The Ch’ing Dynasty was the first set of
foreign rulers to oversee China since the Yuan overlords under Genghis Khan.
Under Nurhaci, himself divinely born according to legend, the Manchu Invasion
was a completely calculated takeover using opportunity and a cool sense of
timing to win the day – and the Dragon
Throne. The Manchus were a stoic group, hard to read but swift to act once
they had made up their minds. Once they had overtaken the north of the country
they assumed control and wasted no further direct effort upon the southern
states: they set out to accomplish the most with the least effort and in this
they were completely successful.
The founder of the Manchu tribe was
Nurhaci, sometimes called ‘the Divine’. Legend states that he was the product
of virgin birth: whilst out walking, his mother was visited by an eagle that
rested on her shoulder before flying away. She later discovered herself to be
pregnant and Nurhaci was the result. Nurhaci was born in 1558 and began life as
a foot-soldier in the army of a Jurchen chieftain. He learnt Chinese, rose in
rank, organised the Manchu style of writing, then rebelled and crushed the
other Jurchen chiefs, becoming the Khan of the Manchu peoples in 1616. Before
his death in 1626 he had organised the royal household into the Eight Banner
Houses from which imperial leaders could be drawn. His efforts set the Manchu
peoples well on the way for the domination of China, as outlined in his most
well-known literary work, The Seven Great
Vexations, a vituperative attack upon the Ming Dynasty.
The reign of the Manchus lasted from 1644
to 1911 with the abdication of
the infant Emperor, Pu Yi. Although able to capture Peking in 1644, it took a
further 17 years of slow attrition to consolidate the rest of China under
Manchu rule. The Manchu originated from the native Jurchen peoples of Manchuria
and this, to the eyes of the indigenous Chinese, made them foreigners and
aliens. Throughout the dynasty’s reign, the Manchu rulers were particularly
sensitive to this notion and dealt ruthlessly with anyone who implied the
non-Chinese status of the Imperial household.
Under Manchu rule, all males within the
country were required to adopt the queue, or pigtail. This was a Manchu
affectation which was (correctly) interpreted as an act of submission. Removal
of the queue could be punishable by immediate execution. This edict, The Queue Order, carried the following
slogan: “To keep the hair, you lose the
head; to keep your head, you cut the hair”. Many terrible riots resulted
from resistance to this rule and the punitive efforts of the Manchus to quell
these uprisings cost many hundreds of thousands of lives. Along with this
imposition was a ban on the marriage of Manchu people with those of Han
descent: Han women traditionally bound their feet whilst Manchu women were
spared this indignity and any attempt to circumvent this restriction would be
immediately obvious.
Although socially, the impact of the
Manchu Domination was overly harsh on the people of China, the Dynasty resulted
in one of the longest rules, under the K’angshi Emperor, a reign lasting 61
years in which relative peace and stability were the hallmarks. Coins from this
era are considered especially auspicious for the working of Taoist magic, as
they represent a full 60-year turning of the Chinese astrological cycle.
Unfortunately the latter part of the
Manchu reign was nowhere near as successful as its inception: the Manchu
Emperors became indolent and corrupt while the country became militarily weak
and seriously antiquated as the Nineteenth Century swept over the land.
Ultimately the Manchus, the Pride of the Divine Nurhaci, were unable to hold
onto their hard-won gains.
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