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Another
educational production by www.ultimateconspiracy.com! Contact Tom You better
believe it! History 150B Fall 2001 Hershatter/Sun MIDTERM ESSAY
QUESTION
Historian Ho Ping-ti has called the civil service examination
system “the ladder of success in late imperial China.”
Historian Susan Mann points out that for women in eighteenth-century
China, marriage was “the ladder of success.”
Your task in this essay is to compare those two ladders, crafting
a description of gendered participation in the elite.
Beginning with childhood, what was entailed in moving up the
ladder of success for men and for women?
How did the training for upward mobility differ depending on
gender, and how was it similar? What was the role of formal and informal education
in developing the skills necessary for upward mobility for each? How was the ability to move up these ladders
affected by the economic situation of families? How did upward mobility for men depend upon the efforts of women,
and vice versa?
Prepare for this exam by reviewing your lecture notes, as well
as the course readings in Spence, Cheng and Lestz, the Qing Game, and
Mann. A clear thesis statement, organization, effective use of historical
detail, and attention to mechanics of writing are all essential.
Handwriting is also important.
Feel free to prepare for this question in groups.
You may bring one sheet of paper with an outline or notes on
it into the exam. You will have one hour to complete this section
of the exam. Names and Terms Be
prepared to identify the following in a 1-2 sentence definition. Ten of these terms will appear on the exam. No notes are permitted for this part of the
exam. You will have 45 minutes. 1644 High
Qing Ming Mandate
of Heaven Manchu Hong
Taiji Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong
(Hungli/Ch’ien-lung) Wu
Sangui Li
Zicheng Zhang
Xianzhong Fan
Jin Heshen Lord
McCartney Queue-clipping
(or soulstealing) Banner
system Examination
system (Xiucai, Juren, Jinshi) Baojia
system Yamen Local
elite Uterine
family Polyandry Filial
piety Nei/wai
(inner/outer spheres) SMA Lower
Yangtze/Yangzi (or Jiangnan/Kiangnan) The
Dream of the Red Chamber
Mean
people “Sacred
Edict” Confucius Vermilion
rescripts
1644: The official date for the foundation and establishment
of the Manchu dynasty over China. The year the regent Dorgon, successfully
began Qing consolidation and expansion over the Han. Features: decreasing
the # of Ming Eunuchs. High
Qing: The High Qing period encompasses the reigns of Kangxi, Yongzhen
and Qianlong (Hungli). (1673-1795)
Features:
1. expansion of Chinese land boundaries.
2. The conquering of the southern Yangtze region, and consolidation of rebellious Han mercenaries into banner men directly
under the 8 Manchu banner’s,
authority. The Qing also Entered into a priest-patron, relationship,
and courteously extended suzerainty, i.e., protection for the office
of the Dalai Lama, the Qing
spirtual ruler of China, and Tibet. Manchu’s desired non assimilation
with Han, and fostered a state ideology, of two china’s both culturally and
racially distinct, all under a divine sovereign.
Ming: The Ming dynasty was founded by the Buddhist monk, Hongwu Taizu Zhu Yuanzhong. It later became decadent. The Chinese were at the height of their civilization, but had begun a period called the “Great Withdrawal.” However, china was coming into contact with the mercantile trading system, despite the popular conception of the end of Chinese civilization, rather a reformation, East and West, would cause China to re-evaluate their definition of civilization. The Portuguese, and English, pumped silver into the Chinese economy, from the New World slave mines. For the first time, China had to contend with foreigners and differing definitions of absolutism in their dealings with others. The Manchu are successful, because they reduced the number of eunuchs, and still adopted the Chinese system. However, eventually many of them became sinicized and part of the ageless secret Chinese genealogy of family clans. This was the reason for the fall of all of China’s dynasties, too many heirs and retainers.Mandate
of Heaven: The idea that the sovereign Chinese emperor
was the son of heaven and could harmonize relationships with heaven
and earth. When that mandate was taken away, related to the actual real
sovereign power of the emperor requiring some consent from the masses.
When the system began to collapse, it was the dynasty that suffered,
not the system. Usually, natural disasters, secret societies, superstitions, i.e., a
peasant summoning the god
of war or lord
of hell and making all of the other peasants nervous,
i.e., rumor mills, lynching and corruption and mob violence being the
norm for the downfall of every Chinese dynasty. If the relationship
between heaven and earth was not harmonious then the emperor would lose
his mandate, and along with it, the whole dynasty. Manchu: The Manchu’s
conquered china. Reasons:
Adopted the Chinese bureaucratic system and
eliminated some “red tape,” i.e., exclusion of Han from direct access
of power. Essentially, the Manchu sought to keep himself distinct from
the Han, whom he viewed as weak, effeminate, and decadent. The Manchu
had a more efficient military bureaucracy and viewed this key point,
to be the reason for his superiority over the Han bureaucratic administrators,
officials and plethora of eunuchs, who as a result of much corruption,
had made the northern frontiers unstable. With the death of Wan Li the
last Ming emperor, and in the ensuing power vacuum, the Manchu entered
Beijing under the pretext of reform. Effects: Like the Mongol Yuan dynasty before it, the
majority of Qing dynasty Manchu’s became sinicized. Major leaders of
the early Qing conquest period, Dorgon, Norhaici, and Hong Taiji. For further
Reading: Qing Dynasty |
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