Qing Dynasty – 1644-1912

Fall of Ming While the Ming initially maintained the sea-trade and naval emphasis (Zheng He) of the Song Dynasty before the Mongols, they soon changed their focus and spending Instead of focusing on world influence, the Ming focused internally, largely ignoring the outside world and focusing on defense With a disastrous silver-only tax policy, and loss of economic output, the also focused primarily on northern defense By 1644, the slipping Ming Dynasty lost out to northern invaders from Manchuria Known as the Manchu people, the invaders quickly took over and adopted much of the already-established Chinese culture and political systems, starting the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) One aspect the Manchu adopted from the Han Chinese Ming Dynasty was the Confucian Examination System Essentially, to participate in the government, one had to pass a rigorous amount of test based on Classical China and Confucianism This left gov. slots only open to elites who could afford to send their male sons to study for years and complete the tests While leaving many gov. officials untrained for actual gov./econ rule, it provided China with a solid, unified culture and helped maintain social harmony Wanting to maintain this harmony and tradition, the Qing Dynasty kept the Confucian Examination system as a means to appease and control the Han Chinese, and keep them stable

Max Extent of Qing Dynasty -18th century

Qing Expansion and Power Once in power, the Qing Dynasty continued to expand China’s land borders, as Europeans continued to control maritime trade and coasts Taking territories from the weakening khanates and areas of Southeast Asia, Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) created the largest Chinese empire Like Louis XIV, Peter the Great, the Ottoman sultans, and Mughal emperors, the Qing Dynasty too demonstrated power through culture Qing Emperors often comissioned the painting of life-size portraits of their emperors to demonstrate power and influence

Emperor Kangxi

Domestic Policies While examination systems were used by the Qing to maintain Han social harmony, many other policies were outright oppressive One particular oppressive policy was the banning of all marriage between Manchu and Han people This was done to maintain Manchu identity and dominance over the Han Lastly, the Manchu hairstyle the queue was made official for males, and punishable, eventually, by death Again, the Manchu imposed this cultural aspect on the Han to demonstrate their dominance over the Han Chinese, and, somewhat, to their culture