There are talented people in the jiangshan generation, each leading the way for hundreds of years. -Zhao Yi
Some people say that the Manchu Qing mistakenly mistook me for three hundred years, and some people say that the Manchu Qing is nothing. But considerably speaking, one of the great contributions of the Qing Dynasty to the Chinese nation was that the Qing Dynasty expanded the territory of China during its reign.
But now when it comes to the Qing Dynasty, the first thing that comes to mind is that the Western powers invaded at the end of the Qing Dynasty, not only lost a large amount of land, but also signed many unequal treaties that lost power and humiliated the country.
In everyone's impression, the Qing Dynasty was a weak and incompetent, traitorous dynasty, but was this really the case? Was the Qing Dynasty really so unbearable?
As the saying goes, a person's three circumferences need three sets of data to measure, and measuring a dynasty needs to be analyzed from many aspects, today we come together to understand, what is the significance of the territory of the Qing Dynasty to our current society?
The expansion of the field has laid the outline of today's territory
When it comes to the territorial area of ancient China, the first thing we think of is the Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty is undoubtedly a bright star on Chinese civilization, and its splendor is still nostalgic.
The domineering spirit of the Yuan Dynasty made the entire Eurasian continent feared, and even Westerners once commented on Genghis Khan as the most outstanding military strategist who had never been seen before or since, and a man of superior wisdom.
The Yuan Dynasty also made it the largest country in the world under the leadership of Genghis Khan, and the Yuan Dynasty reached 45 million square kilometers at its peak.
The strength of the Yuan Dynasty made it a super empire spanning Eurasia, but then again, although the territory of the Qing Dynasty was not as large as the Yuan Dynasty, it was no less important to China than the Yuan Dynasty.
When we look at the territory of the Qing Dynasty, it is not difficult to find that the Qing Dynasty has roughly similarities with the territory of today's China, and the significance of the Qing Dynasty lies in the consolidation of China's territory.
The growth of the Yuan Dynasty made China the largest country in the world at that time, but after the Middle Period of the Yuan Dynasty, the territorial area suffered a significant contraction, the fundamental reason for this is that the Yuan Dynasty would only fight the world, but would not rule the world, and eventually lost a large area of territory.
The Qing Dynasty adopted a variety of policy measures in the governance of the frontier issue, especially in the Tibet issue and the recovery of the Taiwan issue.
On the Taiwan issue, the Qing government established the Taiwan Government and sent Shi Lang to lead his division to annihilate the main ming and Zheng forces in the waters of Penghu, and finally recovered Taiwan and Penghu. This has also given a good reference for today's society and the reunification of Taiwan.
In addition, the Qing Dynasty's handling of the Tibet issue has continued to this day, and the Qing Court has strengthened its jurisdiction over Tibet while also sending ministers to Tibet to further strengthen the centralization of power over Tibet.
For the Mongolian region, which has been a headache for the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, it has been truly solved in the Qing Dynasty, and mongolia has become a part of our country.
During the Qing Dynasty, after more than a hundred years of efforts by the five emperors of the Emperor Taiji, Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty really fundamentally solved the Mongolian problem, and also planned the Mongolian region into the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
And in the northeast of China, during the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court almost lost control of the northeast, and if it were not for the Manchu Qing Entry, the northeast region would probably no longer be the territory of our country.
Ethnic integration
Before the Qing Dynasty, the concept of the Chinese nation was not popularized, and it was still divided between foreign and Han nationalities, and the Han nationality became the dominant force in the Central Plains.
However, after the Manchu Qing Entered the Customs, the Qing Dynasty established a regime governed by ethnic minorities, but in the governance of the country, the Manchu Qing dared to use Han Chen, and promoted Confucian classics, and the Manchu Qing practice was actually to tell the world that it was orthodox.
In the minority areas, the Qing Dynasty practiced alliances, marriages, and receiving ethnic minority leaders at the Chengde Mountain Resort to strengthen ties with the various ethnic groups in the frontier areas and further consolidate ethnic harmony and the reunification of the motherland.
At the same time, the Qing Dynasty built the Li Fan Yuan in the minority areas of the northwest, which also greatly strengthened the central government's jurisdiction over the minority areas and further strengthened the centralized power system.
The Qing Dynasty's efforts in ethnic integration are recognized in history, which directly laid the foundation for the unified and harmonious coexistence of the Chinese nation today. At the same time, it is precisely this concept of the unity of all nationalities that enables the Chinese nation to unite and jointly resist foreign invaders when the Western powers and the Japanese invaders invade.
Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, the recovery of territory has been credited with the establishment
In everyone's impression, since the end of the Qing Dynasty, it has been signing all kinds of treaties that humiliate the country, which has caused China to lose a lot of land under such circumstances.
Did the Qing government ignore this? Lu Xun once said: "Since ancient times, we have had people who have buried their heads in hard work, people who have worked hard, people who have asked for the people's lives, and people who have sacrificed their lives to seek the law."
In 1864, the Kokand Khanate invaded Xinjiang with the support of the British, and at the same time, Tsarist Russia sent troops to forcibly occupy the Ili region of Xinjiang, and the situation in northwest China was unprecedentedly dangerous, losing the barrier of the northwest, and China was in a situation of subjugation.
"Three thousand miles of newly planted willows have attracted the spring wind to the jade pass." In 1876, in order to recover Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang regarded death as a homecoming and took the coffin to Xinjiang for recovery.
In the same year, he eventually led the Qing army to annihilate the Kokand Army, and in January 1887, the Qing Dynasty had successfully recovered all the territory except Ili.
From ancient times to modern times, China's border areas have been harassed and invaded by the outside world, and China's northeast, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet are all china's inherent territory since ancient times, and its geographical location is also extremely important.
These areas can now be completely part of China's territory, and to the greatest extent, they are inseparable from the efforts of the Qing Dynasty and the construction and consolidation of these areas.
So do you still think that the contribution of the Qing Dynasty to China is small? As the saying goes, the predecessors planted trees and the people were cool, and the decline of the late Qing Dynasty had many levels, and the fundamental reason was that in addition to the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government, the productivity and economic development of the feudal dynasty could not match the industrial civilization under the capitalist system, which was also the reason why the Qing government was gradually defeated under the invasion of the great powers.
It can be seen that the Qing Dynasty was of great significance to the territory of modern China. What are your views on this, please feel free to discuss them in the comments section.