Qing dynasty
Manchu-led dynasty of China (1636–1912) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Qing Empire?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Qing dynasty (/tʃɪŋ/ ching), officially the Great Qing,[lower-alpha 4] was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last imperial dynasty in Chinese history.[lower-alpha 5] The dynasty was officially proclaimed in 1636 in Shenyang ("Mukden" in Manchu),[7] and seized control of Beijing in 1644, which is considered the start of the dynasty's rule.[1][8][9][10][11][12][13] The dynasty lasted until 1912, when it was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution. In Chinese historiography, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The multi-ethnic Qing dynasty assembled the territorial base for modern China. It was the largest imperial dynasty in the history of China and in 1790 the fourth-largest empire in world history in terms of territorial size. With over 426 million citizens in 1907,[14] it was the most populous country in the world at the time.
This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. When this tag was added, its readable prose size was 13,950 words. (March 2024) |
Great Qing | |||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1636[1]–1912 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Flag (1889–1912) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Anthem:
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Imperial seal: 大清帝國之璽 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Capital |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Largest city | Beijing | ||||||||||||||||||||
Official languages | |||||||||||||||||||||
Ethnic groups | |||||||||||||||||||||
Religion | |||||||||||||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Chinese | ||||||||||||||||||||
Government | Absolute monarchy[lower-alpha 3] | ||||||||||||||||||||
Emperor | |||||||||||||||||||||
• 1636–1643 (proclaimed in Shenyang) | Chongde Emperor | ||||||||||||||||||||
• 1643–1661 (first in Beijing) | Shunzhi Emperor | ||||||||||||||||||||
• 1908–1912 (last) | Xuantong Emperor | ||||||||||||||||||||
Regent | |||||||||||||||||||||
• 1643–1650 | Dorgon, Prince Rui | ||||||||||||||||||||
• 1908–1911 | Zaifeng, Prince Chun | ||||||||||||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||||||||||||
• 1911 | Yikuang, Prince Qing | ||||||||||||||||||||
• 1911–1912 | Yuan Shikai | ||||||||||||||||||||
Legislature |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Historical era | Late modern | ||||||||||||||||||||
1636 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1644–1662 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1687–1757 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1755–1792 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1839–1842 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1850–1864 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1856–1860 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1861–1895 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1894–1895 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1898 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1900–1901 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1901–1911 | |||||||||||||||||||||
1911–1912 | |||||||||||||||||||||
12 February 1912 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Area | |||||||||||||||||||||
1700[5] | 8,800,000 km2 (3,400,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||
1790[5] | 14,700,000 km2 (5,700,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||
1860[5] | 13,400,000 km2 (5,200,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||
1908[6] | 11,350,000 km2 (4,380,000 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Currency | |||||||||||||||||||||
|
Qing dynasty | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 清朝 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dynastic name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 大清 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mongolian name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mongolian Cyrillic | Дайчин Улс | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mongolian script |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manchu name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manchu script |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Abkai | Daiqing gurun | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Möllendorff | Daicing gurun | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nurhaci, leader of the House of Aisin-Gioro and vassal of the Ming dynasty,[15][16] unified Jurchen clans (known later as Manchus) and founded the Later Jin dynasty in 1616, renouncing the Ming overlordship. His son Hong Taiji was declared Emperor of the Great Qing in 1636. As Ming control disintegrated, peasant rebels captured the Ming capital Beijing, but a Ming general opened the Shanhai Pass to the Qing army, which defeated the rebels, seized the capital, and took over the government in 1644 under the Shunzhi Emperor and his prince regent. Resistance from Ming rump regimes and the Revolt of the Three Feudatories delayed the complete conquest until 1683. As a Manchu emperor, the Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722) consolidated control, relished the role of a Confucian ruler, patronised Buddhism (including Tibetan Buddhism), encouraged scholarship, population and economic growth.[17][18] Han officials worked under or in parallel with Manchu officials. The dynasty also adapted the ideals of China's tributary system in asserting superiority over peripheral countries such as Korea and Vietnam, while extending control over Inner Asia including Tibet, Mongolia, and Xinjiang.
The High Qing era was reached in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–1796). He led Ten Great Campaigns and personally supervised 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 mindsets. With peace and prosperity, the population rose to 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, soon leading to 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) 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 in 1895 led to loss of suzerainty over Korea and cession of Taiwan to Japan. The ambitious Hundred Days' Reform in 1898 proposed fundamental change, but the Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) turned it back in a coup.
In 1900 anti-foreign "Boxers" killed many Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries; in retaliation, the foreign powers invaded China and imposed a punitive indemnity. In response, the government initiated unprecedented fiscal and administrative reforms, including elections, a new legal code, and the abolition of the 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 and alienated reformers and local elites alike. 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. In 1917, it was briefly restored in an episode known as the Manchu Restoration, but this was neither recognized by the Beiyang government (1912–1928) of the Republic of China nor the international community.
Hong Taiji proclaimed the Great Qing dynasty in 1636.[19] There are competing explanations as to the meaning of the Chinese character 清; qīng; 'clear', 'pure' in this context. One theory posits a purposeful contrast with the Ming: the character 明; Míng is associated with fire within the Chinese zodiacal system, while 清 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.[20] 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,[21][22] as ruled by the Qing before the Ming-Qing transition.
After conquering China proper, the Manchus identified their state as "China", equivalently as 中國; Zhōngguó; 'middle kingdom' in Chinese and Dulimbai Gurun in Manchu.[lower-alpha 6] 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,[23] including the Chinese-language versions of treaties and maps of the world.[24] The term 'Chinese people' (中國人; Zhōngguórén; Manchu: ᡩᡠᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳ
ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ ᡳ
ᠨᡳᠶᠠᠯᠮᠠ Dulimbai gurun-i niyalma) referred to all the Han, Manchu, and Mongol subjects of the Qing Empire.[25] When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759, it proclaimed within a Manchu-language memorial that the new land had been absorbed into "China".[26]: 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 中外一家; Zhōngwài yījiā and 內外一家; nèiwài yījiā—both translatable as 'home and abroad as one family'—was employed to convey this idea of Qing-mediated trans-cultural unity.[26]: 76–77
In English, the Qing dynasty is sometimes known as the "Manchu dynasty".[27]