What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
When it comes to China's feudal dynasty, we can always think of the grand Tang Dynasty of "opening the palace in nine days, and the crown of all nations to worship the crown"; thinking of "the southeast shape wins, the three Wu metropolises, And Qiantang has been prosperous since ancient times... Hu Ying Luo Qi, the rich Song of the "competition for luxury"; reminiscent of "the Son of Heaven guards the gate of the country, and the king dies in the society".
But when we think of the Qing Dynasty, the words that pop up in our minds are almost all negative: "Heavenly Dynasty and Heavenly Kingdom", losing power and humiliating the country, measuring the material strength of China, and the joy of the country.
Qing Dynasty official
Why are they all feudal dynasties, and the Great Qing is so lowly evaluated in people's mouths?
In fact, in the Academic Circles of Qing History, the evaluation of the Qing Dynasty is not low. As a feudal dynasty, the Qing Dynasty can be said to have developed this system to the extreme in successive dynasties.
Economically, the tax revenue of the Qing Dynasty during the Qianlong period was as high as 40-70 million taels, while the tax revenue at the peak of the Ming Dynasty was less than 20 million taels;
In terms of the land it controlled, the territory controlled by the Qing Dynasty for a long time consisted of 13.1 million square kilometers, which was almost the first among the feudal dynasties (the Yuan Dynasty's kind of only fighting and not governing is not counted);
Compiled in the Qing Dynasty
In terms of population, the explosive growth of Chinese mouth began in the Qing Dynasty, since the feudal unification dynasty, China's population has been controlled at about 60 million to 100 million, beyond this population there will be turmoil, on the one hand, the government can not control so many people, on the other hand, there is not enough arable land. However, the Qing Dynasty exceeded 400 million people and reached the peak of the feudal dynasty.
Politically, the Qing Dynasty also reached the point where the feudal monarch most expected, the monarchy completely crushed everything, the scholar was only a slave of the king, and the control of the local area also reached its peak.
According to the Qing history academic community "Development and Trend of Qing History Research (2019)", 6 of the 12 emperors of the Qing Dynasty can be rated as heroic; what kind of emperor can be rated as heroic? Qin Emperor Han Wu, Tang Emperor Song Zu of this level. It can be seen that the academic community has a high evaluation of the Qing Dynasty. And the Qing history academic circles believe that Nurhaci and Shunzhi can be rated as heroic and talented (this is really speechless).
So why is the Qing Dynasty in the eyes of our ordinary people the opposite of academia?
First of all, the perspective of the station is different, in the academic community always from the perspective of "great unification" and "power center" to look at what the Qing Dynasty did, even if the Qing Dynasty died in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, from the perspective of the Qing Dynasty, they also carried out a series of top-down reforms, no matter what the result of the reform, but compared to other feudal dynasties who died without changing (or changed and overthrown), the Qing Dynasty is undoubtedly much better. Not to mention that in the early days of the Qing Dynasty, the ability to control the country was much higher than that of other dynasties.
Qing Dynasty literal prison
However, we ordinary people do not see it this way, we prefer to use the perspective of "citizens", "human rights", "dignity" to look at the problem, the Qing Dynasty's literary prison, the use of Han chinese as slaves, the implementation of Manchu high-pressure rule, etc., it is really difficult to mention the good feelings for it; in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, a sentence of "measuring China's material resources, knotting with the happiness of the country", signing a series of unequal treaties, and even more thinking that it shattered the dignity of Chinese civilization for thousands of years. Such a dynasty is really difficult to like.
Secondly, the objects of comparison are different, and most of the Qing historians compare with the ancient Chinese feudal dynasties, while we ordinary people are willing to compare horizontally with the world. Comparing the world, China's dynasties cannot be said to have always had the upper hand, but at least they can come and go, the Han Dynasty compared the Roman Empire and the Sabbath Empire; the Tang Dynasty compared the Arab Empire and the Persian Empire; even the Song Dynasty, which was looked down upon militarily, crushed Europe in science and technology, literature, and education; the Ming Dynasty was not weaker than Europe in science and technology and culture, and Zheng He's voyage to the West also showed the naval strength of the Ming Dynasty.
Qing Dynasty Ministers and Emperors (Stills)
But in the Qing Dynasty, compared with the world, we can see the backwardness and ignorance of the Qing Dynasty. Economically Madison's view that the QING Dynasty's GDP accounted for 1/3 of the world's gdp has long been denied, and the british Empire's tax revenue in the same period was 3 times that of the Qing Dynasty; culturally Europe began to end up with human rights, everyone was equal, and the Qing Dynasty was still engaged in literal prison; politically, the capitalist political system crushed the feudal dynasty; militarily... Were the dozens of unequal treaties signed by the Qing Dynasty because they were in a good mood?
The evaluation of the Qing Dynasty can be said to be benevolent and wise, but in my opinion, the Qing Dynasty did achieve the ultimate compared to the ancient feudal dynasty, but it is because of this extreme that it lags behind the development of the whole world;
For example, feudalism in Europe was overthrown before it was fully developed, but it was replaced by capitalism that was more advanced than feudalism.
We do not hate him because the Qing Dynasty is backward, but because of his lack of ambition and all kinds of opportunities that hinder the progress of his own country. When the whole world is moving forward, you are still in the same place, then the consequence is naturally to become the meat on the knife board of others.