Qing Empire / QING

The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Northeastern China, historically known as Manchuria. In the late sixteenth century, Nurhachi, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Jurchen clans into “Banners,” military-social units and forming a Manchu people. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of southern Manchuria and declared a new dynasty, the Qing. In 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital Beijing. Rather than serve them, Ming general Wu Sangui made an alliance with the Manchus and opened the Shanhai Pass to the Banner Armies led by Prince Dorgon, who defeated the rebels and seized Beijing. The conquest of China proper was not completed until 1683 under the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722). The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia. While the early rulers maintained Manchu culture, they governed using Confucian styles and institutions of bureaucratic government. They retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work in parallel with Manchus. They also adopted the ideals of the tributary system in international relations.

The reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1735–1796) saw the apogee and initial decline of prosperity and imperial control. Population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, virtually guaranteeing eventual fiscal crisis. Corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed “unequal treaties,” free trade, extraterritoriality and treaty ports under foreign control. The Taiping Rebellion (1849–1860) and Muslim uprisings in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people. In spite of these disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order and the Qing rulers. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea and the possession of Taiwan. New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by the Empress Dowager Cixi, a ruthless but capable leader. When, in response to the violently anti-foreign Yihetuan (“Boxers”), foreign powers invaded China, the Empress Dowager declared war on them, leading to disastrous defeat.

The government then initiated unprecedented fiscal and administrative reforms, including elections, a new legal code, and abolition of the examination system. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformers such as Liang Qichao and monarchists such as Kang Youwei to transform the Qing empire into a modern nation. After the death of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. Local uprisings starting on October 11, 1911 led to the 1911 Revolution. The last emperor abdicated on February 12, 1912.

In the 29th century, a lone man stumbled upon the ruins of what was once the Qing tombs. There he found an inscription informing him that he was to resurrect the Qing Empire from the ashes of abdication. Because the inscription was in the now extinct Chinese language, he was surprised that he could comprehend it. He took this as a sign that great things were to come, and set out to build an empire that will stand the test of time.