170-563: Empress Xiaozheyi (25 July 1854 – 27 March 1875), of the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner Alut clan, was a posthumous name bestowed to the wife and empress consort of Zaichun, the Tongzhi Emperor . She was empress consort of Qing from 1872 until her husband's death in 1875, after which she was honoured as Empress Jiashun . Empress Xiaozheyi's personal name was not recorded in history. Her family originally belonged to
340-694: A Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia . They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and Qing (1636–1912) dynasties of China were established and ruled by the Manchus, who are descended from the Jurchen people who earlier established the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in northern China. Manchus form
510-454: A Han Chinese named Zhao Tinglu, the son of former Han bannerman Zhao Quan, and gave him a new name, Quanheng in order that he be able to benefit from his adopted son receiving a salary as a Banner soldier. Commoner Manchu bannermen who were not nobility were called irgen which meant common, in contrast to the Manchu nobility of the "Eight Great Houses" who held noble titles. Manchu bannermen of
680-575: A Manchu banner in the reign of the Kangxi emperor . Select groups of Han Chinese bannermen were mass transferred into Manchu Banners by the Qing, changing their ethnicity from Han Chinese to Manchu. Han Chinese bannermen of Tai Nikan (台尼堪, watchpost Chinese) and Fusi Nikan (撫順尼堪, Fushun Chinese) backgrounds into the Manchu banners in 1740 by order of the Qing Qianlong emperor . It was between 1618 and 1629 when
850-506: A Taiwanese history professor, proposes an alternative view: that the Guangxu Emperor might have been led into a trap by the reformists led by Kang Youwei , who in turn was in Lei's opinion tricked by British missionary Timothy Richard and former Japanese prime minister Itō Hirobumi into agreeing to appoint Itō as one of many foreign advisors. British ambassador Claude MacDonald claimed that
1020-462: A childhood fascination, some say in an effort to pass the time until Cixi's death. He also read widely and spent time learning English from Cixi's Western-educated lady-in-waiting, Yu Deling . His relationship with Empress Longyu , Cixi's niece (and the Emperor's own first cousin), also improved to some extent. The Guangxu Emperor died on 14 November 1908, a day before Cixi's death, at the age of 37. For
1190-457: A coup on 21 September, after which he was held under virtual house arrest until his death one decade later. Emperor Guangxu was the second son of Yixuan, Prince Chun (a son of the Daoguang Emperor ), and his mother, Yehenara Wanzhen, was the sister of Empress Dowager Cixi . After Emperor Tongzhi 's death in 1874, he was supported by the two Empress Dowagers (Ci'an and Cixi) to succeed
1360-583: A dinner for the diplomatic corps. On 7 February 1887, the emperor was officially old enough to begin to rule in his own right, but the regency of Empress Dowager Cixi continued beyond that, and the foreign diplomats were not informed of either fact. The French minister requested an audience with the emperor twice, in November 1887 and in the spring of 1888, but this was denied both times. In 1886, several courtiers, including Prince Chun and Weng Tonghe, had petitioned Empress Dowager Cixi to postpone her retirement from
1530-508: A group of unrelated people founded a new Manchu clan (mukun) using a geographic origin name such as a toponym for their hala (clan name). The irregularities over Jurchen and Manchu clan origin led to the Qing trying to document and systematize the creation of histories for Manchu clans, including manufacturing an entire legend around the origin of the Aisin-Gioro clan by taking mythology from the northeast. In 1603, Nurhaci gained recognition as
1700-467: A high dose at one time. The Guangxu Emperor was succeeded by Cixi's choice as heir, his nephew Puyi , who took the regnal name "Xuantong". In January 1912, the Guangxu Emperor's consort, who had become Empress Dowager Longyu , placed her seal on the abdication decree , ending two thousand years of imperial rule in China. Longyu died childless in 1913. After the Xinhai Revolution of 1911–1912,
1870-463: A humiliating scandal, so she warned the imperial physicians to remain silent about it. The physicians lied that the Emperor was ill with smallpox and prescribed medicine and treatment for smallpox. A court official, Yun Yuting, wrote in his memoirs that the Empress visited the Tongzhi Emperor on his sickbed while he complained about his mother's interfering and domineering ways. She was looking forward to
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#17328487189142040-400: A long time, there were several theories about the emperor's death, none of which was accepted fully by historians. Most were inclined to believe that Cixi, herself very ill, poisoned the Guangxu Emperor because she was afraid he would reverse her policies after her death. China Daily quoted a historian, Dai Yi , who speculated that Cixi might have known of her imminent death and worried that
2210-553: A memorial for suggesting an unnatural death. In 1900, when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing , Empress Dowager Cixi asked Empress Xiaozheyi's father, Chongqi, to remain behind and take charge of state affairs. Chongqi and his family committed suicide after the capital fell to the foreigners. Manchu people The Manchus ( Manchu : ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ , Möllendorff : manju ; Chinese : 滿族 ; pinyin : Mǎnzú ; Wade–Giles : Man -tsu ) are
2380-462: A memorial staying Xi'an Manchu bannermen still had martial skills although not up to those in the past in a 1737 memorial from Cimbu. By the 1780s, the military skills of Xi'an Manchu bannermen dropped enormously and they had been regarded as the most militarily skilled provincial Manchu banner garrison. Manchu women from the Xi'an garrison often left the walled Manchu garrison and went to hot springs outside
2550-463: A memorial to the throne signed by young metropolitan officials and jinshi graduates that urged him to not trust his ministers and deal with the foreign powers on his own. In early June 1898 the grand councilor Weng Tonghe introduced the Guangxu Emperor to the reformist official Kang Youwei , and the emperor was impressed him, especially after reading Kang's two books about the reforms in Russia by Peter
2720-507: A minority within the Banners, making up only 16% in 1648, with Han Bannermen dominating at 75% and Mongol Bannermen making up the rest. It was this multi-ethnic, majority Han force in which Manchus were a minority, which conquered China for the Qing Empire. A mass marriage of Han Chinese officers and officials to Manchu women was organized to balance the massive number of Han women who entered
2890-563: A naval squadron under command of the brother of Emperor Wilhelm II , the admiral Prince Heinrich , who was later received by the Qing monarch at the Summer Palace in May 1898. Germany's example was followed by demands from Russia, Britain, France, and Japan. China's relatively weak forces were not in a position to challenge them, and the United States, which was opposed to European concessions ,
3060-432: A navy of 21 battleships . The emperor also required court bureaucrats to read the writings of the earlier reformist official Feng Guifen and present a report on his suggestions in ten days, encouraged imperial princes to study abroad, and tried to streamline the government by firing 5,000 state employees. One of the early stumbling blocks for this effort happened on 15 June, when the Guangxu Emperor suddenly dismissed
3230-412: A number of Manchu autonomous counties in China, such as Xinbin , Xiuyan , Qinglong , Fengning , Yitong , Qingyuan , Weichang , Kuancheng , Benxi , Kuandian , Huanren , Fengcheng , Beizhen and over 300 Manchu towns and townships. Manchus are the largest minority group in China without an autonomous region . "Manchu" ( Manchu : ᠮᠠᠨᠵᡠ , Möllendorff : manju ) was adopted as
3400-523: A puppet state in Manchuria, was created by the Empire of Japan which was nominally ruled by the deposed Last Emperor, Puyi , in 1932. Although the nation's name implied a primarily Manchu affiliation, it was actually a completely new country for all the ethnicities in Manchuria, which had a majority Han population and was opposed by many Manchus as well as people of other ethnicities who fought against Japan in
3570-633: A puppet, unable to enjoy the majesty and power of a monarch. During his reign, the Qing dynasty became increasingly impoverished and weak. The Sino-French War , the First Sino-Japanese War , and the Boxer Rebellion followed one after another, causing the dynasty to cede territory and pay indemnities, losing sovereignty and humiliating the nation, leaving the people in misery. Seeing the country's decline, Guangxu allied with intellectuals like Kang Youwei and his disciple Liang Qichao to launch
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#17328487189143740-543: A self-disciplinarian early on. In 1876 he told Weng Tonghe that he considered frugality to be more important than the accumulation of wealth, and in another instance in 1878, he insisted on walking through snow and told his servants not to clear it out of his way. He also said that he considered the Tao to be more important than his own views. But, Weng noted that the emperor sometimes had extreme mood swings and did not want to participate in their daily lessons. Weng also instilled in
3910-595: A skilled work force, and conducting trade in the region's products, which resulted in a continuous trickle of Han convicts, workers, and merchants to the northeast. Han Chinese transfrontiersmen and other non-Jurchen origin people who joined the Later Jin very early were put into the Manchu Banners and were known as "Baisin" in Manchu, and not put into the Han Banners to which later Han Chinese were placed in. An example
4080-506: A way that would intimidate other officials, which undermined his own call for unity on the project. Overall, there was no coherent structure to the Hundred Days' Reform, and the Guangxu Emperor was frantically trying to begin as many changes as he could with his edicts, causing the bureaucracy to be overwhelmed by the large number of documents being written. Although the decrees between June and August were largely accepted and were creating
4250-488: Is a compound word. Man was from the word mangga ( ᠮᠠᠩᡤᠠ ) which means "strong," and ju ( ᠵᡠ ) means "arrow." So Manju actually means "intrepid arrow". There are other hypotheses, such as Fu Sinian 's "etymology of Jianzhou"; Zhang Binglin 's "etymology of Manshi"; Ichimura Sanjiro 's "etymology of Wuji and Mohe"; Sun Wenliang's "etymology of Manzhe"; "etymology of mangu(n) river" and so on. An extensive etymological study from 2022 lends additional support to
4420-699: Is of paternal Mongol origin. Many Jurchen families descended from the original Jin Jurchen migrants in Han areas like those using the surnames Wang and Nian 粘 have openly reclaimed their ethnicity and registered as Manchus. Wanyan (完顏) clan members who had changed their surnames to Wang (王) after the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty applied successfully to the PRC government for their ethnic group to be marked as Manchu despite never having been part of
4590-549: The Boxer Rebellion . He was examined by a physician at the French Legation and diagnosed with chronic nephritis ; he was also discovered to be impotent at the time. During the Boxer Rebellion , Emperor Guangxu fiercely opposed the idea of using usurpers as a means to counter foreign invasion. His letter to then United States president Theodore Roosevelt is still preserved in U.S. government archives. On 14 August 1900,
4760-582: The Chinese Republic funded the construction of the Guangxu Emperor's mausoleum in the Western Qing Tombs . The tomb was robbed during the Chinese Civil War and the underground palace (burial chamber) is now open to the public. In 1912, Sun Yat-sen praised the Guangxu Emperor for his educational reform package that allowed China to learn more about Western culture . After the establishment of
4930-595: The Eight Banners after they were moved there in 1644, since Han Chinese were expelled and not allowed to re-enter the inner part of the city. Only after the " Hundred Days Reform ", during the reign of emperor Guangxu , were Han were allowed to re-enter inner Beijing. Many Manchu Bannermen in Beijing supported the Boxers in the Boxer Rebellion and shared their anti-foreign sentiment. The Manchu Bannermen were devastated by
5100-618: The Mongol Plain Blue Banner . The future Empress Xiaozheyi was born on the first day of the seventh lunar month in the fourth year of the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor , which translates to 25 July 1854 in the Gregorian calendar . Lady Alut was tutored by her father since she was young and she demonstrated high potential and intelligence as a child. She also showed interest and talent in poetry, literature, music and art. Under
5270-555: The Mongol siege upon Zhongdu (Beijing) in the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty . The Yuan grouped people into different groups based on how recently their state surrendered to the Yuan. Subjects of southern Song were grouped as southerners (nan ren) and also called manzi. Subjects of the Jin dynasty, Western Xia and kingdom of Dali in Yunnan in southern China were classified as northerners, also using
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5440-597: The Mongols and the Khitans on the steppes. Most Jurchens raised pigs and stock animals and were farmers. In 1019, Jurchen pirates raided Japan for slaves. Fujiwara Notada, the Japanese governor was killed. In total, 1,280 Japanese were taken prisoner, 374 Japanese were killed and 380 Japanese-owned livestock were killed for food. Only 259 or 270 were returned by Koreans from the 8 ships. The woman Uchikura no Ishime's report
5610-593: The Qiqihar ( Manchu : ᠴᡳᠴᡳᡤᠠᡵ , Möllendorff : cicigar , Abkai : qiqigar ) District of Heilongjiang Province. Until 1924, the Chinese government continued to pay stipends to Manchu bannermen, but many cut their links with their banners and took on Han-style names to avoid persecution. The official total of Manchus fell by more than half during this period, as they refused to admit their ethnicity when asked by government officials or other outsiders. On
5780-615: The Second Sino-Japanese War . The Japanese Ueda Kyōsuke labeled all 30 million people in Manchuria "Manchus", including Han Chinese, even though most of them were not ethnic Manchu, and the Japanese-written "Great Manchukuo" built upon Ueda's argument to claim that all 30 million "Manchus" in Manchukuo had the right to independence to justify splitting Manchukuo from China. In 1942, the Japanese-written "Ten Year History of
5950-543: The Summer Palace starting from 1891, but he never became capable of skillfully managing imperial court politics. The decisions that he made and the administrative process continued to be overseen by the empress dowager. Weng Tonghe reportedly observed that while the emperor attended to day-to-day state affairs, in more difficult cases the emperor and the Grand Council sought Cixi's advice. She also decided on appointments to
6120-591: The Yingtai Pavilion of Zhongnanhai , completely losing his ruling power. In November 1908, he died of arsenic poisoning at Yingtai. He reigned for 34 years, ruled directly for nine of those years, and died at the age of 38 without leaving any descendants. He was buried in the Chongling Mausoleum of the Western Qing Tombs. The emperor's life was turbulent and full of hardships. He was not originally
6290-542: The civil examination system . Other edicts were for the construction of the Lu-Han railway, a system of budgets similar to that of Western governments, the replacement of the Green Standard Army with a Western-style national army based on conscription, and the creation of a naval academy. Among the lesser known measures that the Guangxu Emperor wanted to take was his naval armament program, which called for China to have
6460-721: The "New Manchu" Warka foragers in Ningguta and attempted to turn them into normal agricultural farmers but then the Warka just reverted to hunter gathering and requested money to buy cattle for beef broth. The Qing wanted the Warka to become soldier-farmers and imposed this on them but the Warka simply left their garrison at Ningguta and went back to the Sungari river to their homes to herd, fish and hunt. The Qing accused them of desertion. 建州毛憐則渤海大氏遺孽，樂住種，善緝紡，飲食服用，皆如華人，自長白山迤南，可拊而治也。 "The (people of) Chien-chou and Mao-lin [YLSL always reads Mao-lien] are
6630-474: The "dependent class". The change of the name from Jurchen to Manchu was made to hide the fact that the ancestors of the Manchus, the Jianzhou Jurchens, had been ruled by the Chinese. The Qing dynasty carefully hid the two original editions of the books of " Qing Taizu Wu Huangdi Shilu " and the " Manzhou Shilu Tu " (Taizu Shilu Tu) in the Qing palace, forbidden from public view because they showed that
6800-420: The 10th century AD, the term Jurchen first appeared in documents of the late Tang dynasty in reference to the state of Balhae in present-day northeastern China. The Jurchens were sedentary, settled farmers with advanced agriculture. They farmed grain and millet as their cereal crops, grew flax, and raised oxen, pigs, sheep and horses. Their farming way of life was very different from the pastoral nomadism of
6970-550: The 1120s. It was mainly derived from the Khitan script . In 1206, the Mongols , vassals to the Jurchens, rose in Mongolia. Their leader, Genghis Khan , led Mongol troops against the Jurchens, who were finally defeated by Ögedei Khan in 1234. The Jurchen Jin emperor Wanyan Yongji 's daughter, Jurchen Princess Qiguo was married to Mongol leader Genghis Khan in exchange for relieving
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7140-497: The 1690s and 18th century. In the 1720s Jingzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing Manchu banner garrisons fought in Tibet. For the over 200 years they lived next to each other, Han civilians and Manchu bannermen in Xi'an did not intermarry with each other at all. In a book published in 1911 American sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross wrote of his visit to Xi'an just before the Xinhai revolution:"In Sianfu
7310-503: The 1850s, large numbers of Manchu bannermen were sent to central China to fight the Taiping rebels . (For example, just the Heilongjiang province – which at the time included only the northern part of today's Heilongjiang – contributed 67,730 bannermen to the campaign, of whom only 10–20% survived). Those few who returned were demoralized and often disposed to opium addiction. In 1860, in
7480-462: The 21st the Guangxu Emperor was detained and met with Empress Dowager Cixi. The following day, he issued a decree that asked Cixi to take control of the government, who proceeded to remove the reform-minded officials and replaced them with conservative loyalists. An edict on 26 September undid some of the more radical changes the emperor had made, while keeping in place those reforms that did not go directly against Qing tradition. Lei Chia-sheng (雷家聖),
7650-505: The Construction of Manchukuo" attempted to emphasize the right of ethnic Japanese to the land of Manchukuo while attempting to delegitimize the Manchus' claim to Manchukuo as their native land, noting that most Manchus moved out during the Qing dynasty and only returned later. Guangxu Emperor The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), also known by his temple name Emperor Dezong of Qing , personal name Zaitian ,
7820-1233: The Eight Banner system at all during the Qing dynasty. The surname Nianhan (粘罕), shortened to Nian ( 粘 ) is a Jurchen origin surname, also originating from one of the members of the royal Wanyan clan. It is an extremely rare surname in China, and 1,100 members of the Nian clan live in Nan'an, Quanzhou, they live in Licheng district of Quanzhou, 900 in Jinjiang, Quanzhou, 40 in Shishi city of Quanzhou, and 500 in Quanzhou city itself in Fujian, and just over 100 people in Xiamen, Jin'an district of Fuzhou, Zhangpu and Sanming, as well as 1000 in Laiyang, Shandong, and 1,000 in Kongqiao and Wujiazhuang in Xingtai, Hebei. Some of
7990-547: The Eight Banners, initially capped to 4 then growing to 8 with three different types of ethnic banners as Han, Mongol and Jurchen were recruited into Nurhaci's forces. Jurchens like Nurhaci spoke both their native Tungusic language and Chinese, adopting the Mongol script for their own language unlike the Jin Jurchen's Khitan derived script. They adopted Confucian values and practiced their shamanist traditions. The Qing stationed
8160-489: The Emperor and Empress to be separated, so that they could focus more on learning how to become ruling sovereigns. The Tongzhi Emperor could not cope well with loneliness so he grew more ill-tempered over time. Once, a eunuch secretly suggested to the Emperor to sneak out of the Forbidden City and visit brothels. As a result, it was assumed that the Emperor contracted syphilis . Empress Dowager Cixi regarded this incident as
8330-409: The Forbidden City. Her furniture – a bed, a mirror, two wardrobes, chairs and eight marriage chests – had symbolically preceded her. After their marriage, the Tongzhi Emperor evidently preferred his empress over his four other consorts, spending almost every night with her, while the four consorts waited in vain for the Emperor to summon them. Empress Dowager Cixi was unhappy about the unfair treatment of
8500-824: The Gaungxu Emperor became more frequent after that. He received the new Austro-Hungarian minister in a special audience in October 1891, the British minister in December 1892, and the German and Belgian ministers in 1893. The Guangxu Emperor followed his principle of frugality in early 1892, when he tried to implement a series of draconian measures to reduce expenditures by the Imperial Household Department , which proved to be one of his few administrative successes. This dispute over
8670-423: The Grand Council and the Six Ministries . In December 1890 the emperor issued a decree stating that he wanted to have an immediate audience with the foreign diplomatic corps in Beijing and to make this an annual occurrence going forward. They presented a list of conditions for the protocol at the ceremony, and it was accepted by the Qing. The audience took place on 5 March 1891, with the Guangxu Emperor receiving
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#17328487189148840-531: The Great and in Japan by the Meiji Emperor . He personally met with Kang on 14 June, and started issuing reform decrees on 11 June. The first order, the edict of 11 June 1898, declared the intent of the Qing emperor to pursue reform as response to calls from certain officials since the war with Japan, and asked every one of his subjects to contribute to strengthening China, a project that was going to be based on "Western learning" while maintaining respect for traditional morals. Guangxu also received Cixi's approval for
9010-402: The Guangxu Emperor a duty of filial piety toward the Empress Dowagers Cixi and Ci'an, which, aside from being a Chinese tradition, was also because Weng owed much of his successful career to the patronage of Cixi. In 1881, when the Guangxu Emperor was nine, Empress Dowager Ci'an died unexpectedly, leaving Empress Dowager Cixi as sole regent for the boy. In Weng's diaries during those days, Guangxu
9180-401: The Guangxu Emperor married, Cixi retired from the regency on 4 March 1889. Even after the Guangxu Emperor began formal rule he found that the power structure of the Qing court still depended on Empress Dowager Cixi, and he did not know how far his own authority extended. The emperor tried to take a leading role in the government, especially after she began spending several months of the year at
9350-458: The Guangxu Emperor was taught by Weng Tonghe , who had also been involved in the disastrous upbringing of the Tongzhi Emperor yet somehow managed to be exonerated of all possible charges, and his education was also overseen by his father, Prince Chun. The emperor was taught calligraphy , the Chinese classics (including the Four Books ), and the Chinese, Mongolian, and Manchu languages. Starting in 1881 he began reading historical works, including
9520-551: The Guangxu Emperor would continue his reforms after her death. Another theory is that the Guangxu Emperor was poisoned by Yuan Shikai , who knew that if the emperor were to come to power again, Yuan would likely be executed for treason. There were no reliable sources to prove who murdered the Guangxu Emperor. The medical records kept by the Guangxu Emperor's physician show the emperor suffered from "spells of violent stomachaches" and that his face had turned blue, typical symptoms of arsenic poisoning. To dispel persistent rumours that
9690-459: The Guangxu Emperor, along with Cixi, Empress Longyu and some other court officials, fled from Beijing as the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance marched on the capital to relieve the legations that had been besieged during the Boxer Rebellion . Returning to the capital on 7 January 1902, after the withdrawal of the foreign powers, the Guangxu Emperor spent the next few years working in his isolated palace with watches and clocks , which had been
9860-534: The Han Chinese from Liaodong who later became the Fushun Nikan and Tai Nikan defected to the Jurchens (Manchus). These Han Chinese origin Manchu clans continue to use their original Han surnames and are marked as of Han origin on Qing lists of Manchu clans . The Fushun Nikan became Manchufied and the originally Han banner families of Wang Shixuan, Cai Yurong, Zu Dashou, Li Yongfang, Shi Tingzhu and Shang Kexi intermarried extensively with Manchu families. A Manchu Bannerman in Guangzhou called Hequan illegally adopted
10030-424: The Hundred Days' Reform in 1898, attempting to save and rejuvenate the nation. However, this movement threatened the position of the privileged classes of traditional Chinese society and was soon suppressed by the conservative forces led by Cixi, resulting in his confinement and loss of political power and personal freedom until his untimely death. His tragic fate is rare among emperors. Although historians do not deny
10200-399: The Imperial Family was preparing to leave the Forbidden City due to the occupation of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900. Like his predecessor, the Tongzhi Emperor , the Guangxu Emperor died without issue. After his death in 1908, Empress Dowager Longyu ruled in cooperation with Zaifeng . Empress Imperial Noble Consort Enthroned in 1626 as Khan , Hong Taiji changed
10370-452: The Jianzhou Jurchens' culture. Although Manchus practiced equestrianism and archery on horseback, their immediate progenitors practiced sedentary agriculture. The Manchus also partook in hunting but were sedentary. Their primary mode of production was farming while they lived in villages, forts, and walled towns. Their Jurchen Jin predecessors also practiced farming. Only the Mongols and the northern "wild" Jurchen were semi-nomadic, unlike
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#173284871891410540-401: The Jurchen script was officially abandoned. More Jurchens adopted Mongolian as their writing language and fewer used Chinese. The final recorded Jurchen writing dates to 1526. The Manchus are sometimes mistakenly identified as nomadic people. The Manchu way of life (economy) was agricultural, farming crops and raising animals on farms. Manchus practiced slash-and-burn agriculture in
10710-438: The Jurchen tribes and established a military system called the " Eight Banners ", which organized Jurchen soldiers into groups of "Bannermen", and ordered his scholar Erdeni and minister Gagai to create a new Jurchen script (later known as Manchu script ) using the traditional Mongolian alphabet as a reference. When the Jurchens were reorganized by Nurhaci into the Eight Banners, many Manchu clans were artificially created as
10880-428: The Jurchens became vassals of the Khitan -led Liao dynasty . The Jurchens in the Yalu River region were tributaries of Goryeo since the reign of Wang Geon , who called upon them during the wars of the Later Three Kingdoms period, but the Jurchens switched allegiance between Liao and Goryeo multiple times, taking advantage of the tension between the two nations; posing a potential threat to Goryeo's border security,
11050-410: The Jurchens began to respect dogs around the time of the Ming dynasty, and passed this tradition on to the Manchus. It was prohibited in Jurchen culture to use dog skin, and forbidden for Jurchens to harm, kill, or eat dogs. For political reasons, the Jurchen leader Nurhaci chose variously to emphasize either differences or similarities in lifestyles with other peoples like the Mongols. Nurhaci said to
11220-410: The Jurchens offered tribute to the Goryeo court, expecting lavish gifts in return. Before the Jurchens overthrew the Khitan, married Jurchen women and Jurchen girls were raped by Liao Khitan envoys as a custom which caused resentment. The Jurchens and their Manchu descendants had Khitan linguistic and grammatical elements in their personal names like suffixes. Many Khitan names had a "ju" suffix. In
11390-492: The Korean Sin Chung-il when it was very cold. These Jurchens who lived in the north-east's harsh cold climate sometimes half sunk their houses in the ground which they constructed of brick or timber and surrounded their fortified villages with stone foundations on which they built wattle and mud walls to defend against attack. Village clusters were ruled by beile, hereditary leaders. They fought each other's and dispensed weapons, wives, slaves and lands to their followers in them. This
11560-490: The Later Jin dynasty ( Manchu : ᠠᡳᠰᡳᠨ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ , Möllendorff : aisin gurun , Abkai : aisin gurun , 後金). Nurhaci then renounced the Ming overlordship with the Seven Grievances and launched his attack on the Ming dynasty and moved the capital to Mukden after his conquest of Liaodong. In 1635, his son and successor Hong Taiji changed the name of the Jurchen ethnic group ( Manchu : ᠵᡠᡧᡝᠨ , Möllendorff : jušen , Abkai : juxen ) to
11730-418: The Manchu Aisin-Gioro family had been ruled by the Ming dynasty. In the Ming period, the Koreans of Joseon referred to the Jurchen inhabited lands north of the Korean peninsula, above the rivers Yalu and Tumen to be part of Ming China, as the "superior country" (sangguk) which they called Ming China. The Qing deliberately excluded references and information that showed the Jurchens (Manchus) as subservient to
11900-424: The Manchu court as courtesans, concubines, and wives. These couples were arranged by Prince Yoto and Hong Taiji in 1632 to promote harmony between the two ethnic groups. Also to promote ethnic harmony, a 1648 decree from the Shunzhi Emperor allowed Han Chinese civilian men to marry Manchu women from the Banners with the permission of the Board of Revenue if they were registered daughters of officials or commoners or
12070-470: The Manchu. A year later, Hong Taiji proclaimed himself the emperor of the Qing dynasty ( Manchu : ᡩᠠᡳᠴᡳᠩ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ , Möllendorff : daicing gurun , Abkai : daiqing gurun ). Factors for the change of name of these people from Jurchen to Manchu include the fact that the term "Jurchen" had negative connotations since the Jurchens had been in a servile position to the Ming dynasty for several hundred years, and it also referred to people of
12240-568: The Ming dynasty, from the History of Ming to hide their former subservient relationship to the Ming. The Ming Veritable Records were not used to source content on Jurchens during Ming rule in the History of Ming because of this. In 1644, the Ming capital, Beijing , was sacked by a peasant revolt led by Li Zicheng , a former minor Ming official who became the leader of the peasant revolt, who then proclaimed
12410-549: The Ming government. They had to present tribute as secretariats ( 中書舍人 ) with less reward from the Ming court than in the time when they were heads of guards – an unpopular development. Subsequently, more and more Jurchens recognised the Ming Empire's declining power due to Esen's invasion. The Zhengtong Emperor's capture directly caused Jurchen guards to go out of control. Tribal leaders, such as Cungšan and Wang Gao , brazenly plundered Ming territory. At about this time,
12580-439: The Ming overtures, but was unsuccessful, and Möngke Temür submitted to the Ming Empire. Since then, more and more Jurchen tribes presented tribute to the Ming Empire in succession. The Ming divided them into 384 guards, and the Jurchen became vassals to the Ming Empire. During the Ming dynasty, the name for the Jurchen land was Nurgan . The Jurchens became part of the Ming dynasty's Nurgan Regional Military Commission under
12750-613: The Mongol commander Naghachu 's resisting forces who settled in the Haixi area and began to summon the Jurchen tribes to pay tribute. At the time, some Jurchen clans were vassals to the Joseon dynasty of Korea such as Odoli and Huligai . Their elites served in the Korean royal bodyguard. The Joseon Koreans tried to deal with the military threat posed by the Jurchen by using both forceful means and incentives, and by launching military attacks. At
12920-472: The Mongols that "the languages of the Chinese and Koreans are different, but their clothing and way of life is the same. It is the same with us Manchus (Jušen) and Mongols. Our languages are different, but our clothing and way of life is the same." Later Nurhaci indicated that the bond with the Mongols was not based in any real shared culture. It was for pragmatic reasons of "mutual opportunism," since Nurhaci said to
13090-564: The Mongols: "You Mongols raise livestock, eat meat, and wear pelts. My people till the fields and live on grain. We two are not one country and we have different languages." A century after the chaos started in the Jurchen lands, Nurhaci , a chieftain of the Jianzhou Left Guard who officially considered himself a local representative of imperial power of the Ming dynasty , made efforts to unify
13260-688: The Nian from Quanzhou immigrated to Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. In Taiwan they are concentrated in Lukang township and Changhua city of Changhua county as well as in Dingnien village, Xianne village Fuxing township of Changhua county. There are less than 30,000 members of the Nian clan worldwide, with 9,916 of them in Taiwan, and 3,040 of those in Fuxing township of Changhua county and its most common in Dingnian village. During
13430-556: The Odoli clan of the Jianzhou Jurchens , defected from paying tribute to Korea, becoming a tributary state to China instead. Yi Seong-gye , the Taejo of Joseon , asked the Ming Empire to send Möngke Temür back but was refused. The Yongle Emperor was determined to wrest the Jurchens out of Korean influence and have China dominate them instead. Korea tried to persuade Möngke Temür to reject
13600-595: The People's Republic of China in 1949, historian Fan Wenlan (范文瀾) called the Guangxu Emperor "a Manchu noble who could accept Western ideas". Some historians believe that the Guangxu Emperor was the first Chinese leader to implement modernizing reforms and capitalism. Imperial power in the Qing dynasty saw its nadir under Guangxu, and he was the only Qing emperor to have been put under house arrest during his own reign. Domestic honours Foreign honours The Guangxu Emperor had one empress and two consorts in total. The emperor
13770-409: The Qing dynasty as the only way to make up for his perceived failure. Already in December 1897 the emperor wrote an edict that asked bureaucrats with military knowledge to recommend reforms that could be made. Following the war and the scramble for concessions, there was growing support for reform in China among the gentry and the nobility in the spring of 1898. In April the emperor was presented with
13940-500: The Qing dynasty's official historical record, the Researches on Manchu Origins , the ethnic name came from Mañjuśrī . The Qianlong Emperor also supported the point of view and even wrote several poems on the subject. Meng Sen, a scholar of the Qing dynasty, agreed. On the other hand, he thought the name Manchu might stem from Li Manzhu ( 李滿住 ), the chieftain of the Jianzhou Jurchens . Another scholar, Chang Shan, thinks Manju
14110-492: The Sure Kundulen Khan ( Manchu : ᠰᡠᡵᡝ ᡴᡠᠨᡩᡠᠯᡝᠨ ᡥᠠᠨ , Möllendorff : sure kundulen han , Abkai : sure kundulen han , "wise and respected khan") from his Khalkha Mongol allies; then, in 1616, he publicly enthroned himself and issued a proclamation naming himself Genggiyen Khan ( Manchu : ᡤᡝᠩᡤᡳᠶᡝᠨ ᡥᠠᠨ , Möllendorff : genggiyen han , Abkai : genggiyen han , "bright khan") of
14280-612: The Tartar quarter is a dismal picture of crumbling walls, decay, indolence and squalor. On the big drill grounds you see the runways along which the horseman gallops and shoots arrows at a target while the Tartar military mandarins look on. These lazy bannermen were tried in the new army but proved flabby and good-for-nothing; they would break down on an ordinary twenty-mile march. Battening on their hereditary pensions they have given themselves up to sloth and vice, and their poor chest development, small weak muscles, and diminishing families foreshadow
14450-448: The Tongzhi Emperor and were seen as having been a negative influence on him, so they were distrusted. Zaitian was younger than both and was the nephew of Cixi. His father, Prince Chun, was also more liked than Prince Gong, and was known for being a scholar and a supporter of patriotic policies. These were the factors that influenced the selection of Zaitian to become emperor. A decree announced on 13 January that Zaitian had been chosen as
14620-590: The Xi'an dialect of Mandarin. Many Bannermen got jobs as teachers, writing textbooks for learning Mandarin and instructing people in Mandarin. In Guangdong, the Manchu Mandarin teacher Sun Yizun advised that the Yinyun Chanwei and Kangxi Zidian , dictionaries issued by the Qing government, were the correct guides to Mandarin pronunciation, rather than the pronunciation of the Beijing and Nanjing dialects. In
14790-761: The Yongle Emperor, with Ming forces erecting the Yongning Temple Stele in 1413, at the headquarters of Nurgan. The stele was inscribed in Chinese, Jurchen, Mongolian, and Tibetan. In 1449, Mongol taishi Esen attacked the Ming Empire and captured the Zhengtong Emperor in Tumu . Some Jurchen guards in Jianzhou and Haixi cooperated with Esen's action, but more were attacked in the Mongol invasion. Many Jurchen chieftains lost their hereditary certificates granted by
14960-505: The Yuan directive to treat Jurchens the same as Mongols referred to Jurchens and Khitans in the northwest (not the Jurchen homeland in the northeast), presumably in the lands of Qara Khitai, where many Khitan live but it is a mystery as to how Jurchens were living there. Many Jurchens adopted Mongolian customs, names, and the Mongolian language. As time went on, fewer and fewer Jurchens could recognize their own script. The Jurchen Yehe Nara clan
15130-413: The aftermath of the loss of Outer Manchuria , and with the imperial and provincial governments in deep financial trouble, parts of Manchuria became officially open to Chinese settlement ; within a few decades, the Manchus became a minority in most of Manchuria's districts. The majority of the hundreds of thousands of people living in inner Beijing during the Qing were Manchus and Mongol bannermen from
15300-415: The areas north of Shenyang . The Haixi Jurchens were "semi-agricultural, the Jianzhou Jurchens and Maolian ( 毛憐 ) Jurchens were sedentary, while hunting and fishing was the way of life of the "Wild Jurchens". Han Chinese society resembled that of the sedentary Jianzhou and Maolian, who were farmers. Hunting, archery on horseback, horsemanship, livestock raising, and sedentary agriculture were all part of
15470-463: The basis for reform, starting in September they began targeting the positions of the Manchu nobility and the gentry. These were not only too sudden for a China still under significant neo-Confucian influence and other elements of traditional culture , but later came into conflict with Cixi, who held real power. Many officials, deemed useless and dismissed by the Guangxu Emperor, begged her for help. But
15640-423: The budget continued until early 1894. But its other effects were humiliating and alienating senior Manchu officials in the bureaucracy, who remained in contact with Cixi, and reducing his potential allies at the imperial court. The Guangxu Emperor inherited the system of the Qing dynasty that had emerged in 1861, at the start of the Tongzhi Emperor's reign. The source of authority were the two empresses dowager, while
15810-547: The capital garrison in Beijing were said to be the worst militarily, unable to draw bows, unable to ride horses and fight properly and losing their Manchu culture. Manchu bannermen from the Xi'an banner garrison were praised for maintaining Manchu culture by Kangxi in 1703. Xi'an garrison Manchus were said to retain Manchu culture far better than all other Manchus at martial skills in the provincial garrisons and they were able to draw their bows properly and perform cavalry archery unlike Beijing Manchus. The Qianlong emperor received
15980-508: The city and gained bad reputations for their sexual lives. A Manchu from Beijing, Sumurji, was shocked and disgusted by this after being appointed Lieutenant general of the Manchu garrison of Xi'an and informed the Yongzheng emperor what they were doing. Han civilians and Manchu bannermen in Xi'an had bad relations, with the bannermen trying to steal at the markets. Manchu Lieutenant general Cimbru reported this to Yongzheng emperor in 1729 after he
16150-418: The day the Emperor recovered and they could live and rule together. Empress Dowager Cixi, tipped off by eunuchs, entered the room in stockinged feet, and hearing the Empress's criticisms, flew into a rage and rampaged through the room, seized the Empress by the hair and hit her, shouting that by making love to the Emperor she would cause him to be ill again. She ordered the eunuchs to take her away and slap her on
16320-434: The death of her husband. However, the Guangxu Emperor detested his wife and spent most of his time with his favourite concubine, Consort Zhen (better known as the "Pearl Consort"). Rumours allege that in 1900, Consort Zhen was drowned by being thrown into a well on Cixi's order after she begged Empress Dowager Cixi to let the Guangxu Emperor stay in Beijing for negotiations with the foreign powers. That incident happened when
16490-406: The decisive response by Empress Dowager Cixi was caused by the accusation from the official Yang Chongyi that the Guangxu Emperor had committed treason by inviting the former Japanese prime minister Ito Hirobumi to advise him (Ito was in China at the time to meet with the emperor). Yang claimed that Guangxu had done this on the advice of Kang Youwei and the wanted revolutionary Sun Yat-sen . Guangxu
16660-456: The decrees of earlier emperors. Guangxu could work diligently and already knew some of the classics, but he was not always interested in his daily lessons. As part of the emperor's education he was taught that his main obligation as ruler was "keeping the state in order" and "maintaining universal peace," as stated in the Confucian classic Great Learning . The Guangxu Emperor seemed to become
16830-573: The descendants of the family Ta of Po-hai . They love to be sedentary and sew, and they are skilled in spinning and weaving. As for food, clothing and utensils, they are the same as (those used by) the Chinese. Those living south of the Ch'ang-pai mountain are apt to be soothed and governed." 魏焕《皇明九邊考》卷二《遼東鎮邊夷考》 Translation from Sino-Jürčed relations during the Yung-Lo period, 1403–1424 by Henry Serruys Although their Mohe ancestors did not respect dogs,
17000-476: The dynasty. At the beginning of the Qing dynasty, the Qing allowed Han civilians to marry Manchu women. Then the Qing banned civilians from marrying women from the Eight banners later. In 1865, the Qing allowed Han civilian men to marry Manchu bannerwomen in all garrisons except the capital garrison of Beijing. There was no formal law on marriage between people in the different banners like the Manchu and Han banners but it
17170-581: The early 1880s, though this stopped in 1883 when Cixi recovered from her illness. His reign saw the outbreak of the Sino-French War in 1884 over influence in Vietnam . By the time the war ended in 1885, the French destroyed the Chinese fleet at Fuzhou , patrolled the coast of southern China unobstructed, occupied part of Taiwan, and ended the status of Vietnam as a tributary of China. This prompted Britain to end
17340-464: The early dying out of the stock. Where is there a better illustration of the truth that parasitism leads to degeneration!" Ross spoke highly of the Han and Hui population of Xi'an, Shaanxi and Gansu in general, saying: "After a fortnight of mule litter we sight ancient yellow Sianfu, "the Western capital," with its third of a million souls. Within the fortified triple gate the facial mold abruptly changes and
17510-518: The edict. Between June and September 1898 the emperor carried out the Hundred Days' Reform , aimed at a series of sweeping political, legal and social changes. The goal was to make China a modern constitutional empire, but still within the traditional framework, as with Japan's Meiji Restoration . The emperor's initial focus was establishing the Imperial University in Beijing and reforming
17680-544: The education system. The last part of his edict of 11 June instructed the Grand Council and the Zongli Yamen , the Qing dynasty's foreign office, to establish the Imperial University right away. The Guangxu Emperor then issued edicts for a massive number of far-reaching modernizing reforms with the help of more progressive officials such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao . Changes ranged from infrastructure to industry and
17850-415: The emperor had been poisoned, the Qing imperial court produced documents and doctors' records suggesting that the Guangxu Emperor died from natural causes, but these did not allay suspicion. On 4 November 2008, forensic tests revealed that the level of arsenic in the emperor's remains was 2,000 times higher than that of ordinary people. Scientists concluded that the poison could only have been administered in
18020-467: The emperor to make his own decisions instead of remaining influenced by the empress dowager. After the Japanese attacked and sank a Chinese warship on 25 July without any declaration of war, the ministers of the Qing emperor advised him to declare war on Japan. In that document, made on 1 August, the Guangxu Emperor accused Japan of sending armies to force the king of Korea to change his system of government and of violating international law. He also used
18190-486: The emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Cixi . It was said that there was an argument between the Empresses Dowager Cixi and Ci'an over the choice of empress. Ci'an, who favored Lady Alut, claimed that the empress should possess high moral standards, while Cixi felt that the empress should be wise and shrewd. The conflict was resolved by the Tongzhi Emperor when he eventually chose Lady Alut to be his empress. Cixi
18360-459: The emperor's other consorts and she turned hostile towards the Empress. She warned the Empress that, as primary wife, she should allow the emperor to spend time equally among his consorts, and to not seize him for herself. Cixi also reminded the Empress that since both she and the Tongzhi Emperor were still young, they should spend more time learning how to govern the country. When she saw no signs of change in her son's attitude, Cixi eventually ordered
18530-647: The establishment of the Shun dynasty . The last Ming ruler, the Chongzhen Emperor , died by suicide by hanging himself when the city fell. When Li Zicheng moved against the Ming general Wu Sangui , the latter made an alliance with the Manchus and opened the Shanhai Pass to the Manchu army. After the Manchus defeated Li Zicheng , they moved the capital of their new Qing Empire to Beijing ( Manchu : ᠪᡝᡤᡳᠩ , Möllendorff : beging , Abkai : beging ) in
18700-450: The events in the autumn of 1898. In February 1895, as peace negotiations with the Japanese were underway, the Guangxu Emperor spoke with his top negotiator before he met with the Japanese, Li Hongzhang, and allegedly told him during their conversation that China needed large scale reforms. In April, after the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed but before it was ratified by the Qing government,
18870-421: The execution of generals who were defeated. During the war, even though the Guangxu Emperor was nominally the sovereign ruler of the Qing Empire, officials often ignored him and instead sent their memorials to Cixi for her approval. Eventually, two sets of Grand Council memoranda were created, one for the emperor and the other for the empress dowager, a practice that continued until it was rendered unnecessary by
19040-410: The face. The Tongzhi Emperor died on 12 January 1875. Some sources claim that the Empress was pregnant at the time. The Tongzhi Emperor had not chosen a successor before his death, so it was up to Empress Dowager Cixi to decide who would be the new emperor. Cixi chose her nephew Zaitian , who was enthroned as the Guangxu Emperor. The Empress was not mentioned in the crisis over the succession. Neither
19210-430: The failures and limitations during his reign, he is still regarded as a relatively progressive and enlightened monarch of the dynasty. His image in historical research and literary works is also mostly positive. The Guangxu Emperor was born on 14 August 1871, receiving the name Zaitian, and was the second son of Yixuan (Prince Chun) , and his primary spouse Yehenara Wanzhen , a younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi . He
19380-484: The fighting during the First Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion, sustaining massive casualties during the wars and subsequently being driven into extreme suffering and hardship. Much of the fighting in the Boxer Rebellion against the foreigners in defense of Beijing and Manchuria was done by Manchu Banner armies, which were destroyed while resisting the invasion. The German Minister Clemens von Ketteler
19550-522: The foreign ministers to China at an audience in the "Pavilion of Purple Light," in what is now part of Zhongnanhai , something that had also been done by the Tongzhi Emperor in 1873. That summer, under pressure from the foreign legations and in response to revolts in the Yangtze River valley that were targeting Christian missionaries, the emperor issued an edict ordering Christians to be placed under state protection. The audience of foreign diplomats with
19720-524: The grand councilor Weng Tonghe from all of his posts, even though he had been the one to draft his first reform edict. It has been debated by historians what the immediate reason for the action was, but it occurred after Weng had been a voice of caution leading up the summer of 1898, and he may have been seen by the emperor as an obstacle to his plans. The emperor was also impatient and wanted immediate results, so he may have fired him in an emotional moment. On several occasions he also tried to write his edicts in
19890-409: The heir to the throne but was forcibly elevated after Emperor Tongzhi died without an heir. From a young age, he was forced to leave his home and enter the palace, where he was strictly controlled and disciplined by Cixi, enduring many hardships and sorrows. Even after he reached adulthood and began his personal rule, Cixi was unwilling to relinquish her control over state power, making him continue to be
20060-574: The largest branch of the Tungusic peoples and are distributed throughout China, forming the fourth largest ethnic group in the country. They are found in 31 Chinese provincial regions. Among them, Liaoning has the largest population and Hebei , Heilongjiang , Jilin , Inner Mongolia and Beijing have over 100,000 Manchu residents. About half of the population live in Liaoning and one-fifth in Hebei . There are
20230-402: The late 19th century and early 1900s, intermarriage between Manchus and Han bannermen in the northeast increased as Manchu families were more willing to marry their daughters to sons from well off Han families to trade their ethnic status for higher financial status. Most intermarriage consisted of Han Bannermen marrying Manchus in areas like Aihun. Han Chinese Bannermen wedded Manchus and there
20400-516: The local dialect instead of Standard Chinese. By the early years of the Republic of China , very few areas of China still had traditional Manchu populations. Among the few regions where such comparatively traditional communities could be found, and where the Manchu language was still widely spoken, were the Aigun ( Manchu : ᠠᡳᡥᡡᠨ , Möllendorff : aihūn , Abkai : aihvn ) District and
20570-474: The mainstream Jiahnzhou Jurchens descended from the Jin dynasty who were farmers that foraged, hunted, herded and harvested crops in the Liao and Yalu river basins. They gathered ginseng root, pine nuts, hunted for came pels in the uplands and forests, raised horses in their stables, and farmed millet and wheat in their fallow fields. They engaged in dances, wrestling and drinking strong liquor as noted during midwinter by
20740-416: The official name of the people by Emperor Hong Taiji in 1635, replacing the earlier name " Jurchen ". It appears that manju was an old term for the Jianzhou Jurchens , although the etymology is not well understood. The Jiu Manzhou Dang , archives of early 17th century documents, contains the earliest use of Manchu. However, the actual etymology of the ethnic name "Manju" is debatable. According to
20910-532: The other hand, in warlord Zhang Zuolin 's reign in Manchuria, much better treatment was reported. There was no particular persecution of Manchus. Even the mausoleums of Qing emperors were still allowed to be managed by Manchu guardsmen, as in the past. Many Manchus joined the Fengtian clique , such as Xi Qia , a member of the Qing dynasty's imperial clan. As a follow-up to the Mukden Incident , Manchukuo ,
21080-529: The outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War over influence in Korea. The Guangxu Emperor was reportedly eager for the war against Japan and became associated with the pro-war faction in the imperial court, which believed that China would easily win. This was in contrast to the Empress Dowager Cixi and Viceroy Li Hongzhang , who both wanted to reach a peaceful resolution. The conflict was also an opportunity for
21250-584: The permission of their banner company captain if they were unregistered commoners. It was only later in the dynasty that these policies allowing intermarriage were done away with. As a result of their conquest of Ming China , almost all the Manchus followed the prince regent Dorgon and the Shunzhi Emperor to Beijing and settled there. A few of them were sent to other places such as Inner Mongolia , Xinjiang and Tibet to serve as garrison troops. There were only 1524 Bannermen left in Manchuria at
21420-451: The places of stationed works, Beijing is their homeland." While the Manchu ruling elite at the Qing imperial court in Beijing and posts of authority throughout China increasingly adopted Han culture, the Qing imperial government viewed the Manchu communities (as well as those of various tribal people) in Manchuria as a place where traditional Manchu virtues could be preserved, and as a vital reservoir of military manpower fully dedicated to
21590-419: The previous emperor, candidates were considered from the generation of Tongzhi. The reason for this is that the empress dowagers wanted the candidate to take the place of the Tongzhi Emperor as the successor to the Xianfeng Emperor , whose only son had been Tongzhi. The other proposed candidates besides Zaitian were the two sons of Prince Gong , Zaicheng and Zaiying , but they were of the same age group as
21760-439: The refined intellectual type appears. Here and there faces of a Hellenic purity of feature are seen and beautiful children are not uncommon. These Chinese cities make one realize how the cream of the population gathers in the urban centers. Everywhere town opportunities have been a magnet for the élite of the open country." The Qing dynasty altered its law on intermarriage between Han civilians and Manchu bannermen several times in
21930-481: The reformists had actually "much injured" the modernization of China. Lei claims that Cixi learned of the plot and decided to put an end to it to prevent China from coming under foreign control. The Guangxu Emperor's duties after 1898 became rather limited. The emperor was effectively removed from power as emperor (despite keeping the title), but he did retain some status. The emperor was kept informed of state affairs, reading them with Cixi prior to audiences, and
22100-411: The regency. Despite Cixi's agreement to remain as regent, that same year the Guangxu Emperor had begun to write comments on memorials to the throne . In the spring of 1887, he partook in his first field-plowing ceremony, and by the end of the year he had begun to rule under Cixi's supervision. By the mid-1880s the Guangxu Emperor also developed the ideas that he wanted guide his rule, including preserving
22270-483: The regime. The Qing emperors tried to protect the traditional way of life of the Manchus (as well as various other tribal peoples) in central and northern Manchuria by a variety of means. In particular, they restricted the migration of Han settlers to the region. This had to be balanced with practical needs, such as maintaining the defense of northern China against the Russians and the Mongols, supplying government farms with
22440-487: The same time they tried to appease them with titles and degrees, traded with them, and sought to acculturate them by having Jurchens integrate into Korean culture. Their relationship was eventually stopped by the Ming dynasty government who wanted the Jurchens to protect the border. In 1403, Ahacu, chieftain of Huligai, paid tribute to the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty. Soon after that, Möngke Temür , chieftain of
22610-413: The same year. The Qing government differentiated between Han Bannermen and ordinary Han civilians. Han Bannermen were Han Chinese who defected to the Qing Empire up to 1644 and joined the Eight Banners, giving them social and legal privileges in addition to being acculturated to Manchu culture. So many Han defected to the Qing Empire and swelled up the ranks of the Eight Banners that ethnic Manchus became
22780-527: The successor to the Xianfeng Emperor. The same decree also announced that Empress Dowagers Ci'an and Cixi would be his co-regents. He ascended to the throne at the age of four, on 25 February 1875, and adopted "Guangxu" (meaning "continuation of splendor") as his regnal name , therefore he is known as the "Guangxu Emperor". His personal name Zaitian was no longer used after that point. Beginning in March 1876,
22950-480: The system that existed during the regency effectively remained intact. Eventually, in February 1889, in preparation for Cixi's retirement, the Guangxu Emperor was married. Much to the emperor's dislike, Cixi selected her niece, Jingfen, to be empress. She became known as Empress Longyu . She also selected a pair of sisters, who became Consorts Jin and Zhen , to be the emperor's concubines. The following week, with
23120-615: The term "dwarfs" for the Japanese, an ancient Chinese derogatory term, reflecting the widespread contemptuous view of Japan that many Qing officials had. China suffered major defeats at the Battle of Pyongyang and the Battle of the Yalu River within two days in September 1894, largely destroying the Huai Army and the Beiyang Fleet , the Qing dynasty's best military forces. The Guangxu Emperor
23290-414: The term Han. However the use of the word Han as the name of a class category used by the Yuan dynasty was a different concept from Han ethnicity. The grouping of Jurchens in northern China grouped with northern Han into the northerner class did not mean they were regarded the same as ethnic Han people, who themselves were in two different classes in the Yuan, Han ren and Nan Ren as said by Stephen G. Haw. Also
23460-422: The throne, being adopted at the age of three by Emperor Xianfeng and the two Empress Dowagers, thereby inheriting the throne. During the early years of his reign, the two dowagers jointly handled state affairs. As Ci'an died in 1881, Cixi continued to act as the sole regent. In 1889, Guangxu got married and announced his personal rule. After the failure of the Hundred Days' Reform in 1898, he was confined by Cixi in
23630-418: The time of the initial Manchu conquest. After a series of border conflicts with the Russians , the Qing emperors started to realize the strategic importance of Manchuria and gradually sent Manchus back where they originally came from. But throughout the Qing dynasty, Beijing was the focal point of the ruling Manchus in the political, economic and cultural spheres. The Yongzheng Emperor noted: "Garrisons are
23800-472: The transition between the Ming and Qing Zhang Sunzhen, a civilian official in Nanjing himself remarked that he had a portrait of his ancestors wearing Manchu clothes because his family were Tartars so it was appropriate that he was going to shave his head into the Manchu hairstyle when the queue order was given. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty was replaced by the Ming dynasty in 1368. In 1387, Ming forces defeated
23970-484: The treaty required, he was going to lose the "unity of the people." The emperor felt that he was unworthy of his ancestors because he failed as a leader, which was made worse after he was also forced to give concessions to the European powers in 1897–98. Luke Kwong wrote that this was part of what drove the Guangxu Emperor to begin the Hundred Days' Reform in the summer of 1898, because he saw taking radical action to revitalize
24140-499: The treaty's severe terms for China were publicized. Government bureaucrats throughout the empire urged the imperial court to reject it and continue fighting. The emperor did not want to take responsibility for ratifying the treaty, and neither did the Empress Dowager Cixi, who may have wanted to use the defeat against Japan to undermine Guangxu. He tried to shift the responsibility in an edict by asking two officials, Liu Kunyi and Wang Wenshao , to give their opinion on whether to agree to
24310-551: The treaty, because they had told him that the Chinese military was capable of achieving victory. Eventually the Guangxu Emperor ratified it. The emperor and the Qing government faced further humiliation in late 1897 when the German Empire used the murders of two priests in Shandong Province as an excuse to occupy Jiaozhou Bay (including Qingdao ), prompting a "scramble for concessions" by other foreign powers. Germany sent
24480-609: The tributary status of Burma in 1886, which China did not oppose militarily, and encouraged Japan to do the same in Korea . The negotiations with the French were carried out by the Viceroy of Zhili , Li Hongzhang , by other ministers in Beijing, and by the head of Chinese Maritime Customs , Robert Hart . The Guangxu Emperor had not given an audience to foreign diplomats in Beijing up to this point, though in August 1886 his father Prince Chun hosted
24650-459: The tutelage of her father, she learned to write with both hands. She was famous among the Manchu aristocracy for her talent, moral character and looks. In 1872, Lady Alut was chosen to be empress consort by the Tongzhi Emperor . She was specially chosen to help in the reconciliation of rivals in the Qing imperial court. Lady Alut's maternal grandfather, Duanhua , was a former political rival of
24820-412: The unification of Manchu tribes as a threat to Japan. The Japanese mistakenly thought that Hokkaido (Ezochi) had a land bridge to Tartary (Orankai) where Manchus lived and thought the Manchus could invade Japan. The Tokugawa Shogunate bakufu sent a message to Korea via Tsushima offering help to Korea against the 1627 Manchu invasion of Korea . Korea declined the help. Following the fall of Balhae,
24990-602: The view that manju is cognate with words referring to the lower Amur river in other Tungusic languages and can be reconstructed to Proto-Tungusic *mamgo 'lower Amur, large river'. The Manchus are descended from the Jurchen people who earlier established the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in China. The name Mohe might refer to an ancestral population of the Manchus. The Mohe practiced pig farming extensively and were mainly sedentary, and also used both pig and dog skins for coats. They were predominantly farmers and grew soybeans, wheat, millet and rice, in addition to hunting. In
25160-642: The wealth of the country and avoiding selfishness or arrogance. Among his predecessors, he considered the Qianlong Emperor to be a model of good governance, and often visited places that the Qianlong Emperor had spent a lot of time at. He felt a sense of responsibility for following the example set by the Qianlong Emperor. Meanwhile, Prince Chun and the Grand Council prepared for the Guangxu Emperor to begin ruling directly by taking measures to make sure that
25330-505: The year 1114, Wanyan Aguda united the Jurchen tribes and established the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) . His brother and successor, Wanyan Wuqimai defeated the Liao dynasty. After the fall of the Liao dynasty, the Jurchens went to war with the Northern Song dynasty , and captured most of northern China in the Jin–Song wars . During the Jin dynasty, the first Jurchen script came into use in
25500-424: The young emperor had a secondary role, and the princes and ministers were responsible for actually running the machinery of the government. When Empress Dowager Cixi retired, Guangxu had control over the administration of the empire and she did not interfere with his actions, but the princes and ministers advised him to bring back the old system in 1894, at the start of the tensions with Japan. The summer of 1894 saw
25670-477: Was a decree that was issued by the Guangxu Emperor. But Yuan later said that the schemers could not convince him that it was really from the emperor, and when Yuan met with him on 20 September, Guangxu did not say anything about it to Yuan. He then left the emperor to meet with Ronglu and told him about the plot by the reformers, also telling him the emperor had nothing to do with it. Ronglu then met with Cixi and other ministers and princes, and started taking action. On
25840-509: Was also present at audiences, sitting on a stool to Cixi's left hand while Cixi occupied the main throne. He discharged his ceremonial duties, such as offering sacrifices during ceremonies, but never ruled alone again. In 1898, shortly after the collapse of the Hundred Days' Reform , the Guangxu Emperor's health began to decline, prompting Cixi to name Pujun, a son of the emperor's cousin, the reactionary Prince Duan , as heir presumptive. Pujun and his father were removed from their positions after
26010-520: Was angry and wanted to immediately leave the capital to personally take command of the troops at the front, but he was later talked out of it by his advisors. The emperor met with a German military advisor who had been present at the Battle of the Yalu, Constantin von Hanneken, to learn what exactly happened, suggesting that he may have not trusted his ministers to tell him the truth. He also signed edicts calling for
26180-740: Was assassinated by a Manchu. Thousands of Manchus fled south from Aigun during the fighting in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, their cattle and horses then stolen by Russian Cossacks who razed their villages and homes. The clan system of the Manchus in Aigun was obliterated by the despoliation of the area at the hands of the Russian invaders. By the 19th century, most Manchus in the city garrison spoke only Mandarin Chinese, not Manchu, which still distinguished them from their Han neighbors in southern China, who spoke non-Mandarin dialects. That they spoke Beijing dialect made recognizing Manchus folks relatively easy. It
26350-564: Was assigned there. Governor Yue Rui of Shandong was then ordered by the Yongzheng to report any bannerman misbehaving and warned him not to cover it up in 1730 after Manchu bannermen were put in a quarter in Qingzhou. Manchu bannermen from the garrisons in Xi'an and Jingzhou fought in Xinjiang in the 1770s and Manchus from Xi'an garrison fought in other campaigns against the Dzungars and Uyghurs throughout
26520-449: Was copied down . Traumatic memories of the Jurchen raids on Japan in the 1019 Toi invasion , the Mongol invasions of Japan in addition to Japan viewing the Jurchens as "Tatar" "barbarians" after copying China's barbarian-civilized distinction, may have played a role in Japan's antagonistic views against Manchus and hostility towards them in later centuries such as when Tokugawa Ieyasu viewed
26690-500: Was displeased with her son's decision. Another four candidates chosen became the emperor's concubines. One of them was Lady Alut's aunt, Concubine Xun . Empress Dowager Cixi once complained about Lady Alut: "We made a mistake in selecting a wife for him. How could we tell that her beauty was false? She was very beautiful, but she hated us." On the night of 15 October 1872, at around 11:30 pm (an auspicious hour recommended by imperial astrologers), Lady Alut left her family residence for
26860-563: Was distracted by events in Cuba and the Spanish–American War . In the six months between November 1897 and May 1898 China had received unprecedented demands from foreign powers. After the Qing Empire's defeat to Japan and forced agreement to the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Guangxu Emperor reportedly expressed his wish to abdicate. He wrote that by giving away Taiwan to Japan, as
27030-429: Was forced by Empress Dowager Cixi to marry her niece (his cousin) Jingfen , who was two years his senior. Jingfen's father, Guixiang (Cixi's younger brother), and Cixi selected her to be the Guangxu Emperor's wife in order to strengthen the power of their own family. After the marriage, Jingfen was made empress and was granted the honorific title of "Longyu" ( 隆裕 ; lit. ' auspicious and prosperous ' ) after
27200-560: Was how the Jurchens who founded the Qing lived and how their ancestors lived before the Jin. Alongside Mongols and Jurchen clans there were migrants from Liaodong provinces of Ming China and Korea living among these Jurchens in a cosmopolitan manner. Nurhaci who was hosting Sin Chung-il was uniting all of them into his own army, having them adopt the Jurchen hairstyle of a long queue and a shaved fore=crown and wearing leather tunics. His armies had black, blue, red, white and yellow flags. These became
27370-401: Was informally regulated by social status and custom. In northeastern China such as Heilongjiang and Liaoning it was more common for Manchu women to marry Han men since they were not subjected to the same laws and institutional oversight as Manchus and Han in Beijing and elsewhere. The policy of artificially isolating the Manchus of the northeast from the rest of China could not last forever. In
27540-564: Was no law against this. As the end of the Qing dynasty approached, Manchus were portrayed as outside colonizers by Chinese nationalists such as Sun Yat-sen , even though the Republican revolution he brought about was supported by many reform-minded Manchu officials and military officers. This portrayal dissipated somewhat after the 1911 revolution as the new Republic of China now sought to include Manchus within its national identity . In order to blend in, some Manchus switched to speaking
27710-459: Was northern Standard Chinese which the Manchu Bannermen spoke instead of the local dialect the Han people around the garrison spoke, so that Manchus in the garrisons at Jingzhou and Guangzhou both spoke Beijing Mandarin even though Cantonese was spoken at Guangzhou, and the Beijing dialect of Mandarin distinguished the Manchu bannermen at the Xi'an garrison from the local Han people who spoke
27880-411: Was reportedly seen with swollen eyes, had poor concentration and was seeking consolation from Weng. Weng too expressed his concern that Cixi was the one who had been suffering from chronic ill health, not Ci'an. During this time, the imperial eunuchs often abused their influence over the boy emperor. The Guangxu Emperor had also reportedly begun to hold some audiences on his own as an act of necessity in
28050-414: Was she granted the title of Empress Dowager, which was customary after the death of an emperor. She received the title "Empress Jiashun" instead. Within 100 days of the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, Empress Dowager Cixi pushed the blame of the emperor's death on Empress Jiashun. She ordered Empress Jiashun's food rations to be reduced. Empress Jiashun wrote a letter to her father asking for help, but his reply
28220-473: Was simply, "Your Highness knows what to do." It was said that the empress committed suicide but official court records state that she died after a long and serious illness. Empress Dowager Cixi granted her the posthumous title "Empress Xiaozheyi". In 1876, a censor to the throne wrote that Empress Xiaozheyi should be posthumously honored for being a virtuous wife who had committed suicide after her husband's death. Empress Dowager Cixi rebuked him curtly for writing
28390-443: Was the Tokoro Manchu clan in the Manchu banners which claimed to be descended from a Han Chinese with the surname of Tao who had moved north from Zhejiang to Liaodong and joined the Jurchens before the Qing in the Ming Wanli emperor's era. The Han Chinese Banner Tong 佟 clan of Fushun in Liaoning falsely claimed to be related to the Jurchen Manchu Tunggiya 佟佳 clan of Jilin , using this false claim to get themselves transferred to
28560-417: Was the eleventh emperor of the Qing dynasty , and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper , from 1875 to 1908. His reign was largely dominated by his maternal aunt Empress Dowager Cixi , who was his regent for much of his nominal rule except in the time from 1889 to 1898. He initiated the radical Hundred Days' Reform in the summer of 1898 but was abruptly stopped when the Empress Dowager launched
28730-411: Was the nephew of Cixi and the grandson of the Daoguang Emperor . On 12 January 1875, Zaitian's cousin, the Tongzhi Emperor , died without a son to succeed him. On that same day an imperial conference was held by the co-regents of the former emperor, the Empress Dowager Ci'an and the Empress Dowager Cixi. Breaking the imperial convention that a new emperor must always be of a generation after that of
28900-407: Was unable to effectively defend himself to Cixi from Yang's accusation. Both sides began plotting to take action against each other. Some of the reformers around the emperor asked Yuan Shikai to use the Beiyang Army to arrest Cixi and to execute Ronglu , a member of the conservative faction who had been appointed to command the military forces in Zhili earlier. According to one account, this
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