The work is related to China's decline and the ten major evils of the corrupt Qing dynasty.
In Chinese history, when the nomadic regimes of the north entered the Central Plains and ruled over them, they generally went through a process of gradual adaptation to Han agricultural culture. However, this process was often accompanied by massive destruction of agricultural productive forces and brutal ethnic oppression of the Han people. The Northern Wei established by the Xianbei, the Liao established by the Khitan, the Jin established by the Jurchen, and the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols were all no exception. The Qing court was also not an exception, and at the beginning of its entry into the Central Plains, it implemented a series of ethnic oppression policies and other corrupt practices, bringing deep disasters to the Han people in the vast Central Plains region, leaving behind a most inglorious page in Chinese history. In brief summary, the Qing Dynasty implemented ten major corrupt practices, which are as follows:
Enclosure Movement
In 15th to 18th century Britain, the emerging bourgeoisie and new aristocracy used violence to drive peasants off their land, seizing peasant plots and public lands, depriving peasants of their right to use and own land, restricting or abolishing their traditional rights to common grazing and pasture, and enclosing the seized land into private estates. This was the "enclosure movement" in British history.
In mid-17th century China, a similar "enclosure movement" took place, but with vastly different nature and impact: Britain's enclosure movement led to the transition from feudalism to capitalist production relations, and ultimately established a capitalist social system through the bourgeois revolution in the mid-16th century, marking the rise of the "British Empire". In contrast, the Qing dynasty's enclosure movement was a massive destruction of productive forces without any historical progress.
After entering the pass, the Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty launched a large-scale land enclosure campaign around Beijing, taking over Han people's land within 500 miles and expelling them. The method used was "horseback enclosure", where the Eight Banners soldiers would ride horses to enclose land, and all land within their reach would belong to them.
There were three major enclosure campaigns. The first one took place in November of the first year of Shunzhi's reign (1644), when the Qing government issued an edict to distribute unowned wasteland around Beijing to princes, meritorious officials, soldiers, and others. In September of the second year, the Qing government issued a second enclosure edict, expanding the scope to include areas in Hebei, Shandong, and Jiangsu provinces.
The third enclosure campaign took place in January of the fourth year (1647), covering 42 prefectures including Shuntian, Baoding, Hejian, Yizhou, Zunhua, and Yongping. In total, over 160,000 hectares of land were seized. According to historical records, "wherever the enclosure reached, the original owners were immediately expelled, and all their belongings became the property of the new owners." (Shi Dun, "Miscellaneous Records of the Enclosure Movement")
The vast majority of Han Chinese peasants who lost their land were left homeless and wandered aimlessly.
Issuance of the "Fugitive Slave Law"
The capture of escaped people was another evil policy implemented by the Manchu nobility in the early Qing dynasty. Despite its strong opposition from Han officials and civilians, the Qing rulers stubbornly persisted in maintaining the Manchu interests, making it a major concern for both the government and the public.
The problem of escaped people had been around for a long time. During the late Ming dynasty, when the Qing army was fighting in Liaodong and other places, they captured many Han civilians who were then distributed among the Eight Banners as slaves. These enslaved Hans lived a life without freedom, and their descendants could hardly escape the fate of being slaves for generations.
Some of these people, having no way out, ended up killing themselves in desperation. In the early years of Kangxi's reign, "over 2,000 household slaves from the Eight Banners reported to have killed themselves each year." The Kangxi Emperor himself said: "This must be because their masters treated them too harshly, making it difficult for them to survive, and they were driven to desperation."
However, more people chose to escape. Many of these escaped slaves were Hans who had been captured during wars and were eager to return home and reunite with their families. As a result, the large-scale escapes of slaves from the Eight Banners became increasingly frequent in northern China during the early Qing period.
In May of the third year of Shunzhi's reign, Dorgon said: "Just in these few months, several tens of thousands of people have escaped." The large-scale escape of slaves directly affected the livelihoods of Manchu people at all levels. To maintain the interests of the Manchus and their own rule, the Qing government strictly implemented the law to capture escaped people.
The strict enforcement of this law brought countless disasters to Han civilians, causing widespread unrest and a series of serious social problems. Historical records show: "In the early years of our dynasty, capturing escaped people was considered a major crime. Escaped people referred to those who fled from their masters in all directions. If one person was caught, they would often implicate 10 or 20 families, sometimes even 50 or 60 people.
The families that were implicated would be ruined and lose everything; the places where the escaped slaves passed through would also be pursued and investigated every day, and the local authorities would be held responsible. Therefore, capturing escaped people would always result in countless innocent people being affected. Whenever a local government captured an escaped person, they would first record their confession and then send them to the county government.
The county officials treated the escaped slaves as if they were their superiors, not daring to scold or reprimand them; they only interrogated those who were implicated, using torture and imprisonment. The escaped slaves were temporarily detained in prison, but the corrupt officials and jailers would often take advantage of this opportunity to extort money from wealthy families.
The escaped slaves sat comfortably in prison, while countless families were ruined."
Three, promulgate "Statute for the Redemption of Crimes"
In the spring of 1645, Regent Dorgon promulgated the law of "Chou Chong". The regulations were: First, allow the officials and civilians of the Eight Banners to recruit poor people as servants; Second, those who were cast into servitude were slaves, and their masters could buy and sell them. The result of this law was that the Manchu nobles did not care whether these Han people were poor or not, they just forced them to become slaves when needed. Therefore, the phenomenon of arbitrarily forcing Han people to become slaves became more and more serious. Within 300 miles inside and outside the capital city, the heads of the Eight Banners' estates and their slaves, etc., coerced the Han people in various counties and villages to cast into servitude, especially craftsmen were forced to cast into servitude, causing the people's hearts to be uneasy and thinking of fleeing. This move caused great resentment among the Han people in various places, intensifying the contradictions between the Manchu and Han nationalities. The three most harmful policies in the early Qing dynasty were the "Circle Land", "Cast into Servitude" and "Escapee" laws.
Issue "Order of Shaving Heads"
The Qing government initially issued a decree forcing Han Chinese to shave their heads in accordance with Manchu customs. The Manchu custom was for men to shave the hair on the sides of their heads, leaving only a long braid in the middle, which was called a "queue" or "pigtail". The shaved hair on the sides was not allowed to be grown out, except during mourning periods, and had to be cut off immediately. This was known as "shaving one's head".
Before entering the pass, the Qing government ordered Han Chinese and other ethnic groups to shave their heads as a sign of submission. In 1644, after the Qing army entered the pass, the soldiers and civilians inside the Shanhai Pass all shaved their heads in surrender.
After the Qing army entered Beijing, an edict was issued ordering people to shave their heads. However, since the Qing government had just entered the capital and its foundation was not yet stable, the decree was not strictly enforced, and those who surrendered were often allowed to do as they pleased.
For thousands of years, Han Chinese in the interior had never shaved their heads, and being forced to do so was seen as a form of ethnic oppression and humiliation. The order to shave one's head was met with fierce resistance.
In the second year of the Shunzhi Emperor (1645), after the Qing army defeated the Great Shun Army and captured Nanjing and Suzhou, the Qing government reissued the decree ordering people to shave their heads. Nationwide, people were given a deadline of 10 days to shave their heads and grow queues.
Those who refused to shave their heads or hesitated were executed without pardon (according to the "Veritable Records of the Shunzhi Emperor", vol. 71). The policy was "to keep one's head but not one's hair, or to keep one's hair but not one's head" (Korean Hy?n, "Records of the Defense of Jiangyin", part 1).
This exacerbated ethnic tensions and sparked fierce resistance from Han Chinese in the interior. The people of Jiangyin vowed that "our heads can be cut off, but our hair will never be shaved". Under attack by 240,000 Qing soldiers, they fought for 81 days.
The people of Jiading also organized a militia and defended their city, refusing to surrender. In the end, they were brutally slaughtered. The resistance against shaving one's head became an important part of the anti-Qing struggle at the time.
Issue "Closure Order"
After the Qing army entered the pass, Dorgon ordered in 1644 that Han people were strictly forbidden from entering Manchuria's "Dragon Rising Land" for reclamation. This is the "Forbidden Pass Order". In the early Qing dynasty, after the Manchu people moved into the pass en masse, the population of Northeast China became even scarcer. The rulers of the Qing dynasty regarded the Northeast as the "ancestral land where our ancestors started their careers and rose to power", and used the excuse of protecting the "interests of the mountains and rivers" to implement a long-term ban on the Northeast. In addition to the "Forbidden Pass Order", there are two other related terms: "Willow Palisade" and "Rushing into Guandong". To strictly enforce the "Forbidden Pass Order", from the Shunzhi period, the Qing government built a palisade wall of over 1,000 kilometers within Manchuria at great cost - the Great Wall of Manchuria, also known as the Willow Palisade Wall, Willow Wall, Willow City, and Strip Border. The section of the Willow Palisade from Shanhai Pass to Fengcheng in the south is called "Old Border"; the section from Kaiyuan in the northeast to Jilin City today is called "New Border". The area east of the border wall was strictly forbidden for Han people to cross the border and reclaim land, while the area west of the border wall was used as a grazing area for Mongolian nobles who were allies of the Qing dynasty. Until the 19th century, when the Yellow River downstream suffered from disasters year after year, thousands of peasants went bankrupt, but the Qing government still enforced the Forbidden Pass Order. As a result, bankrupt peasants disregarded the ban and risked punishment to "rush" into Northeast China in droves, which is the origin of "Rushing into Guandong". By the end of the Qing dynasty, foreign powers were pressing in step by step, especially Russia's covetous gaze on the Northeast. In this situation, the Qing court was forced to partially lift the ban on the Northeast in 1860 and completely open it up in 1897. By 1910, the total population of the Northeast had increased to 18 million people. After the establishment of the Republic of China, the tide of "Rushing into Guandong" continued unabated, reaching nearly 40 million people on the eve of the founding of New China.
Six, Brutal Massacre Policy
In Chinese history, when ethnic minorities invaded the Han-dominated areas, they often encountered fierce resistance. In retaliation and to intimidate the Han people, they frequently implemented extremely brutal massacre policies against the conquered Han population. The most notorious cases were the massacres committed by the Mongol rulers in the early Yuan dynasty and the Manchu rulers in the early Qing dynasty.
During the conquest of the Central Plains by the Qing army, whether in cities or rural areas, if the civilians did not surrender to the Qing dynasty and dared to resist, after the city was breached, they would be slaughtered almost entirely. The most famous cases were the "Ten Days of Yangzhou", the "Three Massacres of Jiading", as well as the massacres of Jiangyin, Kunshan, Jiaxing, Changshu, Suzhou, Haining, Guangzhou, Ganzhou, Xiangtan, Datong, and Sichuan. The scenes of slaughter were too horrific to behold, and the tragedy was unprecedented!
According to historical records, during the Wanli period of the Ming dynasty, the official population registered for taxation was close to 60 million, which did not include women, children, officials, and soldiers. Therefore, a conservative estimate put the national population at around 200 million people. By the Shunzhi period of the Qing dynasty, the population registered for taxation (ding) was around 25 million, and the total population was likely around 80 million.
The huge loss of population, apart from the peasant wars at the end of the Ming dynasty, was largely due to the massacre policies implemented by the early Qing government!
The Great Literary Inquisition of Daxing
Since the Qing dynasty's invasion of the Central Plains, not only have the Han people been subjected to brutal slaughter and economic plunder, but also to cultural despotism in the ideological and cultural sphere. The Qing dynasty has carried out large-scale literary inquisitions, suppressing dissenting voices and imposing strict censorship.
As early as the early years of the Qing dynasty's rule, the imperial court began to suppress Han culture. In 1649, the Qing government decreed that all writings must be reviewed and approved by officials before publication, marking the beginning of a system of literary censorship.
During the reigns of Kangxi (1661-1722), Yongzheng (1723-1735), and Qianlong (1735-1795), numerous literary inquisitions took place. The number of cases during the Qianlong period alone exceeded 100, with many concentrated in the mid-Qianlong era.
The purpose of these literary inquisitions was to thoroughly eliminate Han people's anti-Qing nationalist consciousness. However, most victims of the literary inquisitions did not actually spread anti-Qing ideas. Some were simply expressing temporary dissatisfaction with the Qing government's policies or nostalgia for the Ming dynasty.
The harm caused by the literary inquisitions was twofold: firstly, it brought a malignant influence to thought and culture, causing scholars to abandon their ideals and integrity; secondly, it corrupted officialdom, leading officials to prioritize self-preservation over justice and morality.
Eight, Prohibition of Sea Border Crossing
The coastal evacuation was another brutal policy implemented by the Qing dynasty in its early years, mainly during the Kangxi period, roughly from the end of Shunzhi to the 22nd year of Kangxi (1683, when Taiwan was recovered). Due to the deliberate concealment of the Qing rulers, historical materials on this aspect are extremely scarce, and even if there are individual mentions, they are mostly lightly touched upon and glossed over.
The main purpose of implementing this policy was to take back Taiwan from the Zheng family. To isolate Taiwan, the Qing government ordered residents within 30 miles of the coast to move inland, and no one was allowed to go out to sea. It started in Fujian coastal areas and later spread to Guangdong and Zhejiang coastal areas.
The Qing government demarcated a coastal area (from the initial 30 miles to later 40, 50, and even 200-300 miles) and set up boundary markers, built walls, and forcibly relocated residents within this range. Those who refused to move were killed without pardon, and those who dared to cross the border were also killed without pardon.
In short, the entire southeastern coastal area of China, from 30 to 200-300 miles away from the sea, became a no-man's land. According to the "History of Southern Ming", in February of the first year of Kangxi, the Qing court sent two high-ranking officials to inspect the coast and ordered residents within 50 miles of the coast to move inland to cut off aid to Taiwan.
The process of coastal evacuation was not like the Three Gorges migration today, where migrants were resettled and given proper compensation before being relocated. The coastal evacuation was more like a brutal expulsion, massacre, and looting (similar to the US's "Westward Movement" that drove away and killed Native Americans!).
The southeastern coastal area had become one of China's most prosperous regions since the Song dynasty, but under this brutal policy, centuries of accumulated wealth and productive forces were destroyed overnight, and human resources were also annihilated. For over 20 years, China transformed from a maritime nation to an inland nation.
The destruction and aftermath caused by this policy far exceeded those of a large-scale war. The only gain was that Taiwan's economy temporarily fell into difficulties, laying the foundation for Emperor Kangxi's later rise to power.
Nine, Donations for Official Positions
During the Kangxi period, officials were already corrupt. Regarding general corruption, Emperor Kangxi believed it was difficult to eradicate and often adopted a lenient policy, not conducting thorough investigations. He once said: "All ministers were once scholars who walked on foot and wore simple clothes; one day they obtained power and suddenly had high carriages, horses, and eight sedan chairs, all of which came from unknown sources! It's hard to investigate!" Under this tolerant policy, the governance of the officials gradually deteriorated during Kangxi's later years. Officials embezzled and plundered without restraint, resulting in a deficit of over 10 million taels of silver in various provincial treasuries. Later, although Emperor Yongzheng implemented severe punishments and laws to combat corruption, his reign was too short, and the effects were limited. By the time of Emperors Qianlong and Jiaqing, corruption had become rampant in official circles, with bribery and embezzlement widespread, and governance had deteriorated to an extreme extent. This led to the saying "Three years as a clean governor, ten million taels of silver." The Qianlong period also produced one of the most corrupt officials in Chinese history - Heshen. The root cause of this corruption lay in the Qing dynasty's practice of selling official positions. In Kangxi 13 (1674), due to the need to supplement military expenses after the suppression of the "Three Feudatories" rebellion, the government implemented a system of selling official positions. Within three years, over 500 county magistrates were appointed through this system. To prevent redundant officials from harassing the people, it was stipulated that "officials who purchased their positions would be evaluated after three years; those who performed well would be promoted, while those who did not would be dismissed" (Qing Shigao, Volume 87, Selection of Officials). However, this policy could not be implemented in practice. During the Yongzheng period (1723-1735), officials below the level of provincial governor and prefect could be purchased, while during the Qianlong period, civil officials could purchase positions up to the level of provincial judge or prefect, and military officials could purchase positions up to the level of brigade commander. Although the system of selling official positions provided a temporary source of revenue for the Qing government, it caused the feudal bureaucracy to expand excessively, and officials who purchased their positions were naturally unlikely to be honest. This policy thus became one of the main causes of the deterioration of governance during the Qing dynasty.
Isolationism
The above text mentions that before the Qing dynasty recovered Taiwan, it had implemented a strict sea ban policy, prohibiting merchants from trading at sea, and those who violated the ban would be put to death, and their goods would be confiscated by the government. This sea ban policy was mainly aimed at countering Zheng Chenggong and his descendants' maritime power, not against foreign countries. Therefore, after the Qing dynasty recovered Taiwan in 1683, it gradually relaxed the sea ban and allowed foreign trade. However, during the early Qianlong period, in response to the insatiable demands of Western countries such as Britain, the Qing government strengthened its restrictions on foreign trade, ordering the closure of all ports except Guangzhou and promulgating strict regulations and rules governing foreign merchants, thus forming the so-called closed-door policy. The closed-door policy lasted from Qianlong to Jiaqing periods, until the eve of the Opium War during Daoguang's reign. The closed-door policy refers to the Qing dynasty's strict restrictions on and prohibition of external exchanges and trade. Its main contents include: limiting foreign trade to one port (Guangzhou), strictly controlling foreign merchants' activities, and restricting Chinese merchants from going abroad. There are also three reasons for this policy: the shortsightedness and ignorance of the Qing rulers were the direct cause of the closed-door policy; the feudal self-sufficient natural economy was relatively stable and had a strong resistance to foreign goods, which was the economic root of the closed-door policy; and thirdly, it was necessary for the Qing rulers to prevent contact between domestic and foreign anti-Qing forces and the infiltration of Western colonialism. Although the closed-door policy had some defensive effect against Western colonizers during a certain period, it was ultimately a passive and backward policy. Because the closed-door policy could not weaken the power of Western capitalist countries, but instead hindered its own development, causing China to lose its initiative in foreign trade, and the rulers' ignorance and arrogance isolated China from international scientific and cultural exchanges, hindering the development of productive forces and social progress, widening the gap between China and the West, and leading to modern China's passive defeat. The cause of this is undoubtedly multi-faceted, but the closed-door policy was certainly one of the main culprits!
