CHIN 50 Final - Prof. David Schaberg

Tang Taizong 

Tang Taizong 

• Son of li yuan, regarded as a co-founder of the Tang Dynasty

• Second emperor of the Tang Dynasty 

• Just as brutal as Wendi, killed 2 brothers and murdered all nephews

• Forced his dad to abdicate

• Wise and conscientious ruler, selected good advisors, and listened to them even about his behavior

Empress Wu/Wu Zetian 

• Ruthless and politically sharp as Taizong and Wendi

• Initially a concubine of Taizong, but became one of his sons Gaozong

• Was able to manipulate Gaozong into ousting the Empress and other consorts

• Ruled behind the scenes of Gaozong until his death

• She reigned through her sons and eventually dispose of both

• Then declared herself emperor of the Zhou dynasty

• Promoted Buddhism as a way to legitimize her reign

• Historical accounts of her brutal, maybe

• Very strong hold on the government 

Tang Xuanzong

• Grandson of Empress Wu ended the dominance of his fathers' wife and sister in court

• His court became high point of focal culture

• Up regulation of state rituals

• Welcomed religions into his court

• New academy for poets

• Troupe of dancing horses

• Curbed power of imperial relatives and buddhist monasteries (Wu helped them)

• Ordered new census and reformed equal fields system to be more equitable

• Established military provinces for defence

• Many consorts and kids, fell in love with Yang Guifei

• Killed Yang Guifei and then abdicated to his son

Yang Guifei 

• Consort of Tang Xuanzong

• Not politically smart

• “Amused” by the company of An Lushan and so Xuangzong showered him with favors

  • Allowed him to amass 160k troops along the northern borders and then he rebelled in 755 and marched on Louynad and Changan

  • Xuanzong fled and his soldiers made him kill Yang      

Xuanzang

• A Buddhist monk who passed through Turfan on his trip to India

• 15 year long journey

• Emperor Taizong was very interested in his travels across Central asia + India (inspired later stories of the journey to the west) 

Tang and Turks

• Turks became a major power in the inner asian frontier

• Developed own writing system 

• Had history of getting drawn into chinese conflicts

• THeir succession didn't follow fixed rules so dynasties were short

• Tang pursued weddings and military and trade alliances with the Turks

  • Had some of them fight other turks

• Tang and Turks fought the Kitan

• Tang and turks also fought each

• Both explored the Silk Road

Tang and Uyghurs 

• After the Tang pulled back from Inner East Asia and Tibet during An Lushan Rebellion

  • Uyghurs temporarily held onto this region

• Helped Tang with the An Lushan rebellion but were given very good trade offers and money

  • Horses for silk

Tang and Tibetans 

• Growing state during the Tang Dynasty

• Tibet over took Turfan from the Tang and held onto it due to An Lushan Rebellion

• 1 of many secondary states that have adopted some Chinese techniques of Rule

Tang and Korean states Goguryeo and Silla 

• Tang attacked the state of Goguryeo with the help of the Korean state of Silla

• Goguryeo was defeated but Silla go the territory 

• Silla would become a strong Tang Ally

Arab Merchants 

• Dominated much of the Indian Ocean and Southern Asian maritime trade

• Traded between China and the rest of Asia

• Helped in growing southern port cities like Fuzhou, Quanzou, and Guangzhou

Chang’an as a City 

• Capital of Tang dynasty

• Major trade hub and terminus of the Silk Roads

• Religious center

• Continued to thrive as an urban centre in the post rebellion era

• Cultural exchange center, cosmopolitan

• Planned city laid out in a grid

• Palace in north so he could face out to his subjects who resided in 108 wards

An Lushan Rebellion

• Military commander

• Half Turk

• Amassed 160k rebellion in the northern frontier provinces with the blessing of emperor Xuanzong

• Marched on Chang’an

• Last 8 years and killed over 13 million people

• Wanted to overthrow the dynasty and seize control

Tang Short Stories

• Influenced by Empress Wu and Yang Guifei

• Fictional women played a massive role in shaping understanding of male-female relationships

• Written in classical language 

  • What makes men and women attractive to each other

  • Differing ways they expressed their love

  • Proclivities for devotion or callousness

Civil Service Examination System in Tang

• Empress wu was given credit for elevating Civil Service examination system 

• 2 Tests

  • Mingjing (illuminated the classics) exam required extensive memorization

  • Jinshi (presented scholar) exam required the ability to compose formal styles of poetry and write essays on political issues, and in time it became most prestigious

  • New system expensed opportunities for highly talented men from unconnected families

  • System still allowed for the prestige of aristocratic family lineages.

    • New reforms did not put an end to all prominence of men from elite families 

Salt Commission 

• Government raised lots of revenue through its control of production and distribution of salt 

  • Salt monopoly accounted for more than half of the government revenue

• Salt commission was by finance officials and over looked the tax

Silk Road

• Tang had military might to garrison silk road and keep it open for trade

• Ended at the capital of the Tang dynasty, Chang an

• Created more cultural exchange

Mulian

• Buddhist tale of a Mulian who journeys to netherworld to save his mom from being tortured

• Became so popular that a ghost festival was helped on the 15th day of 7th month for buddhist and non alike

• Put food out to feed hungry ghosts, give adoration

• Monasteries create unusual candles, cakes, and fake flowers

Du You

• Severed in several governmental post

• Submitted an enormous history of chinese institutions (his Tongdian) to the throne

  • Can be read as a plea for an activist approach for his modern day problems

    • Governmental reform

• Believed that the basis for organization of the government depended on food and money, basis of people livelihood and gov revenue not rituals

  • Taxation 

• Believed in well designed governmental control

• Said the prefecture and county system of Tang and Han was better than feudal system of the Zhou

Han Yu

• Younger contemporary of Du You

• Saw the issues with china in more cultural and moral terms

• Reaffirmed confucian classics as a basis for education and good writing

  • Wanted it promoted in simpler styles based on the ideas of clarity, consciseness, and utility

• Also saw weakness in the central gov but believed than revitalization of confucianism would fix

• Really didnt like buddhism and daoism, blamed them, wanted books burned

• Way of the sages

  • Go back to the basics of confucian before other religions messed up tuff

Huang Chao

• A salt merchant who went on to lead the most successful bandit gang

  • His army eventually took Guangzhou and Chang’an

  • Set up a new government

  • Sacked Luoyang

• economic suffering, local corruption, and discontent with the government’s inability to protect citizens

• Basically helped start off the beginning the 5 dynasties and ten kingdoms period that happened 20 years after this

• Tang fell apart during his rebellion

Zhao Kuangyin/Song Taizu

• General during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (Northeen Zhou)

• Defeated most rivals

• First emperor of the Song

  • Elevated to position by troops bc they didnt wanna follow kid emperor

• Ended military rule

  • Had his commanders retire - wanted to prevent the rise of strongmen

  • Replaced military gov with civilian ones

  • Kept best soldiers at his side

  • Put army under civilian control

• Created prefectures - appointed intendants to supervise

Sima Guang

• Historian who denounced Wang Anshi

• Served as a prime minister

• Wrote a narrative history of china covering more than 1300 years from late Zhou to Song in 960

• Social harmony depended on individual moral action

  • Men and women needed to identify with interests of the family

    • Women should have no desire for property, jealousy, like anything fun or being happy, just serve the dudes

Su Shi/Su Dongpo 

• Poet and painter

  • Incredibly famous

• Outspoken policy critic who also opposed Wang

• Exiled twice 

  • Wrote really good poems of places he were

• Upheld confucian ideals of public service

Gunpowder

• Military engineers discovered that gunpowder could be used as a propellent

  • Allowing it to be used in guns and cannons, not just grenades

• Pressures form northern neighbors spurred technological advancement

• End of the song, they developed true guns

Paper Money

• Demand for money increased as trade did

  • Expansion of rice cultivation in south and central china lead to a population boon

• Tons of coins were being minted in response

  • Some of these coins were made of iron which made them way too heavy

• Wanting to avoid carrying massive amounts of coins, merchants began trading receipts at deposit stores

  • Song took this over, creating 1st government issues paper money

    • Could be traded for silver

• Allowed for better organization of trade

Su Song

• Successful official, served in several high position

• Published 5 maps of stars

• Lead a team compiled Material medica

• Created a massive astronomical clock when he saw that Liao and Song calendars different - hydro-mechanical clock tower

  • Told the time with signs

Shen Gua

• Discussed about paintings, poetry, music, history, divination, Buddhism

• Traveled across china

• Technologically savvy

  • Designing drainage and enablement systems that reclaimed land for farming

  • Served as a financial expert

  • Headed bureau of Astronomy

  • Supervised military defense

• Contemporary of Su Song

• Sun and moon not flat

• Thought about magnetic compass

• Moon doesn't glow

• Solar calendar

Song Huizong

• Son of emperor Shenzong

• Most cultivated Song emperor

  • Talented painter and calligrapher

  • Used court budget to build up imerial art collections

• Passionate about Daoism

  • Used resources to promote 

• Abdicated when Jurchens marched on Kaifeng

• Eventually taken captive with his son by Jurchens

Yue Fei

• One guy who didn't want to appease the Jin (The jurchen dynasty)

• Looked at as a hero - retook jurchen land

• General who tried to retake the north

  • Made it to Luoyang area but was called back and killed

Siege of Xiangyang

• Gunpowder was used to defend against Mongols

• The city was under siege by the Mongols

  • Built a river fleet

  • Lasted 5 years

• Mongols used all races of people they had conquered as experts in naval and siege warfare

  • Muslim artery barrages 

• Diverse army that included engineers, siege specialists, and troops

• Mongols won

Wen Tianxiang

• Continued fighting the mongols even after Empress dowager Xie surrender (she surrendered to spare the people of the capital)

• Literati-turned general, gave everything to the cause

  • Fought even after there was no chance of winning him

• Was captured and refused to serve Yuan government, executed

Civil Service Examination System in Song

• Dominated the lives of the elite and confucianism was reinvigorated

• Promoted test in confucian classics, history, poetry, and books

• Scholar official class that was certified through competitive literary exams

  • Called themselves shi or shidafu

    • Scholar official name

• New elite social class

• Played central role in fashioning of new elite in song

  • Occurred because the song didn't want government dominated by military 

• Efforts made to make sure it was unbiased 

• Massive increase in number of exam takers

  • Very competitive for little post/jobs

• Offered better chance to rise to high level positions

Li Qingzhao

• Famous female poet

  • “China's greatest female poet”

• More women were taught to read and write due to the expansion of the educated class and printing

• Legal claims to property were strengthened for women at this time

Foot Binding

• Tradition that appeared around Song dynasty

• One of several traditions that were detrimental to women

  • Female modesty became more strict

    • Women vieling faces and riding in curtained transport

• Originally practice began with dancer but then spread to upper class homes

  • Moms started doing it to their daughters at like ⅚

    • Tiny feet were considered to enhance a woman's beauty and make her more desirable

“Han” as term for Chinese people

• Originally used for Northern dynasties to describe Chinese subjects

• Chinese literati started using this term more frequently

• Regardless of what dynasty is controlling where, still settled by Han people so its still part of “China”

  • Ethnic and national consciousness

    • Ideas were in contention with Confusian universal claims

      • Son of heaven having power to attract barbarians and reform them

        • Lots of xenophobia around now

          • Jurchens and Mongols

Cheng Hao + Cheng Yi

• Two brothers

• Developed metaphysical theories about working of cosmos

  • Li: principle, pattern, coherence

    • Could be moral or physical in nature

    • Everyone has good Li

  • Qi: Vital energies, material force, psychophysical stuff

    • The energy and substance that makes up things

    • People could have less impure Qi accounting for bad behavior

    • Sages had perfect Qi

  • These theories allowed song philosophers to accept Menicus theory of innate good ness and still explain bad behavior

Neo-Confucianism

• Revival of confucian philosophy that emerged during Song

  • Incorporated elements of buddhism (meditation) and daoism 

  • More comprehensive ethical and social system

  • Self cultivation and achieving harmony via proper social roles and moral conduct

Zhu Xi

• Greatest Southern Song Confucian scholars

  • Very learned in classics and teachings of his predecessors

  • Served several terms in office

  • Instilled Neo-Confucianism

• Follower of Cheng brothers

• Played a role in developing institutional basis of a revived confucianism

  • Establishing academies 

• Instructed common people through his writings and posting notices

• His teachings were criticized saying they were “spurious learning”

  • Outspoken nature and his rigid stance against corruption which upset some inthe government and elites

• People did not support his ways and barred from exam unless they denied his faith

• Lots of support for them after his death

Four Books

The Analects, Mencius, Doctrine of the Mean, and Great Learning

Hong Mai

• Wrote Record of the Listener (documentation of local religion)

  • Heard from locals and those around him

  • Good and bad things can come from gods and spirits not only including buddhism and daoism

    • Gods and and demons 

  • The book showed women in independent light

    • Running inns

    • Being part of commerce, trade, and outside society

    • Workers

    • Not confined to the home

    • Central figure in the home, child rearing

Landscape painting

• Painting on walls and on portable paper/silk

• Renowned as the greatest glory of chinese art

  • Mountains: Sacred, homes of immortals, close to heaven

• Style grew due with philosophical interest in nature

  • Daoism

    • Humans are small in the great cosmos

Advancement in Knowledge (Song)

• Math to navigate, weapons, medicine, archaeology, astronomy

• Medicine

• Hydraulic clock

Khitans (Liao)

• Established Khitan Liao Dynasty (existed at the same time as Xi Xia Dynasty)

• Mongolic people from the steppes

• Traded with Tang Dynasty

• Adopted Buddhism

Abaoji

• United ten tribes Khitan tribes into federation, and proclaimed the Liao Dynasty

• Built a walled capital in Inner Mongolia

• Established the Dual Governance system

Tanguts (Xi Xia)

• Tibetan-related ethnic group from Northwest China

• Established Xi Xia Dynasty (existed at the same time as Liao Dynasty)

• Developed their own writing system

• Chieftain was given title of “Duke of Xia”

Kaifeng

• City occupied by Khitan armies in 947

• Was the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty

• Became the capital of the Jin Dynasty

Jurchens (Jin)

• Manchurian tribal people

• Established Jin Dynasty after the Liao Dynasty was beat

• Used Dual Governance

• Captured Kaifeng, leading to fall of Northern Song

Mongols (Yuan)

• Nomadic people from now Mongolia

• United under Genghis Khan in early 13th Century

• Built Mongol Empire, largest empire ever

• Promoted trade on the Silk Road

Dual Governance

• Khitan and Chinese governing system

• North was ruled in traditional steppe governance

• South was ruled in Chinese-style governance

Chinggis/Genghis Khan

• Founder of Mongol Empire/Yuan Dynasty, the largest empire to ever exist

• Promoted Silk Road trade and religious tolerance

Mongol Empire

• The largest empire to ever exist

• Promoted Silk Road trade and religious tolerance

• Split into four khanates (regions) after Genghis Khan’s Death

• Declined from fragmentation and overexpansion

Ogödei Khan

• Third son of Genghis Khan

• Secured the victory over the Jurchens’ Jin Dynasty, securing North China

• Expanded the empire even further, like into Europe

• Built Karakorum, the Mongol Capital

Yelü Chucai

• Khitan statesman and Confucian scholar and principal adviser to Genghis Khan and Ogödei Khan

• Bridged cultural gaps between Mongols and Chinese

• Helped preserve conquered populations by taxing them and not killing them

Khublai Khan

• Grandson of Genghis Khan

• He took over the Southern Song and established the Yuan Dynasty

• Established a capital at Dadu (modern Beijing)

Zhong Kui

• Mythological figure in Chinese folklore who protected against evil

• A scholar who passed the civil service exam, but was rejected by the emperor and killed himself, which is where the myth began.

Zhao Mengfu

• Scholar, painter, and poet during Yuan Dynasty

• He helped the Mongol rulers conserve and integrate Chinese culture

• Revived classical styles of painting and calligraphy from Song and Tang Dynasties

William of Rubruck

• Franciscan monk and European missionary who went to the Mongol Empire

• Sent by King Louis IX of France to spread Christianity via the Silk Road

Marco Polo

• Venetian merchant and writer who traveled to Yuan Dynasty China and documented his experiences

• Served Kublai Khan as an envoy

• Recorded his experiences in China, and shared them in Europe

• Brought Chinese technology to Europe, like gunpowder, the compass, and printing

Yuan Dynasty Drama

• Drama became a powerful medium for expressing cultural identity and social criticism for the Chinese

• Famous Playwright: Guan Hanqing - “The Injustice of Dou E”

Zhu Yuanzhang/Ming Taizu/Hongwu

• Founded Ming Dynasty by leading the Red Turban Army

• Strong centralized government-

• Made Nanjing the capital, and put massive walls around it

• Restored Civil Service Exam and Confucian education

• Gave land to peasants

Yongle Emperor/Chengzu

• Third emperor of the Ming Dynasty

• Moved capital to Beijing from Nanjing

• Strengthened Civil Service Exam

• Sponsored Zheng He’s voyages

• Secured northern borders

Eunuchs in Ming

• Men with no balls who served in the imperial court

• Had a lot of power in the imperial court, often competing with scholar-officals of the outer court

• Helped Emperor centralize power

Hideyoshi

• Japanese daimyo/samurai who unified Japan during Sengoku Period

• Launched invasions at Joseon Korea while passing by to attack the Ming

• Ming China and Korea teamed up to beat Hideyoshi and his army

Great Wall (Ming)

To keep the Mongols away, the Ming reconstructed and expanded the Great Wall

Wang Yangming

• Confucian scholar and philosopher who developed the School of Mind within Neo Confucianism

• His philosophy:

  • Everyone has an innate moral compass

  • Moral insight must lead to moral behaviour

  • Introspection and self awareness

Silver in Ming

• Paper money was abandoned in the Ming dynasty due to inflation.

• Single whip reform - taxes musch be paid in only silver

• China didn’t produce enough silver, so it was imported

• Led to market growth, and linked China to global economy

Civil service examinations in Ming

• Restored after Yuan Dynasty

• Focused on the Confucian Classics (Four Books and Five Classics)

• Had to master the Eight-Legged Essay

Eight-Legged Essay

Formal essay with eight components that was required on the Civil Service Exam

Chaste Widows

• Widows in Ming Dynasty that stuck to Confucian ideals

• Remarriage was shamed

• Reinforced gender inequality

Li Zhi

• Ming scholar who challenged Confucian orthodoxy

• His philosophy:

  • Childlike mind - state of pure thought and emotion, free from social influence

  • Criticized female inferiority

  • Sincere, humble life is better

Tang Xianzu

• Ming playwright and dramatist who made:

  • The Peony Pavilion

  • Four Dreams of Linchuan

• He also reformed Kunqu Opera

Feng Menglong

• Ming writer and scholar who contributed to vernacular Chinese literature. 

• Made entertainment and literature in vernacular Chinese due to growing middle class

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Zhi)

• Historical novel by Luo Guanzhong about the Three Kingdoms Period during the Ming Dynasty

• One of China’s Four Great Classical Novels

Journey to the West (Xiyou Ji)

• Ming Dynasty novel by We Cheng’en

• One of China’s Four Great Classical Novels

• Inspired by Tang Xuansang’s pilgrimage to India

Plum in the Golden Vase (Jinpingmei)

Late Ming Novel

Water Margin (Bandits of the Marsh/Shuihu Zhuan)

• Ming Dynasty Novel by Shi Nai’an about 108 outlaws becoming heroes

• One of China’s Four Great Classical Novels

“Community Compacts”

• Local self-governance agreements introduced during the Ming

• Confucian values were upheld and neighbors looked after each other

  • Filial piety, loyalty, and neighborly respect

Zheng He

• Ming Chinese admiral, explorer, and diplomat who led seven major maritime expeditions sponsored by Yongle Emperor

• Strengthened diplomatic ties and expanded Chinese influence, spreading China’s prestiege across Asia and Africa

Matteo Ricci

• Italian Jesuit missionary who helped introduce Christianity and Western Science to Ming China

• Presented Christianity in a way that aligned with Confucianism and the Chinese values

• Learned Chinese

Jingdezhen

• Became China’s Porcelain Capital and made really good porcelain

  • The “fine china” you think about comes from here, the blue and white ones

• Became major in global luxury market

Manchu

• Nomadic people from Manchuria (NE China) who founded Qing Dynasty

• Descendants of the Jurchens

• United under Nurhaci and took advantage of Ming decline to establish the Qing

Kangxi

• Fourth emperor of Qing Dynasty who brought stabilized the empire

• Brought Taiwan to Qing rule

• Promoted Confucianism and supported Jesuit missionaries and trade

• Said Christian converts were cool as long as they could continue ancestral rites

  • Later revoked when the Vatican sent Maillard who said it was religious so they couldn’t worship ancestors

Yongzheng

• Fifth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, son of Kangxi Emperor

• Reformed the tax system and introduced the Silver Meltage Fee to standardize taxes

Qianlong

• Sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, fourth son of Yongzheng Emperor

• Benefitted from father’s fiscal reform, gov’t ran surplus throughout reign

• Familiarize himself with languages of those he ruled over, fluent in Mongolian

• Lamaist Buddhist, tried to be a sage emperor, concerned with conserving Manchu culture

• Called entire domain ‘China’ in contrast with previous usage referring to only Han Chinese

• Quick and forceful put-downs of anti-Manchu activity

Nurhaci

• Founder of the Manchu state (achieved over 30 year period)

• Created new phonetic Manchu script based on Mongolian

• Inventor of the banner system

• Established the Later Jin dynasty

• Attacked Ming territory in Liaodong area

Wu Sangui

• Ming general who defected to Qing in 1644

• Worked with Qing to cross the Great Wall, defeat Chinese rebels, rid north China of bandits

• Hunted down last Ming pretender in Burma, 1662, he and 2 other generals awarded large nearly autonomous domains in South China

• Kangxi emperor provoked them into the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories (1673-81), suppressed so Qing can take control of all of China proper

Massacre at Yangzhou

Part of Manchu takeover of south China, thousands slaughtered

Queue (the hairstyle)

• Manchu hairstyle that all men were forced to wear after 1645, punishment otherwise was execution

• Clapped Ass Hairstyle

Ming Loyalists

• Huang Zongxi studied flaws in imperial institution after 1649

• Gu Yanwu helped defend his city, then travelled across north China analyzing economic issues often overlooked by Confucian scholars

• Wang Fuzhi: Confucian scholar, argued distinction between Chinese and barbarians was as strong as that between superior and petty men

Banner System

• Military unit that included soldiers, their families, and supporting members (artisans, farmers)

• Military foundation for the Qing conquest

• Like belonging to a hereditary occupational caste, with distinct privileges and a hereditary occupation

• Lived off stipends, many lived in poverty

Zheng Chenggong/Koxinga

• Pirate/trader, took up Ming cause, attacked and took over Taiwan 1662 driving out Dutch

• Family controlled Taiwan for 20 years

“Evidential” Research

• Close textual analysis of early Confucian texts, trying to separate genuine ancient text from later accretions

• Specialty of wealthy lower Yangzi region who had easy access to academies, private libraries

A Dream of Red Mansions/Story of the Stone (Hongloumeng/Shitouji)

• 120-chapter novel by Cao Xueqin (Chinese author) 

• can be read as a mythic story on Buddhist themes of attachment and enlightenment, a psychologically realistic autobiographical novel, or a novel of manners chronicling the upper reaches of Chinese and Manchu society in the 18th century.

• portrays the affairs of the wealthy, imperially favored Jia family.

• central characters are three adolescent relatives: Jia Baoyu, his two female cousins, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai.

• ends with Baoyu passing the civil service exams and leaving his family to pursue religious goals

• celebrated for sensitive depictions of female characters, including Baoyu’s grandmother, mother, sister, sisters-in-law, and the dozens of maids which shaped notions of the ideal young woman as elegant, sensitive, and delicate

Zhu Da/Bada Shanren

• a Ming imperial clansman (took on persona as Buddhist monk) who refused to co-operate with the Qing

• He was a painter who developed a highly expressionistic style, making the most of sparse, wet strokes

• His paintings of birds, fish, rocks, and mountains evoke a sense of crazy, creative energy that he apparently also conveyed to those who met him as he wandered across China

British East India Company

• Britain’s joint stock company that traded with China 

• Involved in opium wars

Co-hong

• Chinese merchant guild in Guangzhou (Canton) that operated monopoly on trade between China and Europe

• Was abolished by the Treaty of Nanjing

Tea

British treasured getting tea from trade with China and wanted cheaper exchange which was outlined in requests to Qianlong, but it was declined

Opium

• Drug that was imported from Britain during trade

• Was used for medicinal purposes in China, but discovered it could be used as a drug 

• Chinese got addicted to it, government people were unable to fulfill their roles

Lord George Macartney

• 1793: Lord George Macartney (cousin of the king, served as ambassador to Russia & governor of Madras) was sent as an envoy to Qianlong

• His goal was to follow up on Britain’s requests to alter their way of trade w/China (the British wanted to create a market for their goods & get tea cheaper by trading closer to its source in the Yangzi River provinces - also wanted China to deal with other nations through envoys, ambassadors, commercial treaties, and published tariffs, in the way that European nations dealt with each other)

• Didn’t kowtow which was seen as disrespectful 

• his mission failed and his requests were denied, but he did observe how China’s gov’t was ill-prepared for war and other gov’t weaknesses

Heshen

• imperial bodyguard under Qianlong who was promoted to posts normally held by the most experienced officials (controlling revenue, civil service appointments)

• Massive abuses of power

• However, he was corrupt & was executed by his successor 

• Property confiscated amounted to 800mil oz of silver