]], the most common religion among Manchus, was a spiritual inheritance from their [[Tungusic peoples|Tungusic]] ancestors that set them off from Han Chinese.{{sfnp|Elliott|2001|pp=235, 241}} [[Shamanism during the Qing dynasty#State shamanism after 1644|State shamanism]] was important to the imperial family both to maintain their Manchu cultural identity and to promote their imperial legitimacy among tribes in the northeast.{{sfnp|Rawski|1998|pp=231–236, 242–243}} Imperial obligations included rituals on the first day of [[Chinese New Year]] at a shamanic shrine (tangse).{{sfnp|Rawski|1998|p=236}} [[Shamanism during the Qing dynasty#Shamanism and Manchu identity|Practices in Manchu families]] included sacrifices to the ancestors, and the use of shamans, often women, who went into a trance to seek healing or exorcism.{{sfnp|Elliott|2001|pp=237–238}}

====Popular religion====
[[Chinese folk religion]] was centred around the patriarchal family and [[Shen (Chinese religion)|shen]], or spirits. Common practices included [[Ancestor veneration in China|ancestor veneration]], [[filial piety]], [[Chinese communal deity religion|local gods and spirits]]. Rites included [[Ancestral veneration in China#Practices|mourning, funeral, burial, practices]].<ref>Richard J. Smith (2007). ''[http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/journey.htm Settling the Dead: Funerals, Memorials and Beliefs Concerning the Afterlife] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927095758/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/prb/journey.htm |date=27 September 2011}}''. ''Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late-Imperial China''</ref> Since they did not require exclusive allegiance, forms and branches of [[Confucianism]], [[Buddhism]], and [[Daoism]] were intertwined, for instance in the syncretic [[Three teachings]].<ref>"Living in the Chinese Cosmos: Understanding Religion in Late Imperial China (1644–1911)" (Columbia University) [http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/ort/teachings.htm Institutional Religion: The Three Teachings] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508234058/http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/cosmos/ort/teachings.htm |date=8 May 2017}}</ref> Chinese folk religion combined elements of the three, with local variations.{{sfnp|Lagerwey|2010|pp=6–7}} County magistrates, who were graded and promoted on their ability to maintain local order, tolerated local sects and even patronised local temples as long as they were orderly, but were suspicious of [[Chinese salvationist religions|heterodox sects]] that defied state authority and rejected imperial doctrines. Some of these sects indeed had long histories of rebellion, such as the [[Way of Former Heaven]], which drew on Daoism, and the White Lotus Society, which drew on millennial Buddhism. The White Lotus Rebellion (1796–1804) confirmed official suspicions as did the Taiping Rebellion, which drew on millennial Christianity.

====Christianity, Judaism, and Islam====
{{Further|Jesuit China missions|Chinese Rites controversy|Christianity in China|Protestant missions in China|Islam during the Qing dynasty|Judaism in China|Catholic Church in China#Qing dynasty (1644–1912)|Medical missions in China}}
The [[Abrahamic religions]] had arrived from Western Asia as early as the Tang dynasty but their insistence that they should be practised to the exclusion of other religions made them less adaptable than Buddhism, which had quickly been accepted as native. [[Islam]] predominated in Central Asian areas of the empire, while [[Judaism in China|Judaism]] and [[Christianity in China|Christianity]] were practiced in well-established but self-contained communities.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mote |first=Frederick W. |author-link=Frederick W. Mote |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SQWW7QgUH4gC |title=Imperial China, 900–1800 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0674445155 |location=Cambridge, MA}}, pp. 958–961.</ref>

Several hundred Catholic missionaries arrived between the late Ming period and the proscription of Christianity in 1724. The [[Jesuits]] adapted to Chinese expectations, evangelised among the educated, adopted the robes and lifestyles of literati, became proficient in the Confucian classics, and did not challenge Chinese moral values. They proved their value to the early Manchu emperors with their work in gunnery, cartography, and astronomy, but fell out of favor for a time until the Kangxi Emperor's 1692 edict of toleration.{{sfnp|Bays|2012|pp=21–23}} In the countryside, the newly arrived [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] and [[Franciscan]] clerics established rural communities that adapted to local folk religious practices by emphasising healing, festivals, and holy days rather than sacraments and doctrine.{{sfnp|Bays|2012|pp=25–26}} In 1724, the Yongzheng Emperor proscribed Christianity as a "heterodox teaching".{{Sfnp|Reilly|2004|p=43}} Since the European Catholic missionaries had kept control in their own hands and had not allowed the creation of a native clergy, however, the number of Catholics would grow more rapidly after 1724 because local communities could now set their own rules and standards. In 1811, Christian religious activities were further criminalised by the Jiaqing Emperor.{{sfnp|Reilly|2004|p=44}} The imperial ban was lifted by Treaty in 1846.{{sfnp|Elliott|2001|p=241}}

The first Protestant missionary to China, [[Robert Morrison (missionary)|Robert Morrison]] (1782–1834) of the [[London Missionary Society]] (LMS), arrived at Canton on 6 September&nbsp;1807.{{Sfnp|Daily|2013|p=1}} He completed a translation of the entire Bible in 1819.{{sfnp|Daily|2013|p=145}} [[Liang Afa]] (1789–1855), a Morrison-trained Chinese convert, extended evangelisation into inner China.{{sfnp|Daily|2013|pp=188–189}}{{sfnp|Reilly|2004|pp=61, 64}} The two Opium Wars (1839–1860) marked the watershed of Protestant Christian missions. The series of treaties signed between the 1842 [[Treaty of Nanjing]] and the 1858 Treaty of Tianjin distinguished Christianity from local religions and granted it protected status.{{sfnp|Reilly|2004|p=43–50}}

In the late 1840s [[Hong Xiuquan]] read Morrison's Chinese Bible, as well as Liang Afa's evangelistic pamphlet, and announced to his followers that Christianity in fact had been the religion of ancient China before Confucius and his followers drove it out.{{sfnp|Reilly|2004|pp=57, 62}} He formed the [[Taiping Rebellion|Taiping Movement]], which emerged in South China as a "collusion of the Chinese tradition of millenarian rebellion and Christian messianism", "apocalyptic revolution, Christianity, and 'communist utopianism{{'"}}.{{sfnp|Goossaert|Palmer|2011|pp=38–39}}

After 1860, enforcement of the treaties allowed missionaries to spread their evangelisation efforts outside Treaty Ports. Their presence created cultural and political opposition. Historian [[John K. Fairbank]] observed that "[t]o the scholar-gentry, Christian missionaries were foreign subversives, whose immoral conduct and teaching were backed by gunboats".<ref>{{Citation |last=Fairbank |first=John King |title=China: A New History |pages=221–222 |year=2006 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nBDC2cqb6I0C&q=Protestant%20missionaries |edition=2nd |place=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674018280}}.</ref> In the next decades, there were some 800 conflicts between village Christians and non-Christians mostly about non-religious issues, such as land rights or local taxes, but religious conflict often lay behind such cases.{{sfnp|Goossaert|Palmer|2011|pp=38–40}} In the summer of 1900, as foreign powers contemplated the division of China, village youths, known as Boxers, who practiced Chinese martial arts and spiritual practices, attacked and murdered Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries in the [[Boxer Rebellion|Boxer Uprising]]. The imperialist powers once again invaded and imposed a substantial [[Boxer Indemnity|indemnity]]. This defeat convinced many among the educated elites that popular religion was an obstacle to China's development as a modern nation, and some turned to Christianity as a spiritual tool to build one.{{sfnp|Goossaert|Palmer|2011|pp=40–41}}

By 1900, there were about 1,400 Catholic priests and nuns in China serving nearly 1&nbsp;million Catholics. Over 3,000 Protestant missionaries were active among the 250,000 Protestant Christians in China.{{sfnp|Mühlhahn|2019|p=170}} Western medical missionaries established clinics and hospitals, and led medical training in China.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Gerald H. |last=Choa |title='Heal the Sick' was Their Motto: The Protestant Medical Missionaries in China |publisher=Chinese University Press |year=1990}}</ref> Missionaries began establishing nurse training schools in the late 1880s, but nursing of sick men by women was rejected by local tradition, so the number of students was small until the 1930s.<ref>{{Cite journal |first=Kaiyi |last=Chen |year=1996 |title=Missionaries and the early development of nursing in China |journal=Nursing History Review |volume=4 |pages=129–149 |doi=10.1891/1062-8061.4.1.129 |pmid=7581277 |s2cid=34206810}}</ref>

==Economy==
{{Main|Economy of the Qing dynasty}}
[[File:Xián Fēng Tōng Bǎo (咸豐通寶) 1850–1861 Qing Dynasty cash coin.png|thumb|upright=0.8|A Qing-era copper cash coin]]
[[File:Yantai (Chefoo), Qing Dynasty postage stamp.gif|thumb|upright=0.8|A Qing postage stamp from [[Yantai]]]]
By the end of the 17th century, the Chinese economy had recovered from the devastation caused by the wars in which the [[Ming dynasty]] were overthrown.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|pp=564, 566}} In the following century, markets continued to expand, but with more trade between regions, a greater dependence on overseas markets and a greatly increased population.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|p=564}} By the end of the 18th century the population had risen to 300&nbsp;million from approximately 150&nbsp;million during the late Ming dynasty. The dramatic rise in population was due to several reasons, including the long period of peace and stability in the 18th century and the import of new crops China received from the Americas, including peanuts, sweet potatoes and maize. New species of rice from Southeast Asia led to a huge increase in production. Merchant guilds proliferated in all of the growing Chinese cities and often acquired great social and even political influence. Rich merchants with official connections built up huge fortunes and patronised literature, theater and the arts. Textile and handicraft production boomed.{{sfnp|Murphey|2007|p=151}}

The government broadened land ownership by returning land that had been sold to large landowners in the late Ming period by families unable to pay the land tax.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|p=593}} To give people more incentives to participate in the market, they reduced the tax burden in comparison with the late Ming, and replaced the [[corvée]] system with a head tax used to hire laborers.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|pp=593, 595}} The administration of the [[Grand Canal (China)|Grand Canal]] was made more efficient, and transport opened to private merchants.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|p=598}} A system of monitoring grain prices eliminated severe shortages, and enabled the price of rice to rise slowly and smoothly through the 18th century.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|pp=572–573, 599–600}} Wary of the power of wealthy merchants, Qing rulers limited their trading licenses and usually refused them permission to open new mines, except in poor areas.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|pp=606, 609}} These restrictions on domestic resource exploration, as well as on foreign trade, are [[Criticism of Qing dynasty's economic performance|critiqued by some scholars]] as a cause of the [[Great Divergence]], by which the West overtook China economically.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Xu |first=Suming |script-title=zh:人学史观视阈下的中西大分流——对"为什么江南不是英国"之新思考 |trans-title=The Great Divergence from a humanist perspective: Why was Jiangnan not England?) |title=Tianjin Social Science |volume=6 |year=2005 |url=http://www.jylw.com/guest/wzhtml/27/wz128130.htm |language=zh |ref=none}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Li |first1=Bo |title=5000 years of Chinese history |year=2001 |publisher=Inner Mongolian People's publishing corp |language=zh |isbn=978-7-204-04420-7 |last2=Zheng |first2=Yin}}</ref>

During the Ming–Qing period (1368–1911) the biggest development in the Chinese economy was its transition from a command to a market economy, the latter becoming increasingly more pervasive throughout the Qing's rule.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}} Between roughly 1550 and 1800, China proper experienced a second commercial revolution, developing naturally from the first commercial revolution during the Song, which saw the emergence of long-distance inter-regional trade of luxury goods. During the second commercial revolution, for the first time, a large percentage of farming households began producing crops for sale in the local and national markets rather than for their own consumption or barter in the traditional economy. Surplus crops were placed onto the national market for sale, integrating farmers into the commercial economy from the ground up. This naturally led to regions specialising in certain cash-crops for export as China's economy became increasingly reliant on inter-regional trade of bulk staple goods such as cotton, grain, beans, vegetable oils, forest products, animal products, and fertiliser.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}}

===Silver===
[[File:1 dragon dollar Qing dynasty - 1911.png|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Silver coin]]: 1 yuan/dollar [[Xuantong]] 3rd year – 1911 [[Chop marks on coins|Chopmark]]]]
Silver entered in large quantities from mines in the [[New World]] after the Spanish conquered the Philippines in the 1570s. The re-opening of the southeast coast, which had been closed in the late 17th century, quickly revived trade, which expanded at 4% per annum throughout the latter part of the 18th century.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|p=587}} China continued to export tea, silk and manufactures, creating a large, favorable [[trade balance]] with the West.{{sfnp|Murphey|2007|p=151}} The resulting expansion of the money supply supported competitive and stable markets.{{sfnp|Myers|Wang|2002|pp=587, 590}} During the mid-Ming China had gradually shifted to silver as the standard currency for large scale transactions and by the late Kangxi period, the assessment and collection of the land tax was done in silver. Landlords began only accepting rent payments in silver rather than in crops themselves, which in turn incentivized farmers to produce crops for sale in local and national markets rather than for their own personal consumption or barter.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}} Unlike the copper coins, ''qian'' or cash, used mainly for smaller transactions, silver was not reliably minted into a coin but rather was traded in units of weight: the ''liang'' or ''tael'', which equaled roughly 1.3 ounces of silver. A third-party had to be brought in to assess the weight and purity of the silver, resulting in an extra "meltage fee" added on to the price of transaction. Furthermore, since the "meltage fee" was unregulated it was the source of corruption. The Yongzheng emperor cracked down on the corrupt "meltage fees", legalizing and regulating them so that they could be collected as a tax. From this newly increased public coffer, the Yongzheng emperor increased the salaries of the officials who collected them, further legitimising silver as the standard currency of the Qing economy.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}}

===Urbanisation and the proliferation of market-towns===
The second commercial revolution also had a profound effect on the dispersion of the Qing populace. Up until the late Ming there existed a stark contrast between the rural countryside and cities because extraction of surplus crops from the countryside was traditionally done by the state. However, as commercialisation expanded in the late-Ming and early-Qing, mid-sized cities began popping up to direct the flow of domestic, commercial trade. Some towns of this nature had such a large volume of trade and merchants flowing through them that they developed into full-fledged market-towns. Some of these more active market-towns even developed into small cities and became home to the new rising merchant class.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}} The proliferation of these mid-sized cities was only made possible by advancements in long-distance transportation and communication. As more and more Chinese citizens were travelling the country conducting trade they increasingly found themselves in a far-away place needing a place to stay; in response the market saw the expansion of guild halls to house these merchants.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}}

Full-fledged trade guilds emerged, which, among other things, issued regulatory codes and price schedules, and provided a place for travelling merchants to stay and conduct their business. Along with the ''huiguan'' trade guilds, guild halls dedicated to more specific professions, ''gongsuo'', began to appear and to control commercial craft or artisanal industries such as carpentry, weaving, banking, and medicine.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}} By the nineteenth century guild halls worked to transform urban areas into cosmopolitan, multi-cultural hubs, staged theatre performances open to general public, developed real estate by pooling funds together in the style of a trust, and some even facilitated the development of social services such as maintaining streets, water supply, and sewage facilities.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}}

===Trade with the West===
{{Continental Asia in 1700 CE}}
[[File:Puankhequa oil painting on a mirror.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Puankhequa]], Chinese merchant and member of a [[Cohong]] family]]
In 1685, the Kangxi emperor legalised private maritime trade along the coast, establishing a series of customs stations in major port cities. The customs station at Guangzhou became by far the most active in foreign trade; by the late Kangxi reign, more than forty mercantile houses specialising in trade with the West had appeared. The Yongzheng emperor made a parent corporation comprising those forty individual houses in 1725 known as the [[Cohong]] system. Firmly established by 1757, the [[Cohong|Canton Cohong]] was an association of thirteen business firms that had been awarded exclusive rights to conduct trade with Western merchants in Canton. Until its abolition after the Opium War in 1842, the Canton Cohong system was the only permitted avenue of Western trade into China, and thus became a booming hub of international trade.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}} By the eighteenth century, the most significant export China had was tea. British demand for tea increased exponentially up until they figured out how to grow it for themselves in the hills of northern India in the 1880s. By the end of the eighteenth century, tea exports going through the Canton Cohong system amounted to one-tenth of the revenue from taxes collected from the British and nearly the entire revenue of the British East India Company; in fact, until the early nineteenth century tea comprised ninety percent of exports leaving Canton.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|p={{page needed|date=May 2020}}}}

=== Revenue ===

The recorded revenues of the central Qing government increased little over the course of the 18th and early 19th century from 36,106,483 taels in 1725 to 43,343,978 taels in 1812 before declining to 38,600,570 taels in 1841, the land tax was the principal source of revenue for the central government with the salt, customs and poll taxes being important secondary sources.{{sfnp|Twitchett|Fairbank|1978|p=61}} Following the Opium Wars and the opening of China to foreign trade and the mid-century rebellions, two further important sources of revenue were added: the foreign maritime customs revenue and the ''[[Likin (taxation)|likin]]'' revenue though only 20% of the likin revenue was actually given by the provinces to Hu Pu ([[Ministry of Revenue (imperial China)|board of revenue]]) in Beijing the rest remaining in provincial hands, the Hu Pu also managed to raise some miscellaneous taxes and increased the rate of the salt tax these measures doubled revenue by the late 19th century, this however was insufficient for the central government which was facing numerous crises and wars during the period and 9 foreign loans amounting to 40mil taels were contracted by the Qing government prior to 1890.{{sfnp|Twitchett|Fairbank|1978|pp=61–62}}

It was estimated in the 1850s that wages around the capital of Beijing and the Yangtze delta region for a farmer was between 0.99 and 1.02 taels a month; assuming every day was worked, this would amount to roughly 12 taels a year with over 400,000,000 citizens in 1890 the level of taxation was extremely low.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Peng |first=Linan |year=2021 |title=The last guardian of the throne: the regional army in the late Qing dynasty |journal=Journal of Institutional Economics |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=328–329 |doi=10.1017/S1744137420000430 |s2cid=225162563}}</ref>

The Financial Reorganisation bureau of the Dynasty (established in 1909) estimated total revenue to be 292,000,000 taels. H.B. Morse estimated in the early 1900s a total of 284,150,000 taels of which 99,062,000 taels was spent by the Central government, 142,374,000 taels by the provincial governments and the remainder by the local government. In 1911 the Consultative assembly estimated total revenue to be 301,910,297 taels. Included in this figure was over 44,000,000 taels from the Likin of which only 13,000,000 was reported to Beijing.{{sfnp|Twitchett|Fairbank|1978|pp=63–66}}

The Qing government during and following the First Sino-Japanese war increasingly took on loans to meet its expenditure requirements a total of 746,220,453 taels of which slightly over 330,000,000 taels was for Railway construction and the repayment to come from the revenues of the railways themselves thus these loans did not burden the central government finances. A relatively small sum of just over 25,500,000 taels was borrowed for industrial projects, over 5,000,000 taels for Telegraph lines with less than 1,000,000 taels for miscellaneous purposes. The remainder was primarily for the costs of the Sino-Japanese war and the indemnity in the Treaty of Shimonoseki amounting to over 382,000,000 taels.{{sfnp|Twitchett|Fairbank|1978|pp=63–66}}

Taizu noted that these figures for formal taxation only amounted to half of the total taxation and therefore revenue of the government with these surcharges being levied at a local level by local officials who found the level of taxation far too low to support even basic governance, despite the ability to levy surcharges belonging solely to the central government.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Taizu |last=Zhang |title=The ideological foundations of Qing taxation:Belief systems, Politics, and institutions |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2023 |isbn=978-1108995955 |pages=46, 69, 99}}</ref>

==Science and technology==
{{Main|History of science and technology in China}}
Chinese scholars, court academies, and local officials carried on late Ming dynasty strengths in [[Chinese astronomy#Astronomy during Ming China|astronomy]], [[Chinese mathematics|mathematics]], and [[Chinese geography|geography]], as well as technologies in [[Chinese ceramics|ceramics]], [[History of metallurgy in China|metallurgy]], [[History of transport in China|water transport]], [[History of printing in East Asia|printing]]. Contrary to stereotypes in some Western writing, 16th and 17th century Qing dynasty officials and literati eagerly explored the technology and science introduced by [[History of science and technology in China#Jesuit activity in China|Jesuit missionaries]]. Manchu leaders employed Jesuits to use cannon and gunpowder to great effect in the conquest of China, and the court sponsored their research in astronomy. The aim of these efforts, however, was to reform and improve inherited science and technology, not to replace it. Scientific knowledge advanced during the Qing, but there was not a change in the way this knowledge was organised or the way scientific evidence was defined or its truth tested. Those who studied the physical universe shared their findings with each other and identified themselves as men of science, but they did not have a separate and independent professional role with its own training and advancement. They were still literati.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|pp=229–238}}

The [[Opium Wars]], however, demonstrated the power of steam engine and military technology that had only recently been put into practice in the West. During the [[Self-Strengthening Movement]] of the 1860s and 1870s Confucian officials in several coastal provinces established an industrial base in military technology. The introduction of [[History of rail transport in China|railroads into China]] raised questions that were more political than technological. A British company built the {{cvt|12|mi|km|order=flip}} Shanghai–Woosung line in 1876, obtaining the land under false pretenses, and it was soon torn up. Court officials feared local public opinion and that railways would help invaders, harm farmlands, and obstruct [[feng shui]].<ref>{{Cite journal |first=David |last=Pong |year=1973 |title=Confucian patriotism and the destruction of the Woosung railway, 1877 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=647–676 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00005333 |jstor=311679 |s2cid=202928323}}</ref> To keep development in Chinese hands, the Qing government borrowed 34&nbsp;billion taels of silver from foreign lenders for railway construction between 1894 and 1911. As late as 1900, only {{cvt|292|mi|km|order=flip}} were in operation. Finally, {{cvt|5200|mi|km|order=flip}} of railway was completed. The British and French after 1905 opened lines to Burma and Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Jim |last=Harter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESnBiR7vLPQC&pg=PA223 |title=World Railways of the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0801880896 |page=223 |access-date=10 September 2019}}</ref>

Protestant missionaries by the 1830s translated and printed Western science and medical textbooks. The textbooks found homes in the rapidly enlarging network of missionary schools and universities. The textbooks opened learning open possibilities for the small number of Chinese students interested in science, and a very small number interested in technology. After 1900, Japan had a greater role in bringing modern science and technology to Chinese audiences but even then they reached chiefly the children of the rich landowning gentry.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Benjamin |last=Elman |url=https://archive.org/details/ontheirowntermss00elma |title=On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0674016859 |pages=270–331, 396 |url-access=limited}}</ref>

==Arts and culture==
{{see also|Chinese art#Late imperial China (1368–1912)|Chinese literature#Classical fiction and drama|Classical Chinese poetry#History and development|Qing poetry}}[[File:Pine, Plum and Cranes.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|''Pine, Plum and Cranes'', 1759, by Shen Quan]]
Under the Qing, inherited forms of art flourished and innovations occurred at many levels and in many types. High levels of literacy, a successful publishing industry, prosperous cities, and the Confucian emphasis on cultivation all fed a lively and creative set of cultural fields.

By the end of the 19th century, national artistic and cultural worlds had begun to come to terms with the cosmopolitan culture of the West and Japan. The decision to stay within old forms or welcome Western models was now a conscious choice. Classically trained Confucian scholars such as [[Liang Qichao]] and [[Wang Guowei]] read widely and broke aesthetic and critical ground later cultivated in the [[New Culture Movement]].

===Fine arts===
[[File:Imperial Yellow Peking Glass Vase.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|A [[Daoguang Emperor|Daoguang]] period [[Peking glass]] vase. Colored in "Imperial Yellow", due to its association with the Qing.]]
The Qing emperors were generally adept at poetry and often skilled in painting, and offered their patronage to Confucian culture. The Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors, for instance, embraced Chinese traditions both to control them and to proclaim their own legitimacy. The Kangxi Emperor sponsored the ''[[Peiwen Yunfu]]'', a rhyme dictionary published in 1711, and the ''[[Kangxi Dictionary]]'' published in 1716, which remains to this day an authoritative reference. The Qianlong Emperor sponsored the largest collection of writings in Chinese history, the ''[[Complete Library of the Four Treasuries]]'', completed in 1782. Court painters made new versions of the Song masterpiece, [[Zhang Zeduan]]'s ''[[Along the River During the Qingming Festival]]'', whose depiction of a prosperous and happy realm demonstrated the beneficence of the emperor. The emperors undertook tours of the south and commissioned monumental scrolls to depict the grandeur of the occasion.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Recording the Grandeur of the Qing |url=http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/start.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121220222345/http://learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/start.html |archive-date=20 December 2012 |access-date=2020-05-17 |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Columbia University}} [[Chinese painting]]</ref> Imperial patronage also encouraged the industrial production of [[Chinese ceramics|ceramics]] and [[Chinese export porcelain]]. [[Peking glass]]ware became popular after European glass making processes were introduced by Jesuits to Beijing.<ref>Boda, Yang. ''Study of glass wares from the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).'' 1983.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Nilsson |first=Jan-Erik |title=Chinese Porcelain Glossary: Glass, Chinese (Peking Glass) |url=http://gotheborg.com/glossary/glass.shtml |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214071202/https://gotheborg.com/glossary/glass.shtml |archive-date=14 February 2022 |access-date=2017-06-07 |website=gotheborg.com}}</ref> During this period the European trend to imitate Chinese artistic traditions, known as [[chinoiserie]] also gained great popularity in Europe due to the rise in trade with China and the broader current of [[Orientalism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beevers |first=David |title=Chinese Whispers: Chinoiserie in Britain, 1650–1930 |publisher=Royal Pavilion & Museums |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-948723-71-1 |location=Brighton |pages=19}}</ref>

[[File:Landscape by Wang Gai 1694.tiff|thumb|upright=0.8|Landscape by Wang Gai, 1694]]
Yet the most impressive aesthetic works were done among the scholars and urban elite. [[Chinese calligraphy|Calligraphy]] and painting<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ch'ing Dynasty – The Art of Asia – Chinese Dynasty Guide |url=http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-ching.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120927030515/http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-ching.cfm |archive-date=27 September 2012 |access-date=13 September 2012 |website=www.artsmia.org}}</ref> remained a central interest to both court painters and scholar-officials who considered the [[four arts]] part of their cultural identity and social standing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Qing Dynasty, Painting |url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/qing_1/hd_qing_1.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120920210706/http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/qing_1/hd_qing_1.htm |archive-date=20 September 2012 |access-date=13 September 2012 |website=The Met |date=October 2003 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art}}</ref> The painting of the [[Chinese art#Early Qing painting|early years of the dynasty]] included such painters as the orthodox [[Four Wangs]] and the individualists [[Bada Shanren]] and [[Shitao]]. Court painting of the dynasty was also greatly influenced by some Western artists.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://fuqiumeng.com/viewing-room/31-transcultural-dialogues-the-journey-of-east-asian-art/|title = Transcultural Dialogues: The Journey of East Asian Art to The West|publisher = Fu Qiumeng|access-date = 2024-11-25}}</ref> The 19th century saw such innovations as the [[Shanghai School]] and the Lingnan School,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=http://www.lingnanart.com/home.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708052240/http://www.lingnanart.com/home.htm |archive-date=8 July 2012 |website=The Lingnan School of Painting}}</ref> which used the technical skills of tradition to set the stage for modern painting.

===Traditional learning and literature===
Traditional learning flourished, especially among Ming loyalists such as [[Dai Zhen]] and [[Gu Yanwu]], but scholars in the school of [[Kaozheng|evidential learning]] made innovations in skeptical textual scholarship. Scholar-bureaucrats, including [[Lin Zexu]] and [[Wei Yuan]], developed a school of [[He Changling|practical statecraft]] which rooted bureaucratic reform and restructuring in classical philosophy.

[[File:Jade book-IMG 4433 4434 4435 4436-white.jpg|thumb|Jade book of the [[Qianlong Emperor|Qianlong]] period on display at the [[British Museum]]]]
Philosophy<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Qing Philosophy |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/qing-philosophy/ |access-date=2020-01-18 |last=Ng |first=On-cho |date=2019 |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=Edward N. |edition=Summer 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616125638/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/qing-philosophy/ |archive-date=16 June 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Chinese literature|literature]] grew to new heights in the Qing period. [[Qing poetry|Poetry]] continued as a mark of the cultivated gentleman, but women wrote in larger numbers and [[:Category:Qing dynasty poets|poets]] came from all walks of life. The poetry of the Qing dynasty is a lively field of research, being studied (along with the [[Ming poetry|poetry of the Ming dynasty]]) for its association with [[Chinese opera]], developmental trends of [[Classical Chinese poetry]], the transition to a greater role for [[Written vernacular Chinese|vernacular language]], and for poetry by [[Women in ancient and imperial China#Qing dynasty|women]]. The Qing dynasty was a period of literary editing and criticism, and many of the modern popular versions of Classical Chinese poems were transmitted through Qing dynasty anthologies, such as the ''[[Complete Tang Poems]]'' and the ''[[Three Hundred Tang Poems]]''. Although fiction did not have the prestige of poetry, novels flourished. [[Pu Songling]] brought the short story to a new level in his ''[[Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio]]'', published in the mid-18th century, and [[Shen Fu]] demonstrated the charm of the informal memoir in ''[[Six Chapters of a Floating Life]]'', written in the early 19th century but published only in 1877. The art of the novel reached a pinnacle in [[Cao Xueqin]]'s ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'', but its combination of social commentary and psychological insight were echoed in highly skilled novels such as [[Wu Jingzi]]'s ''[[The Scholars (novel)|The Scholars]]'' (1750) and [[Li Ruzhen]]'s ''[[Flowers in the Mirror]]'' (1827).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ming and Qing Novels |url=http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/assets_news/china/berkshire_mingdynastysample.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617125545/http://www.berkshirepublishing.com/assets_news/china/berkshire_mingdynastysample.pdf |archive-date=17 June 2013 |access-date=13 September 2012 |website=Berkshire Encyclopedia}}</ref>

===Cuisine===
[[History of Chinese cuisine#History|Cuisine]] embodied cultural pride. The gentleman gourmet, such as [[Yuan Mei#Yuan as a gastronome|Yuan Mei]], applied aesthetic standards to the art of cooking, eating, and appreciation of [[Chinese tea culture|tea]] at a time when [[Columbian Exchange|New World crops and products]] entered everyday life. Yuan's ''[[Suiyuan Shidan]]'' expounded culinary aesthetics and theory, along with a range of recipes. The [[Manchu–Han Imperial Feast]] originated at the court. Although this banquet was probably never common, it reflected an appreciation of Manchu culinary customs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spence |first=Jonathan |title=Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1977 |editor-last=[[Kwang-chih Chang]] |location=New Haven, CT |pages=260–294 |chapter="Ch'ing"}}<br />Reprinted in {{Cite book |last=Spence |first=Jonathan |title=Chinese Roundabout: Essays in History and Culture |publisher=W. W. Norton |year=1992 |location=New York}}</ref> New food imports were also implemented into Qing cuisine. [[Sweet potato|Sweet potatoes]] from the [[Philippines]] and white potatoes from [[Peru]] were roasted at street corners and in markets. Other foods such as [[corn on the cob]] and [[Peanut|peanuts]] were also implemented into Qing cuisine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Newman |first=Jacqueline |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Food_Culture_in_China/7TLLEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cuisine+in+qing+dynasty&pg=PA23&printsec=frontcover |title=Food Culture in China |date=2004-08-30 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-08572-7 |language=en}}</ref>

===Homosexuality===
Initially, many early Qing Dynasty explored romantic bonds and intimate relationships between men. Works such as ''The Amorous History of the Peach Flowers' Garden'' (桃花豔史) and ''The Journey of Male Mencius's Mother's Teaching and Three Relocations'' (男孟母教合遷) detailed same-sex sexual encounters with vivid language. However, the moral lessons of these works condemned anal sex as impure and spiritually distracting. On the other hand, late Ming works such as ''[[Bian er chai]]'' remained popular stories that displayed homosexual acts and [[pederasty]] as heroic. Nevertheless, the protagonists follow Confucian doctrine by marrying wives and raising families at the end of the stories.<ref name= HeeSiam>[https://hdl.handle.net/10356/173264 From amorous histories to sexual histories: rethinking male love narrative in Ming and Qing dynasties and the discourse on homosexuality in modern China]. Hee Wai Siam. [[Inter-Asia Cultural Studies]]. Volume 24, Issue 6. 2023. [https://doi.org/10.1080%2F14649373.2023.2265684 DOI: 10.1080/14649373.2023.2265684]. p.958-978</ref>

Eventually, sodomy was outlawed in 1740 under the [[Great Qing Legal Code]].<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Homosexuality|url=http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Oct/44940.htm|website=china.org.cn|publisher=Shanghai Star|access-date=26 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031119114502/http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Oct/44940.htm|archive-date=November 19, 2003}}</ref> Works such as ''Bian er chai'' were repeatedly banned.<ref name= HeeSiam/> By the late Qing, physical intimacy faced scrutiny for being amoral, as evidenced in the 1849 work ''Precious Mirror of Ranked Flowers'' (品花寶鑒). Portraying the lives of actors in [[Chinese opera|opera]], the protagonist engages in romance with another man without physical contact. In contrast, the antagonists of the story engage in physical sex.<ref name= HeeSiam/>

==Historiography==
{{see also|Legacy of the Qing dynasty}}
The [[Confucianism|Confucian]] concept of the [[dynastic cycle]] was used by traditional [[Chinese historiography]] to organise China's past in terms of consecutive ruling houses that arose and collapsed. The Qing dynasty was the closing chapter of the 2000-year history of Imperial China. [[John King Fairbank]] of [[Harvard University]], a historian who is essentially credited with founding modern Chinese history in the [[United States]], steadfastly maintained a perspective that split the history of China's past half millennium around 1842. All that fell before remained part of "traditional China", and with the [[Western imperialism in Asia|Western "shock"]] of the [[First Opium War]] and the resulting [[Treaty of Nanking]], "modern China" was born. The Qing dynasty was thus bifurcated in this manner. In contemporary China, there is also a similar view for such a division.{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=2–3}}

The [[New Qing History]] is a [[Historical revisionism|revisionist]] historiographical school that emerged in the mid-1990s and emphasises the particular Manchu character of the dynasty. Earlier historians had emphasised a pattern of Han [[sinicization|sinicisation]] of various conquerors. In the 1980s and early 1990s, American scholars began learning the [[Manchu language]], taking advantage of archival holdings in this and other non-Chinese languages that had long been held in [[Taipei]] and [[Beijing]] but had previously attracted little scholarly attention.{{sfnb|Waley-Cohen|2004|pp=194–197}} This research concluded that the Manchu rulers 'manipulated' their subjects by fostering a sense of Manchu identity, often adopting [[Central Asia]]n models of rule as much as [[Confucianism|Confucian]] ones.<ref>{{cite journal |author-link1=Evelyn Rawski |last=Rawski |first=Evelyn |title=Reenvisioning the Qing: The Significance of the Qing Period in Chinese History |journal=Journal of Asian Studies |volume=55 |issue=4 |date=1996 |pages=829–850 |jstor=2646525 |doi=10.2307/2646525 |s2cid=162388379}}</ref> The most prominent feature of the studies has been characterised by a renewed interest in the Manchus and their relationship to China and [[Chinese culture]], as well as that of other non-Han groups ruled by Beijing.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunnell|first=Ruth|title=New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde|page=3|year=2004|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781134362226}}</ref>

[[William T. Rowe]] of [[Johns Hopkins University]] wrote that the name "China" (中國; 中華) was generally understood to refer to the political realm of the [[Han Chinese]] during the [[Ming dynasty]], and this understanding persisted among the Han Chinese into the early Qing dynasty, and the understanding was also shared by [[Aisin Gioro]] rulers before the [[Ming-Qing transition]]. The Qing dynasty, however, "came to refer to their more expansive empire not only as the Great Qing but also, nearly interchangeably, as China" within a few decades of this development. Instead of the earlier (Ming) idea of an ethnic Han Chinese state, this new Qing China was a "self-consciously multi-ethnic state". Han Chinese scholars had some time to adapt this, but by the 19th century, the notion of China as a [[multinational state]] with new, significantly extended borders had become the standard terminology for Han Chinese writers. Rowe noted that "these were the origins of the China we know today".{{sfnp|Rowe|2009|pp=210–211}}

==See also==
{{Portal|China|History}}
{{Colbegin|colwidth=20em}}
*[[Anti-Qing sentiment]]
*[[Mandarin square]]{{snd}}costumes of Qing officials
*[[Foreign relations of imperial China#Early Qing dynasty|Foreign relations of the Qing dynasty]]
*[[Imperial Chinese harem system]]
*[[International relations (1814–1919)]]
*[[Islam during the Qing dynasty]]
*[[List of diplomatic missions of the Qing dynasty]]
*[[List of emperors of the Qing dynasty]]
*[[List of rebellions in China]]
*[[List of recipients of tribute from China]]
*[[List of Chinese monarchs]]
*[[Manchuria under Qing rule]]
*[[Military history of China before 1912]]
*[[Mongolia under Qing rule]]
*[[Chinese emperors family tree (late)#Qing dynasty|Qing emperors' family tree]]
*[[Qing dynasty in Inner Asia]]
*[[Qing official headwear]]
*''[[The Rise and Fall of Qing Dynasty]]''
*[[Royal and noble ranks of the Qing dynasty]]
*[[Taiwan under Qing rule]]
*[[Tibet under Qing rule]]
*[[Timeline of Chinese history]]
*[[Timeline of late anti-Qing rebellions]]
*[[Xinjiang under Qing rule]]
{{Colend}}

==Notes==
{{notelist|30em}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|25em}}

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{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons and category|清朝|Qing Dynasty}}
{{Wiktionary|Qing|Ching|Ch'ing|Cing}}
*Section on the Ming and Qing dynasties of "[http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1950_population.htm China's Population: Readings and Maps]."
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20210115051553/https://exchange.umma.umich.edu/resources/23945 Collection: "Manchu, Qing Dynasty"] from the [[University of Michigan Museum of Art]]
*[https://www.vmfa.museum/learn/resources/pre-visit-evans-dlp-qing-dynasty-export-porcelain/ Qing Dynasty resource] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124123357/https://www.vmfa.museum/learn/resources/pre-visit-evans-dlp-qing-dynasty-export-porcelain/ |date=24 November 2020 }} at the [[Virginia Museum of Fine Arts]]

{{S-start}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Ming dynasty]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Dynasties in Chinese history]] |years=1644–1912}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{Empires}}
{{Former Monarchies}}
{{Qing dynasty topics}}
{{Years in the Qing dynasty}}
{{Authority control}}
{{coord|39.92|N|116.39|E|type:country|display=title}}

[[Category:1644 establishments in China]]
[[Category:1912 disestablishments in China]]
[[Category:17th century in China|*02]]
[[Category:18th century in China|*]]
[[Category:19th century in China|*]]
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[[Category:Dynasties of China]]
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[[Category:History of Manchuria]]
[[Category:Qing dynasty| ]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1912]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1636]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1644]]