The Ruin Of Qing Dynasty In China

The Qing Dynasty was a feudal dynasty which established by the Manchu nobles. It was also the last imperial dynasty in Chinese history and which lasted from 1644 to 1912. In the early Qing, the government in order to alleviate class contradictions, they released the new policy like reducing tax and returning the land to peasants. All of these steps moved the country in the right direction. During the region of Qian long, the successor who was one of the most memorable emperors in Qing dynasty and by his leading, China reached the peak of its power. At that moment, the Qing government vigorously developed the agricultural economy which was the most effective way to motivate the peasants and it also boosted population growth. Therefore, with the good living condition, the successor could be dedicated on cultural transmission and this way also promoted society harmony and stability. However, this period of greatest prosperity was fleeting and shortly thereafter, the heavy burden of population caused resource crisis and it broadened the inequality between each classes. Actually, one might find a lot of evidence that caused the death of Qing dynasty like, uprising or a corrupt court. Hence, in this research, we will find out what would be the essential reasons which effected the devastating decline for the Qing dynasty. And at first, we will begin in understanding what happened before the opium war and why it became the vital part as the falling of Qing. As we know, the dominator of Qing paid regard to the Great Unity which places importance on the concord of national ideology and law. As rulers of China's religious superior realm, the Qing emperors adopted Confucianism's ideology as their official religion. After the Manchu nobles conquered the Central Plains, they concentrated more on absorbing Han culture. Since the period of Qianlong, the government promoted the Confucianism as the representative of the Han culture, and the Han traditional classics have become a compulsory course for the Manchu, including the emperor. The Qing government adopted the civil service exam which was used to select the intellectuals to work for the court, hence, education in Imperial China was intimately tied to the political system.

Although the Manchu had integrated to Han nationality during the social development, they were still sensitive and worried to the public sentiment. Because they were the ethnic minority who defeated Mind Dynasty and then, the government in order to consolidate their power and they began to use literary inquisition to punish even at all costs, for instance, killed the intellectuals included his family who wrote any related writings (revival of Ming). Scholarly investigations were aiming to form a climate of fear among scholar-officials. It particularly focused on examination graduates and punished them for their composing. According to Gu Mingdong, a specialist in Chinese literature and intellectual thought, the Manchus became almost paranoid about the meanings associated with the Chinese characters for 'bright' and 'clear', 'Ming' and 'Qing' respectively. And here is one real example, in 1778 which is the period of Qianlong, a poet called Xu Shukui who came from Jiangsu had written a poem to celebrate his late father. The Qianlong Emperor decided that the poem was derogatory towards the Manchus, and ordered that Xu Shukui's coffin be unearthed, his corpse mutilated, all his children and grandchildren beheaded. This was only a microcosm of society and these kind of incidents resulted in serious threaten to the public. From that time on, to reduce the risk of persecution, a lot of intellectuals avoided any activities that could interpreted and constituting opposition to Qing rule. Beyond all doubt, literary inquisition undermined the ability of ordinary people to acquire basic education and in addition, the intellectuals could not make contribution for the society and definitely hindered the social progress. Agricultural was always been an essential section of economy in China, and in the early Qing, the government followed the tradition of Ming dynasty to incentive farmers to plant corps. At the meantime, the handcraft industry like porcelain or silk have been recovered, and with the development of navigation, the export trade brought a huge number of foreign exchange income and it initiated a period of great prosperity in history. Besides that, the Silk Road was not only the connection between China and its neighbors but also the route through which goods were carried. We all know that Tea was a major export item in the Qing Dynasty and here are statistical records: the total amount in production for the whole of China was around 50,000 tons and the total amount of tea exported was 19,000 tons in the 1840s. By 1886, the total amount of tea produced and exported reached 250,000 tons and 134,000 tons respectively - a 500 percent and 700 percent increase in four decades.

Consequently, we can easily understand that Qing had a well-functioning financial market which made the country flourished. During the region of Qian long, the government was satisfied with the existing state of affairs, they were complacent to the country which had all they need resource. And another reason was the emperor was accepted the current status and he believed that more corporations or trades would bring conflicts, so he established a new policy which called ‘Closed-door policy’. Despite a noticeable economic growth, by the end of the XVIII century Qing emperors began facing stagnation and crises. The Major exports were restricted and which caused the income fallen significantly. At the same time, other industries like farming became much less profitable. The peasants have been switched their job to tea or silk. This caused the rising food prices and the rising unemployment level, poverty spread throughout China. Then the contradictory intensified at all levels and which lead to the large-scale political or social unrest. Meanwhile, the Europe went through a powerful industrial revolution and they took power gradually. Obviously, the original intension of government was to provide a cohesion effect on the country, but instead not only without helping, but also ruined the economy of the country greatly by limited trading quantities. And the Qing government was failed to predict the policy of seclusion would become an obstacle for China’s technological, political, and economic development in the conditions of the changing dynamics within the global economy and trade relations. Consequently, the seclusion policy certainly traumatized the country and it also led the dynasty back in recession. Now, we can understand the ideology and economy are two crucial elements in the society which will reflect the rise or decline of a country. Apparently, the Qing government was still overbearing pride and they did not have any remediations to help the public even the whole country. Due to the ‘sea ban’, there was a trade imbalance appeared between China and Britain. The British under Queen Victoria were a huge market for Chinese teas, but the Qing refused to engage in trade negotiations, rather demanding that Britain pay for the tea in gold and silver. Therefore, Britain began a lucrative, illicit trade in opium, traded from British imperial India into Canton, far from Beijing. In 1797 the English got direct control over the cultivators and established Opium agents over in Patna and Banaras, after that the opium replaced the silver in trading illegally with China. Meanwhile, a network of opium distribution had formed throughout China which owing to the connivance of corrupt officials. And it also began to affect the civilian and even the official classes like military. In January of 1841 Charles Elliot arrived in Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese in the Convention of Quabi and they wanted to recovery the trade and more authorities. However, neither side accepted the agreement and in the second year, the British government dispatched a military force to occupy the coast cities and it made the Qing government have to take a negotiation. As the first unequal treaty between China and foreign imperialist, Treaty of Nanjing brought an inestimable impact to the whole country. There were six terms in this treaty:

1. The Qing government had to permitted to trade at five “treaty ports” to the British;
2. The Qing government had to pay an indemnity about 21 million silver dollars to the British;
3. The Qing government ceded the territory of Hong Kong to British;
4. The Qing government agreed to establish a “fair and reasonable” tariff;
5. The treaty was supplemented in 1843 and which allowed British citizens to be tried in British courts and granted Britain any rights in China.

The unequal treaty was not only the beginning of the imperialist who invaded China, but also the symbol of the dynasty disintegration. At that time, the central government's influence was greatly weaken because the successor was helpless to make a response for against the foreigner intruders. As a result of social discontent, in the following period, there were continuous revolutions for instance, The Taiping Rebellion which brought immeasurable damage and devastation to China and the government had lost its credibility with the public. To sum up, we can naturally come to the conclusion that the Qing dynasty was failure due to the restriction of culture and thought. A prosperous country should base on its education system and subsequently of information and knowledges will stimulate a rising of innovations. It can be easily found in the early Qing, the government pursued the economic diplomacy and deepened the corporations with the neighbor countries. Meanwhile, the governor adopted the civil service examination which dramatically improve production capability and change their lives. However, during the late Qing, when the ‘Literary Inquisition’ and the ‘Closed-door policy’ came out, it caused the upheaval for the country. Those two constraints broke the balance of the society and just like we said above, it restrained the economic growth and disrupted the education system. Then the Qing dynasty began to decline until ruined. Accordingly, to this day, a great country should still focus on process of facilitating learning and it will boosts economic growth and promoted the social stability. Bibliography Koyama, Mark and Xue Melanie Meng, The Literary Inquisition: The Persecution of Intellectuals and Human Capital Accumulation in China (Munich: University Library of Munich, 2015).