Changes In The Qing Dynasty

During 1644, the Chinese had become conquered again by foreigners. During the Qing Dynasty, these new rulers had tried to introduce new changes. But, the people weren’t happy about these new changes, so the changes failed until the Qing began to force them upon the people. But, that didn’t work because the Qing only had one minor change that forced upon the male population which was the hairstyle all men had to have; a queue. Although some changes were successful, a majority of the changes were failures. The Qing failed to assimilate the Chinese into their culture because the Manchus only made up 2% of the Qing Dynasty and the Chinese made up the 98%. Thus, continuity was more relevant because too much change would cause rebellions, but the
continuity of the past that the Chinese population was used to allowed for the people to have a chance to thrive and blossom into an updated, yet former version of the Ming Dynasty because of their culture, economy, and political adaptations.

In the Ming Dynasty, which lasted for about 300 years, brought back their culture.
Before the Ming Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty had been part of the Song Dynasty, which was the Mongols and China united as one dynasty. But, a shift in power allowed for the Mongols to take over. Once the Mongols took over the Chinese, they removed the Chinese culture. Hongwu had to later restore it when the Mongols were overthrown in 1368. So, when Hongwu finally reestablished the culture, he had to prevent it from losing it again. That was the same mentality the people of China had when the Manchu took over and tried to assimilate the Chinese. Yet, the Manchu failed at altering the Chinese culture. They did have some success in changing tiny things, such as the Dyarchy system. It allowed for positions to be equal so the Manchus and the Chinese were culpable at the provincial level, but below that the Chinese were
dominant.

The economy also managed to stay as more of a continued figurine than being a changed figure. Agriculture was the predominant factor in China’s economy, and it stayed like that during both the Ming and Qing dynasties. During the Ming Dynasty, Hongwu had rebuilt the economy after removing the Mongols from power. He reconstructed the provinces, planted trees for erosion control, cut land taxes, and decreed a full granary so that food was stored in case a famine struck the land. Unfortunately, the population began to rise and natural disasters began to strike. The hardships began gangs to start up and scour the countryside looking for food, which set off a chain reaction. The armies were sent out to crush them, which forced taxes on the people to pay the soldiers to defeat the gangs. Luckily, manufacturing increased, but Chinese exports began to outnumber imports. Later, manufacturing began to fail, like what happened during the reign of the Ming. Unlike the Ming, the Qing taxed manufacturing. That resulted in them favoring agriculture, which made agriculture greater than manufacturing.

Politics had the most change, but it wasn’t great enough to where it would make a gigantic difference.
The change in politics is like the Manchu population in China; it made such a tiny impact since the Chinese still outnumbered the Manchu. When the Manchus recognized that they had to bring ethnic Chinese people into the top ranks of imperial administration, they used the Dyarchy system. The Dyarchy system became a solution to make politics equal between the Manchus and the Chinese. The system made positions equal between the Manchus and the Chinese. For example, within the Grand Secretariat, there were six members, three were Manchurian, and the other three were Chinese. This change was a significant change in the Qing Dynasty, but it was the only major change that worked.

In total, the Ming and Qing dynasties were a series of continuity. Both continued many things, such as agriculture and culture, but some changes, such as politics, played a role in how they became shaped. The changes the Qing had were the smallest changes, and the changes weren’t strong enough changes. The Qing didn't get the ball rolling during their time of rule, but the Chinese people within their reign changed the Qing. So, in total, the Ming and Qing were a series of continuity because the Qing couldn’t assimilate the Chinese, but the Chinese had assimilated the
Qing.