Qin, the Two Han Dynasties, the Jin Dynasty, the Sui, the Tang, the Yuan, the Ming, and the Qing Dynasty, the changes of these great unified feudal dynasties have certain historical laws, that is, they all survive for less than 300 years, which is the fate of the empire. Under the conditions of small-scale peasant economy, land annexation shows a cyclical law, and the peasant movement also shows a cyclical outbreak. Once there is a large-scale peasant uprising, the feudal dynasty based on agriculture will inevitably go down the road and perish in a short period of time, generally no more than 30 years; the Yellow Turban Uprising, the Yellow Nest Uprising, the Red Turban Uprising, the Li Zicheng Uprising, and so on, all buried the feudal empire within 30 years. However, the Qing Dynasty was different, and after the largest peasant uprising in history was put down, the Qing Dynasty was able to hold out for half a century. This is a miracle in the context of a society full of crises and internal and external difficulties. So, after the "Twisting Rebellion", how did the Qing Dynasty hold out for half a century?
01. The rise of the Han landlord forces injected fresh blood into the End Road Dynasty
On January 11, 1851, Hong Xiuquan launched the Jintian Uprising, and the Taiping Army swept through the Eight Banners and the Green Camp, quickly swept through the Three Rivers and Two Lakes, and the southeastern half of the Qing Dynasty was lost. At the same time, Zhang Lexing, Gong Deshu, Ren Huabang, and others launched a "Twist Party" uprising in the Lianghuai area, and the "Twist Army" swept across the Central Plains and attacked the hinterland of Gyeonggi, which shocked the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, the Taiping Army and the Twist Army launched an uprising, one south and one north, causing great strategic pressure on the Qing Dynasty. The eight banners and the green camp have low combat effectiveness, the Manchu and Mongolian nobles are full of "straw bags", and the Road of the Yuan Dynasty is reversed, and the Qing Dynasty seems to be unavoidable. However, a miracle occurred, and Han landlords such as Zeng Guofan, Hu Linyi, Li Hongzhang, zuo Zongtang and other Han landlords rose strongly, injecting fresh blood into the dynasty and extending the life of the Qing Dynasty. These Han landlords calmed down the "twisting chaos" internally and, externally, they maneuvered with the great powers to avoid direct conflict with Europe and the United States, thus alleviating the situation of internal and external troubles in the Qing Dynasty. For example, Li Hongzhang, the great powers said that he was the "Bismarck of the East", the pillar of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty continued for 50 years, and Li Hefei's credit was also credited.
The rise of the Han landlord power and the decline of the Manchu and Mongolian nobles injected fresh blood into the dying Qing Empire and continued to live for nearly half a century. Since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the Han landlords have been suppressed, and now that they have risen, they naturally have to give full play to their abilities and serve the imperial court. Wang Kaiyun's "XiangJun Zhi" said: "Emperor Wenzong was worried, and the Hunan Zhi regiment practiced the aftermath, and the deputy inspector of the township people, and the Xiang army began to sprout." When Fang besieged the city, the officials were in a hurry, and the army was inferior to Wuchang and Anqing. After that, the Xiang army became stronger and stronger, and the inspectors became more and more respectful, and when they saw the town of Tizhen, they were easy to set up two divisions, and the salaries of the soldiers were self-exclusive. The Xiang army went south to Jiaotong, north to Chengde, east to Xunchao and Ting, nai crossed the sea to open Taiwan, and in the west tianshan mountains, Yumen, Dali, Yongchang, Suidu Wusun, the water belonged to the Yangtze River for 5,000 miles, and the garnet was heard in the sea. Since the book deed, Hunan Bing Wei Zhisheng has not had this one. It can be seen that in the late Qing Empire, Han landlords became the pillar of the dynasty.
02. In the context of the western affairs movement, social contradictions are appropriately alleviated under the background of industrialization
The feudal dynasty based on the small peasant economy and the long-term existence of a large number of self-cultivating farmers were the fundamental guarantee for the continuation of the empire. However, in the context of land ownership, land transfer, buying and selling often occurs, and small farmers are forced to sell a small amount of land to landlords and merchants for the sake of subsistence. With the intensification of land mergers, a large number of land is concentrated in the hands of a small number of rich people, small farmers have gone bankrupt, and extremely unfair social phenomena such as "the rich have no place to live in the fields, and the poor have no place to stand". As a result, once there was a famine, the small peasant families were destroyed, and the imperial court was unable to collect taxes, and the finances were paralyzed, and it was unable to help the people. At this time, a large-scale peasant uprising broke out, but the imperial army did not work hard to suppress it due to insufficient military pay, and the dynasty fell into a desperate situation, and was subsequently pushed by the rebel army. The Eastern Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, Ming Dynasty and other prosperous dynasties, the biggest and last straw that crushed them was the peasant uprising.
After the "Twisting Rebellion", the Qing Dynasty not only continued to face the "peasant problem" that existed due to land annexation, but also had to defend against aggression from European and American powers. However, Daqing was fortunate to catch up with the wave of industrialization and seized the opportunity in time. During the suppression of the "Fa Twist Rebellion," Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, and others realized the advanced armament of the West and the importance of industrialization, so they decided to follow the example of Europe and the United States and engage in a "foreign affairs movement" to save the Qing Dynasty. With the opening of the foreign affairs movement, military industry, civilian industry, etc. blossoming everywhere, the strong rise of national capitalism, and the gradual transformation of China from an agrarian society to an industrial society, which is a huge historical progress. The foreign affairs movement provided employment opportunities for bankrupt small peasants and alleviated the social contradictions caused by land annexation; the people's life was not to say rich, but compared with the agricultural era, they already had more opportunities to earn a living, and their quality of life improved. In this way, the class contradictions eased and the Qing Dynasty was able to continue its life.
03. The Penghu Reform Law, the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the self-renewal of the Doomsday Empire
After the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, China's international status plummeted, the great powers set off a frenzy of dividing up China, and the national crisis was unprecedentedly serious. In this context, Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and other progressive forces within the Qing Dynasty have demanded reforms, the implementation of a constitutional monarchy, the path of constitutional government, and the rescue of the crisis. The efforts of Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao were approved by the Guangxu Emperor, and the "Pengshu Reform Law" arose. Politically, it is necessary to open up the channels of speech and allow the officials and the people to offer suggestions and suggestions; streamline the organization, lay off redundant officials, and improve the efficiency of work; appoint new people and promote intellectuals with modern consciousness. Economically, it emphasizes the establishment of industry and the development of industry and commerce; sets up factories in various localities, commercial bureaus and chambers of commerce in various provinces to protect commerce and promote port commercial ports; encourages private enterprises to open factories, supports national capitalism, and provides them with the necessary political services. Militarily, the new army should be trained, follow the western military system, and strengthen the combat calendar of the troops. In terms of culture and education, the Eight Strands of Literature were abolished, schools were built, and Peking University was built.
After the Eight-Power Alliance's invasion of China, the revolutionary movement surged up, and the Qing Dynasty was full of crises and fell into the brink of extinction. In this context, Cixi and other diehards had to continue to increase the intensity and speed of reform, not only the provisions that had been abolished in the "Wushu Coup" were restored and implemented, but also many new measures were introduced, including the promulgation of the constitution and the implementation of constitutionalism, the so-called "New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty" and "preparatory constitution". The impact of the "New Deal" and the "Constitution" exceeded the expectations of the Rulers of the Qing Dynasty, and the two measures accelerated the demise of the dynasty while continuing the life of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty was able to take the initiative to carry out reforms, and modernized in all aspects of politics, economy, culture, education, and military, giving Han bureaucrats, intellectuals, and revolutionary masses the hope of China, temporarily alleviating social class contradictions and internal factional contradictions, and the Qing Dynasty escaped one revolutionary party uprising after another. Of course, the Qing Dynasty's reform lacked sincerity and determination, especially the formation of the "Imperial Cabinet", which disappointed everyone, led to internal divisions and accelerated the speed of the dynasty's demise.
04. The European and American powers, which are full of contradictions and often compete, survive in the cracks of the dynasty
Compared with other great unified empires, the Qing Dynasty faced the most serious situation of internal and external troubles, especially the invasion of Western powers, which caused China to suffer "unprecedented changes in a thousand years". The collision of industrial civilization and agricultural civilization was a disaster for the Qing Dynasty, and the fiasco of the Opium War, the Second Opium War, the Sino-French War, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Eight-Power Alliance's invasion of China made the Great Qing a fat meat on the chopping board of the great powers and a lamb to be slaughtered. In particular, the two defeats of Jia Wu and Gengzi made Daqing almost lose the ability to resist. However, the Western powers are not monolithic, they have their own interests and demands, and they are full of contradictions with each other over the struggle for colonies, which is particularly evident in the China issue. The contradictions between Japan and Russia, the contradictions between Japan and the United States, the contradictions between Britain and Russia, the contradictions between Britain and Germany, and the contradictions between France and Germany are intertwined, and there are many contradictions between them, and they struggle with each other and collude with each other. In this way, the Great Qing was able to survive the contradictions between the great powers.
After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Empire forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the Treaty of Maguan, ceding Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula. At this time, Tsarist Russia, which had always had ambitions for the northeast, was very dissatisfied and did not want Japan to occupy Liaodong, so it colluded with France and Germany to exert pressure on Japan and let it "spit out" Liaodong. Japan knew that its national strength could not compete with the three countries, and when the Russian, German, and French fleets entered the Gulf of Tonkin, Japan immediately surrendered and "returned" the Liaodong Peninsula to China, but demanded a ransom fee of 30 million taels of silver. Since then, Tsarist Russia has regarded itself as the benefactor of "interfering in the Liao" and occupied the northeast as a sphere of influence. In 1902, in order to counter Tsarist Russia, Britain and Japan formed an offensive and defensive alliance. In 1904, japan shelled Lushun and Dalian, provoking the "Russo-Japanese War" and defeating them. At the same time, the United States continues to pursue the "open door" policy, hoping that all countries can "open" their spheres of influence and enjoy the same treatment for each other's trade in China. In this way, although daqing was disgraced, it was objectively able to preserve its rule and continue its life in the cracks.
From the above, it can be seen that after the "Fa Twist Rebellion" was put down, the Qing Empire was in internal and external difficulties and crises, and the Jiangshan Sheji was in a state of turmoil. However, the strong rise of the Han landlord forces injected fresh blood into it; when the empire was on the verge of bankruptcy, it made appropriate reforms in the political, economic, cultural, educational, military and other fields to meet the needs of modernization; during the same period, the great powers were full of contradictions, colluded with each other and fought against each other, objectively preserving the Great Qing. However, the Qing Dynasty failed to seize the historical opportunity of modernization, and the determination and intensity of reform were insufficient, and it was still inevitable that it would perish. What do you think about that?
References: Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Beginning and End of Preparations for Yiwu, Xiang Junzhi