First problem is the Qing themselves. The Qing was considered by many Chinese as usurpers.
The hatred and the corruption of the Manchu government and people entered popular culture in the creation of a new class of mythological creature - the Jiang Shi (simplified Chinese: 僵尸; traditional Chinese: 僵屍 or; pinyin: jiāngshī), which westerners often consider as “Chinese zombies” or “Chinese vampires.” The belief in the Jiang Shi was based in Taoist magicians moving bodies for proper burial, smugglers and kidnappers (of people "shanghaied" to work slave-labor or deportation for work in the west) to hide their nefarious activities, and that Jiang Shi shared many of the Manchu Mandarin’s identifying features; thus, it does not take much to say, "how best to dehumanize the Manchu then compare them to soul-sucking undead".
A daily newspaper in Chang'an (modern day Xi'an) that has been in constant publication since the Mid-Ming Dynasty (one of the world's first daily newspapers) with a readership of between 2 and 5 thousand, was shut down by the Qing government for printing anti-Qing articles (some of them penned by the scholars that took the Imperial Exams, even at the threat of being killed for doing so).
In the broadest sense, an anti-Qing activist was anyone who engaged in anti-Manchu direct action. This included people from many mainstream political movements and uprisings, such as Taiping Rebellion, the Xinhai Revolution (led by Sun Yat-Sen, the founding father of Modern Day China), the Revive China Society, the Tongmenghui, the Panthay Rebellion, White Lotus Rebellion, and others.
Then there are the Tiandihui (Tian-di association / Heaven and Earth Society) which become the origins for the "Triads", who swore to devote themselves to the mission of "fanqing fuming" (simplified Chinese: 反清复明; traditional Chinese: 反清復明; literally: "Overthrow Qing and restore Ming"). Following the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty of China in 1911, the Hongmen suddenly found themselves without purpose. They had managed to miss out on the actual uprising. From then on the Hongmen diverged into various groups. While some other groups based within China, could no longer rely on donations from sympathetic locals; being unable to resume normal civilian lives after years of hiding, they turned to illegal activities - thus giving birth to the modern Triads.
The second probelm is
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...itary-complacency.430233/page-6#post-16063630 Military.
Third problem - the Government needed reform. The exam system is faulty. It needed reform.
Some Scholars who took the Imperial Exams (before the 100-days reform) in their private diaries called the Empress Dowanger Cixi variously: a tyrant, a despot, a fox-spirit in one instance, a prostitute, the child of a prostitute, an immoral crafty woman, a sexual position often ascribed to her, and other bad insults on her character. After the "100-days reform" and the failure of "the Self-Strengthening Movement", some of them even went so far as blame the Qing government and secretly wish it to be replaced. But since these are Confucian conservatives threatened by the power of a mere woman or the the thought of a woman giving orders from behind the throne - we must reject these learned scholars as not mainstream because they only discussed it illegally and in secret.
Fourth problem - Economic.
At the time of the Taiping Rebellion, population was on the rise to an estimate 430 million people – there was not enough land to go around if population still rose. 50 to 60 % of the land was in the control of rich families who demanded almost 50% of the yield in silver for rent. Included in this was that there was droughts in Honan, flooding in the Yangtze River and other rivers, and famine in Kwangsi dwindling the number of arable land to go around – relief was piecemeal, perfunctory, and was outright being embezzled. This left many displaced peoples seeking work as porters, dock-hands, idlers, rascals, bandits, or “shanghaied” into *slavery* or deportation to work on the U.S.’s first transcontinental railroad - Hong recruited some of these displaced peoples into his army - most of them did not even care about Christianity, they just wanted the Qing gone, land to farm, and a little rice to eat. All taxes, dues, and rents had to be paid in silver taels not in kind to the central government. Due to opium and the Opium Wars the exchange rate for copper coins to silver had increased by 100%. The central government also had another illness concerning money – in order to pay the debts owed to the imperialists the Chinese government devalued the currency - the percentage of copper and silver in a coin of 1845 was at least half the percentage in a coin minted two decades prior.
Any economist would see this as a recipe for rapid inflation and economic collapse. It was just a matter of time before someone like Hong staged a rebellion - it could have been anyone, even if the Taipings were unfortunately unsuccessful - others would still try and were eventually successful at removing the Qing.
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Okay now how best to reform.
1. Constitutional monarchy.
2. The Qing Emperor needs to take a Chinese wife - preferably one from the former Ming Dynasty or a descendant of Confucius.
3. The Exam System needed to be either scrapped or reformed.
4. Military reform. The whole of the military needs reform. The Draft is the best option.