Understanding China

1898-1911

Chinese WordsPinyin Wade-Giles   Pinyin Wade-Giles

People Groups

Cixi Tz’u-His Guomindang Kuomintang

Guangxu Kuang-hsu Qing Ch’ing

Puyi P’u-i Taiping Daibing

Sun Yixian Sun Yat-sen Tongmenghui T’ungmenghui

Yuan Shikai Yuan Shih-k’ai Places

Jiang Jieshi Chiang Kai-shek Beijing Peking; also Beiping

Mao Zedong Mao Tse-tung Guangzhou Canton

Zhou Enlai Chou En-Lai Jiangxi Kiangsi

Zhu De Chu The Shaanxi Shensi

Lin Biao Lin Piao Sichuan Szechuan

Deng Xiaoping Teng Hsiao-p’ing Tianjin Tientsin

Liu Shaoqi Liu Shao-ch’i Yan’an Yenan

Chinese Pronunciation

• In pinyin, most letters are pronounced as in English, although there are three main exceptions. The letter ‘C’ is pronounced ‘ts’; The letter ‘Q’ is pronounced ‘ch’; and the letter ‘X’ is pronounced ‘sh’.

• For example, The Qing dynasty is pronounced ‘Ching’; The Emperor Guangxu is pronounced ‘Guang-shoo’; and the Empress Dowager Cixi is pronounced ‘Tsu-shi’

The Mandate of Heaven and Confucianism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylWORyToTo4#t=21

What do we know about Confucianism?

How did this belief system effect how China was run?

What differences are apparent?

How might have geography shaped the development of these two areas?

How might have geographic isolation caused the idea of ‘the Middle Kingdom’ to come about?

The Grand Canal: Construction began 486BC

1776km!(similar distance as between Melbourne and Brisbane!)

The Great Wall: Construction began: 7th century BC

Large parts constructed by the first Chinese Emperor from 220-206 BC. Even larger parts constructing by the Ming Dynasty (14th-17th century)

Approx: 8850km!(similar distance as travelling from Melbourne to Perth, then Perth to Cairns!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs34AJqmB5I

China through time…• As you look at the maps in this video, what

do you notice?• Consider how this contrasts with the ideas

of the ‘Middle Kingdom’ and the ‘Mandate of Heaven’.

Other aspects of the Old Regime

• It was ruled by an ethnic minority (the Manchus)• The examination system (although allowing for

some level of social mobility), discouraged creativity and innovation

• The Banner Armies had become corrupt and were ineffective

• The Chinese government was so assured of their dominant position, they did not feel the need to trade

A nineteenth century interpreter from Britain, who knew China well, wrote in 1847:

The apathy with respect to foreign things generally is to a European quite astonishing. Foreign countries have, the Chinese agree, the power to do some great and extraordinary things, but so have the elephants and other wild animals they may come across from time to time...In their eyes we were all barbarians possessing perhaps some good qualities but untutored, coarse and wild. Their exclusion of foreigners and confinement to their own country has, by depriving them of all opportunities of making comparisons, led them to judge everything by rules of purely Chinese convention.

Quoted in Franz Schurmann and Orvill Schell, China, pp. 142-143.

How did the following aspects of the old regime, contribute to its collapse?

• Confucian values• Sense of cultural superiority• The examination system• The banner armies• The reluctance to trade

REASONS FOR CHANGE

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

ATTEMPTS AT GRADUAL CHANGE

REVOLUTIONARY SITUATIONS

Long-term Population explosion

Confucian values Self Strengthening Movement

The Boxer Rebellion

Rapid development/ industrialisation of the West and Japan.

Sense of cultural superiority

Hundred days of reform

Formation of the Tongmenghui

Opium Wars The reluctance to trade

‘New Government’ movement

Wuchang Uprising

Taiping Rebellion The lack of Manchu legitimacy to rule

Railway reform movement

Foreign encroachment

The examination system

Unequal treaties The banner armies

Power struggle: Dowager Empress Cixi and Emperor GuangxuThe Board of Punishment

KEY LEADERS:•Dowager Empress Cixi•Sun Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian)•Yuan Shikai

Your Task

• As a group, create a visual representation showing the interconnected reasons for the fall of the Qing Dynasty in China.

• Draw AND annotate your diagrams showing how each of the factors on the previous slide are linked together.

• There is no one correct way to do this. Don’t be afraid to experiment!