The Fall of the Qing Dynasty free essay sample

Author Zhang Weiwei in The China Wave, Rise of a Civilizational State, argues that Japan became a national state during the Meiji Restoration, but China was unable to accomplish this due to its decline in the mid-19th century. He claims that this decline was a result of its inability to cope with modern states, as demonstrated by the loss of wars against such powers as the British, French and Japanese (49). The primary question is how a formerly world leading power with extensive human and natural resources at hand could decline to the extent that it lost virtually every war from this period on. It is commonly proposed that such Western nation-states as Britain, because of their superior military power, brought China to its decline. Though this proposition is correct, I argue that the decentralization of the Chinese system of governance was an integral reason for its inability to cope with the challenges posed by modern nation-states. This decentralization is characterized by many factors including internal social unrest, lack of strong leadership, corruption, and traditional ideals. The already decentralized, corrupt state was thus easily exploited by modern imperialist powers due to their superior military technology and organization. Eventually, China’s decline and successive defeats led to the fall of the last Chinese empirical dynasty. To begin, it is necessary to have a strong understanding of China’s background as an empire and what led to its decline during this period. First, let’s consider religion. Confucianism is arguably the religion with the biggest influence in Chinese political development, and can be directly associated with the decline of the empire during this time period. Confucius’ ideals and religious traditions are known for being associated neither with conquests nor crusades (Wasserstrom 3-4). As Gary Hamilton has demonstrated in session 5 of his series of lectures, after the final journeys of the Ming dynasty directed by Admiral Zheng He (1371-1435 C.E.), the Chinese Confucian regimes showed little interest in global exploration, preferring to advance their interests through the soft power of civilizing influences directed abroad from the Chinese court (Hamilton). Confucian ideals thus caused an enormous stagnation in the political sphere, which can be identified from the 16th century onward. While Emperors consolidated the whole of China and strangled innovations by enormous bureaucracy, Europeans advanced with various technological innovations that progressed society and the military. Thus, China was stagnating, perhaps most notably due to its lack of competition, whereas Europe was enveloped with nation states fiercely competing in terms of technology and world influence. Japan on the other hand was more open to ideals due to the threat of an impending western dominance. Elizabeth Perry in â€Å"Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China† examines the Confucianism rhetoric of the mandate of heaven (intro ix). She explains that the mandate is an ideology that gives emperors the legitimate right to rule by the powers of heaven. It postulates that heaven would bless the authority of a ruler, though in the case of a despotic ruler, would thereby withdraw its mandate, leading to the overthrow of the monarch (intro x). Thus, following this topic I would like to illustrate the undermining illegitimacy of the state during this time demonstrating the loss of the mandate of heaven. It is commonly postulated that new dynasties provide the most effective emperors (Lieberthal 209). The Qing dynasty as of the mid-19th century was already 200 years old and therefore had exhausted its resource of fresh leadership. The Chinese idiomatic phrase (tiangao huangdi yuan) â€Å"the sky is high and the emperor is far away† thus demonstrates the attitudes leading to the decentralization and decay of the system at the time. Corrupt officials commonly embezzled state money, thus the impediment to growth got progressively worse and caused devolution of political and social power. (Ni 4). Empress Dowager Cixi serves as an accurate example of the inefficient allocation of resources during this time period. The princess diverted all of the available defense funds in an effort to restore the Summer Palace for her birthday celebration (Wang 302). Ironically, the palace was looted and burnt down by British and French troops soon afterward by what is commonly identified as the Rape of Peking (Wang 24). This corruption and unmethodical rule led to civil unrest due to its growing high taxing economic burden on the peasant class (Perry intro x). Thus, this corruption and social unrest contributed to growing divisions in an already fragmenting decentralized government. These factors ultimately led to the facilitation of the economic and political undermining of China during this period. In China Against the Tides, Blecher asks an essential question in our debate â€Å"but what of popular movements and their capacity to bring down the state, thereby removing a major obstacle to modernization?† During this period, peasants all over China were victim to growing financial pressure as a result of the monarch. This led to a series of revolts most notably the Taiping rebellion. The Taiping rebellion, led by Huang Xiuquan, who claimed to be a younger brother of Jesus Christ, led this massive rebellion in an effort to establish a new egalitarian government (Sonnenburg 569). Though, a joint adventure with Western armies eventually put down the rebellion. In the end, this single rebellion resulted in the deaths of an estimated 20 million people as well as a charge of 40 million taels of indemnities to the Western powers, which further weakened imperial finances (Blecher 8). Hence, the social instability during this time period not only significantly effected China’s unity and finances but also eased Western powers entrance into China’s sphere. Although many factors contributed to China’s decline and inability to compete with Western powers, the primary factor was China’s internal division due its corrupt, ideologically outdated methods of governing. China’s crumbling internal infrastructure was quickly overpowered by Western domination and spheres of influence because of its decentralization. Although outside factors contributed to the decline of imperial China, I argue that the decentralization of the Chinese system of governance, aided and abetted by corruption, sometimes made palatable by misuse of religion, and furthered by rebellion against that very corruption, was an integral reason for the decline of China.