Trace Evolution of Chinese Attitudes Term Paper

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Writers accused of composing subversive works were jailed, exiled, or executed" and thus silenced (Pamintuan, 2003).

Such puritanical attitudes on the part of the leadership seemed to be embraced by the common people. For example, a woman's virtue was held in particularly high regard during this period. The number of widows who honored their dead husbands by refusing to remarry or by committing suicide reached a historical high (Pamintuan, 2003). The government sponsored special female-only homes to support impoverished widows who refused to marry, to honor the memory of their dead husbands (Pamintuan, 2003).

The first Manchu emperor's successors, Yongzheng and Qianlong, were equally long-lived, ensuring stability of the regime and sustained peace. Also, they were quite effective in accumulating imperial intelligence in outlying areas of the empire. "Missives called 'memorials' were sent from trusted officials in these areas directly to the emperor with seals to guarantee that the document had not been changed or tampered with en route," in contrast with earlier periods when reports from rural areas were often tampered with or changed before they reached the emperor (Pamintuan, 2003). There was a strong emphasis on restoring social and political order after the perceived disorder of the previous centuries (Pamintuan, 2003).

However, the success of the Qing in maintaining tight controls and resisting change proved a liability when the empire was confronted with growing challenges from the Western powers via the sea. "The centuries of peace and self-satisfaction dating back to Ming times had encouraged little change in the attitudes of the ruling elite" (Nilsson, 2007). What had once been the strengths of the regime, namely its support of Confucian ideas and artistry, gradually became its weakness.

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Internal rebellion grew, and for lack of money to put down rebellions the court increasingly relied on the sale of government posts to meet its expenses. More and more people bought their way into crucial government posts and used their posts to enrich themselves by squeezing the already poor local populace (Woo, 2006).

This practice resulted in increased dislike of the government and increasing decentralization of the imperial bureaucracy, as the new officials had little real loyalty to the emperor. After the Taiping Rebellion of 1851-1864, the court permitted the creation of regional armies for suppressing rebellions, "since the traditional Eight-Banner forces were weak and useless" (Woo, 2006). "These regional armies were locally based, financed by local money, and trained to obey local-provincial officials...Peking's control over them was ineffective" (Woo, 2006). As society was poor, the taxes that the dynasty could collect were limited and corruption in the government meant that only a fraction of the taxes collected made their way to the national coffers.

Finally, when the oppressed peasants broke into rebellions, the dynasty had to spend more money to deal with the disorder, thus making the financial conditions even worse" (Woo, 2006). By the end of the century, the Manchu control over its vast territories had almost entirely unraveled, and even worse, the conditions that would result in the undoing of the regime in later centuries had taken hold. The strengths of the regime, like its military might and social controls, proved its undoing.

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