Was the real Qing dynasty really that weak? I'll talk to you today.
As the last dynasty in China's feudal history, the Qing Dynasty has always been very controversial. Especially in modern history, because of the decadent rule of the Qing Dynasty, our China has been bullied by the great powers for nearly a hundred years. But to say that the Qing Dynasty is useless and has no historical contribution at all, this statement is actually one-sided. The real Qing Dynasty in history, there were prosperity and decline, contributions and mistakes, and looking at it from any aspect alone, it would actually be a little biased.
The history of the Qing Dynasty, we have to start with the Qing Emperor Nur Hachi, it is said that in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Jurchens living in the northeast have been attached to the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and internally, they are divided into many tribes, so during this period, a man named Nur Hachi, relying on the 13 sets of armor left to him by his elders, pulled up a team. Later, Nurhachi relied on his wisdom and snowballed to develop this team more and more. In the end, the entire Jurchen clan was unified. This matter is the matter of the armored cavalry of the 13 provinces that the Qing Dynasty is proud of.
Then for such a process of Nur Hachi's rebellion, historians have always had a controversy, some people say that it was the Ming Dynasty border army at that time that relied on self-respect, but in the end, it was played off, so it caused Nur Hachi to become bigger; It is also said that Nurhachi unified the Jurchens entirely by his own wisdom. This controversy has not come to fruition until today, but anyway, later Nurhachi did unify the entire Jurchen.
After the unification of the Jurchens, Nurhachi began to carry out internal reforms, dividing the entire Jurchen into eight flags and creating the eight-flag system. From this time on, the Jurchens were considered a complete regime. In 1616, Nur Hachi took advantage of the internal chaos of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor did not go to the dynasty for many years, and the internal party strife was very serious, and officially established a state in the Fushun region of Liaoning, known as Houjin.
After the founding of Later Jin, Nurhachi began to attack the Ming Dynasty after two years of preparation. After that, the Ming Dynasty sent more than 200,000 troops to try to annihilate the female Allah in a battle, but as a result, it was annihilated by Nur Hachi, which is the very famous Battle of Salhu in history. After the Battle of Salhu, the Ming Dynasty completely lost its rule over eastern Liaoning. At the same time, shortly after the Battle of Salhu, the Wanli Emperor on the Ming side died again.
The next Taichang Emperor Zhu Changluo reigned for only 30 days and died, just one month. After that, the Emperor of the Apocalypse was a lover of craftsmanship, a carpenter, and did not go to the dynasty at all, which further led to the internal decline of the Ming Dynasty. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Nur Hachi gradually unified the entire Liaodong, moved the capital to Shenyang, and completely became a confidant of the Ming Dynasty.
But when Nurhachi attacked Xingcheng in Liaoning Province, he was unexpectedly violently killed. Nurhachi died, and his son Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne and continued to attack the Ming Dynasty. After Emperor Taiji succeeded to the throne, he carried out a series of reforms within Houjin and renamed Houjin as Qing.
During the reign of Emperor Taiji, he took all the area north of Shanhaiguan, and a large-scale peasant uprising broke out on the Ming side, and the Qing Dynasty's attack on Shanhaiguan seemed to be imminent. But at this time, Huang Taiji also suddenly died of illness, and after Huang Taiji died, his son Shunzhi Emperor ascended the throne as a teenager, because he was a teenager who ascended the throne, so the power was in the hands of Emperor Taiji's younger brother Dolgon.
Next, the peasant army led by Li Zi on the Ming side attacked Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty officially collapsed. After that, the Qing Dynasty and Wu Sangui, who guarded Shanhaiguan, joined forces, and Wu Sangui opened Shanhaiguan and let the Qing army enter the customs. After that, Dolgon and Wu Sangui formed a coalition to defeat Li Zicheng, which was the Battle of Stones in history. After the Battle of a Stone, Dolgon led the Qing army to officially chase the Central Plains.
So what is next? Many people may not be familiar with it, and it is more complicated to say, many related film and television dramas when filming this history, most of them focus on the love story of Dolgon and Empress Xiaozhuang, but in fact, the most important thing in this history is how the Qing army defeated the heroes everywhere, and the Southern Ming regime sitting in the south, and finally unified the country.
Throughout the Shunzhi era, the Qing army was actually busy fighting the Southern Ming. In 1661, the Shunzhi Emperor died suddenly and died young, and some people say that he became a monk. After that, his son the Kangxi Emperor ascended the throne, and it was not until the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty that the Qing army completely destroyed the Southern Ming and nominally unified the country.
However, in the process of the Qing army entering the customs, several Han armed forces led by Wu Sangui contributed greatly, if the Qing Dynasty was a company, Wu Sangui they were not employees, but major shareholders, so later the Qing Dynasty could only make them kings and let them guard in the south.
As the Kangxi Emperor gradually grew up, the contradictions between the two sides began to be irreconcilable, and finally, Wu Sangui rebelled, but was defeated by Kangxi, and then Kangxi recovered Taiwan, repelled the northern Russian invaders, quelled the Gardan rebellion, and internally, it was to ease the contradictions between the Manchus and Han, solve the land issue, and raise the national strength of the Qing Dynasty to a big level. Then there is no doubt that Kangxi was definitely a Ming monarch in Chinese history.
After Kangxi, the next Yongzheng Emperor is also a Ming Jun, and the real Yongzheng is not like in the TV series, every day only cares about and Zhen Huan, or this Ruoxi what to fall in love, Yongzheng during his reign, what is he mainly busy solving? The problem of the remnants of Junger completely brought the Qinghai region under the actual control of the Qing Dynasty, and the Yongzheng Emperor also reformed the tax system and abolished the hereditary management system of border ethnic minority tribes, which is the real Yongzheng in history.
In the early Qianlong period after Yongzheng, he was also a very wise emperor, and under Qianlong's rule, the Qing dynasty continued to expand westward, gradually bringing the entire Xinjiang region under the actual control of the Qing dynasty. In the middle of the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty reached its heyday, and the Qing Dynasty at this time was also one of the top powers in the whole world, even if it was the United Kingdom, which was known as the empire of the sun never set, the comprehensive national strength at that time may not be able to surpass the Qing Dynasty.
Then, if the Qing Dynasty at this time fought with the British power on land, the odds of victory were actually relatively large. But in 1776, the 41st year of Qianlong, a landmark event took place, completely changing the whole world.
In this year, Watt invented the steam engine, and Britain began to enter the industrial revolution. Since then, Western countries have begun to comprehensively transform from agricultural civilization or fishing and hunting civilization to industrial civilization. And over the next hundred years, the productivity of the European world began to explode, completely leaving China behind. The reason for this, if you go into detail, is really complicated, but obviously blaming all the responsibility on these emperors of the Qing Dynasty is certainly not very accurate, I just say that it is not very accurate.
After Qianlong, the next Jiaqing Emperor and Daoguang Emperor could only be regarded as decent, not losers, but they could not solve the growing contradictions within the Qing Dynasty. However, from the end of Qianlong's reign, as the problem of land annexation in the Qing Dynasty began to become more serious, small peasant uprisings gradually began to break out. If placed in other dynasties, the next normal script should be like this: a peasant uprising, sweeping the north and south, and finally suppressed by the Qing dynasty.
But the Qing rulers also lost control of the localities, and the local warlords began to grow, then scuffles, and finally established a new dynasty. But in the Qing Dynasty, because the outside world changed, the entire script also changed.
In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor sent Lin Zexu to Guangzhou to announce the ban on opium. However, in order to open up the Chinese market, Britain directly launched the infamous Opium War, and the modern history of China's humiliation began.
From the late Qianlong period to the Opium War, less than 70 years passed. However, in the past 70 years, Europe has undergone earth-shaking changes, and after the first industrial revolution, Britain, weapons and equipment completely crushed the Qing Dynasty. The country's political system was more advanced, so that the Qing army had no ability to resist at all. Therefore, in the following decades, the Qing Dynasty began to constantly defeat wars, constantly cut land, and constantly pay reparations. In this process, the Qing government's oppression of the people at the bottom became more and more severe, which finally led to the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion.
After the outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion, it quickly swept through most of the Qing Dynasty, and if it was a previous dynasty, the Taiping Rebellion was very likely to end the Qing Dynasty completely, followed by a state of chaotic war, and then a new dynasty was born. However, due to changes in the outside world, in this process, in order to protect their interests in China, the great powers chose to help the Qing court, and finally suppressed the Taiping Rebellion.
However, in the process, the control of various countries over the Qing Dynasty was further enhanced, and China began to gradually degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. At the same time, in the face of such national conditions, many people of insight in China have begun to find their own way out, wanting to save the Chinese nation.
There were people who wanted to save the country by improving productive forces, so there was a foreign affairs movement, and some people wanted to destroy the Qing Dynasty first through revolution and improve the state system, so as to save the country, so there was a so-called revolutionary party. Finally, under the competition of various aspects, in 1912, the Xinhai Revolution broke out, and after that, all parts of the country announced their separation from the central rule of the Qing Dynasty.
Seeing this, the Qing ruling class, knowing that there was no hope, could only announce its abdication. With the abdication of the little emperor Puyi, the Qing dynasty, which had existed for 276 years, finally died completely. When I say 276 years, I am talking about 296 from 1636, when Emperor Taiji changed the name of the country to liquidation, and if I count from 1616, after the establishment of Nur Hachi, the Qing Dynasty is 296 years. If you count from 1644, when the Shunzhi Emperor led the Qing army into customs, then the Qing Dynasty was 268 years. So, here are three statements.
Well, today's Qing Dynasty is talking about this, the Qing Dynasty is really controversial, so what is your attitude towards the Qing Dynasty? Welcome to discuss it in the comment area.