It's one thing for a modernized country to have corruption and another thing for a backwards one to do the same as well.Corruption in the Qing Dynasty was basically endemic.To successfully modernize,China would first need to be able to protect itself from further foreign depredations.You can't really do that if your entire officer corps' full of corrupt thugs who are more than willing to take their soldiers'/sailors' pay,sell their military equipment or embezzle funds for the maintenance and acquisition of new equipment.As shown in the Sino-Japanese War,corruption and nepotism played a large role in the Qing Dynasty's military defeat(whose armies and navies were lead by Zeng Guofan's proteges and associates).You need to have a resemblance of a strong military force if you are to resist further western encroachments.I think what really needs to be done is to have a strong military force that can resist foreign encroachment and to renegotiate some of the 'unequal treaties',especially terms which fixed tariffs for foreigners at ridiculously low rates.As RousseauX pointed out, corruption is not as big a handicap as it seems when it comes to modernizing. There's also the question on whether some of this might've been mitigated if not under such a weak regime.
Yeah but Zeng had managed to create a stronger alternate center of power that could actually get things done. This is why his "tent government" was able to suppress the rebels while the actual Qing themselves couldn't. In the end, he passed power back to the Qing which only furthered decentralization of power. If he actually went for it and replaced them...well it's not like a general leading a powerful army replacing the weak previous dynasty in unknown in Chinese history...
Furthermore, having a Han Dynasty with a new elite gets rid of some issues specific to being the Qing. No need to rely on ethnic favoritism as one example.
I've heard that Empress Cixi's impediments to reform have been exaggerated. Is this true?
Isn't this what Korea did too?
Privileged foreigners is a crappy issue but it can be worked around. The Ottomans faced the same issue and they managed to make a lot of progress. Probably have to wait until a general European war until the issue can be fully solved though.
One of these things is not like the other...
Scholar, do you think Zheng could have gone for the throne and succeeded?
Darthfanta, I think the problem with the gentry holding too much unofficial power is mitigated when they take actual power. With the cleaning out of the Manchu, Zeng can distribute pork benefits to his supporters. Those same gentry who dislike the government interfering will probably change their tune when they have a chance at more power within the government.
Yes. Thank you! The idea that states don't succeed in "keeping up" because of moral weakness is horribly pernicious even past the 19th century. As is the idea that Japan stagnated for centuries during the Tokugawa Shogunate.
As for the power of Zeng and his associates,after the war,most of the viceroys throughout the empire were either Zeng,his family members,his proteges(e.g. Li Hongzhang) or his associates--who also happened to control the army.