Causes of the Chinese Revolution

Learning Intentions

  • Objective: To investigate the characteristics of Imperial China and discuss how these constituted a long-term cause of the revolution.
    • Success Criteria:
      • Identify the characteristics of Imperial China.
      • Explain how these characteristics represented a challenge to the ruling dynasty.

Events, Ideas, Individuals, and Movements

  • Events
    • Challenges to the early Republican era.
    • The First United Front.
    • The Northern Expedition.
    • The Shanghai Massacre.
    • The Jiangxi Soviet (Kiangsi Soviet).
    • The Nationalist Decade.
    • The Long March.
    • The Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the Sino-Japanese War.
    • The Yan'an Soviet (Yenan).
    • The Xian Incident and Second United Front.
    • The Civil War.
  • Ideas
    • Sun Yixian’s (Sun Yat-sen’s) ‘Three Principles of the People’.
    • The New Culture Movement.
    • Mao Zedong Thought (Maoism).
  • Individuals
    • Yuan Shikai (Yuan Shih-k’ai).
    • Sun Yixian (Sun Yat-sen).
    • Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek).
    • Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung).
  • Movements
    • The New Culture and the May Fourth Movements.
    • The New Life Movement.
    • The Red Army.
    • The Guomindang (Kuomintang).
    • The Chinese Communist Party.

Timeline of Key Events

  • 1898 July: The 100 Day Reform
  • 1898 October: The Boxer Rebellion
  • 1912 January 1: Republic of China Declared - Sun President
  • 1912 February 12: Pu Yi Abdicates
  • 1912 February 14: Sun Yixian resigns for Yuan Shikai (March 10)
  • 1912 August: Nationalists Officially Become the Guomindang
  • 1914 January: Yuan accepts the 21 Demands
  • 1914 December 12: Yuan Shikai proclaims himself Emperor of China
  • 1916-27: The Warlord Era - China is divided - no effective national government
  • 1919: Paris Peace Conference, - decide to transfer German interests to Japan
  • 1919 May 4: The May Fourth Movement
  • 1921 July 1: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is formed
  • 1924-27: The First United Front: The GMD and CCP work together to unite China
  • 1925 March 12: Sun Yixian dies of cancer in Beijing Jiang Jieshi and Wang Jingwei.
  • 1926 July: The Northern Expedition
  • 1927: Shanghai massacre followed by the encirclement campaigns - 1934
  • 1931 September 18: Japan invades northern China (Manchuria)
  • 1931 November: The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed in Jiangxi Mao Zedong
  • 1934: The New Life Movement
  • 1934-1935: The Long March
  • 1936-1948: The Yanan Soviet
  • 1937-45: The Sino-Japanese War and the Second United Front
  • 1937-38 December 13-January: The 'Rape of Nanjing'
  • 1938: Nationalist soldiers blow up dykes alone the Yellow River
  • 1942: Mao Zedong initiates rectification campaigns in CCP-controlled regions
  • 1945 June: The CCP endorses 'Mao Zedong Thought' as the party's guiding ideology
  • 1945 September 2: Japanese forces and China sign the instruments of surrender
  • 1946 June: The Nationalist-CCP truce collapses - the post-WWII civil war commences
  • 1949 October 1st: Mao Zedong proclaims the formation of the PRC
  • 1916 June 6: Yuan Dies and the Warlord Era Commences

Pronunciations

  • Qing (q=ch)
  • Cao Rulin (c=ts)
  • Xi'an (x=sh)

Spelling: Pinyin and Wade-Giles

  • Different spellings of Chinese names exist in textbooks and sources.
  • Until around 1979, most Chinese terms were transliterated using the Wade-Giles system.
  • Since then, Pinyin has become the most popular method.
  • Examples:
    • Mao Zedong (Pinyin) and Mao Tse-Tung (Wade-Giles)
    • Jiang Jieshi (Pinyin) and Chiang Kai-Shek (Wade-Giles)
    • Guomindang (Pinyin) and Kuomintang (Wade-Giles)
  • Textbooks use the Pinyin (with Wade-Giles in brackets for the first use).

Imperial China: A Sleeping Giant

  • Key Questions:
    1. What were the distinct characteristics of Imperial China in 1900?
    2. How did these characteristics and cultural history cause challenges for the ruling regime towards the beginning of the twentieth century?

The Beginning

  • Ruled for centuries in splendid isolation by a series of Imperial dynasties, China entered the twentieth century with revolution in the air.
  • The Qing Dynasty was suffering from humiliating defeats to foreign powers, growing nationalist movements and an inability to introduce reform.
  • An ill-fated attempt at pushing out ‘foreign devils’ began the slow, inexorable drift to revolution and the end of the empire.

Distinctive Characteristics of Qing Imperial China

The Land

  • Area: 9.6m Kilometres9.6 \text{m Kilometres}
  • Diverse geography and climate.
  • North-west is dry and cold.
  • Southern regions are temperate.
  • Mountainous, with only 15-20% of land suitable for farming.

Beliefs: Confucianism

  • Confucius (551–479 BC) was a Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher.
  • Not really a religious figure, instead focusing his ideas on the world rather than distant gods.
  • His teachings advocated living a harmonious life with nature.
  • Confucius believed in a hierarchical social structure, respecting those above you.
  • These ideas of harmony and respect at the center of Confucianism contributed to the conservative nature of Chinese society.

Emperors and the Mandate of Heaven

  • In imperial China, the Emperor was the ruler who commanded total obedience from his subjects.
  • It was a hereditary rule, with power bestowed via a mandate of heaven.
  • The mandate of heaven allowed the emperor to claim authority, similar to divine right bestowed on kings.
  • The term ‘heaven’ is different, better explained as a force that causes and justifies change (think fate instead).
  • This allowed for justification when there was a change of ruler or dynasty.
  • It also meant, in theory, that a person from any class of society could be Emperor.
  • However, it also held rulers as accountable to the Chinese people. “He who succeeds is a king or marquis; he who fails is an outlaw” (Chinese proverb).

The People: Society

  • Around 80% of population peasants.
  • Confucian social structure central to how different groups interacted.
  • Social outcasts at the bottom.
  • Merchants low too as made money from the craft of others.
  • Soldiers were also a lower class as killed people. Normally soldiers were poor or conscripted.

People: Diversity

  • China was (and still is) divided into provinces, each with their own government and varying degrees of autonomy from the empire.
  • In addition, there were many different ethnic groups with their own dialects.
  • At the beginning of the 20th century the four main ethnic groups were:
    • Han (largest, forming 90% of the population)
    • Manchu
    • Mongol
    • Tibetan
  • Manchuria, where the Manchu dynasty came from, originally lay outside of China. There rule was seen by some as the rule of foreign invaders.

People: Mandarins and Shenshi

  • The dominant social class in Chinese society, shenshi were scholars trained in Confucian teachings.
  • Had to pass rigorous exams.
  • Occupied jobs in government and the civil service.
  • Those who passed higher exams were known as mandarin.
  • Technically, it was a meritocracy (based on ability rather than birth), however by the 1800s wealthy people could buy examination ranks.
  • Additionally, their privileged position contributed to the conservatism of Chinese society. They had no desire to make change that would affect their privileges.

People: Peasants

  • Peasants were a respected class in imperial China as they were successful growers of food who took pride in their farms.
  • Massive population growth during the Qing dynasty (200m in 1700 to 430m in 1850) forced peasants to give up land which was increasingly owned by wealthy landowners.
  • Peasant life was hard, working long hours of backbreaking work and living in simple dwellings. Average life-expectancy in late imperial China was only 25.

People: Women

  • Imperial China was a patriarchal society, where women were the lowest social class.
  • They could not hold official government positions.
  • Women had few legal or voting rights.
  • Because of their low status, females were sometimes killed by their families, and during times of hardship would often be neglected causing death.
  • The custom of foot binding required women to wrap their feet in bandages, to make their feet appear smaller (which was seen as attractive).
  • This deformed their feet, causing chronic pain. “…the stench of compressed flesh was appalling.” (China Rising, p. 32).
  • Were married off at a young age. Families had to pay a dowry when their daughters were married.
  • They could not divorce, whilst men were able to take second or third wives or concubines.
  • They received little in the way of formal education; women were schooled enough to read Confucian texts that reinforced their lowly position in society.

Empress Dowager Cixi (Tzu-hsi)

  • The most powerful person in the last years of the Qing dynasty.
  • Concubine of Emperor Xianfeng. She gave birth to his only son, Zaichun when she was 20.
  • When the Emperor died in 1861, young Zaichun became emperor Tongzhi at the age of five.
  • From here on, Cixi used her political skills to maneuver herself into a position of power.
  • When Emperor Tongzhi died, Cixi appointed her nephew, Guangxu to the throne.

Questions

  1. What are some of the social tensions in late imperial China?
  2. How might these have led to calls for change?
  3. How would you describe or characterize Imperial China?
  4. What problems can you see?

Summary

  • China was a vast, geographically, ethnically and socially diverse nation.
    • Different terrain and climate
    • Many different ethnicities and language spoken
  • Confucianism and the Mandate of Heaven were unifying elements that held the disparate components together
  • Socially, China was a hierarchical and conservative society. The vast majority of the population were peasants.
  • The ruling dynasty were the Qing from Manchuria led by the Empress Dowager Cixi.