China Quiz #1

Front 1

Embassy system

Back 1

- regulation and manipulation of foreign contact

- goal: foreign countries would express a willingness to communicate with and trade with China by acknowledging the emperor based in China as a unique, supreme "son of heaven"
- By making this acknowledgement, foreign rulers didn't surrender their sovereignty or trade policy independence
- They did become part of a loose network of countries that traded with China and maintained either military neutrality or alliance with China

Hint 1

- also known as the "tribute system"
- originally used by the Ming to regulate, and sometimes manipulate, foreign contact, both economic and cultural

Front 2

Macartney

Back 2

- Irish aristocrat sent as an emissary to the Qing by the British government to negotiate a trade agreement outside of the British East India Company
- McCartney wanted access to emperor and markets, a British ambassador in Beijing, and security for their traders who would not be subject to Chinese law,
- He became a symbol of reasonable diplomacy, rational trade practices, and European civility treated roughly, rudely, and ignorantly by an arrogant "China."
- Received suspicions that he had disgraced Britain by performing the kowtow before the emperor, which he denied
- The Macartney Mission, two years in length, ultimately failed in part due to the inability of any of its members to speak the chinese language

Front 3

Baojia (local security unit)

Back 3

- security organizations with a double edge: they provided mutual security while bounded by high walls/locked gates and also were mutual surveillance organizations, serving as the basis of the empire's collective responsibility system in law
- members were expected to tattle on each other, or also face punishment
- had to be intertwined with kinship networks that were influential everywhere (to one degree or another)

Front 4

Sworn brotherhoods (hui 会): SE China

Back 4

- source of disorder in qing empire
- secret societies that included the white lotus
- necessity of government working with these quasi-legal groups, especially considering the size of the population
- started as mutual aid organizations
- Triads (Tiandi hui 天地会, “Heaven & Earth Society”)
Mainly in SE China (why?) -- criminal organization

Front 5

Dzungaria (now in Xinjiang)

Back 5

- located in western mongolia, it housed a spectrum of muslim religions and political alliances
- Qianlong emperor reinitiated its conquest in 1745
- Uighurs resisted fiercely but the Qing instituted military rule and held firm control

Front 6

“benevolent government”

Back 6

- emperor acted or put on the appearance of acting in the best interests of the whole population
- confucian ideals played into this
- necessary for continued popular support

Front 7

Canton system

Back 7

- served as a means for China to control local trade with the west.
- limited the ports in which European traders could do business with China.
- forbade direct trade between European merchants and Chinese civilians.
- Instead, European employees of major trading companies (British East India Company) had to trade with an association of Chinese merchants known as the Cohong.
- European (and soon American) presence was restricted to the Thirteen Factories on the harbour of Canton (Guangzhou) during the trading season
- the foreign traders were permitted to remain on Chinese soil at Macau in the off-season (reversing earlier restrictions)

Hint 7

Seen from the European view, it was a complement to the Old China Trade.

Front 8

Kangxi Emperor

Back 8

- fourth emperor of the qing dynasty
- longest reigning chinese emperor in history (61 years)
- considered one of China's greatest emperors.
- Suppressed the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, forced the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan to submit to Qing rule, blocked Tzarist Russia on the Amur River and expanded the empire in the northwest
- also accomplished such literary feats as the compilation of the Kangxi Dictionary.
- reign brought long-term stability and relative wealth after years of war and chaos
- initiated "Prosperous Era of Kangxi and Qianlong", which lasted for generations
- By the end of his reign, the Qing controlled all of China proper, Taiwan, Manchuria, part of the Russian Far East (Outer Manchuria), both Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet proper, and Joseon Korea as a protectorate

Front 9

Qianlong Emperor

Back 9

- the sixth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper.
- Although his early years saw the continuation of an era of prosperity in China, his final years saw troubles at home and abroad converge on the Qing Empire.
- reinitiated the conquest of Dzungaria

Front 10

White Lotus Rebellion

Back 10

- broke out among impoverished settlers in the mountainous region that separates Sichuan province from Hubei and Shaanxi provinces.
- began as a tax protest led by the secret, religious White Lotus Society
- Members were not ethnically different from Han Chinese, but subscribed to a belief based on a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism, and Manichaeism
- The group advocated restoration of the native Chinese Ming Dynasty, and promised personal salvation to its followers and the return of the Buddha
- rebellion was finally crushed by the Qing government in 1804, but marked a turning point for Qing dynasty, whose control weakened and prosperity diminished by the 19th century.
- Rebellion is estimated to have caused the deaths of 100,000 rebels.

Hint 10

The group forecast the advent of Maitreya

Front 11

Confucianism

Back 11

- ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher
- official state ideology of Qing dynasty
- The core of Confucianism is humanism, the belief that human beings are teachable, improvable and perfectible through personal and communal endeavour especially including self-cultivation and self-creation. Confucianism focuses on the cultivation of virtue and maintenance of ethics
Source of order: good at defining societal roles, order of family and patriarchy
Mandate of heaven: right of recall if emperor is not doing his job, heaven will make bad things happen and people can legitimately ‘vote out’
Retains culture and bureaucracy, just ‘fires’ the emperor
Bloody or bloodless, depends

Front 12

queue

Back 12

- hairstyle in which hair is worn long and gathered up into a ponytail
- Chinese queue was unique and worn by the Manchus from central Manchuria
- later imposed on the Chinese public
- hair on the front of the head was shaved off above the temples with the rest braided into a long ponytail, or queue.
- The ponytail was never to be cut for it would justify execution as treason.

Front 13

Regimes in Chinese History

Back 13

Ming 1368-1644, Qing 1644-1911, Republican 1912-49, PRC 1949-

Front 14

Malthusian (Thomas Malthus, 1766-1834)

Back 14

- argued that "rational" behaviors often affect outcome of societal situations where population growth threatens to suppress economic development
- proposed that some societies (Northern Europe and Britain) had learned to control the degree of population growth in light of present and expected economic development
- China was an example of irrational population growth: they did nothing to prevent population outpacing ability to feed themselves or generate enough surplus to stimulate economy
- Only the intervention of natural or man-made disasters caused periodic starvation that limited Chinese population
- recent research proves that malthusian theories scarcely account for China's population dynamics (high infant mortality rate, agricultural society both encouraged high birth rate) - UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Front 15

liu min 流民 (floating population)

Back 15

- Chinese beggars

Front 16

Hakka (ke jia 客家),

Back 16

- han chinese often competing with cantonese speakers for land, crop sales, water access, and sometimes mining rights
- majority of the pop was often contemptuous of the Hakkas, whose women's feet were unbound and regarded as uncouthly large
- extended lineages and village organizations were essential to their safety and livelihood

Front 17

secret society (White Lotus, Heaven & Earth/Triad)

Back 17

- White Lotus: groups– north, northeast & central China mainly
- White Lotus beliefs: Eternal Mother & primordial goddess wusheng laomu
- preachers, teachings, salvation quest, small congregations, healing
- Sutra recitation sects: texts, congregational
- Meditations sects: oral transmission, no congregations, boxing groups common
- see sworn brotherhoods

Front 18

Hui (Chinese Muslims)

Back 18

- concentrated mainly in the provinces of Ningxia, Qinghai, and Gansu
- explicitly opposed manchu sovereignty
- source of ethnocultural and economic tension
- source of disorder
- panthay rebellion originated with one of these muslim groups

Front 19

Zhili (capital province in north), Kashgar, China Proper

Back 19

Zhili
- name indicates regions directly ruled by the imperial government
- contained administrative districts of beijing (capital) and tianjin

Kashgar
- administrative center of Kashgar Prefecture of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
- After Qings overran the governing Huis, a series of rebellions by various muslim factions before 1862 revolt pushed Chinese out of rule in the region

China Proper
- term used by Western writers on the Qing to express distinction between core and frontier regions of China.
- no fixed extent for China proper due to many historical administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts
- One definition: original area of Chinese civilization, the North China Plain
- Another: "Eighteen Provinces" system of the Ming Dynasty.

Front 20

Grand Canal

Back 20

- aka Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the longest canal or artificial river in the world
- Starts in Beijing, passes through Tianjin, and ends in Hangzhou
- periodic flooding of the adjacent Yellow River threatened the canal's safety and functioning.
- During wartime the Yellow River's high dikes sometimes deliberately broken to flood advancing enemy troops, causing immediate disaster and prolonging economic hardships.
- Despite temporary periods of desolation and disuse, Grand Canal furthered an indigenous and growing economic market in China's urban centers since the Sui period, allowing faster trading and national economic improvement
- Manchus invaded China in mid 17th century, overthrew the Ming, established Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), and maintained use of Grand Canal
- In 1855, Yellow River flooded and changed course, severing course of the canal in Shandong.
- because of difficulty of crossing the Yellow River, development of alternative sea routes, and opening of railways, the canal languished.
- for decades the northern and southern parts remained separate, with many sections falling into disrepair and some parts returned to flat fields.

Hint 20

passes thru provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang
Manchus allowed through the northern passes by the Chinese general Wu Sangui once the Ming capital at Beijing had fallen into the hands of a rebel army.

Front 21

opium

Back 21

- opium trade was legalized and expanded, shaping global trading patterns and networks, all due to China’s incorporation into 19th Century European treaty framework
- the non-medicinal consumption of opium was banned by the Yongzheng Emperor in 1729
- By the 1830s, China's economy and society were being seriously affected by huge imports of opium from British and other foreign traders based in the city. Lin's forceful opposition to the trade on moral and social grounds is considered to be the primary catalyst for the First Opium War of 1839–42
- Lin's forceful opposition to the trade on moral and social grounds is considered the primary catalyst for the First Opium War of 1839–42.

Front 22

hui guan会馆 (provincial assocs.)

Back 22

- Different provincial associations to aid merchants, traders, and travelers
- Not illegal (vs. secret societies), but similarly facilitated trade and travel

Front 23

Lin Zexu

Back 23

- scholar and official of the Qing Dynasty most recognized for conduct and constant position on the "moral high ground" in his fight against opium trade in Guangzhou.
- By the 1830s, China's economy and society were seriously affected by huge imports of opium from British and other foreign traders in the city.
- Lin's forceful opposition to the trade on moral and social grounds is considered the primary catalyst for the First Opium War of 1839–42.
- this firm stance earned him role model status for moral governance, particularly in China.

Hint 23

a "shepherd" of his people

Front 24

Compradore

Back 24

- In Canton, Qing system required foreign merchants to go through these intermediaries to communicate with officials
- they arranged housing, servants, supplies, credit, and translations for the merchants
- British commissioner of trade William Napier awkwardly proposed direct communications
- although chinese, compradors were close in outlook to foreign merchants, and therefore harder on chinese merchants
- However, the empire desperately needed cash in late 18th century, and looked more to chinese merchants of Canton -- emergence of global Chinese merchant class?
- compradores organized into firms, often run by extended families and named after the patriarch

Hint 24

following the removal of the BEIC's monopoly,

Front 25

Treaty of Nanking (or Nanjing) & supplements, 1842-44

Back 25

- extra-territoriality & most-favored nation principle; loss of tariff control; 5 ports opened

Front 26

Treaty of Tianjin & supplements, 1858-60

Back 26

- embassies in Beijing, interior open to trade & missionaries, legalization of opium imports; politically correct language
1. Britain, France, Russia, and the United States would have the right to station legations in Beijing
2. Eleven more Chinese ports would be opened for foreign trade, including Newchwang, Tamsui (Taiwan), Hankou and Nanjing.
3. The right of foreign vessels including warships to navigate freely on the Yangtze River.
4. The right of foreigners to travel in the internal regions of China for the purpose of travel, trade or missionary activities.
5. Religious liberty to all Christians in China.
6. China was to pay an indemnity to Britain and France in 2 million taels of silver respectively, and compensation to British merchants in 3 million taels of silver.
7. Official letters and other documents exchanged between China and Britain are to be banned from referring to British Officials and Subjects of the Crown by the character "夷" (yí), meaning "barbarian".

Hint 26

Beijing = (Peking, a closed city at the time).

Front 27

Zongli Yamen

Back 27

- government body in charge of foreign affairs during late Qing dynasty.
- established by Prince Gong in 1861, following the Convention of Peking.
- abolished in 1901 after Boxer Rebellion and replaced with a Foreign Office of ministry rank.
- significant institutional innovation in the central Beijing bureaucracy
- supervised by a controlling board of five senior officials (initially all Manchus)
- intended only to be a temporary institution, maintained until foreign and domestic crises had passed.
- relatively low formal status in Qing administrative hierarchy and its members served concurrently in other government agencies, further weakening its position.
- also, not the sole policy making body in foreign affairs, a prerogative still resting with the emperor
- remained an important body for a few decades, but its influence was soon overshadowed by officials such as Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.

Front 28

Imperial Maritime Customs Service, 1854

Back 28

- Chinese governmental tax collection agency and information service
- many senior-level foreigners on staff; Britons dominated, but also many Germans, Americans, French, and later Japanese
- controlled by Chinese central government
- established by foreign consuls in Shanghai in 1854 to collect maritime trade taxes going unpaid because officials couldn't collect during the Taiping Rebellion
- responsibilities soon grew to include domestic customs administration, postal administration, harbour and waterway management, weather reporting, and anti-smuggling operations.
- mapped, lit, and policed the China coast and the Yangtze
- conducted loan negotiations, currency reform, and financial and economic management.

Hint 28

The Service published monthly Returns of Trade, a regular series of Aids to Navigation and reports on weather and medical matters. It also represented China at over twenty world fairs and exhibition, ran some educational establishments, and conducted some diplomatic activities.

Front 29

HONG Xiuquan

Back 29

- Taiping Heavenly King (founder of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom)
- Took translations of Bible pamphlets and used to analyze class structure
- Left Canton for Guangxi province (rural, poor, limited lineage solidarity), with huge changes from Canton there was new meaning to and reason for transformative Christian language
- Led troops to Nanjing and overall Taiping rebellion against Qing empire

Front 30

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 太平天国1851-64

Back 30

- Christianity brought new lens to Manchu Qing dynasty; they were “demons” ruining society.
- Solution: Convert Chinese to Christianity, get rid of Manchus
- 1851: Marched north from Guangxi
- 1853: Took and held Nanjing until 1864
- Failure in large part because they don’t sufficiently court the educated and wealthy elite

Front 31

Nian rebellions

Back 31

- armed uprising that took place in northern China from 1851 to 1868, contemporaneously with Taiping Rebellion (1851–1864) in South China
- failed to topple the Qing dynasty, but caused immense economic devastation and loss of life -- major long-term factors in the collapse of the Qing regime
- failed to topple regime largely due to failure to ally with other rebels, especially the Taipings, even in face of Qing alliances with European powers.
- Despite failure to seize power, the events of the rebellion dealt a severe blow to the Qing regime.
- During endless fighting, Qing widely used scorched earth tactics
- rebellion was smaller than Taiping's, but severely drained government finances, devastated the richest areas of China, and left China's economy in a very precarious state (see above)

Hint 31

Nien only symbolically supported Taiping by accepting the Taiping king's "appointments", but refusing to follow his orders. Had the Nien and Taipings joined forces, the Qing government would have been faced with a formidable threat,
- environmental disasters of 1851 and 1855 devastated the richest provinces of China, depriving the Qing regime of tax income and trade duties.
- ruined the countryside and resulted in countless deaths

Front 32

DU Wenxiu

Back 32

- sultanate in Yunnan
- led Kingdom of Pacified South 1856-1872 (Panthay Rebellion)
- Hui Muslim

Front 33

ZENG Guofan

Back 33

- architect of Taiping defeat, founded Hunan Army
- an eminent Han Chinese official, military general, and devout Confucian scholar of the late Qing Dynasty in China.

Front 34

Self-Strengtheners, 1860s-80s

Back 34

- Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang
- period of institutional reforms initiated during late Qing Dynasty following series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers
- To make peace with the Western powers, Prince Gong (see above) was made regent, grand councilor, and head of the newly formed Zongli Yamen (Office of Foreign Affairs). By contrast, Empress Cixi was virulently anti-foreign, but had to accommodate Prince Gong because he was an influential political figure in Qing court. But she would become most formidable opponent of reform as her political influence increased
- majority of the ruling elite still subscribed to a conservative Confucian worldview
- but following serious defeats in the First and Second Opium Wars, several officials argued it was necessary to adopt Western military technology and armaments to strengthen itself against the West.
- could be achieved by establishing shipyards and arsenals, and hiring foreign advisers to train artisans in manufacturing.
- believed that intelligence and wisdom of Chinese civilization was superior to those of Western "barbarians", and thus China would first learn from foreigners, then equal and surpass them.
- "self-strengtheners" largely uninterested in social reform beyond economic and military modernization.

Hint 34

He would be assisted by a new generation of leaders (see below)

Front 35

***Treaty of Shimonoseki*** (1895)

Back 35

- Korea “independent”
- Taiwan, etc. to Japan
- 200 mil silver taels indemnity

Liaodong to Japan (initially)
- excellent ports: for trade and especially the navy, as the deep water welcomed enormous warships
- first alienation of a major piece of Chinese land
- special insult tied to Japanese victory (as opposed to European)
- European powers, however, force Japan to back down from demand, which they do. But then they turned around and began asking for more from China

Front 36

Yuan Shikai, d. 1916

Back 36

military modernizer, Beiyang Army, imperial resident in Seoul (1884-94), protégé of Li Hongzhang, opposed Boxers, negotiated in 1911 between court & revolutionaries, president of republic, 1912-16

Front 37

Sources of Disorder in the Qing Empire

Back 37

*Population pressures
*borders
*environments
*competition over resources
*socio-cultural responses to stress

Front 38

‘Learn from Wukan’

Back 38

-

Front 39

Qing resources in managing problems

Back 39

Active, concerned emperors
consultative tradition of Manchus; policy debates at court
Charisma & legitimacy of throne
Highest [Confucian] moral exemplar
Allegiance of Chinese/local elites
gentry militias increasingly important
educated elites loyal to civilization/values
Dual staffing, over-lapping jurisdictions
Lin Zexu deputed to represent emperor in situ
Punishments & rewards: took $$$

Front 40

Key arguments

Back 40

China was incorporated into a legal framework of Euro-American treaties that marked a turning point in world history.
The “unequal treaties” introduced new concepts of [absolute] sovereignty to Eastern Eurasia.
1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki undid the 19th c. treaty regime & relationships that had emerged from it > dire consequences for China.

Front 41

What were some of the lasting effects of the ‘opening’ of China to foreign settlement?

Back 41

and of the treaties that enabled the opening?

Front 42

Effects of China’s incorporation into 19th c. European treaty framework

Back 42

Eroded & transformed Qing sovereignty: drained Qing revenues & authority, alienated territory
Opened Chinese cities & interior to foreign activity & settlement (sources of conflict & friction?)
**Legalized & expanded opium trade, shaped global trading patterns & networks (Shanghai & Hong Kong)
Exacerbated social dislocation & disorder
**Introduced new problems, ideas, institutions, opportunities
Provoked anger, shame, humiliation, sense of inferiority

Front 43

Qing Foreign Relations & ideas of sovereignty, pre-1842

Back 43

- Pragmatic & flexible: goals were security & order (control), not profit or equality
- Embassy system for NE & SE Asians; Canton system for Euro-Americans
- Treaties w/Russia (as equal empires)
--> Nerchinsk 1689 & Kiakhta 1728: Settled boundary, set up border trade, Russian priests ran a church in Beijing & hostel for envoys & could study Manchu and Chinese
-->Kuldja 1851: trade & residence at Ili, western Xinjiang

Front 44

Negotiating Sovereignty: the Unequal Treaty Regime in East Asia

Back 44

- Treaty of Nanjing & Supplements, 1842-1844
--> extra-territoriality & most-favored nation principle; loss of tariff control; 5 ports opened; Wangxia Treaty 1844 w/US
- Treaties of Tianjin (1858) & Convention of Beijing (1860)
--> embassies in Beijing, interior open to trade & missionaries, legalization of opium imports; politically correct language
- Treaty of Aigun, 1858 (Russia)
--> Russia took lands E & N of Amur River
- Burlingame Treaty, 1868: US to follow a different path?
--> Undone by 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
- 1864, Chinese translation of Henry Wheaton’s 1834, Elements of International Law Wanguo gongfa 萬國公法

Front 45

Challenging the Qing, reinvisioning the state: Taipings & Panthays

Back 45

- Ethno-cultural & economic tensions
--> Miao, Hui, Hakkas
--> Muslims in NW & Xinjiang
--> Nian offshoots of White Lotus networks
- Militarization of south China (armed lineages & villages)
- External agents of change: opium trade, missionaries, wars, treaties

Front 46

Society of God-worshippers, 1846

Back 46

-

Front 47

Hunan Army

Back 47

-

Front 48

LI Hongzhang’s Anhui Army

Back 48

-

Front 49

Ever-Victorious Army

Back 49

Frederick Ward TOWNSEND
Charles George GORDON

Front 50

Kingdom of Pacified South,平南国1856-1872 (Panthay Rebellion)

Back 50

- DU Wenxiu 杜文秀(d. 1873), “Sultan Suleiman”
- CEN Yuying rose to power in Yunnan suppressing Panthay rebellion

Front 51

ZUO Zongtang

Back 51

-

Front 52

CEN Yuying

Back 52

-

Front 53

Casualties of Taiping wars (and other repercussions)

Back 53

- Qing state, Jiangnan economy
- New provincial power centers, social basis of elite power broadening via (military & commerce)
- Shanghai emerged as most dynamic commercial city w/influx of rich refugees
- Likin new commercial tax became key source of revenue
- Reaffirmation of Confucian values among loyal, educated elites: ti 体 /yong 用
- Taipings (& others?) indicate “level of alienation, creativity, and inspiration emerging from local organizations”

Front 54

Birth of Chinese nationalism: 1890s

Back 54

1894-1895 Qing-Jap. War
Treaty of Shimonoseki
1895-1898 Scramble for Concessions
1898 Hundred Days Reform: Kang Youwei
1899-1900 Boxer Uprising
1901 Boxer Protocol
--> Yuan Shikai (1859-1916)
1902 New Policies
1905 end of civil service exam system

Front 55

Anti-Christian sentiment (tianzhu jiao 天主教 Catholicism)

Back 55

zhu 猪 (pig)

Front 56

Yihe quan, “Harmonious Fists”

Back 56

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