In our traditional impression, the Qing Dynasty often appears in our vision as an image of poverty and weakness, and what we usually see is that the Qing Dynasty suffered a large number of invasions by great powers, which made us think that the Qing Dynasty was a corrupt and incompetent dynasty. As the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history, we often look at it from a contemptuous point of view, in fact, as a feudal empire, the prosperity and strength of the Qing Dynasty will surprise you, most of the time in the dynasty, whether it is economic strength, political strength or military strength, in the world's first, in the modern world division wave, dominating East Asia, known as the world's great powers, and Britain, France and Russia on an equal footing.
Qing Empire
From 1661 to 1796, it was known as the "Prosperous Era of Kangqian". During this period, China's economic level was leading in the world. In the last years of Qianlong, China's total economic output ranked first in the world, accounting for 1/3 of the world's population, and foreign trade exceeded for a long time. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, after several generations of hard work. In Chinese history, the Kangqian dynasty was enough to be proud of the Han and Tang Dynasties. The rulers pursued appropriate political, economic, military, and ethnic policy measures, and the simplicity and honesty of the early Qing dynasty politics were a key factor in the rise and prosperity of the Qing Dynasty.
First, the rise of the Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) was the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history, with a total of twelve emperors, ruled by ai xinjue Luoshi. From the establishment of Nurhaci to the gold, a total of 296 years. From the time of Emperor Taiji to the change of the name of the country to qing, guozuo 276 years. It took 268 years from the time the Qing army entered the customs and the establishment of a nationwide political power.
In 1605, Nurhaci was first called "JianzhouGuo" and the first time "King"; the following year he was called "Kundulun Khan" (Respectful Khan). In 1616, Nurhaci established the state as Khan, the name of the country was Daikin, and the history was called Houjin. In 1636, Emperor Taiji called himself Emperor and changed the name of the country to "Great Qing", also known as the Great Qing Kingdom. There are various speculations about the meaning of "Great Qing": First, the meaning of "Qing" is literally interpreted as "sweeping away the Qing". Second, Qing, Qing also. Qing is admired by the shamanic tribes in the north, and Manchuria is also a strong believer in shamans, so it takes the name of "Great Qing". There is also a view of "five virtues", the Ming Dynasty is fire virtue, Qing is water virtue, and water is fire, hence the name. Bao Ming of the Northeast Institute of Ethnic Minorities believes that the name "Great Qing" actually comes from the Mongolian loan word "daicing" in Manchu. The Great Qing Dynasty means "Kingdom of Shang" (i.e., "Kingdom of the Supreme") or "Kingdom of Good War". The Qing historian Diao Shuren believes that the transliteration of the characters "Qing" and "Jin" is actually based on the pronunciation of Chinese characters, changing a Similarly Pronounced Chinese Character.
Ming and Qing dynasties alternated
Second, the expansion of the Qing Dynasty
The expansion of the Qing Dynasty has a very obvious epochality, and unlike the expansion of the Mongol Empire, the entire expansion process of the Qing Dynasty was not formed in a short period of time. Taking the Entry of the Qing Army into the Customs as the node, the Qing Dynasty after entering the Customs began to enter the expansion stage, until Qianlong conquered the Dzungar Empire, which lasted more than 100 years and experienced the four emperors of Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong.
On October 1, 1644, under the persuasion of the kings led by Dolgun and the Manchu and Han ministers, the Shunzhi Emperor Fu Lin sacrificed to the heavens at the Temple of Heaven in the southern suburbs, and then again the emperor was located at the Imperial Pole Gate (present-day Taihe Gate), declaring that "Zi Ding Ding Yan jing, to appease China", began the expansion of the road, the first expansion of the goal of the elimination of Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong peasant rebel forces and the Southern Ming small imperial court.
From the second year of Shunzhi (1645) when the Qing court concentrated its military strength into Shaanxi in two ways, one was led by the British prince Azig, wu Sangui was the forward; the other was led by the Prince of Yu Duoduo, Kong Youde was the forward to gradually eliminate the peasant army forces to 1659, Wu Sangui led the Qing army into Kunming, Yunnan, in 1662, the Yongli Emperor was killed, destroying the Southern Ming small court, which lasted 17 years, the Qing Dynasty completed the conquest and unification of the Han Dynasty.
During the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, he quelled the Rebellion of San Fan (1673-1681) and recovered Taiwan (1683-1684). After pacifying the warlord forces in the country, Kangxi turned his attention to the outer northeast region, and the expansion of the Russian Empire had reached the Heilongjiang River Valley, squeezing the expansion space of the Qing Empire. Thus, between 1685 and 1687, the Qing Empire conquered Yaksa twice, defeated the Russian Empire, and signed the Treaty of Nebuchu, and the Qing Empire won the Outer Northeast and Sakhalin Island.
Battle of Yaksa
In 1678, Dzungar's attack on northern Mongolia defeated the Khalkha Mongols, destroyed the Alliance System of Qing Mongols, and threatened the Southern Mongol region of the Qing Empire. For his own safety, the Kangxi Emperor decided to compete with the Dzungar Empire for the Northern Mongols, and the two sides fought the Battle of Ulanbutong, the Battle of Kobdo, and the Battle of Zhaomodo, and finally the Dzungar Empire was defeated by the Qing Empire and the Northern Mongolia was annexed by the Qing Empire.
The Qing Empire and the Dzungar Khanate
At the beginning of the 57th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor received a letter from Lazang Khan when the city of Lhasa was about to be breached. Soon, it was confirmed that Lhazang Khan had been killed and that Tibet had fallen into the hands of the Dzungars. On February 13, the Kangxi Emperor ordered his bodyguard Selen to lead 2,400 troops from Qinghai to Tibet. On May 13, Selen led his troops to Mulu Wusu (present-day Tongtianhe, Qinghai) at the junction of Qinghai and Tibet, and the general Erlun sent a letter saying that he had been ordered to lure the Dzungar soldiers. Selen refused to accept this battle plan of enticing the enemy to go deep and wait for work. He was eager to win, proud of the enemy, and led his troops into Tibet. Erent was ordered to lead an army in response, and on June 18 he also crossed Muruwusu and chased after seren's troops by the Seven Forks River. On the night of August 15, Da tse-tser-Ngudun Dob attacked the Qing camp on the Buk River and was defeated, and on September 15, Kasang Gyatso held a enthronement ceremony for the sixth Dalai Lama at the Potala Palace. The war against Dzungar settled Tibet. The Qing Dynasty further strengthened its rule over Tibet, sending troops to Tibet to form the local government of Tibet jointly ruled by the Four Kaburuns.
The Kangxi Emperor
Third, the world power under qianlong rule
Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty (25 September 1711 – 7 February 1799) was a well-known emperor of Chinese feudal society. During the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the Qing Dynasty reached the highest peak since the heyday of Kangqian, and on the basis of the martial arts of the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, he further completed the unification of the multi-ethnic state and further developed the social economy and culture.
During the reign of Qianlong, the world's empires set off a wave of land division, in Central Asia, the Russian Empire and the British Empire were eyeing the Khanates of Central Asia; in South Asia, the British Empire basically completed the occupation of India, and in Southeast Asia, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Britain, etc. were actively expanding their power. Russia in the north has been frantically occupying other countries for more than a hundred years, and the Kazakh khanates and Dzungar khanates in Central Asia have successively become his targets.
The Qing Empire conquered the Dzungar Khanate
The aggression of the world's colonial empires is about to seriously infringe on the interests of the Qing Empire, Central Asia, the Dzungar Khanate and the Kazakh Khanate after years of war, both sides lost and injured, in order to avoid the Xinjiang region falling into the mouth of the Russian Empire, the Qing Empire and in 1755, the Qianlong Emperor took advantage of the Dzungar civil strife to send troops to occupy Ili and defeat the Dawaqi army. In 1757, the Qing army quelled the rebellion of Amir Sana, completely controlled the Weyrat region, destroyed the Dzungar Khanate, and recovered the western region. It effectively dealt a blow to the ambitions of the Russian Empire to invade.
In Southeast Asia, the Qing Empire and the British began to compete, in the face of the British Empire's infiltration of Southeast Asia, the Qing Empire has launched four wars of conquest of Burma, after a series of large and small wars, the Qing Empire successfully incorporated Burma into the Chinese clan system, but the subsequent heirs of the Qing Empire tended to be conservative, relaxed the control of Burma, so that Burma gradually became a colony of the British Empire.
Qianlong Emperor
During the Qianlong period, the Qing Empire continued to expand its territory, and under the wave of world division, the Qing Empire expanded a million square kilometers of land with strong economic and military strength, and won a lot of resources for future generations. In Europe, the Qing Empire at this time was generally regarded as an Asian power, and its strength even exceeded that of the Ottoman Empire in the same period, and it was called the East Asian power that Europeans feared. It can be seen from Ma Garni's request to see Qianlong that the British Empire at that time attached great importance to exchanges with the Qing Empire, hoping that through Ma Garni, he could establish a win-win cooperative relationship with the Qing Empire and lay the foundation for the future division of the eastern and western hemispheres.
Magurney