Balance of Chinese and Nomadic Rule

The Qing Dynasty

Introduction

Government – balancing Chinese ruling styles with nomadic ruling styles

Social Customs at the local level

An example of the cultural aspects: Literacy Prosecution and Education

Government Setup in the Qing Dynasty

“The efficiency of Sino-Barbarian rule was quickly proven.” (Fairbank, 146)

“…but I rule both Manchus and Chinese and must ensure that each group gets its due.”

- Barfield, The Perlious Frontier, p271

Banner System

A banner was a unified territorial administration with a military organization

24 banners that personally served the emperor

Bannermen were trustworthy servants of the emperor and associates of the Inner Court

Served as a talent pool for people to be chosen to serve as civil bureaucrats

Was considered multiethnicIn 1648, it was 76% Chinese, 16% Manchu, and 8% Mongol

The emperor was like an “owner” of the bannermen nomadic

Sinicization of rule

Institutional practices from the Ming Dynasty were kept

Creation of a Chinese-staffed bureaucracy

Took back terminology, forms, and ideas of Confucianism

Used to support and maintain political authority

Sinicization of rule

Promoted study of the classics and veneration of ancestors

Accepted the idea that the ruler rules by virtue of his moral goodness

A decade before the Manchus entered China they had created a miniature civil administration based on the Beijing model

This was in Mukden

Divisions

The Manchus took steps to preserve their own identity

Manchuria was governed by a Manchu military governmentSteps to preserve racial purity

– Banned Manchu-Chinese marriage

Supported custom divisionsNo Chinese immigration to North ManchuriaSteps to preserve language

Ruling of China

Manchu military control of China was maintained by the establishment of banner barracks at strategic points

Chinese and nomadic

Arrangement that imperial princes should be pensioned and given wealth but not allowed to become territorial lords

sinicization

Division of nomadsImmobilization and division of Mongols

sinicization

Civil Administration

Six MinistriesHeaded by both a Chinese and Manchu man

Dual AppointmentsChinese and Manchus assigned to the same positions

Examination system continued to function with highest prestige and efficiency

Often used more for assigning Chinese to positions

Often a Manchu governor-general was in charge of two provinces that were each under a Chinese governor

Imperial Household Department

Secret level of government

Collected money through taxes, trade, land revenues, loans, fines, and tributes

Began as a way to keep the eunuchs in check and prevent corruption

– Became corrupted though

This shows a balance between sinicization and barbization

Preserved their nomadic identities as rulers but centralized power

The Grand Council

Set up by the Yongzheng emperor

Belonged to the Inner Court

Officials to handle urgent business

Manchus, Chinese, and Mongols served

Very secretive

Combination of Chinese and nomadic styles

Social Customs (Queue Policy)in the Qing Dynasty

Manchu – social custom

the Manchu used barbarization on social customs→ to control Han Chinese + establish authoritymain focus: hair style (queue) i.e. queue → reflected the Manchu drive to submit Han to the minority’s political and cultural hegemony

Manchu – social customContent

Manchu’s traditional clothing/hair style

Han Chinese’s traditional clothing/hair style

background information

the importance and significance of hair

To what extent were the Han barbarized

To what extent were the Manchu sinicized

Manchu – social customManchu’s traditional clothing & hair style

clothing: cheong sam

hair style: half-shaved, wear a queue

Origin:

lived by hunting

a queue prevented them from hooks by branches

i.e. for convenience

Manchu – social customHan Chinese’s traditional clothing & hair style

clothing: thin sleeves

hair style: binding up the long hair on the top of the head

Origin:

Agricultural economy

Emphasis on literacy instead of martial arts

Manchu – social customBackground

Nurhaci ( 努爾哈赤 )Hung Taiji ( 皇太極 )Dorgan ( 多爾袞 )“Keep your head, lose your hair; keep your hair, lose your head”Resistance : the slaughtersNote: the Han commoners actually fought harder to protect their hair than to protect the Ming regime and emperor!

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair

Sociological and Anthropological

Perspective

1.Custom:

hair style was custom since the ancestors → could not be changed

What hair represented socially

e.g. capping ceremony (guanli 冠禮 )

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair (sociological & anthropological perspective)

2.Belief in hair’s magical power: fertility, health, soul-stealing etc.

3.External appearance determines identification (physical resemblance between the 2 ethnic groups)

Ruler: father; subject: son → unified body

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair (sociological & anthropological perspective)

Qing: experienced from the Jurchens

i.e. to prevent the Manchu from identifying to the Han

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair

Cultural Perspective

Confucianism

1.fear of bodily mutilation

filial piety: hair was inherited from parents

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair(cultural perspective)2.Essential to follow the ancestors’ custom

(i.e. same hair style) to perform rituals

3.Hair style is what distinguished Chinese culture from that of barbarians

Mencius: civilizing the barbarians by teaching them the Chinese rites, rather than adopting the customs of barbarians

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair(cultural perspective)

Qing: they didn’t tolerate even the descendants of the sages

→ posed as a victor to press for absolute obedience

shaving hair destructed the Han pride

→ undermine their sense of cultural superiority

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair

Political Perspective

Hair shaving had been a traditional form of penalty

i.e. a humiliation

Manchu – social customThe importance & significance of hair(political perspective)

Qing: a form of submission/loyalty thru taking the queue styleHair growing: a sign of political resistancePunishment even to those who did not shave properly and families were affected → symbolized: alien conquest + autocratic power→ physically reminded the Han of the new political master→ symbolic standardization of people’s political ideology

Manchu – social customTo what extent were Han barbarized1.The Manchu hair style became a new

Chinese customEvidence:making up the queue was daily customnew career: shaving shopsresistance to cut queue during the republican period→ a sign of identification/assimilation

Manchu – social customTo what extent were Han barbarized

2.Other barbarized custom: cheongsam

3.The western world perceived Chinese in the image of Manchu

e.g. pig-tail

i.e. the Manchu customs constituted for “what is Chinese”

→ successful barbarization

Manchu – social customTo what extent were Manchu sinicized

Manchu were also sinicized in the practice of hairIn times of funeral affairs…Humans to be buried along with the deceased → hair instead of humansNo shaving within 100days after a family member died to show respect→ the concept of filial piety was incorporated into the practice

Literacy Prosecution and Education System in

the Qing Dynasty

Literacy Prosecution

A political method : to stop the scholars or the educated class to write against the government.

In the Shunzhi, Kangxi, YongZheng and Qianlong era. Esp in Qianlong period (more than 100 cases)

Usually about the words the scholars used.

Reasons of literacy prosecution

Not only Manchu had this political mean.This also existed in the Ming dynasty.

Prevention of the Han-Chinese to use ‘literacy’ to provoke Anti-Manchu feeling.

To eliminate the political enemies.

To give examples to the existing scholars:not to write essays or articles against the government or the emperors.

Cases in the Qing Dynasty

Kangxi: Da Mingsi( 戴名世 ) wrote about the incident about the southern Ming.

he and his family were all killed.

YongZheng: Cha Chiding( 查嗣庭 ) was in charged in the jingnan examination. He gave an question which from one the classics.

reported that was anti-emperor saying.He was killed.

Examination system

2 types of Imperial examinations : martial and scholar artsMartial: barbarization

To teach the martial arts, which remind people the nature of the Manchu.

Scholar art: sinicization( Qianlong)to learn from the Han-Chinese classics and ally with the gentry class.attract to the study of China.

Examintation system scholar arts

Adoption of the system of Ming Dynasty.

answered in Chinese or Mandarin.

Both Manchurian and Chinese can take part.

Several stages: from local to central

Based on the Chinese classics

Eight-legged essay: format> content

Results of imperial examintion

In the early stage: translate the classics into mandarin enlarge the mandarin wordings(reflected in their surname)Interaction between Manchu and Han.( reflected in how they name the kids)Path for the gentry class to serve in government( X anti-government feeling)Neglect the technique and scientific development.Eight-legged essay: limitation of students’ thoughts( lack of new ideas)

Conclusion

Literacy prosecution1. frighten the educated people not to write against the government.2. establish their strong image (nomadic group to conquest whole China)

Examination system1. barbarization and sinicization co-exist.2. ally with the Han-Chinese3. harmful to the developments in science and arts.( just to copy the traditional classics)

Reference< 新校本清史稿 . 本紀 . 卷八 本紀八 聖祖三 >,< 新校本清史稿 . 本紀 . 卷九 本紀九 世宗 > http://harmonia.arts.cuhk.edu.hk.easyaccess1.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/~sinica/handy1/ 于景祥 ,< 金榜題名—清代科舉述要 >, 遼海出版社 .1997Barfield, Thomas J. The Perilous Frontier. Cambridge: B. Blackwell, 1989. pp250-296Crossley, Pamela Kyle. Ch'ing-shih wen-t'I. “Thinking about ethinicity in early modern China”. 1997Fairbank, John King. China, A New History. “Institutional Adaptation”. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1992. pp146-151Morton, W. Scott. China, Its History and Culture. “The Manzhou: Summit and Decline of the Empire”. New York: Lippincott & Crowell, 1980. pp137-148