IIGS™ Newsletter - August 1998
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IIGS™ Newsletter - August 1998
The earliest settlers of China, in order to defend their lands, merged their small families to form larger groups. As time passed, some family members from one village became more powerful than others and ruled not only their own family group, but also some of the neighboring family groups.
When the Qui/Ch'in dynasty came to power in 221BC, Qin Shi Huanghi became the first emperor and he ruled over a conquered, but united and centralized state. He abolished the feudal system (established during the Shang & Zhou period), took power away from nobles, and made peasants pay taxes directly to him. Because he wanted the same law enforced everywhere, he made punishment very harsh for disobedience - beheading, cutting the body in half or tearing the body apart.
The Qin Shi Huanghi dynasty gave the country the name by which we know it - China.
Trade was important, but it was never as important as agriculture. The ancient Chinese allowed some traders to come into the country to buy from them and they sent a few of their own traders out into the world. Although people traveled, they did not care to change their way of life, to adopt the ways of others. Their unwillingness to change may have been rooted in their deep belief in Confucius, who advocated living in harmony with nature and respecting one's ancestors.
As time passed, China's power grew weaker because successive emperors failed to bring China into the modern world. European traders became more powerful. During this era, the East India Company, through trade, introduced opium from India into China. Thousands became addicted to the drug. In 1839, when the emperor wanted to stop the drug trade, the British went to war against China.
In 1842, the British sailed up the Chang Jiang River and forced the Chinese to surrender under terms of the Treaty of Nanjing. Britain also acquired Hong Kong under the treaty. China signed other treaties with France, Germany and the United States - countries which made a lot of money at China's expense.
On the heels of the traders, came the Christian missionaries. In 1851, Hong Xinguan (a Christian convert) led an uprising of over one million people who bitterly resented the Qing emperors for giving in to the foreign powers. The rebels founded the state of Taiping and the capital city was called Nanjing. They introduced a number of social reforms, but their rebellion was eventually crushed and a great many people died.
During the fighting, Russia, France and Japan seized more and more Chinese territories and possessions. As a result of the double challenge to imperial authority by rebels and foreigners, a group of mandarins advocated a reform of limited Westernisation known as the Self-Strengthening Movement.
A new emperor came to power, but since he was too young to rule, the Dowager Empress Ci Xi became regent.
After the defeat of China by Japan in 1894, China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The treaty exposed the Chinese government's weaknesses and encouraged foreign powers to move in and exploit China to an even greater extent. Income from customs' dues declined and a renewed flood of cheap foreign manufactured goods continued to ruin the native handicraft trade - the basis of China's rural economy.
Conditions in China were at an all-time low in 1898 and most agreed that change was essential. Reformers advocated borrowing Western science and technology to supplement the revived Confucian tradition. The reformers defended their demands for change by taking a pro-Confucian position.
The Dowager Empress Ci Xi, who had manipulated power behind the emperor's throne for nearly 60 years, plotted a coup d'etat to stop the reforms. Emperor Guang Xu was confined to the Summer Palace and once again Ci Xi became regent.
By now China was in desperate need of reform, but Ci Xi looked to the past. Ci Xi was ruthless and opposed to reform. Anyone in favour of change was executed. Six reformers were executed while others fled.
Foreign trade expanded into the countryside and caused extreme hardship for people of all classes. The government, hampered by unfair trade agreements between China and the eight treaty powers (Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States), increased the hardships with increased taxes.
The arrogant behaviour of many foreigners in China stirred up strong feelings and hatred among many Chinese groups. Much of this anti-foreign focus was directed at Christian missionaries' activities in the countryside, areas which soon became anti-Christian. Other educated Chinese felt that China was humiliated by foreigners and they resented the condescending manner of even the lowliest European clerk.
Northern peasants formed an organisation known to Westerners as "the Boxers," so named because its founders named themselves, in Chinese, "The Fist of Righteous Harmony."
The Boxer Uprising of 1899-1900 was a turning point in China's history. Economic hardship, anti-foreign feeling resulting from the activities of the Christian missionaries, and a widespread belief in superstition by the uneducated lower classes fueled this peasant rebellion.
The conservative Dowager Empress, and other equally conservative officials at Court, used and encouraged the Boxers to attack the foreigners' churches and legations. Soon the revolt spread from Shandong across north China, including Beijing. In order for China to have a peaceful, good life, the evil foreigners who had upset the harmony of nature had to be eliminated.
The gentry accused foreigners of letting out the "precious breath" of the mountain by mining, and destroying the 'dragon's vein' in the land by constructing railways. The growing railway system destroyed the old communication system based on the Grand Canal and whole cities were left in poverty-stricken isolation as the railway bypassed them.
Victims of natural calamities, as well as superstitious scholars and officials, blamed their misfortunes on foreigners who had offended the spirits by preaching Christian ways and prohibiting the worship of Confucius, idols and ancestors.
Foreign embassies were besieged; missionaries and diplomats were killed. In 1900, in order to assure civilian safety, the eight treaty powers sent in troops from all nations to quell the uprising and to occupy Beijing. The troops looted and pillaged the grand palaces and private residences, as well as large and small towns and villages.
The efforts of many of the reformers to introduce change which would help rejuvenate the dynasty and put a stop to foreign imperialism failed and the Chinese themselves began to regard foreigners with fear instead of disdain and hostility.
As a result of these attacks on foreigners, China came to be regarded as an uncivilized, lawless county. Although the Manchu court made some gestures toward reform, its authority had become so weak that many Chinese turned to revolution as China's only hope.
The Dowager Empress Ci Xi died in 1908, leaving a small boy, Puyi, to become China's next and last emperor. It was the beginning of the end. After thousands of years, the Chinese Empire finally collapsed and the Provisional Government of the Chinese Republic came into power in 1911.
"The Ancient Chinese" - Hazel Mary Martell
"China" - Phillip Steele
"The Chinese Way" - Janet McRae and Peg White
"China 100 years of Revolution" - Harrison E. Salisbury
"Journey into China" - National Geographic Society
http://hoover.nara.gov/kids/louhenry_04.html
http://www.sartori.com/nhc/frames/faqs/faq45-13.html
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/stream/faq45-13.htm
http://www.profinet.at/austrianconsult/Boxer_Rebellion.htm
http://www.smithway.org/flashman/BOXERS.HTM
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/fists.html
http://www.farmington.k12.mn.us/intrview/ldboxreb.htm