Mao Zedong

Background to China 1840-1912

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The Middle Kingdom - 中国

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The Middle Kingdom

• 1840 moral and cultural superiority• Foreigners = barbarians• Relationship between Chinese and the British

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Confucianism

• Key concepts:• Li - 礼 : ritual, propriety, etiquette• Hsiao: love within the family• Yi - 义 : righteousness• Jen: benevolence, humanness towards others – the

highest Confucian virtue• Chung: loyalty to the State

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Opium

• British wanted access silk, tea and spices

• Needed commodity to trade

• British East India Company

• 1838 opium was ½ all imports to China

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The First Opium War

• 1838 Chinese burned stocks opium • British sent fleet to protect free trade• 1842 Treaty of Nanjing

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Impact on China

• Weaknesses Chinese military exposed• Encouraged other powers establish trading centres• Internal disruption – 1854-5 sixteen provinces threw

off imperial rule

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The Taiping Rebellion

• Most serious revolt• Rival dynasty at Nanjing• 1851-1864 ruled much of South and Central China• Rejection Confucianism

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Taiping Rebellion

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The Tongzhi Restoration

• Attempt restore ‘good government’ ideal• By 1874 clear not effective response to the West• Need for new policies• But… too radical for leadership

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Consequences of Tongzhi Restoration

1. Devolution of operational autonomy

2. Question continuation Imperial bureaucracy

3. Element of Western learning introduced

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The Hundred Days of Reform

• Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao institute radical reforms:• Confucian examination system abandoned• Western learning introduced at all levels• Western style economic development introduced

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Hundred Days of Reform Ended

• Provoked intense anger• Emperor arrested by

conservatives led by empress dowager Cixi

• Kang and Liang leave China

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The Boxer Rebellion

• 1899 poor peasants and artisans formed alliance with anti-foreign court officials

• 1901 Boxers opposed international rescue force• “Revive the Qing, destroy the foreign.”

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Boxer Rebellion Poem

There are many Christian convertsWho have lost their senses,They deceive our Emperor,Destroy the gods we worship,Pull down our temples and altars,Permit neither joss-sticks nor candles,Cast away tracts on ethics,And ignore reason.Don’t you realise thatTheir aim is to engulf the country?

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Boxer Rebellion Poem

Their men are all immoral;Their women truly vile.For the Devils it’s mother-son sexThat serves as the breeding style.

No rain comes from Heaven,The earth is parched and dry.And all because the churchesHave bottled up the sky.

When at last all the Foreign DevilsAre expelled to the very last man,The Great Qing, united, together,Will bring peace to this our land.

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The Last Ten Years

• Qing Dynasty attempt reform• End in 1911 – imperial forces

joins rebels• General Yuan Shikai promised

presidency of new republic• February 1912, the last

emperor, Puyi, abdicates and republic is declared