Paul Spring
March 4th, 2005, 03:04 PM
What if China in the 19th century had been ruled by a dynasty of native origin rather than than one of non-Chinese (in this case Manchu) origin?
I get the impression (and I could be wrong, not being an expert on Chinese history) that the Qing or Manchu dynasty faced more popular opposition than most because of its foreign origins. In the 17th century they had to fight continuing resistance, especially in southern China. In the 18th century, there were a series of rebellions, most of which were relatively localised, but many of them had a sort of nativist, anti-foreign aspect to them. In the 19the century, the Manchu faced both European incursions and a rising tide of rebellions, with the Taiping rebellion being by far the worst of them.
Would a native dyasty have fared better? Would they have faced less internal dissent? Would they have been in a much better position to rally the general population to resist foreign incursion? It was difficult and awkward for a Manchu elite to rally people with cries of "drive out the foreigners!" when they knew that in spite of much acculturation they were still considered foreigners by most Chinese.
I get the impression (and I could be wrong, not being an expert on Chinese history) that the Qing or Manchu dynasty faced more popular opposition than most because of its foreign origins. In the 17th century they had to fight continuing resistance, especially in southern China. In the 18th century, there were a series of rebellions, most of which were relatively localised, but many of them had a sort of nativist, anti-foreign aspect to them. In the 19the century, the Manchu faced both European incursions and a rising tide of rebellions, with the Taiping rebellion being by far the worst of them.
Would a native dyasty have fared better? Would they have faced less internal dissent? Would they have been in a much better position to rally the general population to resist foreign incursion? It was difficult and awkward for a Manchu elite to rally people with cries of "drive out the foreigners!" when they knew that in spite of much acculturation they were still considered foreigners by most Chinese.