History of the Qing Dynasty - China History Grand Lecture

Author: Xia Jiakou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: The history of the Qing Dynasty, spanning over two hundred years, can generally be divided into two periods: the early period before the Opium War in 1840 and the later period after 1840. The early Qing period can be further divided into three stages: the stage in the Guandong region before 1644, the peak stage before 1796, and the stage of decline from then until 1840. The Guandong stage, although only a part of the Ming Dynasty in Chinese history, was the rise of the Qing Dynasty and had a significant impact on the development of the national situation at the time. In the peak stage, the suppression of the Revolt of the Three Feudatories and the implementation of the policy of "taxing land instead of people" marked political unity, stability, and economic recovery and development. The stage of decline began with the outbreak of the White Lotus Rebellion in five provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Chu. The later Qing period can also be divided into three stages: the stage of the "Celestial Empire's" dream shattered, the stage where the conservative faction both allied with and struggled against imperialism, and the stage where the entire court completely submitted to the exploitation of imperialism. , the Second Opium War began to shatter the Qing rulers' long-held dream of being superior to all others; before the Eight-Nation Alliance's attack on Beijing, the Qing conservative faction led by Empress Dowager Cixi, while allowing some officials to engage in Westernization, opposed any substantive reforms. After the Hundred Days' Reform, they even attempted to use the Boxer Movement to achieve their own supremacy. After the Boxer War and the Boxer Protocol, the Qing rulers had essentially become the docile tools of imperialist exploitation and plunder in China.