 THE
IMPERIAL ERA
The
Rise of the Manchus
Although the Manchus
were not Han Chinese and were strongly resisted,
especially in the south, they had assimilated a great
deal of Chinese culture before conquering China Proper.
Realizing that to dominate the empire they would have to
do things the Chinese way, the Manchus retained many
institutions of Ming and earlier Chinese derivation.
They continued the Confucian court practices and temple
rituals, over which the emperors had traditionally
presided.
The Manchus continued
the Confucian civil service system. Although Chinese
were barred from the highest offices, Chinese officials
predominated over Manchu officeholders outside the
capital, except in military positions. The Neo-Confucian
philosophy, emphasizing the obedience of subject to
ruler, was enforced as the state creed. The Manchu
emperors also supported Chinese literary and historical
projects of enormous scope; the survival of much of
China's ancient literature is attributed to these
projects.
Ever suspicious of
Han Chinese, the Qing rulers put into effect measures
aimed at preventing the absorption of the Manchus into
the dominant Han Chinese population. Han Chinese were
prohibited from migrating into the Manchu homeland, and
Manchus were forbidden to engage in trade or manual
labor. Intermarriage between the two groups was
forbidden. In many government positions a system of dual
appointments was used--the Chinese appointee was
required to do the substantive work and the Manchu to
ensure Han loyalty to Qing rule.
The Qing regime was
determined to protect itself not only from internal
rebellion but also from foreign invasion. After China
Proper had been subdued, the Manchus conquered Outer
Mongolia (now the Mongolian People's Republic) in the
late seventeenth century. In the eighteenth century they
gained control of Central Asia as far as the Pamir
Mountains and established a protectorate over the area
the Chinese call Xizang but commonly known in the West
as Tibet. The Qing thus became the first dynasty to
eliminate successfully all danger to China Proper from
across its land borders. Under Manchu rule the empire
grew to include a larger area than before or since;
Taiwan, the last outpost of anti-Manchu resistance, was
also incorporated into China for the first time. In
addition, Qing emperors received tribute from the
various border states.
The chief threat to
China's integrity did not come overland, as it had so
often in the past, but by sea, reaching the southern
coastal area first. Western traders, missionaries, and
soldiers of fortune began to arrive in large numbers
even before the Qing, in the sixteenth century. The
empire's inability to evaluate correctly the nature of
the new challenge or to respond flexibly to it resulted
in the demise of the Qing and the collapse of the entire
millennia-old framework of dynastic rule.
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