Title: Introduction to Chinese Cultural History / Slides / 1. Intro to 1911

Front: China in world rankings:
- Population,
- landmass,
- size of economy.
Back: Population
~1,412m in 2021, was a bit more than India at the same time (1,408m in 2021), but India probably overtook China in 2023, making China a close 2^nd.
Landmass
3^rd-largest after Russia and Canada.
Size of economy
Largest trading naation and second-largest economy.

Front: What's the majority ethnicity in the PRC? Which percentage of the populace is a member of this ethnicity? What's the percentage in the ROC?
Back: PRC
Over 90% (source: lecture slides, citing The Economist) or 91.1% in 2021 (CIA factbook estimate) of the people in the PRC are Han.
ROC
Not mentioned in the slides, Executive Yuan, ROC estimates 97% are Han.

Front: How many ethnic groups are recognized in the PRC?
Back: 55 ethnic groups other than the majority Han, 56 overall.

Front: Name 5 minority ethnicities in China, along with the autonomous region associated with them, if any.
Back: Ethnic group | AR | other places
Uyghurs | Xīnjiāng AR | —
Mongolians | Inner Mongolia AR | —
Tibetans | Tibet AR | Regions neighbouring Tibet
Zhuang^1,2 | Guangxi AR | —
Huí^2 | Níngxià AR | —
Manchu^2 | — | Manchuria, their ancestral homeland, is in the far northeast
^1 Zhuang are the most populuous minority in China.
^2 bonus group, not mentioned in the Slides.

Front: What's the official language of the PRC?
Back: The national language (普通话, Pǔtōnghuà), usually referred to as Mandarin in the west.

Front: How many provinces are there in PRC?
Back: 22, or 23 if you include Taiwan.

Front: Name all autonomous regions in the PRC.
Back: 5 autonomous regions:
- Guǎngxī,
- Inner Mongolia,
- Tibet,
- Níngxià,
- Xīnjiāng.

Front: Name all provincial-level municipalities in the PRC.
Back: All 4 provincial-level municipalities in the PRC:
- Běijīng,
- Tiānjīn,
- Shànghǎi,
- Chóngqìng.

Front: Ethymology: "China".
Back: First mention in a European language is in a 16^th century Spanish text. Apparently derives from references to Qín dynasty, via Sanskrit चीन (cīna) and Japanese ⽀那 (shina).

Front: What's the chinese name for China proper, as opposed to the wider Chinese world? What's the origin of the name?
Back: Zhōngguó 中国 (“Middle Kingdom”) dates back 3,500 years to classic poetry collection, the Book of
Odes (Shijing; aka the Classic of Poetry)

Front: What's the name of the wider Chinese world in Chinese, as opposed to China proper?
Back: Zhonghua 中华, Chinese civilization, wider Chinese world; included in the names of both the Republic
of China (Zhonghua minguo; 1911–1949) and the People‘s Republic of China (Zhonghua renmin gonghe
guo, 1949–present)

Front: How old is the earliest evidence for a Chinese script?
Back: Earliest evidence dates back to 3,500 years ago, probably the 3^rd or 4^th oldest writing system in the world.

Front: What's the name of the earliest type of script used for Chinese writing?
Back: Jiaguwen (甲骨⽂), a.k.a oracle bone script.

Front: Name three views on when China became modern.
Back: Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China
Song Dynasty (960–1279); time of urbanization and economic and technological development (e.g. woodblock printing), arts (painting), gardens.
Wasserstrom
Ming and Qīng, Time of consolidation of key cultural and political markers of “Chinese civilisation”, e.g. Forbidden City, Great Wall, great works of literature (novels) and art (porcelain), technology (movable type for printing), science (medicine), triennial civil service examination (keju).
PRC historiography
modern era begins with first Opium War (1839-42) during the Qīng Dynasty, i.e. incursion of Western imperialist powers into the Chinese empire.
Jaivin
End of chinese imperial system and founding of the RoC in 1911.

Front: Political periodization 1912–present
Back: - Republic of China; Republican era (1912–1949),
- People's Republic of China (1949–present), led by CCP, further divided in:
  - Socialist era (1949–1976),
  - “Post-Mao” era; Postsocialist era (1976–present).

Front: Periodization of modern literary history in the PRC
Back: Periodization typical in the PRC:
- Early modern; jindai (1842–1910),
- Modern; xiandai (1911–1948),
- Contemporary; dangdai (1949–present).
Furthermore: Literary historians tend to define “modern Chinese literature” as literature produced after the 1917 “New Culture
Movement”.

Front: Ming dynasty: start and end years?
Back: 1368–1644

Front: First Ming emperor: Name, capital, start and end of reign, number of provinces?
Back: Name
Hongwu Emperor
Capital
Nanjing
Reign
1368–1398
Provinces
15: define much of the modern borders

Front: The other important early Ming emperor: capital, reign start/end, notable constructions?
Back: Name
Yongle Emperor
Capital
Beijing (he moved it)
Reign
1402–1424
Notable constructions
Forbidden city (completed 1420), Expansion of Great Walls

Front: Name five things that make the time of the Ming dynasty modern.
Back: - Time of great urban, mercantile, literary, and artistic development,
- Rise of wealthy urban middle class, social mobility, lively popular culture,
- Technological advances,
- Development of fiction, traditionally a “low” genre,
- “Four Great Classical Novels”.

Front: Name three technological advances of the Ming dynasty.
Back: 1. Silk weaving,
2. Printing and publishing: invention of movable type,
3. Medicine: Compendium of Materia Medica, basis for traditional Chinese medicine.

Front: Three examples of Ming dynasty fiction?
Back: 1. Romance of the Three Kingdoms,
2. Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh (aka Water Margin),
3. The Plum in the Golden Vase (aka Jinpingmei).

Front: What is the Chinese name for the four great classical novels, and what are they?
Back: The Four Great Classical Novels or si da mingzhu of the Ming and Qīng dynasties are:
1. Journey to the West,
2. Outlaws of the Marsh,
3. Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Ming),
4. Dream of the Red Chamber (Qīng).

Front: Four key developments of the later years of the Ming dynasty?
Back: - 1513: Portuguese expedion establishes trading post in Macao; possible origin of term “foreign devils” (yang guizi); first major exporters of tea to Europe (Cantonese: cha; “tea” came later from thee, Fujianese, via the Dutch)
- 1560s: Arrival of first Jesuits in Macao (then Guangdong and elsewhere)
- 1630s: beginning of rebellions that would take down the Ming dynasty (last Ming Emperor Chongzhen hung himself on a hill behind the Forbidden City)
- 1644: Establishment of the Qīng Dynasty, Manchu ethnicity (northern nomadic tribes, formerly known as the Jin/Jurchens)

Front: A certain Jesuit in China: western name, chinese name, birth and death years.
Back: Western name
Matteo Ricci
Chinese name
Li Madou
Birth and death
1552–1610

Front: A certain Jesuit in China: four key facts?
Back: - Chinese-speaking Italian Jesuit priest at Ming court under Wanli Emperor (reign 1572–1620),
- Map of the Myriad Countries of the World (Kunyu wanguo quantu, 1602) with China at the centre of the world,
- devised the first system for transcribing Chinese into the Roman alphabet,
- called the capital with Latinate term “Pequim”, hence Beijing became known as Peking in European languages.

Front: Qīng dynasty: start and end years?
Back: 1644–1911

Front: The thing with the hair and clothing style in the Qīng dynasty?
Back: All adult males had to wear the queue or bianzi and the Manchu dress style, despite strong Han resistance.

Front: Qīng: Banners?
Back: System of Eight Banners or baqi. Manchu system of social, political and military organization:
- administrative registration system of Manchu households,
- military divisions (served as armies in wartime),
- bannermen: hereditary membership,
- divided by ethnic group: Manchu, Mongolian, Han.

Front: Which ethnic group(s) did Bannermen in the Qīng dynasty belong to?
Back: Manchu, Mongolian and Han.

Front: Three emperors of the high Qīng?
Back: - Kangxi Emperor, reign 1661–1722, longest reign in Chinese history,
- Yongzheng Emperor, reign 1722-1735,
- Qianlong Emperor, reign 1735–1796 (de facto in power until 1799).

Front: Key facts about the first of the High Qīng emperors?
Back: Name
Kangxi Emperor
Reign
1661–1722, longest reign in Chinese history
Jesuits
Close contacts, several Chinese-speaking Jesuits at his court
Old Summer Palace
Established it, also known as the Yuanmingyuan or Garden of Perfect Brightness.

Front: Key facts about the middle one of the High Qīng emperors?
Back: Name
Yongzheng Emperor
Reign
1722–1735
Jesuits
Maintained court Jesuits but banned Manchu conversions to Christianity in 1724 after rite controversy with Rome/Pope
Language
Imposed single system of pronunciation of Chinese language based on Beijing dialect: Guanhua (“language of officials,” or “mandarins” – from Portuguese), hence Mandarin Chinese

Front: Key facts about the last of the High Qīng emperors?
Back: Name
Qianlong Emperor
Reign
1735–1796, de facto in power until 1799, one of China's golden ages (shengshi)
Conquest
Conquered Mongolian regions and “new frontier” (Xinjiang)
Culture
- Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin written under his reign
- art collector and connoisseur, famous portraits by Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione
- expansion of the Yuanmingyuan (Castiglione’s Western Pavilions and mechanical fountain clock)

Front: The thing with portraits and the high Qīng?
Back: An Italian Jesuit was also a Qīng court painter. His western name was Guiseppe Castiglione, his Chinese name was Lang Shining.

Front: What restrictions applied for European traders wanting to trade in China, prior to the opium wars?
Back: Trade was:
- confined to Guangzhou,
- only permitted from October to March, traders then had to go to Macao,
- only possible through Chinese intermederies,
- done under local law.

Front: At the time of the Opium wars, what Chinese trade goods were in high demand in Europe?
Back: Tea, silk, porcelain.

Front: What were the name, year and goals of the first British diplomatic mission to China?
Back: Name
Macartney Mission
Year
1793
Leader
Lord George Macartney
Goals
- More open ports,
- preferential tariffs,
- permission for merchants to live permanently in China,
- establishment of ambassador in Beijing.

Front: Result of the first British diplomatic mission to China, and possible reason for that result?
Back: The Qīng deny all requests of the Macartney Mission 1793. It probably did not help that Macartney refused to kowtow to the Qianlong Emperor. The official response of the Qianlong Emperor turns down the requests quite brusquely, arguing that the empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its borders.

Front: What's a kowtow?
Back: Transcription of koutou or ketou. "three kneelings and nine prostrations". Ceremonial requirement before the emperor at court, but also other ceremonial uses.

Front: Who received the first British diplomatic mission to China?
Back: Heshen, a Qianlong Emperor favorite, corrupt.

Front: Which British organization smuggled opium into China before the opium wars?
Back: The British East India Company smuggled opium cultivated in Calcutta into China. There already was a domestic market before that, mostly for medical purposes, and with less morphine contained.

Front: Facts about metals used as currency in China before the Opium Wars?
Back: - China paid for Opium in silver, resulting in fiscal drain,
- silver came mostly from the Americas, Europe, Japan,
- copper coins used as ordinary currency (called cash).

Front: Opium trade: advantages for British Empire?
Back: - Revenue for traders,
- taxes for crown,
- taxes needed to keep importing the highly demanded tea.

Front: Opium trade: disadvantages for China?
Back: - Imported opium had high morphine content,
- addiction in various groups: young, middle-aged, civil servants, soldiers,
- society suffers from addiction,
- immense fiscal drain (opium paid for in silver).

Front: Opium trade: Chinese countermeasures before war?
Back: - 1838: Daoguang Emperor bans opium trade,
- 1839: Qīng Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu sent to Guangzhou to stop the trade, policies:
  - Sanatoriums for addicts,
  - breaking up of drug-trade rings,
  - forcing 350 foreign traders to cease trade,
  - locking up traders that resist in warehouses,
  - destruction of 1.4m kg of opium.

Front: Results of the first opium war, start and end year?
Back: - The First Opium War started 1839 and ended with the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842,
- First of a long series of “unequal treaties” that will come to define China’s relationships with foreign powers,
- Origin of contemporary Chinese narrative of the “century of humiliation”
- Marked the beginning of the end of Chinese imperial system (+ 1847 Taiping Rebellion led by Hong Xiuquan, “brother of Jesus”/Taiping War 1851-1864),
- Beginning of the “treaty port system”: Britain granted access to 5 “treaty ports”, incl. Guangzhou and Shanghai, with foreign “concessions” (leased territories) where Chinese laws would not apply,
- Extraterritoriality (foreigners in the concessions exempt from local justice),
- Hong Kong Island ceded to Britain in perpetuity,
- Payment of large indemnities,
- Concessions also to US, France, and other nations.

Front: When was The Second Opium War?
Back: The Second Opium war started 1856 with a Chinese attack on an opium-smuggling ship The Arrow, and ended 1860 with the Convention of Peking.

Front: Four key events of the Second Opium War with years, please.
Back: 1856: The Arrow
Chinese attack the opium-smuggling ship The Arrow; France joins Britain in the war
1858: Treaty of Tianjin
10 more treaty ports opened, payment of further indemnities, permanant embassies in Beijing for Britain, France, US, Russia
1860: Imprisonment of Anglo-French delegation
Delegation imprisoned in Yuanmingyuan, 18 tortured to death, Yuanmingyuan ransacked and burned by British and French forces, Burning of the Old Summer Palace is a central image of "century of humiliation" narrative
1860: Convention of Peking
Kowloon Peninsula (mainland opposite Hong Kong Island) ceded to Britain in perpetuity, Indemnimes raised, Legalization of the opium trade in China

Front: What's a central image of the PRC narrative of the century of humiliation from the Opium Wars?
Back: In 1860, the Yuanmingyuan was ransacked and burned by British and French forces in the Second Opium War.

Front: Some culturally important objects were looted from the Yuanmingyuan. What were they? What cultural response did they provoke?
Back: The Yuanmingyuan had a water clock fountain with twelve waterspouts, each shaped in the head of an animal of the Chinese zodiac. The waterspout-heads were removed in the ransacking of the Yuanmingyuan, some are lost, some in private ownership and auctioned recently (for millions), one was a forgery. The return of the heads was demanded, seven of twelve are now held by Chinese museums.
Ai Weiwei made an artwork Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads.

Front: Four Chinese films on the Opium Wars?
Back: - Eternity, 1943, dir. Bu Wancang
- Lin Zexu, 1959, dir. Zhen Junli
- The Opium Wars, 1997, dir. Xie Jin, released on 1 July – Hong Kong handover ceremony
- Destruction of Opium at Humen, 2021, dir. Zhang Zhe

Front: Cixi: birth and death years?
Back: Cixi 慈禧 lived 1835–1908.

Front: How did Cixi start out at court?
Back: She became a concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor (reign 1850–1861).

Front: How did Cixi first take control?
Back: Her 5-year-old son becomes the Tongzhi Emperor (reign 1861–1875), Cixi takes control as the Empress Dowager.

Front: How did Cixi stay in power after the death of the Tongzhi Emperor?
Back: After the death of the Tongzhi Emperor in 1861, his 3-year-old cousin becomes the Guangxu Emperor (reign 1875–1908). Cixi controls the cousin.

Front: How long was Cixi in power?
Back: For the last 50 years of the empire, often dubbed the power behind the beaded curtain.

Front: Explain the failed attempt under Cixi to modernize the state.
Back: The Hundred Days' Reform of 1898 was a push for constitutional monarchy and modernization of military, education and government. The reform was was spearheaded by a group of scholars including Kang Youwei and Liáng Qǐchāo and was also supported by the Guangxu Emperor. Cixi detains the Guangxu Emperor and becomes de facto ruler. Kang and Liang both flee to Japan, other reformists are publicly beheaded.

Front: Under which name, when and where were the Boxers founded?
Back: The Boxers emerge in 1898 (100 day's reform) in Shandong as a popular rebel movement. Their original Chinese name is yihequan, translated either as Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist or as Boxers United in Righteousness.

Front: What was distinctive about the Boxer Militia (other than their political agenda)?
Back: - Poor peasants,
- Red Lanterns: women's groups,
- red, black and yellow turbans,
- martial arts,
- rituals of invulnerability.

Front: What was the Slogan of the Boxers?
Back: Support the Qīng, destroy the foreign

Front: When did the Boxers change their name?
Back: When the militias spread form Shandong to neighbouring regions, they adopted the name Yihetuan or Militia United in Righteousness.

Front: Describe the ideological makeup of the Boxers.
Back: - Xenophobic behavior:
  - anti-foreign,
  - anti-Christian,
- superstition,
- religious fanaticism,
- seen in the PRC as a "patriotic" movement against foreign imperialism (but their victims were primarily other Chinese people).

Front: How did the Boxers try to advance their political agenda?
Back: - Attacks/burning of churches, cathedrals and a racecourse,
- killing of foreign missionaries,
- killing of Chinese converts,
- siege of Legation Quarter that houses foreign diplomatic missions for 55 days, in response to a German diplomat killing a Chinese boy.

Front: What was the attitude of the Qīng toward the boxers?
Back: Ambiguous, but Cixi supported them.

Front: Results of the Boxer siege on the Legation Quarter?
Back: - 1900, June 21^st: Cixi declares war on all foreign powers,
- 1900, August 14^th: Eight-Nation Alliance launches Eight-Power Expedition against Boxers in Beijing, Tianjin and northern China, huge Chinese death toll and looting of Forbidden City and imperial treasures in the Raid of Beijing,
- 1901, September 7^th: Boxer Protocol
- No desire to have the empire collapse, but establishment of informal colonization in the form of spheres of influence.

Front: What is the name of the alliance and expedition launched by foreign powers to fight the boxer rebellion?
Back: The Eight-Nation Alliance, or Baguo lianjun launches the Eight-Power Expedition against the Boxers.

Front: What were the foreign nations of the alliance against the boxers?
Back: 8 nations in total:
- Britain,
- Germany,
- Russia,
- Italy,
- USA,
- France,
- Austria-Hungary,
- Japan.

Front: Which nations maintained spheres of influence after the Boxer Protocol?
Back: After the boxer protocol, Russia, Britain, France, Japan and Germany maintained spheres of influence in China.

Front: How was China portrayed in the West after the Boxer Rebellion?
Back: The "yellow peril" trope emerged, China perceived as dangerous

Front: What new ideas amerged in the early 20^th century regarding China among Chinese?
Back: - Rising anti-Manchu sentiments in China, from exiled Chinese and Chinese overseas communities,
- calls for institutional change:
  - Kang Youwei, Liáng Qǐchāo: constitutional reform, democratization/modernization of monarchy (like Japan) under reinstated Gaungxu Emperor against Cixi,
  - Sun Yat-sen a.k.a Sun Zhongshan: revolution,
- revolutionaries write anti-Qīng pamphlets and call for establishment of Republic (and get persecuted),
- people cut their queues in protest (Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong),
- concepts of a Chinese race and national ethnic identity emerge:
  - Liáng Qǐchāo: 民族 minzu, introduced via Japanese
  - Sun Yat-sen: 中华民族 Zhonghua minzu (Chinese race/ethnicity, ethnic identity of Chinese civilization)

Front: When and where to was Sun Yat-sen exiled?
Back: In 1905 to Japan.

Front: What did Sun Yat-sen establish in Exile in Japan?
Back: Establishes the Revolutionary Alliance or National Alliance or tongmenghui in 1905, main points:
- anti-Manchu nationalism,
- Republicanism,
- notion of revolution, derived from the ancient concept geming for dynastic change linked to the idea of guangfu (restoration), also framed as "the recovering of China by the Han people" (Zarrow),
- 中华民族 Zhonghua minzu, a notion of chinese race and ethnic identity.

Front: When did Sun Yat-sen live and die?
Back: 1866–1925

Front: Were there any more reform attempts by the Qīng after the 100 days reform?
Back: Yes! Cixi's New Policy or xinzheng reforms in 1901 (first implemented 1902) had similar aims as the failed reforms in the areas military, education and government:
- Imperial examinations (keju) abolished in 1905 after more than 800 years
- Western-style schools and curriculum with new subjects,
- Beginning of language reform with the introduction of phonetic transcriptions for characters

Front: Name a few loanwords that were introduced from Japanese into the Chinese language in the 19th century.
Back: jihui (opportunity) (1896)
kexue (science) (1886)
kuaiji (accountant) (1889)
lishi (history) (1890)
neirong (content) (1897)
nongmin (farmer) (1890)
ziyou (freedom) (1868)
wenxue (literature) (late 19th century)
guomin (nation) (1899)

Front: Who was the last emperor of China and how did he rise to power?
Back: Emperor Guangxu poisoned while under house arrest in 1908, probably on Cixi's orders. Cixi herself dies four days later. 2-year-old Aisin Gioro Puyi becomes the last emperor as the Xuantong Emperor.

Front: How did the last dynasty end?
Back: The 1911 revolution ended it:
- Armed rebellions in Guangzhou, Wuchang and other cities,
- response to rumours that the Qīng planned to sell rights to local railways to foreigners,
- 1911 October 10^th: Wuchang Uprising or Double Ten,
- 1912 January: Founding of Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen while in exile, is chosen as first provisional president,
- 1912 February: 6-year-old Puyi abdicates, but stays in Forbidden City, ending 2000 years of dynastic rule.

Front: Who made this?
Back: Guiseppe Castiglione, his Chinese name was Lang Shining, a Jesuit.