Week 11: The “High Qing”

I. Qing Rulerships

1. The Kangxi emperor (r. 1661–1722)—consolidation … war of the Three Feudatories (1673–1681) … Taiwan (1683) … foundation of government (bannermen … grand secretaries … six ministries … governors) … sacred edicts (1670) … rites controversy (1692)
2. The Yongzheng emperor (r. 1722–1735)—centralization … Grand Council … the Secret Memorial system … fiscal reforms … Lü Liuliang 呂留良 (1629–1683)
3. The Qianlong emperor (r.1735–1796)—42,000 poems … “Manchu-ness” … sorcery scare (1768) … Si ku quan shu 四庫全書 (1771–80s; The complete library of the four treasuries; 3,461 titles) … patrons of literati culture
4. Notable characteristics—longevity … dual identities

II. Expansion and Consolidation

1. Taiwan (1683)—Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 (Koxinga)
2. Mongolia (1690s)—Eastern Mongols (1630s) … Western (Dzungar) Mongols (1696)
3. Tibet (1720s)—protectorate
4. Xinjiang (Chinese Central Asia) (1750s)—Uighurs
5. Russia—treaties (1689; 1728)
6. “Multi-ethnic” empire—Illustrations of Tributaries

III. Social and Economic Trends

1. Population expansion
2. Migration
3. Social mobility

IV. Cultural Reorientation

1. “Evidential learning” (kao zheng)—Huang Zongxi 黃宗羲 (1610–95) … Gu Yanwu 顧炎武 (1613–82) … reactions against Wang Yangming (1472–1529)
2. Conservative turn—faithful widows . . . women’s writings
3. Dream of the Red Chamber 紅樓夢 (Hong lou meng) (1791)—Cao Xueqin (1715–64)

V. Legacies of the Eighteenth Century

1. Demographic and territorial expansion
2. Involutionary trap?

Discussion

1. How would you catalog the Six Records of a Life Adrift? In what ways was it an unusual text?
2. How does the fact that the original (partial) manuscript was discovered in a bookstore long after it was written complicate our attempt to use it as a historical document?
3. What do you think about Chen Yun? How does her experience confirm or challenge your understanding of what it was like to be a woman in eighteenth-century China?
4. Finally, what do you think about Shen Fu? Based on what you have read, in what ways were his experiences representative?

Maps

 

External links to Maps:

Qing Expansion | World Trade

Physical Map

Source: National Museum of Chinese History, ed., A Journey into China's Antiquity, vol. 1 (Beijing: Morning Glory Publishers, 1997), pp. 8–9.

 

Physical Map by Satellite

Administrative Map

Source: SACU

 

Images

External Links to Images:

Four Treasuries | Aborigines | Illustrations 1 | Illustrations 2