Chinese Civilization 19 The Qing Dynasty Part 01 ✪ History of China Documentaries HD

Hello and welcome to New Frontiers on CCTV International. I'm Jia Jun in Beijing, and today we're continuing with our major series, Tracing the History of Chinese Civilization. The series sets out to illustrate the evolution of Chinese civilization through an investigation of archaeological discoveries, historical sites, and cultural relics. In today's program, we are going back to China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing Dynasty. Under the Qing Dynasty, China's territory was larger than at any time previously, and its civilization reached new heights. However, in the middle of the 17th century, the country was ravaged by warfare and flooding, and the newly established Qing Dynasty was facing a dire situation. The imperial court was forced to resort to desperate measures in order to consolidate its power. It was an era in which different ethnic groups in China fused on a scale hitherto unknown, and one in which China's territory was larger than at any other time in her history. China was by this time the most populous country and the strongest economic entity in the East, and she had already produced many immortal cultural classics, among them the longest book in the world. It was also in this era that the nation's various ethnic groups reached a consensus on what constituted a national culture. This was the age of the Qing Dynasty, and during this era, Chinese civilization would reach new heights. The year 1644 saw the beginning of the Shunzhu reign of the Qing Dynasty. In Chinese, Shunzhu means comply with the bidding of heaven and the wishes of the people in order to bring full order to the country. But in reality, half of the country was ravaged by war and floods, and the newly established Qing Dynasty found itself in a dire situation. The imperial court had little choice but to adopt desperate measures in order to In its later years, the preceding dynasty, the Ming Dynasty, had been constantly troubled by wars, and as a result, various water conservancy works had fallen into disrepair. Inevitably, there were serious floods. At the time, the course of the lower reaches of the Yellow River ran from Henan Province into Jiangsu Province and joined the Huaihe River and the Grand Canal near the city of Huaiyin. The Grand Canal cut through the Huaihe River from south to north to fly further north in a 90-kilometre-long section of the Yellow River. Silt brought down by the Yellow River was choking its course, and the long-neglected dikes were giving way, causing flooding. Because three major water systems were connected in a complicated, if not untidy way, whenever the Yellow River overflowed, its waters brought disaster to the Grand Canal, the Huaihe River, and Hongze Lake. During the 16 years from 1662 to 1678, floods caused 67 large breaches in the Yellow River on average for a year. The common people were suffering, and the imperial court had reason to be concerned about its stability. The Qing imperial court turned its full attention to water conservancy, and all along the Yellow River, people were mastered to work on the river dikes. Making improvements to the flow of the Yellow River was a heavy responsibility, but it was one that simply had to be taken up. During the reign of Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi, water conservancy was a key part of the Qing The water conservancy experts summed up the experience and knowledge of their predecessors, and came up with a two-pronged strategy. The first involved leading clear water into the Yellow River to wash away the silt deposited on the riverbed, so as to increase the flood discharge of the river. The second part involved digging a diversion course for the Yellow River at the juncture of the Yellow River, the Grand Canal, and the Huaihe River. This plan aimed at preventing the silty water of the Yellow River from damaging and blocking the Grand Canal. The strategy put in place to remedy problems on the Yellow River was innovative, and in the end, it was highly effective. The untidy Yellow River and Huaihe River water system inherited from the Ming Dynasty was sorted out, and transportation on the Grand Canal was greatly improved. Through its measures for curbing floods from the Yellow River, The second part involved leading clear water into the Yellow River at the juncture of the and its sincere desire to work for the benefit of the common people. In the 1680s, government officials and thousands of workers devoted their wisdom and labour to reinforcing the Yellow River dikes. They were carrying out an essential mission, brought upon them by the times in which they lived. The Manchus who founded the Qing Dynasty were originally a nomadic people in northeast China, but now they had to learn to control water because the central plain they were ruling was a farming region crisscrossed with rivers. All the previous rulers of China had understood the importance of water conservancy, and the Manchus had to inherit this tradition if they wanted to integrate themselves with the civilization of the central plain. All the feudal regimes in China regarded flood control and construction of water conservancy projects as a basic task that had to be carried out in order to maintain social order and bring benefit to the people. The Qing Dynasty did likewise, following the principle that the throne and official posts depend on the rise or fall of the water of the Yellow River, and the security of the Qing Empire depends on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the common people. By the 45th year of the rule of the Qing Empire, the wild waters of the Yellow and Huaihe Rivers had been brought under control, the dikes had been reinforced so they could fulfill the task they were meant to, the threat of floods had been greatly reduced, and transportation on the Grand Canal was totally unimpeded. On the ninth day of the second month of the lunar year in the year 1689, a sacrificial ceremony of the highest grade was held at the mausoleum of Yu the Great. At the ceremony, the Qing Emperor and court ministers pledged themselves to follow the example of Yu the Great and devote all their energies to the control of floods. Yu the Great was a legendary man of remote antiquity who, when given the responsibility of bringing a massive deluge under control, was so divided to his task that he refused to enter his own home even when he passed it three times. The Qing imperial ministers worshipped Yu the Great and wanted to build a flood control system that would be as effective as the one he had put in place. Such practical initiatives as the water conservancy projects went a long way to consolidating Qing power. The imperial court was also keen to build up its position by ideological means. To this end, the principle of respecting Confucius and reading the Confucian classics was stressed to lay a foundation for a unified national culture. This is the temple of Confucius in Qufu in Shandong province. Many kings and emperors in feudal China made special trips here to pay homage to Confucius, but the emperors of the Qing dynasty made the ceremony of sacrifice to Confucius even more special. When Emperor Kangxi arrived at the shrine of Confucius and paid respect to the great master of Chinese culture, it was with the highest level ritual. He knelt down three times and kowtowed nine times. He then wrote an inscription concerning Confucius which read, Model of Virtue and Learning. He went even further by paying respect to the tomb of Confucius in the most solemn manner. The sincere respect Emperor Kangxi was showing for Confucius was meant to convince the scholars of the Han ethnic majority that he'd come to pay homage to Confucius not only as the new ruler of China, but also as a genuine disciple of Confucius. He was holding the grand ceremony to show that he had totally integrated himself with traditional Chinese culture. Confucian teachings had dominated mainstream ideology in China since the Han dynasty two thousand years ago. From its founding, the Qing empire advocated the principle of respecting Confucius and reading the Confucian classics. The Qing emperors made a special effort to convince the scholars and common people of the Han ethnic majority that the new regime was of the same political lineage as the Han dynasty and that the Qing dynasty was a worshipper and inheritor of Confucian culture. It was sincerely doing its best to integrate itself with the profound and all-embracing culture of the Chinese nation. The principle of respecting Confucius and reading Confucian classics laid a foundation for unifying ideology in China, while the emphasis on education and promotion of civil administration stimulated the attainment of a common national culture. The Qing imperial court took a hands-on approach toward both the building of water conservancy projects and cultural undertakings. In the year 1689, the imperial court set up a printing house at Tianning Temple in Yangzhou and gathered scholars living in areas south of the Yangtze River to re-edit and print the complete collection of Tang poems. This great work included all the best poems written 700 years before by more than 2,500 poets of the Tang dynasty. This cultural project won the hearts of those scholars of the Han ethnic majority who had mourned the loss of the Ming dynasty and who cherished a deep love of Tang poetry, and they began to accept the new regime which had been founded by a minority people from central China. The court official in charge of the compilation of the complete collection of Tang poems was Cao Yin. Years later, his grandson Cao Xueqin was to write the immortal classic A Dream of Red Mansions. The novel A Dream of Red Mansions was written in the middle of the 18th century. Acclaimed as the most successful novel of Chinese classical literature, it is a work of great spiritual significance, profound ideology and aesthetic imagery. A Dream of Red Mansions is a cultural work that cannot be compared with any work from any previous era. It is now an everlasting part of the history and culture of the Chinese nation, an indispensable masterpiece in developing the cultural psychology of the Chinese people and, without doubt, a major contribution by China to the literature of mankind. History has done nothing but increase the value and significance of this great work. Twenty-seven years after the compilation, the complete collection of Tang poems was finished, the Qing imperial court spent seven years on the Kangxi. By embracing Han culture, the Qing dynasty was able to consolidate its power steadily and make rapid progress in the economy and culture. The system of the imperial examination was restored to encourage people to join the civil service. On a day in early spring, ten years before the publication of the complete collection of Tang poems, the imperial court held a special examination in the palace. The subjects included poetry and prose writing and various topics covering civil administration. The titles of the essays covering civil administration were People in the Entire Nation are One Family and On the Understanding of Farming, topics taken from the Confucian classics. The topic People in the Whole Country are One Family implied a fusion of different ethnic groups within a single country, while the topic Understanding Farming strongly implied that scholars should know about agricultural production and help the government find ways to advance the national economy. This policy of placing stress on farming so that people could have ample food and clothing laid the material foundation for the unity of the country and the harmonious coexistence of different ethnic groups, thus bringing about social stability. But the progress in agriculture stressed by the new regime was not only dependent on the answers given by scholars in examination papers. Practical measures were taken to lure farmers who had left their native villages during the war back home by giving them land. During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the imperial court promulgated various preferential policies to encourage farmers to work harder and produce more, and they were certainly effective. In the 130 plus years from 1662 to 1796, the arable land in China increased from 34 million hectares to 60 million hectares. This was equivalent to half of the arable land in China in the 21st century. Water conservancy projects were built to benefit agriculture and enrich the people. The government was well aware that good harvests and a well-off population were the foundation of the prosperity of the country. The three great dynasties, Qin, Han and Tang, all became powerful thanks to the attention given by the imperial court to flood control and agricultural production. The rulers of these three dynasties worked out ways and means to curb the rivers whenever they rose and dug irrigation canals in places where the supply of water was inadequate. The outstanding water conservancy project known as the Dujiang Weirs was built more than 2,000 years ago during the Qin dynasty, and the Grand Canal was built several hundred years later during the Sui and Tang dynasties. Both massive projects testify to the great spirit of innovation of the Chinese nation and to the fact that a powerful regime could concentrate its enormous power to achieve major results. The people who carried out these projects were inheritors of the cause of Yu the Great, the man of legend who curbed the great floods. The emerging Qing empire carried on the heroic tradition of curbing the floods and was determined to make rapid progress. By the time China was under the rule of the Qin dynasty, the approach to water conservancy projects had become more scientific. There were, for example, new scientific instruments for determining the speed, volume and level of water. There was a thirst for new scientific knowledge and technology, and this was not just a desire felt by individuals. The Qin government knew it was essential for building up the country. Toward the end of the 17th century, a mathematics studio was established in Changchun Garden in the old Summer Palace. It was the national research centre for mathematics in the China of its time. The Qing imperial court went to great efforts to promote the study of mathematics, and a number of fine mathematicians emerged as a result. Some of them compiled major works such as The Essence of Mathematical Principles. In its quest to promote the use of mathematics, the mathematics studio bought books on advanced mathematics from abroad and even engaged western teachers. This encyclopedia of mathematics covered the field at the highest level of the age. It contains all the main achievements of mathematics that had been introduced to China, as well as China's own classical works on the subject. This work reveals an enthusiasm to take on new knowledge and a willingness of the Chinese of the era to assimilate advances made by other nations in science and culture. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Qing imperial court dispatched land survey teams equipped with the most advanced instruments of the time all over the nation, even to its deserts. By the time they completed their work, the surveyors had an accurate map of Chinese territory. In the end of the 18th century, France published a map of China, which had been popular for more than 100 years. It was a very authoritative map of China in Europe. These achievements were made on Chinese soil during the Kangxi period. Every Chinese knows that the Yellow River is long, but any river, no matter how long, has its source. Locating the source of the Yellow River was of great social significance to ensure that there would no longer be mystery surrounding the river, and so that the belief of the people that the river could be brought under control would be greatly strengthened. During this era filled with enterprising spirit, Chinese people harbored a strong passion for finding the source of the mother river of the nation. In the early years of the Qing dynasty, the imperial court took steps to stabilize society and develop science and culture. The adoption of Confucian beliefs made it possible for the nation's various ethnic groups to reach a consensus on what constituted a national culture. In our next episode, we'll focus on what the Qing dynasty did to promote science, ethnic harmony, and farming. Please tune in then. Thank you for staying with us on today's New Frontiers. I'm Ji Xiaojun from CCTV International. Goodbye.